Nearly Half of Apple Music Users in U.S. No Longer Using Free Trial

Apple Music isn't really that much better than Spotify or other alternatives, and has a worse UI/UX. The most annoying thing is if Apple keeps on getting these exclusive deals with artists, some people won't have a choice to to use it to access this exclusive content.

I'll be turning off auto-renewal as the best part of Apple Music (Beats 1) is free anyway.
 
I love it, and I'll be paying for the family plan when it renews. I never used any other service, so I don't have that to compare it to. But it's been great. The For You section has lined up tons of fantastic playlists. I like it.
 
JimmyHook said:
Even with the tiny percentage of users having a few issues, it's miles ahead of Spotify. Where's spotify's human curation, live global radio, and exclusive content? Oh that's right, nowhere. Spotify's UI is a complete disaster
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What are you smoking in your pipe? Replace "Spotify" with "Apple Music" in your post and you'd be speaking the truth.
 
Overall these stats are impressive. In just 3 months Apple has 1/2 the user base of Spotify (if these surveys are even scientific, me thinks they are not). It took Spotify years to get to this point. Also, Apple Music is sponsoring a festival in London. That will up their stats too. More exclusive deals, more concerts, that's how they will dominate and destroy the competition
 
JimmyHook said:
Even with the tiny percentage of users having a few issues, it's miles ahead of Spotify. Where's spotify's human curation, live global radio, and exclusive content? Oh that's right, nowhere. Spotify's UI is a complete disaster
Click to expand...
Apple Music's human curation really hasn't grabbed me that much, and largely offers the same stuff as algorithm based curated lists have for me, but it is nice to know there's someone on the other end.

Also, for some reason a lot of my friends on Apple Music think that the playlists are created solely for them - made by a person. Does anyone know why this is seems to be so widely believed?

It does annoy me to no end that I can't edit playlists in Spotify's mobile app.
 
JimmyHook said:
Overall these stats are impressive. In just 3 months Apple has 1/2 the user base of Spotify (if these surveys are even scientific, me thinks they are not). It took Spotify years to get to this point. Also, Apple Music is sponsoring a festival in London. That will up their stats too. More exclusive deals, more concerts, that's how they will dominate and destroy the competition
Click to expand...

Spotify and Apple are in different situations though. Spotify was an unknown entity created solely for streaming music. Apple is already really well established and has enough cash to create an unstoppable hype train. I would expect Apple to have at least half the users of Spotify (and you're probably right that they aren't scientific).
 
I don't mind the way the app looks. I used spotify free, and will continue using AM until my free trial ends. I have no intention of paying to stream any music. My biggest issue is when my music randomly pauses when I'm away from wifi. I have data turned off, and it seems like the app is always trying to refresh or connect to the internet which causes the music to pause.
 
Dimwhit said:
I love it, and I'll be paying for the family plan when it renews. I never used any other service, so I don't have that to compare it to. But it's been great. The For You section has lined up tons of fantastic playlists. I like it.
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Me too I am enjoying Apple Music so far
 
JimmyHook said:
Overall these stats are impressive. In just 3 months Apple has 1/2 the user base of Spotify (if these surveys are even scientific, me thinks they are not). It took Spotify years to get to this point. Also, Apple Music is sponsoring a festival in London. That will up their stats too. More exclusive deals, more concerts, that's how they will dominate and destroy the competition
Click to expand...

??? Spotify has 70MM users. AM has 11MM, and 60% of them are going away at the end if the trial. You need to work on your math skills.
 
61% is significant. Lately, all of Apple's services and software have had this beta, unpolished, work in progress feel to it. iTunes, Apple Maps, iOS 8, now Apple Music. They're like the new Sony, great hardware/design, software and services that fall short. Let's hope Apple can reverse this unsettling trend, especially with their services (it looks like iOS 9 will be the "cure" for iOS 8).
 
smithrh said:
Have stopped using it for the most part, and also actively researched how to turn off auto renewal, which I did a couple of weeks ago.

It's simply too much of a mess right now to deal with.
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I can understand why the majority of iOS users have stopped using Apple Music. The platform attracts a lot of technically unsavvy people, many of whom still struggle with basic apps like Photos and Reminders. To them, the new Apple Music would not doubt be daunting...

But to your typical MacRumors reader? I mean, there are a lot of options built in, but it's not that hard to figure out. And what it offers is so great -- huge library of music at your finger tips, curated playlists and artist recommendations tailored to your personal tastes, the option to create and share playlists with friends...

Apple Music is amazing! I'm genuinely surprised that anyone who reads this site isn't willing to give it the five minutes it needs to figure out.
 
I tried it, turned it off not because I didn't like the quality or the choices but because the app is so insanely frustrating to use. The UI design makes it very difficult to figure out what I'm currently doing or focused on, and there are frequently no visible clues besides a subtle shift of brightness or what have you to indicate a field is an active one. This flat design stuff is for the birds.
 
I want to use Apple Music but the app is so frustating. It's like having iTunes in your phone. There's no way someone would like to use this app instead of spotify cleaner UI. What does Apple Music has that Spotify doesn't? Beats1? Curated playlists? Those are secondary features. Most people just want to stream music they know about. They need to redesign the app completely.
 
I'll be this whole mess is affecting iTunes download volume as well. I haven't downloaded a song since 8.4. Why would I? You can't find it, play it, shuffle or go to the next song without a struggle...Thank goodness my iPod 4 is still on IOS 7. They have to fix the navigation. Put it back the way it was and then add a tab for AM or something...
 
I'm still playing around with it until our free trial runs out, but I agree... It's buggy and not worthy of my subscription money at this time.

Frankly, I'm growing tired of Apple's tendency to throw really bad "version 1.0" products out there, expecting good money for them, and fixing them after the fact. I'm a big fan of Apple in general too. But just saying -- it was *always* known that the company did this with new product releases. Even 20+ years ago, it was common advice to "wait for revision B" on anything Apple sold. If you didn't, you were usually given a raw deal compared to the people who waited.

When Apple's main products were just computers used by a niche market of fans/hobbyists, this wasn't as big a deal. But now, they're just too big, selling to the mass market -- and it needs to change.

Just yesterday night, I fired up Apple Music on my iPad on the way home from work, and searched for Breaking Benjamin. The search result suggestions popped right up, including the title of a few of the tracks from their new album. BUT, it kept coming back saying "nothing found" and to try a different artist search in the main window! There was no way to stream or download a single thing of theirs, even though it was obvious the system knew what I was trying to find. I tried it again today and it worked normally.


smithrh said:
Have stopped using it for the most part, and also actively researched how to turn off auto renewal, which I did a couple of weeks ago.

It's simply too much of a mess right now to deal with.
Click to expand...
 
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