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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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As noted by Billboard, the Beats Music app [iTunes] for the iPhone climbed to the top of the iOS Music charts on Wednesday, amid grumblings that the streaming music service is struggling to attract customers.

beats-music-app-ios.jpeg
Founded by music producer Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre, Beats Music launched its streaming music service earlier this year, entering a crowded market that is dominated by Pandora, iHeartRadio, and Spotify. Beats has aggressively marketed its service, spending millions of dollars for a splashy Superbowl ad featuring Ellen Degeneres and recently partnering with AT&T Mobility to offer its service to AT&T's 110 million mobile customers.

Beats Music has not released subscriber numbers, but sources for Billboard claim early subscriber estimates are "disappointing," with numbers climbing only to the "low six figures." These subscribers are an important metric as they represent the number of customers who exit the free trial and opt to pay for the service. In comparison, market leader Pandora has more than 3.3 million paying subscribers and 75.3 million active listeners.

beats-music-tunes-chart.png
Beats Music recently updated its streaming music app, allowing users to subscribe to the service via their iTunes account. Beats will be sharing its in-app revenue with Apple according to the App Store's 70/30 split, but this loss in cash may be offset by an increase in subscriber numbers.

The ability to easily purchase a subscription within the iPhone app may have boosted interest in the service causing it to climb up the App Store charts. Not only is the Beats Music app number one in the free music category, it is also number 5 in the overall Top Free Apps chart and number 8 in the Top Grossing music category. This latter metric suggests more than a few customers are deciding to subscribe to the music streaming service using this new in-app option.

Besides the new in-app subscription, the updated Beats Music app also added support for Facebook friend search, an offline mode, artist promotional offers and more.

Article Link: 'Beats Music' Tops App Store Music Chart as In-App Subscriptions Spark Interest
 

Aluminum213

macrumors 68040
Mar 16, 2012
3,597
4,707
Way too late to the party and they didn't even have an iPad app ready


Why in the world would you show up so late to the game and still not be ready to compete with spotify?
 

kwikdeth

macrumors 65816
Feb 25, 2003
1,136
1,704
Tempe, AZ
I think they should make a bigger deal in news about this concerning Trent Reznor's substantial involvement with this product. That would probably get more of the tech crowd's attention at least.
 

HiVolt

macrumors 68000
Sep 29, 2008
1,625
6,003
Toronto, Canada
As usual, app not available in Canada (and assuming else outside of the US)...

It really boggles my mind how screwed up the industry licensing system is...

Years later we still have no Pandora, no Spotify, and even still no Apple iRadio... And I'm sure when Apple brings out iRadio it will be butchered like Canadian Netflix which has probably 1/5th the content that US Netflix does...
 
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