Apple Disputes Report That Nearly Half Of Its Streaming Music Subscribers Are No Longer Using The Service

Last week the research company MusicWatch published a report which claims that 48% of Apple Music subscribers are no longer using the service even though the initial three-month free period has not yet expired. Apple, quite naturally, is disputing that claim. Motley Fool reports:

Earlier this month, the consumer-electronics leader revealed that there were 11 million users of Apple Music, and 2 million of those are on family plans. That may sound like an encouraging number for a service that only launched at the end of June, but keep in mind that nobody’s paying for the service — yet. Folks signing up get three free months to kick the tires as part of the generous complimentary trial. There have been concerns that Apple Music isn’t differentiated enough to take on premium on-demand leader Spotify, and a problematic report surfaced last Tuesday to reignite those fears. Music-industry researcher MusicWatch surveyed 5,000 trial users, finding that 48% of them are no longer using the service. That was a small and potentially inconsequential sample size, but it was still an alarming number of folks bailing on Apple Music. Probably sensing the viral ramifications — once consumers think a platform is toast, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy in this app-eat-app world — Apple went on to clarify that just 21% of those on trial are no longer actively on the service. That’s certainly a better scenario, but it’s not exactly a rosy one. Folks have several more weeks to enjoy the free trial, yet more than a fifth of them have already decided that it’s not worth their time. One can only imagine how many more will bolt when the tollbooths go up.

For comparison, Pandora and Spotify have a combined 150 million users, but most of them use the advertising-supported free versions of the service. Apple was widely criticized for not including such a option with Apple Music.