Apple Music attracts 11m subscribers in first month, closing in on music-streaming rival Spotify
Apple has attracted 11m users to Apple Music, its music-streaming service currently in free trial stage.
The company revealed the first public figures in an interview with USA Today, as Eddy Cue, senior vice president of internet software and services, commented:
We’re thrilled with the numbers so far.
Apple Music launched on 30 June and already has half as many subscribers as main rival Spotify has paying users. When free active users are taken into account, however, Spotify pulls far ahead, boasting a total of 75m active users.
Apple’s figures also include 2m users who’ve opted for the family-plan sign-up, which allows users to add five extra family members, so Apple’s actual listening figures may be higher still.
Although 11m after just a month sounds high, there are one or two niggling concerns for Apple:
Firstly, Apple Music is still in its three-month free trial period. Figures released after this ends on 30 September may show a different picture entirely, as all 11m free users are unlikely to sign up for a paid account.
Read more: Everything we know about Apple's Spotify-killer
Also, when considering that the music-streaming service has been pushed out for free to hundreds of millions of iPhones and other iOS devices, 11m actually begins to sound surprisingly low, as only a fraction of users have started using it.
Apple Music came under fire from artists and record labels for its original plans not to pay royalties during the trial period, but the company was forced to do a u-turn after facing a campaign led by Taylor Swift.
The service will cost £9.99 a month (or $9.99 in the US) for access to 30m songs.