Apple denies users are deserting Apple Music
Only one in five users have already dropped Apple Music, the company claims
Apple has disputed claims that almost half of the people who have tried Apple Music have already left the service. The streaming service is midway through a three-month free trial, but despite not even having to pay to continue listening at present, 48% of the of those who signed up for the trial have abandoned the service, according to a report published last week by MusicWatch.
Apple says the analysts have got their numbers wrong, however, with a spokesperson for the company telling ZDNet that “79% of people who signed up for a trial are using the service”.
The discrepancy between the two figures may boil down to how “using the service” is defined. MusicWatch’s results are based on a survey of 5,000 US consumers, 48% of which declared they were not “currently using the service”. Apple is likely basing its figure on active subscriptions, with users able to cancel the trial before the three-month trial expires to avoid eventually running up charges on their credit card.
The crunch moment will come for Apple at the end of September, when all those who initially signed up for the three-month trial at the end of June are forced to start paying at least £9.99 to continue using Apple Music. The company has already ruled out offering a free, ad-supported tier similar to that of chief rival Spotify.
The good news for Apple is almost two thirds of the active users surveyed by MusicWatch said they planned to continue their subscriptions once the free trial came to an end. That said, only one in ten iOS users were currently trialling Apple Music.
Apple has some hurdles to overcome before the subscription deadline arrives. It’s yet to release the Android app it announced at the launch of Apple Music in June, and the service still doesn’t work with the popular Sonos home audio system.