Apple Music reaches 11M trial members after five weeks

By Mikey Campbell

After just five weeks of availability, Apple Music has gathered an impressive 11 million trial users, two million of whom opted in to the more expensive multi-user family plan, according to Apple SVP of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue.

In revealing hard numbers to USA Today on Thursday, Cue offered the first real indication of how well Apple's streaming music service is faring after its launch at the end of June.

"We're thrilled with the numbers so far," Cue said.

To put those numbers into perspective, streaming music heavyweight Spotify boasts about 80 million users worldwide, 20 million of whom pay regular monthly fees for access to ad-free, on-demand content. That would put Apple Music at half the capacity of an industry leader if each existing trial member converts their single-user or family plan to a full paying membership. After a free three-month trial, users can continue to use Apple Music for $9.99 per month, or $14.99 per month for access on up to six devices.

The statements line up with an earlier report claiming Apple Music hit 10 million members after four weeks of service.

Recording executive Jimmy Iovine, who joined Apple after his company Beats was purchased for deleted playlists caused by syncing issues with iCloud Music Library, a feature required offline caching of Apple Music songs.

Related to Apple's digital product services, Cue said July was a record month for the App Store, which notched $1.7 billion in transactions thanks to high activity in China. Since the App Store's launch in 2008, Apple has meted out $33 billion to developers, a figure that stood at $25 billion at the end of 2014.