Three months after launching, Apple Music has seen its number of users crater, losing about 40 percent after the initial free trial period ended.
When Apple Music was first announced to the world after many months of speculation and plenty of rumors, it was revealed that while there was no free tier option like Pandora or Spotify, there would be a three month free trial for new users, after which the $9.99 per month subscription fee would be put into effect.
For the first three months since launching this summer, the tech giant touted impressive numbers as a way of showing that its efforts were working, and that the people were really enjoying the product. At the height of its popularity, Apple executive Eddy Cue claimed that 11 million people had signed up for the free trial, which is an impressive figure, even for something being given away gratis.
The first three month free trial ended less than a month ago, and since then people have been leaving the service in droves. Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed recently at a tech conference that there are now around 6.5 million paying subscribers, which is a huge drop from 11 million, though it’s not unexpected. In fact, while free trials are a great way to get people hooked on something new, the percentage of people who stay on and continue to use a service or product once they need to pay for it is typically very small. If other sectors saw only 40 percent of their base leave after such a promotion, that might be considered a big win, and Apple is only just getting started.
The company has characteristically massive goals for its new streaming service, and it will take some time to get even close to reaching those. People from Apple have stated publicly that 100 million paid users is in their sights...so right now the company is at less than 10 percent of their goal.
The free trial still exists for people trying Apple Music for the first time, and there are new listeners signing up everyday. A big loss in people using the service once the first trimester ended was expected, but what will be really interesting is how weak or strong the numbers are six months or a year from now, when the newness has worn off and the company has to come up with new ways to entice people away from competitors like Pandora and Spotify, both of which have millions more users than Apple does at the moment.
