I personally have already switched back to Spotify. Apple Music is awful.
Eddy Cue 'Thrilled With the Numbers' as Apple Music Hits 11 Million Users
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decafjava
macrumors 603
Which is another reason why the streaming model (as it currently stands) is awful and unsustainable in the long run. I still remember when people whined about iTunes songs being DRM protected until they stopped in 2009 - AFAIK both Spotify and Apple Music streamed songs saved offline are RDM protected. That's the price of a subscription model. Not saying it's completely bad (though Apple could for example afford to pay twice as much to artists as Spotify they both rip them off) it's great for discovery.
bbeagle
macrumors 68040
Some people do stupid things.
Chupa Chupa
macrumors G5
And that is fine too IF they are going to do it uniformly and consistently, but that isn't what they are doing here. They are releasing numbers when they think they are good and withholding with empty responses like "we are pleased." That is called "cherry picking."
The degree of the information withholding is on a different plane, I give you that. But the point is investors need to press their Executive for verifiable numbers and not to trust on face value empty phases like "all is well, we are doing great." Same goes for the electorate too.
This is why they pressed so long with the music industry to make the trial 3 months....if it's only a month, people still have it in their mind to cancel before it renews, but with 3 months it gives users the opportunity to make AppleMusic part of their lives (or to completely forget they have it)....and either way people become much more likely to stay subscribed. You are correct though, it will be interesting to see how the numbers actually end up working out in a few months.
I'm not surprised at all. Apple is very late to an already saturated market. It will take time and software tweaking to steadily get more market share. As for me I didn't sign up but listen to beats 1 and other stations.
Who listens to music these days?
sure take my money stranger and never come back lol
Rogifan
macrumors Penryn
But some here think these Apple Music numbers are bad. There is no rule or law that says when Apple has to release sales figures and when it doesn't. Perhaps if they never did with iPad we wouldn't have all the iPad doom and gloom now.
KazKam
macrumors 6502
I love Apple, but I wouldn't touch Apple Music with a 10' poll. Not even if it was free for life. Not until they completely isolate/sandbox that mess from my 50,000+ song library I've spent the last 15 years curating with loving care. Not from a company that can't even keep my contacts in sync across devices without screwing them up.
Mackinjosh
Suspended
If only the service was worth being thrilled over. How about instead of wanking to your own self-inflated numbers you hire someone that knows what they're doing with services?
BigHonkingDeal
macrumors 6502a
Let's not forget that they set an example by making us suffer through 20 minutes of bragging how spectacular all sales are, in every Keynote & other public event in the last 8 years.....
Mackinjosh
Suspended
Yep, the folks who stick with Apple Music for example.
RogerWilco
macrumors 6502a
Yes. One look at the terms of TC's compensation plan will explain everything. It's a three-alarm fire over at Apple PR right now.
I'm very interested in the payout to artists. In particular, what I need to do to ensure an artist I have no interest in supporting doesn't get paid when a song comes up in a random playlist. I'm looking at you Nickelback and Steely Dan!
Also... how many songs do I need to play in a given month for Apple to break even paying for bandwidth, staff, and payout to artists. Tough to put a price on the playlists offered... there are some good oldies out there that I haven't listened to in a LONG time... but there has to be a magic number out there that makes this 'worthwhile'.
Also... how many songs do I need to play in a given month for Apple to break even paying for bandwidth, staff, and payout to artists. Tough to put a price on the playlists offered... there are some good oldies out there that I haven't listened to in a LONG time... but there has to be a magic number out there that makes this 'worthwhile'.
neuropsychguy
macrumors 68040
I've found it quite good for discovering new music, better than Spotify (just my experience). But then again I discover most of my new music through other means - YouTube primarily - so I don't spend a lot of time "discovering" with either service.
peglegjack
macrumors 6502
Here's my take on the whole Apple Music thing. The iPad app was just flat out broken at launch, but it's a little better now. I don't get crazy about artwork or all of my songs being there. All of my local stuff I listen to is there, so I haven't seen major problems with that. The curated playlists are great, and are by far the best thing about Apple Music. Connect is DOA, Ping 2.0.
Forgetting all of the bugs and everything else, the main reason that I'll probably stay with Spotify is that they flat out have more songs available, and that's kind've the point with services like these. When I tried to import numerous playlists from Spotify, I found that there were more than a few songs missing from Apple Music. Maybe it's early, maybe they'll have parity with Spotify soon enough. But they're not there yet, and I can't have a service that doesn't have as many songs. Also, the Weekly Discovery feature that Spotify just started is some kind of amazing godsend that really digs deep, whereas Apple's curated playlists are generally stuff you've already heard.
One bug with Apple Music does particularly bother me right now. Sometimes if you click on a record by an artist, and you click More Like This, there are times when they won't even list all of those artist's records, just some of them.
So I'm thinking I'll go back to Spotify and maybe...MAYBE give Apple Music another look in a few months.
Forgetting all of the bugs and everything else, the main reason that I'll probably stay with Spotify is that they flat out have more songs available, and that's kind've the point with services like these. When I tried to import numerous playlists from Spotify, I found that there were more than a few songs missing from Apple Music. Maybe it's early, maybe they'll have parity with Spotify soon enough. But they're not there yet, and I can't have a service that doesn't have as many songs. Also, the Weekly Discovery feature that Spotify just started is some kind of amazing godsend that really digs deep, whereas Apple's curated playlists are generally stuff you've already heard.
One bug with Apple Music does particularly bother me right now. Sometimes if you click on a record by an artist, and you click More Like This, there are times when they won't even list all of those artist's records, just some of them.
So I'm thinking I'll go back to Spotify and maybe...MAYBE give Apple Music another look in a few months.
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darkknight14
macrumors 6502
I believe they can fix many bugs without issuing an iOS update.
Just the other day I noticed they put in a 'you may also like / artists in this playlist ' at the bottom of the page on iOS which I don't think was there on launch.
One of the most annoying bugs is playing music that doesn't play..
navaira
macrumors 601
Assuming I understand your question correctly:
If you are in the US, and pay $9.99 per month, and Apple go with their previously announced payout of $0.0072 per stream, you "break even" at 1387 streams per month, or 47 per day in a month with 30 days. By which I mean if you play 47+ songs per day and 1387+ per month, Apple are making a loss even ignoring bandwidth, maintenance, staff, etc. Ideal situation for Apple would be if you subscribe to a family plan, then never use it at all, but continue paying
On a good day at work (I work in extremely noisy environment, so I have my noise-cancelling headphones in at all times) I can play about 150 songs. Mind, I am playing strictly offline content, as I have a 1 GB data plan and I can't really afford to stream stuff. But from what I understand, Apple pay artists also for offline streams (but then they save money on bandwidth etc.) This is one of the reasons Spotify makes a loss year after year.
No, you don't want to do that. The Family Plan is based on the flawed Family Sharing, so that would mean sharing your account (and payment details) with strangers.
navaira
macrumors 601
My feelings exactly. I am listening to my Discover Weekly playlist right now and so far it had one song I didn't like all that much (didn't hate it either). In the meantime, let me check For You... playlists are simply ridunkulous, and out of the 6 albums on offer I own two and I will bite my head off and eat it before I play Jennifer Lopez's "Rebirth".
SgtPepper12
macrumors 6502a
Thrilled with the numbers? 11 Million is pretty underwhelming. This service is for free for everyone so far. Considering the enormous user base, I'd have expected the number to be a lot higher, like, two times or three times as high.
Anyway, when I started with Apple Music I was pleasantly surprised, there were a few bugs here and there, but that was to be expected, however I also expected them to get rid of them quickly. But they didn't. They again treat their new service just like any other piece of software they are offering at the moment, like some kind of hobby. And I don't see why they are so determined to fail with this once again. It's almost like they don't realize that these three months are the most important months of Apple Music. If they want to make the service usable, they need to do it now, otherwise nobody will notice. They should have really focused on that, but they didn't.
If nothing dramatic changes until the end of the three months, I'll be unsubscribing. Don't really need a service like that anyway (which is probably the reason why I don't use Spotify in the first place).
Anyway, when I started with Apple Music I was pleasantly surprised, there were a few bugs here and there, but that was to be expected, however I also expected them to get rid of them quickly. But they didn't. They again treat their new service just like any other piece of software they are offering at the moment, like some kind of hobby. And I don't see why they are so determined to fail with this once again. It's almost like they don't realize that these three months are the most important months of Apple Music. If they want to make the service usable, they need to do it now, otherwise nobody will notice. They should have really focused on that, but they didn't.
If nothing dramatic changes until the end of the three months, I'll be unsubscribing. Don't really need a service like that anyway (which is probably the reason why I don't use Spotify in the first place).
You don't need to be signed up for apple music to get Beats 1. Uninformed user is uninformed.