48% of Users Who Signed Up for Apple Music Free Trial Aren't Using the Service [Report]

A new research study from MusicWatch finds that 48% of users who signed up for an Apple Music free trial aren't using the service. MusicWatch says it used a representative sample of 5,000 U.S. consumers to gather data.

The study also found that 77% of iOS users are aware of the service and 11% are currently using it. Among users of iTunes Radio, Apple’s earlier music streaming service, listening to Apple Music reached 18 percent.

Notably, more than one quarter (28 percent) of Spotify Premium customers also use Apple Music, but the draw from popular ad-supported services is more modest: Just 11 percent of Spotify Free users, and 6 percent of Pandora users, now use Apple’s offering.


“In terms of benchmarking Apple Music, 40 percent of iOS users are buying digital downloads from iTunes, suggesting trial of Apple Music could be higher,” said Russ Crupnick, managing partner of MusicWatch. “That’s the disadvantage of not being the first mover in a market where very good services currently exist.”

Another interesting finding was that very few users have stopped using their online radio, audio on-demand or video streaming services, as a result of using Apple Music. However, Apple Music may have boosted digital track sales as 1/3 of users said they'd been encouraged to start buying or buy more music.

64% of current users said they were extremely or very likely to continue paying for Apple Music when the trial ends; however, 61% said they had already turned off the auto-renewal option in iTunes.

Will you be continuing with Apple Music once your trial expires? Let us know in the comments!


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