Apple Music signs up 11m trial users, stellar July for App Store

6 Aug 2015

Is Apple rocking it with Apple Music?

Just a month after launching Apple Music, tech giant Apple has reported that 11m users have signed up to trial the service. This is still a drop in the ocean of the 800m users — and credit cards — signed up to iTunes.

Apple Music, which launched 30 June, is available for free to users for the first three months.

Once the trial ends users will pay US$9.99 a month for access to 30m songs, curated playlists and the Beats 1 live radio station.

It is understood that out of the 11m, around 2m users signed up for the US$14.99 a month family plan.

Apple also revealed that July was a strong month for its App Store with some US$1.7bn worth of transactions recorded.

App Store rocks for Apple

This brings to US$33bn the total amount that Apple has paid to software developers so far.

In recent weeks, Apple reported third quarter revenues of US$49.6bn, yielding a US$10.7bn profit. The bulk of revenues came from sales of the iPhone, iPad and Mac devices.

“We’re thrilled with the numbers so far,” said Apple’s senior vice president of internet, software and services Eddy Cue.

Cue added that the App Store saw particular momentum in China.

China is where the action is for Apple and the company is looking for growth in a busy smartphone market where competition with Asian rivals Xiaomi and Huawei is rife.

Concern that iPhones are reaching saturation point around the world saw Apple’s share price stumble 14pc – knocking US$115bn off Apple’s value.

Apple Music image via Shutterstock

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com