The main advantage to Apple Music is that I can browse music/podcasts/radio etc. using the controls on my steering wheel. Other than that, I wouldn't be using it.
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Apple Music Now Has 60 Million Paid Subscribers
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60 million subscribers x $99/year subscription fee = ~$6 billion revenue. Maybe you meant profit?
For just $4.99 for a student account this is an incredible value. With Shazam coming in house and real time lyrics in iOS 13 Apple Music does everything I need it to.
We moved to Apple Music from Prime Unlimited after getting 2 HomePods. Love the integration with all our Apple stuff.
I prefer free, plenty of good stations/music on the radio, also, not a lot of ads here, once an hour.
This was the norm just a few years back, few ads here, just a few minutes once an hour, DJ's are fun on most channels here.
Um, try $600 million per month. $7.2 billion per year.
And considering the music industry was worth under $15 billion when Apple bought Beats, it's even more impressive. All this new revenue should be a lesson to media execs in making content accessible and pricing reasonably.
Sure, but Apple Music almost definitely has lower gross margins than Apple broadly. Their costs are somewhat fixed as a percentage of revenue, by the rights holders of the music, just like Spotify or any other streaming service.
That free subscription is being paid by someone, probably Verizon, in exchange for a higher bill.
Apple didn’t need SoundJam to start iTunes either but it gave them a head start. Same with Beats. It gave them all of Beats’ existing streaming contracts as well as an installed base of subscribers to start from. The app itself was the least of their worries.
I won’t be surprised if Apple Music still isn’t profitable, since like Spotify, the bulk of their revenue would still go to labels. Then again, Apple magic doesn’t need to be profitable (yet), and it helps lock users in the Apple ecosystem and sell more hardware, so its prospects still look brighter than Spotify’s at any rate.
Beats gave them an in. Jimmy Iovine and the others had decades worth of deep industry connections that were worth significantly more than the streaming platform itself. It's how they got all their exclusives, knew exactly the right demographics to target and what music was up-and-coming, and how Beats 1 got all of their hosts. By the time all the big Beats people left, the Apple crew had learned enough to run things on their own.
Compare how quickly and smoothly Apple Music launched compared to all the continuing confusion with Apple TV+.
I personally would prefer Apple Music but with a UI like Amazon Prime Music. So sick and tired of the ballooned bold font choices.
I 100% agree with this! I don't see why people love streaming random music? Great if it's your own collection and want to free up hard drive space but why pay for random playlists? Because even if you really like a song, you can't keep it permanently or the algorithm doesn't guarantee other songs by that artist. If you're the type of person who just wants to know whats popular or like background noise, good for you. Otherwise, radio and the other free streaming services do the same job.
I am hoping the new Music app will allow for that. Sound quality of iTunes has always been poor compared to say VLC.
I don’t have the beta yet, but according to Apple’s own website:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210200
- Music playlists and smart playlists that you've created in iTunes will be in the new Apple Music app.
Omg, you’re right. I obviously suck at math. Jesus Christ! Apple Music is generating $7.2B per year in revenue!
He could have also rounded up from single digit. Regardless, it’s nothing more than marketing spin. Take most commentary with a grain of salt.
This doesn't make any sense.
The $600 million revenue would be monthly and is likely wide of the mark as these figures presumably include AM accounts that are on free trails via carriers like Verizon in the US and EE in the UK, very unlikely that these carriers are reimbursing Apple for the full $10/£10 per month subscription fee. You can't just take the number of users and multiply by ten. Its likely way less.
As you've pointed out yourself revenue isn't profit. You are assuming Apple Music is profitable and its entirely possible that it isn't, given that Spotify rarely turns a profit and they pay lower royalty rates. Most of the revenue brought in by Apple Music will be going straight back out of the door.
So if Apple Music is actually not profitable that would leave Apple to claw back the initial investment from Beats hardware alone and that seems unlikely. They have also had to settle a patent infringement lawsuit with Bose out of court since the acquisition
It's hilarious that there's still people who reject the Beats purchase. At this point it's a cultural/purist issue.
I was an avid Spotify fan for years, but for the last year or so Spotify have let me down. Seems to me that everytime the Spotify UI is updated, it's for the worse.
1. The last few updates have made it harder to browse the discography of an artist, and instead focus on the most popular singles and 'suggested' albums.
2. Waste of space in the app UI.
3. Lack of a light theme.
So, for the last 3 months I've been rocking Apple Music and the _only_ thing I really miss is the Spotify remote control ability. I do miss being able to control music on my desktop from my phone. And no, Airplay is not an adequate alternative.
1. The last few updates have made it harder to browse the discography of an artist, and instead focus on the most popular singles and 'suggested' albums.
2. Waste of space in the app UI.
3. Lack of a light theme.
So, for the last 3 months I've been rocking Apple Music and the _only_ thing I really miss is the Spotify remote control ability. I do miss being able to control music on my desktop from my phone. And no, Airplay is not an adequate alternative.