Apple Targeting 100 Million Subscribers for Streaming Music Service

Who else has the same sinking feeling as I do that once the WWDC keynote is over everyone is going to sit there blinking like, "seriously? that's it?"

Much like the Maps app, it will be Apple's cut at streaming radio, so it will be the best and all of the rest will become "abominations" that "99% don't want". While they were fine- even loved- before Apple decided it wanted to step into the space, now we have to hate them, while rallying around the only one that "got it right". You've been here long enough. You know how things work.

I'm not even convinced by the competition, I'm yet to be persuaded that renting music makes any sense. :D

100 mio but US only? how is that gonna work

Why does it have to be better? It doesn't. Apple Music simply has to be 'good enough' to compete.

I bet within a month, more people will know what Apple Music is vs. Spotify or Rdio. Most people don't know what those are now. The only one that has made a name for itself, that most people know is Pandora.

(Most people still use real radios to 'stream' music - I bet Apple will change this with marketing)

no one knows Spotify??? in what universe

count me out ....perhaps if its free with adds but not 10 bucks a month i have so many options to listen for free ill buy the songs if like em

I'm in the US and EVERYONE knows Spotify. Not everyone uses it, but it's easily the most popular streaming service. What country are you in that know what knows Spotify?

It depends on what social group you're part of. I'm here in the United States. NOBODY I know uses Spotify. Some (maybe 1 in 10 has even HEARD of it). People around here listen to Pandora or the radio. That's it.

Put Spotify numbers into context....

How many Apple Watches do you see out there? The number of people who own Apple Watches isn't much less than the number of Spotify paid members.

Maybe in YOUR social circles, Spotify is used all the time, but not in most social circles.

100 Million times $10/month = $1 Billion per month. 3 months at $1 Billion/month = $3 Billion.

If this is going to be embedded in iOS 9, it seems very likely Apple will become King of the streaming space within hours after launch. This is just the Microsoft IE browser (vs. established Netscape) thing again.

And, since there is a 90-day free trial, Apple should be able to tout gigantic numbers of users pretty quickly. The key question will be monetizing free trials to stick around and start paying. The referenced rumor of 800 million iTunes accounts means about 1/8th of all iTunes users will need to not only partake in the free trial but convert to paying subscribers AND/OR that this will significantly draw more people into the iTunes total number of accounts pool.

It will need to be available worldwide immediately to take advantage of those 800 million iTunes accounts. Restricting the launch to just a single country will not be enough to gain that many users.