Apple is aiming to sign up a massive 100M subscribers for its streaming music service, according to a source cited by the Associated Press (reproduced in the NY Times). This would be more than double the subscriptions for all other streaming music services combined.
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry says that existing worldwide streaming subscriptions total around 41M across all services. The market leader, Spotify, has around 4.7M subscribers in the USA …
The same source confirmed the $10/month subscription we’ve reported previously, noting that existing Beats Music subscribers would be migrated to the Apple Music service before the Beats-branded service is closed.
It’s believed Apple hopes that a combination of its huge iPhone customer base and a lengthy three month free trial will enable the company to hit a highly ambitious subscriber target. The service would also expand the Apple ecosystem, providing an additional reason for iPhone owners to remain loyal to the company.
Mark Gurman provided a roundup of the key things we’re expecting to hear from Apple later today, including a blending of downloaded and cloud music when creating playlists. The new iTunes Radio service will include stations created by celebrities including Dr. Dre, Drake, Pharrell Williams, David Guetta and Q-Tip. Musicians will also have their own Artist Activity feature, where they can promote their own material and share the music of other artists.
“They are very late to the game on streaming,” said analyst Van Baker at the Gartner research firm. But he said Apple can still catch up by making it easy for iPhone owners to use the new service. That’s a huge pool of potential customers: Apple sold 61 million iPhones in the last quarter alone.
Photo: theverge.com
