Neil Hughes
Less than four months after it launched, Apple Music already has 6.5 million paid subscribers, or nearly a third of the 20 million who pay for Spotify, a service that has been around since 2008, investment firm FBR & Co. said on Tuesday.
Analyst Daniel Ives issued a note to investors, a copy of which was provided to AppleInsider, in which he declared Apple Music off to a "solid start." The 6.5 million subscribers already roped in by Apple exceeded his own expectations — Ives had forecast for Apple to have 5 million paid customers by the end of October.
"We would characterize this initial stage of the launch as a 'triple' in the streaming ballgame," the analyst wrote.
FBR analyst Daniel Ives believes Apple Music will help lay the groundwork for an Apple streaming television service in 2016.
In an interview on Monday, Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook revealed that Apple Music has 15 million total users, with the remaining 8.5 million customers still in a three-month free trial period. The CEO characterized the service as "going pretty well" since its June 30 debut.
In comparison, after 7 years on the market, leading streaming subscription service Spotify has earned a total of 75 million customers — 55 million free and 20 million paid. One key difference: The Apple Music free service is a limited three-month window, while Spotify is available ad-supported indefinitely.
To Ives, Apple Music is just the first step before the Cupertino, Calif., company jumps into the streaming television business in 2016. He believes that in the interim, Apple will "spread the gospel" and add unique content and services to its streaming portfolio.
Like Spotify, Apple Music is priced at $9.99 per month for a single user's subscription, or $14.99 a month for a Family Membership shared by up to six people. Rather than paying for individual songs for albums, users can stream or download any track from Apple's massive library of digital music, as long as they remain a paid subscriber.
One key differentiator for Apple is human curation and expert music recommendations that are exclusive to Apple Music. The service is also tightly integrated into the company's ecosystem, though it will also become available on Android devices this fall.
Charles Martin
Marko Zivkovic
Mike Wuerthele
Malcolm Owen
Andrew Orr
Christine McKee
William Gallagher
61 Comments
I dropped the family plan two days ago, I wonder which side of the wild estimate I'm in???
Spotify said "over twenty million" in June. Sorry, I need up to date numbers from them before I agree that it's a third as many. And as a percentage of active iOS devices that's a really low number...
Haters gonna hate. Loud mouth critics of Apple Music presume to speak for the majority. Apple Music is succeeding and will only get bigger. Deal with it.
And we haven’t even got the Android app out yet. Things can only get better. Spotify depends on its paid subscribers for profit. The freeloaders just keep the lights on. Once Apple Music starts chipping away at the paid subscribers the end could come quickly.
I like Spotify more so I dumped the Apple Music after the trial.
Apple needs to block off 3 mins of advertising space during a high profile event and basically treat the advertsisment as a 'how-to' for setting up and signing up for Apple Music. I think the biggest issue is people who think new features only come when you upgrade the device. (aka Android converts).