Daisuke Wakabayashi, writing for The Wall Street Journal:
Speaking at WSJDLive, The Wall Street Journal’s global technology conference, Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said the company has 6.5 million paying customers for Apple Music and 8.5 million customers on three-month trials.
In August, Apple senior vice president Eddy Cue, who is overseeing the rollout of Apple Music, said it had 11 million people on the trial version of the service. That suggests that nearly 60% of those users agreed to pay for the service after the trial period ended.
By comparison, Spotify AB, which launched in 2008, says it has 75 million active users and 20 million subscribers.
Embedded below are a few clips of Tim Cook’s interview.
On Apple Music and new music discovery:
On Apple’s culture:
A conversion / retention rate of 60% is impressive, much higher than I would have expected.
Still, the sheer amount of users is only a tiny fraction of iTunes users, and I am doubtful of Apple’s decision to severely hamper the experience of the majority (even more confusing iTunes and Music apps, abysmal home sharing support, limited support for local content in the new Apple TV) at this point in time. Yes, streaming customers are the loudest in their never ending entitlement, but they are not even close to being a majority.
I was never worried about iTunes being my only real choice on Macs, despite its shortcomings. I am now.