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from the is-apple-just-too-late-to-the-party dept.
About one in 10 U.S. owners of an iPhone or other iOS device are currently using Apple Music, the Cupertino, Calif. company's streaming service, according to a survey conducted by MusicWatch.
But nearly half of those who have tried Apple Music -- which offers a free three-month trial -- have stopped using it, said MusicWatch, a research firm based in Huntington, N.Y. that specializes in the music industry.
Apple disputed MusicWatch's numbers. According to a company spokesman Thursday, 79% of the those worldwide who have signed up for Apple Music's trial continue to use the service.
Earlier this week, MusicWatch, citing the results of a survey it conducted this month of 5,000 U.S. consumers, contended that just 11% of all domestic iOS users were now using Apple Music.
"Actually, I was surprised, given all the run-up to Apple Music," said Russ Crupnick, a managing partner at MusicWatch, in an interview. "I thought the [11%] would be higher."
So did Jan Dawson, chief analyst at Jackdaw Research, who last week parsed Apple's Aug. 3 claim that globally it had signed up 11 million customers to Apple Music since the June 30 debut. "Eleven million is only about 2% of [the 500 million iPhone users worldwide], which makes for a tiny conversion rate," Dawson wrote in a piece published on Tech.pinions (subscription required).
Both Crupnick and Dawson were nonplussed by the low number, whether the 11% using Apple Music in the U.S. (Crupnick) or the 11 million Apple touted worldwide (Dawson). After all, the service doesn't cost users a dime until their three-month free ride ends. "It's a free, low-risk endeavor," said Dawson in an interview today. "Yet they have this very, very small number who have bothered to try it out."
Crupnick and Dawson each cast for reasons why fewer iOS owners -- the prime audience, although Apple Music can also be accessed by Mac and Windows users -- than expected had taken to the service. One possibility, both said, is that interest in music streaming had been grossly overestimated.
"This whole concept is relatively new to most people [in the U.S.], and is still getting traction," said Crupnick.
"Is this an indication that the market for streaming is very, very small, that it's not much bigger than Spotify has signed up?" asked Dawson, who pegged Spotify's global paid subscription base at 20 million.
Or is it because of the way that Apple presented the service?
(Score: 2) by RedBear on Monday August 24 2015, @07:18PM
Boy, ain't that the truth. I have a 2009 17" MBP that I've been using and loving every day for six years. It still works fine, but I just picked up a nice used 2011 17" MBP off eBay, the last model and fastest version they ever made. Why? Many reasons, not least of which is that I was worried prices would start going back up as they get more and more difficult to find in great shape. They're still quite popular. It's been by far the nicest, most durable laptop I've ever owned, and the screen size and resolution are perfect for me. I dread the day when these things will finally be so old they will stop working, because it's clear Apple has no interest in making any new ones. I have no interest in "upgrading" to a new MBP with a smaller screen, even if it has a Retina display. Apple has basically abandoned many professionals to focus entirely on mass marketing for most of the last decade. But there are a ton of audio/video and office professionals who would jump on a new 17" MBP. The only ray of hope is a rumored deal that will supposedly make IBM by far Apple's largest corporate purchaser of MacBook Pros.
As far as Apple Music goes, I can't speak for the people who actually follow current music actively. I won't repeat the old adage that there's no good music being made anymore, because that obviously can't be true, although like most I haven't found much in a long time that I'd want to listen to more than once. But they want $9.99 a month in perpetuity for Apple Music, which seems to be basically a music catalog and some radio. For $24.99 a year we have iTunes Match which gives us access to our own music library on all our devices (without having to manually manage the music on each device anymore, which is nice) and the ad-free streaming radio stations. Add Pandora on top of that and we haven't seen the point of subscribing to Apple Music. Even Netflix doesn't quite charge $9.99 a month for a basic plan, and they're streaming unlimited hours per month of up to 4K video content and producing their own highly acclaimed original TV shows. I'm kind of amazed Spotify has 20 million subscribers at that price. Seems very overpriced for just streaming music.
As others have pointed out, the youngsters are treating YouTube as a free music streaming service. How do you compete with free?
¯\_ʕ◔.◔ʔ_/¯ LOL. I dunno. I'm just a bear.
... Peace out. Got bear stuff to do. 彡ʕ⌐■.■ʔ