If the Apple Music are you successful? So far what we know is that 11 million people are testing the music service now most likely more, after all, that number from the beginning of the month.
But let's face it, this is somewhat generic information. Are these people really using / enjoying the service? This is not something easy to discover, yet the MusicWatch (a company that provides music consumption research and analysis services for the entertainment industry) conducted a survey to try to better understand this scenario.
Here are the highlights:
- 77% of American users of iGadgets know Apple Music.
- 11% said they are using the service.
- Among those who tested the service, 48% reported that they are no longer using it.
- 28% of Spotify Premium subscribers are also using Apple Music.
- Only 11% of users of the free version of Spotify are on Apple Music.
- Among Pandora users, the number drops to 6%.
- 40% of users iGadgets are still buying music from the iTunes Store.
- About 1/3 of Apple Music users were encouraged to buy more songs / albums online.
- 64% of current Apple Music users said that they are very likely to pay for the service after the trial period.
- On the other hand, 61% stated that they have already turned off the option of automatic renewal in their settings.
- The most popular feature on Apple Music is the “Music” tab ("My Music"), which allows listeners to manage their music and create playlists.
- Beats 1 radio is being used by 30% of users.
- The Connect social network is already being used by 27% of subscribers.
The information that most calls attention, no doubt, is that 48% of the people who tested the service gave up and are no longer using it. That is, of the entire universe of people who used Apple Music, only 52% continued to use it. That would be quite alarming.
But we can't talk about the research itself without mentioning the methodology used by MusicWatch. The sampling was good (5,000 people), but they sinned a lot by conducting the survey only with American users. Now, Apple Music was launched in 100 countries, many of them with a culture and consumption very different from the USA. In some countries the price of the service (as in Brazil and India) is much lower than the American; in others, there is not even Spotify competition, let alone Pandora, which is only available in the USA.
Of course, these data must be taken into account, but we cannot take this to be absolutely true at all. The proof is that Apple itself tried to deny these numbers.
In contact with The Verge, Ma reported that 79% of people who signed up for Apple Music are still using the service far more than the 52% reported by the survey.
Still, what does Apple consider “using the service”? Would it be to enter the Music application at least once a week? Or was it not turning off the option for automatic subscription renewal? These are questions that only the company could answer, but that are hardly going to go.
Although 79% is a much better number than 52%, we have to take into account that, unlike Spotify, Rdio and other streaming, Apple Music is installed natively on iPads, iPhones and iPods touch of millions of people (just be using iOS 8.4 minimally to have the service available). Regardless of whether that 79% is the 11 million that Apple released or whether we are talking about 8.6 million users (79% of 11 million), I would say that the numbers are well below what Apple imagined or would like to be seeing now.
