apple music Archives

January 19, 2016

Apple Music Shuttering Ad-supported Service, An Opportunity Emerges

Apple announced Friday that it would be shuttering the ad-supported listening service within Apple Music. Is this a matter of Apple learning what business works best for music or a foreshadowing of what Apple Music subscribers will face if that service doesn’t meet expectations?

January 11, 2016

Streaming Music Subscribers (millions) Chart

Apple Music at Six Months: 10 Million Subscribers and a Free Tier

The Financial Times reported over the weekend that Apple Music has reached 10 million subscribers. This trails what The Verge estimates is over 25 million Spotify subscribers, but represents impressive growth just six months after launch. It is interesting to consider the different user acquisition strategies used by the leading music streaming services.

November 18, 2015

Part 1: Spotify and Other Streaming Services are Saving the Music Industry

A report issued by the National Bureau of Economic Research last month concludes that, “interactive streaming appears to be revenue-neutral for the recorded music industry.” The summary conclusions by the report authors, Luis Aguiar and Joel Waldfogel, don’t fit the industry trends prior to the study period or the math behind the data.

October 27, 2015

Adotas Interviews Pat Higbie on Apple Music Ad Load

Adotas reached out to XAPPmedia after the publication of the Apple Music Ad Load Report last month. The following article from Adotas is an interview with XAPPmedia CEO Pat Higbie and focuses on the findings from the report.

October 26, 2015

Pat Higbie for MediaPost: Apple Music Shows Future Of Streaming Is Ad-Supported

Today, MediaPost published a featured editorial from XAPPmedia CEO Pat Higbie for its Mobile Marketing Daily section. In the article, Pat discusses Apple Music's future now that the trial period is over for some 15 million people.

October 7, 2015

Can Apple Music Shake Off the Haters? Pt. 2

Yesterday’s post discussed how a raft of news articles, Google search trends, and some market research all pointed to widespread disaffection with Apple Music. The service may be facing an even bigger challenge in establishing favorable mindshare among consumers. So what do people think about Apple Music? Or are they even thinking about it?

October 6, 2015

Can Apple Music Shake Off the Haters? Pt. 1

Taylor Swift made big news last year with a top selling album and her high profile separation from Spotify. She made news again in 2015 with an open letter prior to the launch of Apple Music. The events were considered a public relations coup at the time even though it was a bad business deal for the company. The question today is whether Apple Music can turn around another public relations issue.

September 24, 2015

New Apple Music Ad Load Report

XAPPmedia today published the first Internet radio ad load report that includes data on Apple Music. Surprise! Apple Music continues to provide an ad-supported listening option. […]

August 24, 2015

Is Apple Music Succeeding or Failing?

Dueling Apple Music numbers were released last week. One set tells a mildly unfavorable story for the much-hyped streaming service, the other doesn’t appear to be good or bad – more like okay.