Eddy Cue Talks Apple Music Subscriptions as Initial Three-Month Free Trials End

[MacRumors]

Prior to the release of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, Eddy Cue sat down with Evening Standard to discuss a handful of topics, including the launch of the new smartphones, the impending end of the first wave of free trial users for Apple Music, and the issue of roaming charges on iPhone users traveling abroad.

Cue also addressed the topic of the Apple Music Festival, which ended its ten day run this week in London, calling the acts nabbed by Apple for the event "the best of the best" and pointing toward the "global" feel of the UK-based festival that would perhaps be lost in another city like New York or Los Angeles. When asked about his worry for the end of Apple Music's first set of three-month free trial users -- which were charged their $9.99 subscription fee on September 30 if choosing to stick around -- Cue remained expectedly optimistic.

However, with the first batch of free three-month trials expiring this week, is he worried about subscribers drastically falling? "Ultimately, you never know until it happens," he reasons. "But we're pleased with the number of people who have tried. Everybody gets fixated on the short term but we're in this for the long haul."

Although not allowed to discuss the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus in full detail during the pre-launch interview, Cue still walked Evening Standard through a few of the smartphone's new features, including the revamped version of Siri. Eventually, the Apple executive remarked on the topic of roaming data charges when traveling abroad, an issue rumored to be worked on by the company -- and later denied -- by launching its own mobile virtual network operator service in the United States and Europe.

He taps his phone and makes an offhand comment about "trying not to get roaming charges" while in London which, I note, proves how insanely expensive phone calls and data can be abroad. "It's sad, it's another problem," says Cue. "We're trying to fix it and we're making a little bit of progress but you've got to convince a lot of people." It sounds like an impossible task. But that, you would imagine, is where the famous flair will come in.

In the full interview, Cue also talks about new features of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus like Live Photos and 3D Touch, also commenting on the topic of customers wanting to delete stock iOS apps, which CEO Tim Cook himself touched on in September. You can check out the full Evening Standard interview with Eddy Cue here.

Article Link: Eddy Cue Talks Apple Music Subscriptions as Initial Three-Month Free Trials End

 

[unobtainium]

I canceled yesterday and went back to Spotify. Apple hasn't updated or fixed the UI since Music launched way back in the summer. You still can't even create a new playlist from a song or album page. Spotify also doesn't have the weird greyed out track issue.

Oh, and $4.99/mo. for students

 

[i5pro]

What a pompous ****.

 

[mattopotamus]

at $9.99, I expect a massive drop off.

I'll still to my prime music included in amazon prime.

 

[timbuk2]

i canceled my apple music subscription months ago, i never quit spotify. UI is miles ahead.

 

[Pagemakers]

I cancelled. Awful service. Back to Deezer.

 

[bkends35]

I'm staying with spotify for students for $4.99.

 

[Ulisescm]

I was charged a couple days ago, I'm gonna keep it, it could be snappier and with a simpler interface like Spotify but it's ok.

 

[pipa]

yeah I shut off auto renewal day one. I don't think I used it more then 5 times in 90 days. I still think they will do well but I can guarantee you retention will be under 30%. if that.

 

[Mackinjosh]

I know a ton of people that tried the 3 month trial. Not a single one of them liked it, and not a single one of them is going to abandon Spotify for this. Perhaps Eddy isn't the right person to be handling services. He can't ever seem to get it right.

 

[Rogifan]

I canceled yesterday and went back to Spotify. Apple hasn't updated or fixed the UI since Music launched way back in the summer. You still can't even create a new playlist from a song or album page. Spotify also doesn't have the weird greyed out track issue.

Oh, and $4.99/mo. for students

Yesterday I couldn't play any Apple Music tracks while on LTE. And I kept getting pop-ups to subscribe even though I am already a subscriber. I would go back to Spotify if they had an Apple Watch app and allowed playlist to be synced to the watch.

 

[Keane16]

As a car driver Siri control wins me over. I'll be keeping it for that reason alone. For You has been good for me too. Overall the UI needs some sharpening up.

Also glad the topic of deleting stock apps is still being discussed by those at the top. Hopefully they find a good solution.

 

[vmachiel]

Discovery is good, I can play anything with Siri, and that family plan... That's something else.

 

[John Mcgregor]

Talked with AppleCare maybe 20 times. Collected logs, discovered step to reproduce issues and it's still same crap as in the start.

 

[newdeal]

clearly Apple is working on some form of cell service. There is no way that Eddie cares about a bit of roaming charges. First of all I am sure Apple pays for his phone and second he is super rich anyway so it would be nothing to him. Apples message is generally very well rehearsed so I am guessing that this wasn't as off hand as it seemed

 

[ratigator]

I like the idea of it, but just don't love it enough to justify the $9.99/mo. Though I realize that is unfair, seeing as how I use HBO Now less and pay more for it.

 

[blackcrayon]

Keeping Apple Music for now. I like being able to think of any song and ask Siri to play it (In my car, Siri is the usual way I start playing songs). Ideally, 100% of all commercially available songs would be on there of course.

 

[bommai]

I am not a voracious music listener. I like classical. I could not find full length pieces with ease. It started playing random stuff. I am not going to pay $9.99 for this. Plus a lot of people hate the new UI. What happened to my large thumb nails of albums. Now it is just a big long list. There is no landscape mode.

 

[Ericus Macabeus]

Discovery is good, I can play anything with Siri, and that family plan... That's something else.

Some of the same reasons for me. I'm keeping it. Irk friend and I have the family plan for $14.99 a month.

 

[bonokoot]

Hasn't been working on AT&T LTE, so no thank you.

 

[malexandria]

I cancelled after day 1. It destroyed my library. I'm not in the iTunes needs to be split into a "million" Apps camp, I think it's fine the way it is. But Apple Music definitely needs to be it's own App and completely segregated from my primary iTunes music library like all the other music Apps.

 

[baryon]

Well with Spotify being free and Apple Music not being free, it makes a big difference...

 

[surfingarbo]

Apple Music works great for me.

I understand some may have problems with it, but people just find stuff to complain about.

For me, it's an awesome music service for just $10 a month. If you don't like it, then don't use it.

 

[TheTom9]

Jut got charged 14,99 too but talked with apple and now waiting for my refund since i wasn't happy at all, songs pausing all the time, downloaded playlists doest work offline (which made me so so mad on a flight last week) and all sorts of other things, just no apple music.

 

[Rogifan]

I know a ton of people that tried the 3 month trial. Not a single one of them liked it, and not a single one of them is going to abandon Spotify for this. Perhaps Eddy isn't the right person to be handling services. He can't ever seem to get it right.

Clearly he has too much under his responsibility. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I think Cook needs to hire an SVP to oversee all of Apple's cloud business, and throw Siri and Maps in there too. Then Eddy can focus all of his time on Music, iTunes/App Store, TV and Pay.

Oh and Apple also needs to hire someone to oversee all of developer relations. Let them be responsible for developer relations, app review, evangelism, etc. Let them be the outward face to the developer community and charge them with ensuring iOS and OS X are platforms people want to develop on and develop for first. Right now this stuff is scattered all over the place (Federighi's team is responsible for APIs, Schiller's team has developer relations/app review, Cue's team is responsible for App Store etc). There should be one leader that's essentially the app "czar" at Apple.