Speaking at today's Re/code Code Conference, Apple's SVP of internet services Eddy Cue and Beats co-founder Jimmy Iovine shared some new numbers on iTunes and Beats Music in the wake of today's acquisition.
Cue mentioned that the iTunes Store and iTunes Radio hit new milestones, with the former selling its 35 billionth song and the latter now including over 40 million listeners around the world.
Speaking on the newly formed relationship between Apple and Beats, Cue noted that Apple's great rapport with artists, data on listening habits, and 800 million iTunes accounts with credit cards attached contributes a great deal. "We think all of those things, when you put them all together, it's on steroids with us together," he expressed.
Meanwhile, Iovine announced that Beats Music, currently limited to the U.S., now has 250,000 subscribers since it launched three months ago. A report earlier this month pegged the service's subscriber base at just 110,000 during the month of March, illustrating how the service has grown since then. By contrast, rival music streaming service Spotify reported earlier this month that it has 10 million paying subscribers worldwide.
Iovine added that Beats made a mistake by not offering in-app purchases from the start, and stated that 5 million people have "visited" the service since it launched. After today's announcement, the Beats Music iOS app was updated with an extended 14-day trial period and a price drop to its yearly subscription to $100 from $120.
Top Rated Comments
And your headphones are not worth the price.
3bn dollars for those two guys to negotiate music royalties is nuts. Apple could have lessen demand, take a smaller profit and labels would sign.
Your ignorance is absolutely astounding. If you don't think a man who has gone on to make half a billion dollars on his own as not only a successful recording artist, not only a successful producer, but a successful businessman is a positive representation of the black community, then you're a few crayolas short of a crayon box.
Spotify started didn't start out with millions of subscribers. These guys have been out 3 months and they've got a quarter of a million subscribers already.
I'm a highly educated person and I absolutely love Dre, so your argument holds absolutely zero water.
Not even close to million users?
This has to be scaled fast to make sense.
Also - why not also buy dropbox to improve iCloud?
For headphones - Beyerdynamic is My choice for sound quality.