A free trial of Apple Music was offered to users for the first three months, but it seems not many music lovers are liking the service. A survey of 5,000 users by music industry research company MusicWatch claims 48% of trial users have bailed on the service. However, Apple countered this, saying the number of defectors is far lower than claimed by the survey, says a report from USA Today.
Apple claims fewer defectors
Apple spokesperson Tom Neumayr claimed that only 21% of the users have opted out of the service, which went live on June 30.
Russ Crupnick, managing partner at MusicWatch, told readers in a blog post that “40% of iOS users buying digital downloads from iTunes, (the) trial of Apple Music could be higher” in terms of adoption rate. “That’s the disadvantage of not being the first mover in a market where very good services currently exist.”
MusicWatch further informed readers that of all of the users still using the trial service, nearly 64% have plans of subscribing to it once the trial expires in October, although 61% of users said they had “already turned off the auto-renewal option in their iTunes account settings,” MusicWatch said in a blog post.
MusicWatch also found that 77% of U.S. iOS users are aware of Apple Music. One-third of current Apple Music users have been found to be interested in buying more digital tracks as a result of listening to the service, while “very few Apple Music users claimed to stop buying downloads altogether.”
Wait for October
An important question is how many trial users will actually convert into paying members with an individual monthly membership costing $10 and a family plan costing $15. Around 100 million users bought music from Apple’s iTunes store in 2014. This is a pretty large audience by any count. Apple entered the market quite late, but the fact that it has already teamed up with other service providers such as Pandora and Rhapsody, combined with its massive user base, puts it in a position to come from behind in the space.
In July, Apple announced that four weeks into the launch, the music streaming service had gained 11 million users. The service will become paid beginning in October, and if all the trial users turn into paying subscribers, it will equal to half of Spotify’s paying membership.
