{"id":337118,"date":"2017-03-30T02:36:48","date_gmt":"2017-03-29T18:36:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/techcrunch.com\/?p=1470184"},"modified":"2017-03-30T02:36:48","modified_gmt":"2017-03-29T18:36:48","slug":"report-free-trials-push-apple-music-ahead-of-pandora-and-spotify-on-mobile-usage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/report-free-trials-push-apple-music-ahead-of-pandora-and-spotify-on-mobile-usage\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Free trials push Apple Music ahead of Pandora and Spotify on mobile usage"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Spotify may be the reigning leader when it comes to the largest number of paid subscribers<\/a> for a streaming music service, but it\u2019s Apple that\u00a0comes out on top when their respective audiences translate into monthly unique\u00a0users, specifically on mobile.<\/p>\n

A report<\/a> published this week from mobile analytics firm Verto has found that Apple Music attracted 40.7 million monthly unique users to its service in the U.S. in February. In comparison, Pandora came in at number two with 32.6 million users, and\u00a0Spotify took\u00a0third place with 30.4 million unique users for the month. Others ranking highly among music apps include iHeartRadio, SoundCloud and Amazon Music. iHeartRadio took the fourth slot, while SoundCloud, which last week secured a $70 million credit line<\/a>, took the fifth slot.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Verto also found that YouTube, which has a relatively small number of monthly unique users on mobile in the US \u2014 just 2.6 million users \u2014 had the \u201cstickiest\u201d service, with a 35 percent \u201cstickiness\u201d rating (dividing daily by monthly active users). Doing the math, this gives YouTube 875,000 daily active users on mobile in the US. Spotify also scored strong here, grabbing the highest number of listening sessions per month, at 51.<\/p>\n

(Google\u2019s music properties, in fact, are not huge winners in terms of active users on mobile: Google Play ranked ninth among music apps in terms of monthly uniques in the US, with around 6 million.)<\/p>\n

Verto \u2014 a competitor to companies like ComScore<\/a>\u00a0that has raised around $24 million<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 says that it bases its figures on data is pulled from 20,000 SmartPanel users, people in the US and UK who opt-in to Verto\u2019s on-device metering app on their phone, tablet and computer, letting it\u00a0measure their\u00a0usage on across\u00a0devices, apps, and sites. This measurement data is then combined with calibration data that Verto collects from analytics and advertising platforms across nearly half a billion devices monthly. (Customers include\u00a0Universal Music Group, EA Games, Johnson&Johnson, Microsoft and others.)<\/p>\n

The reason\u00a0why Apple Music brought in the most monthly uniques on mobile in the US is an interesting surprise. According to Verto\u2019s Connie Hwong, it\u00a0comes down Apple Music\u2019s three- month free trial, which more than doubles the amount of people who are listening using its app in the US: Apple last reported 20 million paying subscribers<\/a>\u00a0globally (not just the U.S.) for Apple Music in December 2016.<\/p>\n

While paying users tell one story about a company, and registered users tell\u00a0another, active users is still a third. In the cases of Spotify and Pandora, which are older services, there is a pretty wide gulf between registered (and paying) users and people who actively open an app on their phones.<\/p>\n

Spotify earlier this month said that it had passed the 50 million mark for paying users globally; it hasn\u2019t updated its overall users (including free) since last June, but at the time\u00a0it said it had over 100 million. Verto\u2019s figure of 30.4 million active users in the US in February is one-third the size of all of Spotify\u2019s global registered users, and two-thirds the size of all paying users.<\/p>\n

Pandora today has\u00a081\u00a0million users<\/a>, but only around 4 million of them are paying for its Pandora Plus tier, which gives users some control over the music that is played, but without being a full on-demand service. The premium tier, which will have an on-demand component, was announced<\/a> earlier this month. Verto\u2019s figure of 32.6 million users\u00a0is just under one-half the size of all users; and eight times as many paying users \u2014 a proportion that Pandora is under a lot of pressure to grow<\/a>\u00a0with the introduction of that\u00a0$9.99 premium tier.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s interesting to me here is how\u00a0Apple Music\u2019s free tier seems to be doing so well here.\u00a0There are a few reasons why that might be the case.<\/p>\n

For starters, Apple Music\u00a0is preloaded on all iPhones, making the service that much easier for users to try out. Then, there is Beats 1, Apple\u2019s radio service.<\/p>\n

In a profile in\u00a0the Verge, Apple Music executive Larry Jackson\u00a0described<\/a>\u00a0Beats 1 as \u201cthe biggest radio station in the world\u201d (although Apple declines to give actual usage numbers). Robert Kondrk, another Apple exec, pointed specifically to\u00a0its strength as an onboarding tool for Apple Music (incidentally eating into SoundCloud\u2019s business\u00a0in the process), specifically around exclusive content that\u2019s streamed on Beats 1 that then links to streams in Apple Music:<\/p>\n

\u201cNow an audience which once went to SoundCloud to hear the latest Drake music heads to Beats 1 first.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kondrk describes the relationship between Apple Music and Beats 1 like an amusement park \u2014 once you\u2019re inside the Apple Music app to listen to Beats 1, it\u2019s only natural you\u2019ll stay in it to stream the songs afterward.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also the novelty aspect of a new app: users download apps but often stop using them after a while, and perhaps the same may go for a certain proportion of people who have downloaded older music apps. Conversely, there may be some curiosity about the newer Apple Music app and people\u2019s interest in trying it out.<\/p>\n

But the same can\u2019t be said for every new entrant music app. Tidal, the streaming service co-owned by Jay Z and with a roster of other big music artists among its backers, hasn\u2019t been entirely forthcoming about how many users it has: Verto cites just 100,000, while a report in January, near the time when Sprint disclosed a 33% stake<\/a> in the business, said the number was closer to 850,000, and Tidal itself has said it\u2019s 3 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Whatever the actual global number is, Verto said that the users Tidal tend to be dedicated, with a \u201cstickiness\u201d rating of 22 percent, the same as Amazon Music, with an average number of listening sessions for the month at 46, just behind Spotify\u2019s 51.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The\u00a0focus on mobile in this\u00a0report partly comes out of the fact that mobile \u2014 and specifically the mobile phone\u00a0\u2014 represents the most popular platform for digital music at the moment:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The message for music app developers seems to be fairly clear: if you are a music app that wants\u00a0to continue to grow your user base, you need a mobile app that\u2019s pulling in active listeners on a very regular basis. It points to why we are seeing the likes of Spotify launch so many different variations on the concept of recommendation and discovery services, and why we\u2019ll continue to see more of these from the rest of the field. \u201cFor streaming music services that offer on-demand music libraries, a vast catalog is no longer a selling point,\u201d Verto writes. \u201cIt\u2019s a given.\u201d<\/p>\n

Featured Image: TechCrunch<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"\" Spotify may be the reigning leader when it comes to the largest number of paid subscribers for a streaming music service, but it’s Apple that\u00a0comes out on top when their respective audiences translate into monthly unique\u00a0users, specifically on mobile. A report published this week from mobile analytics firm Verto has found that Apple Music attracted 40.7 million monthly unique users to… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n

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