Apple Music may have more buzz than booming success.
Nearly half the people who have tried the 6-week-old streaming service are not currently using it, a survey out Tuesday reveals.
Apple, which earlier this month boasted that 11 million people have signed up for the three-month free trial period, may be bummed to find out that 48 percent of those who have tried it weren’t blown away and didn’t stay tuned in, according to the survey by MusicWatch.
Apple Music, spearheaded by music industry impresarios Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre, is late to the streaming party and counts as one of its toughest battles winning over the 20 million people who pay $10 a month to stream music from Spotify, the sector’s No. 1 brand.
In addition, 50 million people listen to ad-supported free Spotify.
Iovine and Dre so far have attracted 28 percent of Spotify’s paying customers — but just 11 percent of those listening to the rival’s freemium listeners, the MusicWatch survey found.
Just 6 percent of Pandora’s freemium listeners have tuned into Apple Music.
“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,” Russ Crupnick, a managing partner of MusicWatch, said in a statement.
“That’s the disadvantage of not being the first mover in a market where very good service currently exists,” he said.
MusicWatch surveyed 5,000 US consumers, age 13 and older, to get its results.
In response to the survey, Apple cited its own data: “Among those who signed up for the trial, 79 percent are using it on a weekly basis.”
Apple Music, launched June 30, includes Beats 1 radio, a platform for artists to give extras to their fans, called Connect, along with the $10-a-month subscription music streaming service.
While the first three months are free, subscribers have to give their credit card information to the Cupertino, Calif., company. A second real test will come Sept. 30 when customer have to decide to start paying — or stay with rival Spotify or Pandora or another streaming company.
Apple Music is a key revenue driver for the tech titan because music downloads, through iTunes and elsewhere, a huge profit center, are declining.
Music labels are hoping consumers start paying monthly fees to access a global catalog of music hits as individual digital purchases slow.
Apple is expected to kick off a huge marketing campaign for Apple Music in weeks — which Iovine and Dre hope will push the subscriber needle well over 11 million.
The MusicWatch survey wasn’t all disappointing news for Apple. For example:
- Nearly two-thirds of current users said that they were “extremely or very likely” to pay for the service once the free trial period ends.
- While 77 percent of iOS users in the US were aware of Apple Music, just 11 percent are currently users. That suggests a successful market effort by Iovine and Dre could turn up more subscribers.
- Beats 1 is used by 30 percent of Apple Music streamers, while 27 percent use Connect.
- Apple Music appears to be spurring an interest in paying up for tunes. One-third of Apple Music users said they had been encouraged to start buying more tracks or buying more as a result of using the service.
On the downside, 61 percent of survey respondents said they already disabled the auto-renewal option in their accounts.