apple music
Apple Music, Apple’s first music-streaming service and arguably its largest investment in the music industry since iTunes, launched in June to little fanfare. It was a late entry to the streaming service game — most music fans already use apps and sites like Spotify, Google Play or Pandora.
Then Taylor Swift wrote an open letter to the company and convinced it to pay artists during its free trial period. In exchange, she streamed her music exclusively on Apple Music. It looked like things might change. TIME even claimed Swift had single-handedly saved the new service. But did she?
Jeff Dahlka, a sophomore enrolled in letters and sciences, used the Apple Music free trial when it became available and said the service has its merits. He thought the interface was better than competing services like Spotify. He liked the artists and songs the service recommended, as well as the way he could set up his own playlists and listen to a myriad of others curated by major players like Pitchfork and VICE.
“I feel like I listen to a lot of music, so it was pretty interesting,” Dahlka said.
When he finished out his free trial in October, he decided to pay the $9.99 for one more month.
“Nothing changed from trial, but at the end of the month I realized I didn’t want to keep paying the $10,” Dahlka said.
His decision came down to finances. He terminated his subscription and switched back to Spotify, which cost only $4.99 a month using a student discount.
“But if I was able to get a student discount like Spotify, I think I would probably choose Apple Music over Spotify,” he said.
Senior journalism major Daisy-Nelly Nji said she listens to music every day. She thought the shuffle option on Apple Music sounded interesting, but decided it wasn’t worth trying a new service for one feature. She uses the same student discount as Dahlka to pay for Spotify Premium instead.
“I don’t use Apple Music because I don’t feel the need to,” Nji said.
Many music fans seem to share Nji’s sentiment. More than 11 million people tried out Apple Music’s three-month free trial this summer. By October, when its first users’ trial periods ended, the service had 6.5 million paying subscribers – only 59 percent of those initial users. To compare, Spotify has 75 million active users and 20 million using its paid, premium service.
It’s probably too early to categorize Apple Music as a complete business failure. Still, Apple seems desperate for new users. In fact, Siri answers music-related questions only for those subscribed to the service.
Can the virtual personal assistant really bully enough iPhone owners into paying about $10 each month for a new streaming service? Only time will tell.
