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Poll: Did Apple Music flop?
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View Poll Results: did it?
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Yes
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19 |
38.00% |
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No
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31 |
62.00% |
Member Since: 8/13/2012
Posts: 32,832
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What happened to it? huge fanfare, they even involved Taylor Swift, and it seems everyone pays it dust... with itunes decreasing in relevance, is this the beginning of the end for Apple? 
Quote:
The application was pushed to all iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users as part of an operating system update. It was easy to activate the three-month free trial, after which Apple would start charging the user's account. Someone with an Apple ID (which is necessary to download apps) wouldn't even need to enter payment details. At the end of September 2015, according to Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, 101 million iPhones were in use in the U.S. alone. There are hundreds of millions of other iOS devices in other countries, and seven new iPhones are sold every second, based on data for the 2015 financial year. An overwhelming majority of these devices have Apple Music installed: Apple prides itself that its users keep their operating system up to date.
Given the huge installed base and the ease of subscribing, 10 million subscribers seems underwhelming.
By contrast, a user needs to make a conscious decision to download Spotify. Even so, the Swedish-designed streaming app, which Apple Music set out to displace as market leader, appears to be growing fast. Spotify had 15 million paying subscribers at the end of 2014 and 20 million in early June. Dante D'Orazio at the Verge reported that Spotify experienced "the fastest subscriber growth" its in history in the past six months, which means that it added more than 5 million while Apple Music was active. That's impressive, given that it wasn't growing from scratch and wasn't preinstalled.
To be sure, Spotify has suffered from the competition -- but not enough to cause serious worry.
Apple's streaming music service now has more than 10 million subscribers, according to a report in the Financial Times. That sounds like a lot, but what it really indicates is that Apple may have lost its way.
Apple Music debuted at the end of June 2015. That means it passed the 10 million mark in less than six months. Spotify. its main rival, took six years to do it. Of the 10 million, 3.5 million apparently have been added since mid-October, when Apple announced it had 6.5 million subscribers paying at least $10 a month (there's also a more expensive "family subscription").
Great tempo, right? Well, maybe not.
The application was pushed to all iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users as part of an operating system update. It was easy to activate the three-month free trial, after which Apple would start charging the user's account. Someone with an Apple ID (which is necessary to download apps) wouldn't even need to enter payment details. At the end of September 2015, according to Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, 101 million iPhones were in use in the U.S. alone. There are hundreds of millions of other iOS devices in other countries, and seven new iPhones are sold every second, based on data for the 2015 financial year. An overwhelming majority of these devices have Apple Music installed: Apple prides itself that its users keep their operating system up to date.
Given the huge installed base and the ease of subscribing, 10 million subscribers seems underwhelming.
By contrast, a user needs to make a conscious decision to download Spotify. Even so, the Swedish-designed streaming app, which Apple Music set out to displace as market leader, appears to be growing fast. Spotify had 15 million paying subscribers at the end of 2014 and 20 million in early June. Dante D'Orazio at the Verge reported that Spotify experienced "the fastest subscriber growth" its in history in the past six months, which means that it added more than 5 million while Apple Music was active. That's impressive, given that it wasn't growing from scratch and wasn't preinstalled.
To be sure, Spotify has suffered from the competition -- but not enough to cause serious worry. Here's how Spotify's downloads on Apple's App Store have evolved since Apple Music began:
spotify
APP ANNIE
In the Google Play store, where Android users get their apps, Spotify's performance hasn't changed since Nov. 10, when Apple Music became available on the platform. Apple Music hasn't been doing well on Android, where it isn't preinstalled: According to App Annie, it has languished recently around 70th place by number of downloads, while Spotify is consistently near the top (it is ranked 12th in the U.S. now).
In Apple's U.S. App Store, Spotify is the top-grossing app in the music category and the fourth overall.
So it appears that even Apple's user base often prefers the market leader to the upstart "native" offering. They have good reasons for that choice.
Apple's previous forays into new markets usually were better prepared and more effective. The iPod and the iPhone redefined their product categories, the iPad created a new one, and even the relatively unsuccessful Apple Watch became the best-selling smartwatch in the world within its first six months. Apple Music could have trashed Spotify on iPhones just as quickly, thanks to its platform advantage, but failed to do so because the app wasn't demonstrably better.
Underwhelming product launches have become acceptable at Apple. I have little doubt that the company is not breaking out Apple Watch numbers to avoid disappointment, and it's likely that Apple Music numbers won't be broken out in the next quarterly report, either. Apple's enormous revenue and profit have silenced critics for years, creating the impression that past successes and geographical expansion could carry the company forward forever. That is an illusion. Apple's management needs to pay special attention to the pace and quality of innovation before the numbers reflect what appears to be a slump in ideas and design.
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http://www.bloombergview.com/article...sted-potential
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Member Since: 8/7/2015
Posts: 5,883
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No, it just reached 10m PREMIUM subscribers.
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Member Since: 4/4/2014
Posts: 4,980
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Member Since: 8/13/2012
Posts: 32,832
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Quote:
Originally posted by Jorge Ropero
No, it just reached 10m suscribers.
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but how much is spotify at?
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Member Since: 1/6/2014
Posts: 6,717
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No  It's already at 50% of Spotify's paying subscribers number after just six months. This was perfect timing on Apple's part.
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Member Since: 8/7/2015
Posts: 5,883
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Quote:
Originally posted by MaRy
but how much is spotify at?
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20m premium subscribers. 
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Member Since: 5/7/2012
Posts: 41,067
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Member Since: 8/7/2015
Posts: 3,329
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It is true that no one seems to talk about it anymore but nah it didn't flop.
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Member Since: 8/13/2012
Posts: 32,832
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Quote:
Originally posted by Jorge Ropero
20m premium subscribers. |
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Member Since: 10/12/2002
Posts: 21,317
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Not at all 
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Member Since: 8/19/2013
Posts: 3,683
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i accidentally started a trial without knowing it and got charged $9.99 after the trial was up without ever even trying it 
i'm using it now since i have a month i already paid for and i've been asking people i know about it and no one seems to be using it.
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Member Since: 12/2/2011
Posts: 52,765
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No 
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Banned
Member Since: 9/13/2010
Posts: 14,033
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Yeah. I don't know anyone who uses it, whereas almost everyone I know uses Spotify. But I don't care because I stan Apple and it's convenient to have my iTunes library and Apple Music's streaming library in the same app.
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Member Since: 8/7/2015
Posts: 2,599
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It's my favorite music app
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Member Since: 7/13/2010
Posts: 11,566
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I find Apple Music so much better than Spotify
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Member Since: 4/20/2012
Posts: 3,792
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Apple Music has 10m paying subscribers in 6 months, which is half of Spotify's subscriber base gained over 3+ years. That's not a flop.
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Member Since: 1/4/2014
Posts: 22,877
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Spotify remains king. Poor people that allowed Apple to extort them for every penny until Spotify changed the game and Apple panicked and had to play catch-up. Poor people with no loyalty.
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Member Since: 6/30/2010
Posts: 22,080
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You could do some basic research before hitting that "Post New Thread" button.
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Member Since: 8/13/2012
Posts: 32,832
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Member Since: 4/13/2012
Posts: 3,421
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I don't know, but thanks for reminding me to cancel my free trial soon before it charges me for that mess.
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