The Evolution of Apple Music

The whole world, truly in one place.

- Benjamin Kerry & Gavin Lenaghan

MUSIC HAS NEVER BEEN MORE UNIVERSAL

Since it first broke cover as a “One more thing...” reveal by Apple CEO Tim Cook at last year’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), the Cupertino giant’s much-hyped music streaming service, Apple Music, has made strong progress in eating into Spotify’s formidable and long established share of this market. During Apple’s second-quarter 2016 earnings call, Cook confirmed that the service now boasted 13 million paid subscribers, a two-million jump on February’s figure. However, amid the rising user numbers, the service’s wider evolution continues apace.

GOOD PROGRESS ALREADY FOR THE NEW SERVICE

With much controversy and debate having long reigned over the role of streaming in the music industry and the lack of money that it produces for artists, hopes were high at the time of Apple Music’s announcement that the service would do much to restore the prior financial prosperity of the music industry. Indeed, such a sentiment was expressed even before the service’s formal unveiling by Sony Music CEO Doug Morris.

On the admittedly limited evidence that one could possibly glean just 10 months after such a service becoming available to the public, Apple Music seems to be making a big contribution - certainly to the coffers of the Cupertino company itself. The most recent quarter may have seen Apple announce its first year-over-year drop in iPhone sales for a while, but it enjoyed strong services revenue, which helped it to generate some $50.6 billion in revenue and $10.5 billion profit.