Apple Music Now Has Over 10 Million Subscribers After Just 6 Months

[stanman64]

You can use Apple Music on your old device or your computer as well. You do not need a new phone. So I don't see your point.

New devices = potential for new users = new free trials = potentially new subscribers.

Those who already had an apple device and used their trial are the exception. But there could potentially be a lot of new Apple users whom have never had an Apple device, thus created new Apple IDs, thus have never used a free trial, and thus could be doing so now. I didn't think I'd need to explain it out that much.

 

[BuffaloTF]

What do you find so horrendous about Spotify's UI? To each their own, but it's hell of a lot simpler than anything in iTunes.

Well, I disagree. Spotify's UI is easy to understand and very functional, which cannot be said of Apple's new music app. On the computer, the iTunes UI has also gotten much worse compared to the simple, elegant UI it used to have. They are just changing things for the sake of change, and keep making things worse in the process.

However, I would appreciate if Spotify could bring back changeable skins, since I'm not a big fan of the dark color scheme.

I'll answer both at the same time. I really don't see much difference in ease-of-use between the 2. They do some things slightly differently. For Spotify: No easy way to organize, especially your favorites. Discovery is, at best, meh... but it's improved notably in the past 12-18 months. They removed searching playlists. Hamburger menus for days. You basically need to know exactly what you want and search for it. And a few other things.

...which going back to my original statement, isn't much different in actual use from Apple Music, which is why I tried to frame it as saying it's ok to not like the UI, but Spotify's isn't a high-water mark by any stretch. It's the same PITA, presented slightly differently. Apple Music's saving grace, for me, is I'm able to do my organization in iTunes, and it carries over to my devices.

 

[Rigby]

I really miss having the playlists, artists, songs, albums tabs at the bottom

Same here.

now it's "Music" "Playlists" "Radio" "Connect" It's a joke, why doesn't Apple let me customize it so I can remove the useless "Connect" and remove the useless beats1 and radio I don't care about?

You can remove "Connect" under Settings/General/Restrictions. It doesn't bring back the customizable bar, but at least you can de-clutter it a bit.

 

[WillSD]

The question is. How many user will keep their service with apple music after the 3 month free trial. I sure as hell didnt keep my subscription, much rather listen to a 30 sec commercial and listen free than pay $10 a month

 

[trifid]

The question is. How many user will keep their service with apple music after the 3 month free trial. I sure as hell didnt keep my subscription, much rather listen to a 30 sec commercial and listen free than pay $10 a month

Indeed, note the article says "subscribers" not "paid subscribers". I also wonder how many paid subscribers realize they are being charged after trial and might cancel in a month or two after they realize what's happening.

 

[Michael Scrip]

Also, perhaps I missed something through all these pages, but there's nowhere that says "10 million paying subscribers" for AM.

Indeed, note the article says "subscribers" not "paid subscribers".

Are we thinking this 10 million is simply some combination of free trials and paid subscribers?

Other articles on this topic specifically mention paid subscribers.

They also refer back to October when Apple Music only had 6.5 million paid subscribers and 8.5 million more on free trials. LINK

And they also draw comparisons to Spotify's 20 million paid subscribers.

So what's going on here?

 

[michaelant]

Oh yeah. Also there is this warning on the second screen of set up that says "Until turned off your membership will continue to renew". Seems like it would be pretty hard to accidentally renew.
View attachment 609874

Yup. They're definitely not trying to hide anything, and good on them for making it clear and upfront, like it should be, of course.

I was just saying, only because you do have to initiate an action to cancel it after three months, that some people will space it out, until they get the first email bill. But you're right, you do opt in at the start of the trial.

 

[brentonbrenton]

I have to wonder how many of these subscribers are heavily subsidized members. When I picked up my iPhone 6S the telco had a promotion to receive 2 years free Apple Music plus extra data for free. Who would not take that deal. Even if you didn't use the service you get free data, but this still registers an Apple Music subscriber.

 

[Loge]

I have to wonder how many of these subscribers are heavily subsidized members. When I picked up my iPhone 6S the telco had a promotion to receive 2 years free Apple Music plus extra data for free. Who would not take that deal. Even if you didn't use the service you get free data, but this still registers an Apple Music subscriber.

That may well be true; I would expect that a significant proportion of Spotify's 20m are also on such deals.

 

[iisdan]

The interface is so bad, and I buy apple products for the UI/UX, I'll stick with Spotify.

 

[driceman]

Yeah...so with a track selected, if I invoke 'add to up next' it will play it next? Well, no, that not what it means, it means almost the opposite - play it last. But despite this, what it usually does, is play it next.

I guess when I hit "Add to Up Next" it's always played it next. I'm not sure where the confusion is. There could be a glitch in the software that I'm unaware of (and lord knows Apple Music had plenty of those at launch), but the purpose of the feature seems pretty obvious.

 

[easheer]

The only reason I stuck w/ AM is because of the family plan option. It was cheaper than sticking w/ Spotify, although I do prefer Spotify over AM.

 

[DrumApple]

I'll answer both at the same time. I really don't see much difference in ease-of-use between the 2. They do some things slightly differently. For Spotify: No easy way to organize, especially your favorites. Discovery is, at best, meh... but it's improved notably in the past 12-18 months. They removed searching playlists. Hamburger menus for days. You basically need to know exactly what you want and search for it. And a few other things.

...which going back to my original statement, isn't much different in actual use from Apple Music, which is why I tried to frame it as saying it's ok to not like the UI, but Spotify's isn't a high-water mark by any stretch. It's the same PITA, presented slightly differently. Apple Music's saving grace, for me, is I'm able to do my organization in iTunes, and it carries over to my devices.

That's fair enough, but Spotify was never intended to be a music catalog organizer like iTunes was. And you know you can CMND+F to filter/search in any playlist?

 

[QuiteSure]

I would like to be able to turn the "Up Next" list into a playlist.

 

[Stirlo]

I really like Apple Music. As soon as it came out I unsubscribed from Spotify and have been using Apple Music since. No major complaints here.

Yeah I'm loving it too, only problem I have is the inconsistent censorship; sometimes a playlist (curated, made by Apple Music employees) will have half the tracks are Explicit and half not - it's really jarring, I have no kids or prudes in my house and want to lock Explicit mode On..


Apple Music help on Twitter are terrific, have solved all minor weird glitches up until this one. It may be media licensing rights, but whatever is causing it I want a "reverse restrictions" switch to lock on "doesn't care about a couple of words that are mostly unfairly censored.

 

[Max(IT)]

Lets see:

1. When iCloud music was launched, it messed up people's libraries (some of them highly curated over several years) deleting music, ratings, playcounts etc, in some cases irreparable damage.

that happened to some people ...
The unfortunate issue has nothing to do with this news.

2. iOS Music app has some of the worst UI I have seen in a long time, even with the initial fixes, it remains second class.

that's subjective and completely debatable.
I don't like it , but I don't think it's "second class" by any means.

3. iOS Music app now puts all your music into a tiny tab, and the rest are streaming, which means if you don't like streaming, you are forced to see it everyday cluttering your UI and affecting your usage every single day. I really miss having the playlists, artists, songs, albums tabs at the bottom, now it's "Music" "Playlists" "Radio" "Connect" It's a joke, why doesn't Apple let me customize it so I can remove the useless "Connect" and remove the useless beats1 and radio I don't care about?

It's not a "tiny" tab. It's a tab. And NOT the rest is not streaming. Streaming is another tab. The default tab that opens when you launch the app is your music, and you still have your playlists.
As I said, critics are overly exaggerated ...
Are you surprised Apple doesnt let you customize everything about their UI ? Are you an Apple user since when ? yesterday ? Apple isn't about deep customization in UI, deal with it or move on.
Simple like that...

4. Rather than entering the market and competing fairly, Apple imposes 30% premium on Spotify and other similar services when users sign up through the app store. This puts Apple music at an advantage over competitors and potentially threatens in the long term Spotify's viability. Do we want fair competition, or monopolies? Why is a 30% premium imposed monthly on Spotify?

who care ? Are you a Spotify shareholder ? I don't care if Spotify close tomorrow, for what it counts. I do care if Apple Music improve, because I invested in Apple's ecosystem ....
As far as I know, Spotify is sold through the app store, so I can't see any monopoly here.

You don't think the criticism has some merit?

Sure. And most were overly exaggerated as usual on forums like this.

 

[trifid]

that's subjective and completely debatable.
I don't like it , but I don't think it's "second class" by any means.

Some of the worst software engineering Apple has released to the world is subjective? There is universal criticism of Apple Music's UI, please read any major publication. And sure some bugs were fixed, but the major navigation/usability issues remain untouched.

When Apple fails at a flagship product which is Music, something that's at the core of what Apple does, I think the criticism is well founded and not exaggerated.