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

[nilk]

The half is glass full! Another way to read it is "half of trial users are still using Apple Music" which seems like a win to me.

Personally, I'm still using Spotify most of the time on my Mac at work. I still just use an iPod loaded with music in my car that's always in the car. But on my main home stereo me and my wife use Apple Music on a dedicated 64GB iPhone 4S that is setup strictly for music. Spotify I find better for finding music, making playlists, and I just have been using it this way for a long time now. Apple Music is nice for throwing on music on-the-fly without having made any playlists in advance -- I especially like when they have an "Intro to..." playlist for an artist. Though I often use Spotify's top-rated tracks for effectively the same thing, the Intro to playlists are often more representative of an artist. For my home music, it also helps that it's merged into my local music collection, which is what I was using before. I've never been a heavy user of Spotify's iOS app.

I'm probably going to end up having subscriptions to both Spotify and Apple Music.

 

[Andrei90]

The half is glass full! Another way to read it is "half of trial users are still using Apple Music" which seems like a win to me.

Personally, I'm still using Spotify most of the time on my Mac at work. I still just use an iPod loaded with music in my car that's always in the car. But on my main home stereo me and my wife use Apple Music on a dedicated 64GB iPhone 4S that is setup strictly for music. Spotify I find better for finding music, making playlists, and I just have been using it this way for a long time now. Apple Music is nice for throwing on music on-the-fly without having made any playlists in advance -- I especially like when they have an "Intro to..." playlist for an artist. Though I often use Spotify's top-rated tracks for effectively the same thing, the Intro to playlists are often more representative of an artist. For my home music, it also helps that it's merged into my local music collection, which is what I was using before. I've never been a heavy user of Spotify's iOS app.

I'm probably going to end up having subscriptions to both Spotify and Apple Music.

A win? Is it a win to you that half the users had quit a free service?

 

[BWhaler]

so 21% of dropped out of a free service in the first few months? Before the trial ends?

I know Apple meant their stat to be a good thing, but it's really not.

 

[LizKat]

Your math is a bit off. Since we only have the numbers Eddie Cue gave (11M subscribers) and the survey results (which a 5000 sample size is more than sufficient)...11M subscribers of which 48% stopped using AM already so that leaves 5.72M active subscribers. Of those 5.72M, 61% have turned off auto-renew so that leaves 2,230,800 active subscribers that would potentially sign up for AM after the trial period. Hardly half the Spotify user base.

So that's 22.3 million they don't have to scrounge up from selling iPod shuffles or whatever. Sounds good to me as optional revenue. Sounds more reliable than 22.3 million people listening to 90-second previews from one end of the night to the other and generating ZERO revenue.

 

[ani4ani]

They released it too soon. Apple should've put another 3 months of work into it before releasing it so that people's first impression of it was favorable rather than experiencing it as a bug filled beta that leaves a long term negative impression.

Are you talking about Siri?

 

[Razorhog]

I cancelled Google Play Music and am solely using Apple Music. I actually love it! All I need now is Sonos integration and I'll be golden.

 

[motulist]

Are you talking about Siri?

I'm talking about Apple music eating up all my free storage space as I add songs to my music and playlist (and I'm not offlining them). I'm also talking about adding songs to playlists to actually getting added. Those are just the big ones that hit me, but i've heard of other really bad bugs that've hit other people too.

 

[pat500000]

they are NOT using apple music anymore after the trial.

 

[lazard]

So that's 22.3 million they don't have to scrounge up from selling iPod shuffles or whatever. Sounds good to me as optional revenue. Sounds more reliable than 22.3 million people listening to 90-second previews from one end of the night to the other and generating ZERO revenue.

you're off by a decimal space

 

[kerrikins]

so 21% of dropped out of a free service in the first few months? Before the trial ends?

I know Apple meant their stat to be a good thing, but it's really not.

Why isn't it? They're a newbie to an already established field. Anyone who has worked for a wireless carrier, for example, knows that people are reluctant to churn to another carrier, and it takes them a lot to do so. Even if only some of those users are from Spotify the fact that a majority of customers are still using Apple Music is a plus, and if most of them *weren't* using Spotify (like me) then that means that they've managed to get people to stream who weren't streaming before. Free isn't going to equal no attrition at all.

 

[LizKat]

you're off by a decimal space

dollars then and you are correct --

but 2.23 million people paying zero is still zero.

Still, 2.23 million paople paying 10 bucks is 22.3 million bucks.

i was half right as usual. But bank on it, apple music is making a buck in future.

 

[LizKat]

~snip~ Apple Music is nice for throwing on music on-the-fly without having made any playlists in advance -- I especially like when they have an "Intro to..." playlist for an artist.

I like that too!

 

[ani4ani]

I'm talking about Apple music eating up all my free storage space as I add songs to my music and playlist (and I'm not offlining them). I'm also talking about adding songs to playlists to actually getting added. Those are just the big ones that hit me, but i've heard of other really bad bugs that've hit other people too.

Yea I know....I was just hinting that you could have been commenting on any of Apples recent efforts, e.g Siri, Maps, IOS 8 etc...they all could (should) have had more work before release

 

[skinned66]

After a month or two of billing, let's revisit these numbers. I suspect the numbers will go down further.

 

[FelineTech]

I ditched Spotify Premium for Apple Music.

why?

1. I like the way my own music merges with Apple Music library. I have playlists that merge both. And can stream all of this. Spotify can't do this.
2. I actually like the overall performance (the software update helped a lot)
3. It integrates better with a car system (my Mini's connected system). Most car systems know how to deal with the Music app on an iPhone, Spotify, not so much without a lot of custom work.
4. The family option saves me: $10 a month vs. Spotify. (I have 4 people that use it).

I do hope the UI gets more streamlined in iOS 9. I also want a "dislike" button, so their suggestions can learn what I DON'T like.

 

[unplugme71]

That's a more than adequate sample size. It's actually pretty robust.

Not really. The other million+ could not be avid Apple rumor visitors and the whole thing could be skewed as in the report that Apple published saying 79% are still active.

 

[sss4r]

I'm a huge supporter of Google search; always have been. But they're SOOOO big now and just like FaceBook, et. all, they want to sell "me". Not to mention the whole Android "borrowing" so heavily from iOS debacle. And I'd rather have random ads. At least then I don't feel like I'm being tracked...

But that's just denial. You are being tracked. Not just tracked, but analyzed also -- your content, metadata, communications, everything. That's not going to change until every single American is outraged that the government is treading on our 4th Amendment right to privacy. Denial is the only counterproductive.

 

[lazard]

View attachment 575980

it's not about the price. It's about the pitiful UI and all the bugs.

 

[2IS]

I wonder who actually believes Apple's statement that 79% of people who signed up are still using it. Probably the same people who believe there's only been 9 bent iPhone's

 

[TheRainKing]

Once the trial is over almost no one will be using this crap service.

 

[jbachandouris]

I always mean to use it, but then I forget. I'm not really into streaming music. I still like to own physical CD's although I see the appeal for such a service.

 

[k1121j]

The one thing stopping me is custom stations that I put time in to creating get stuffed in to recently played. There should be a place like my stations also I should be able to delete and rename them they have some work to do before it's worth my 10 bucks. For something that's about discovery this is a must this is how I discover music using pandora I don't go searching for it it plays it and I discover it so Apple is for listening give me some customization with my stations please.

 

[JSB1540]

Once the trial is over almost no one will be using this crap service.

Guess I am part of that "almost no one". I enjoy it! Willing to pay for it!

 

[AppleScruff1]

A win? Is it a win to you that half the users had quit a free service?

It will be when Cook brags about it.

 

[flux73]

Thats a considerable sample size.

Speaking as a biostatistician here, not really. If there were only a total of 5 million (and there were actually many more if I recall), 5000 would be only 0.1% of the total. Off the top of my head that wouldn't be sufficient, though figuring the precise minimum sample size would require an analysis of statistical power.

It also depends on a well-designed truly randomized study without inherent biases. I couldn't find any methodology info about how those 5000 were selected. I'd imagine it'd be voluntary. Then you'd have to wonder if there was some kind of self-selection bias going on where people who quit because they hated Apple Music would be more likely to volunteer for a survey about Apple Music (or vice versa). Plus we have no idea how the survey asked people the questions. In a poorly designed study, the questions themselves can bias the answer. Particularly if the people answering them are already biased to begin with.

Any research study that doesn't make its methodology 100% transparent shouldn't be relied on to draw any kind of conclusion. Especially since Apple refutes the claim. Are they biased? Probably. But at least they have 100% of the data, not just 0.1% of it.