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37M Americans used Apple Music in the first month, reports ComScore, as iOS increases market share [Updated]

Update: ComScore has issued a clarification to its original press release, giving 37M (not 44M) as the number and stating that its measurement does not distinguish between streaming and local music.

Clarification: “Apple Music,”  as it appears in comScore’s July reporting, is the same measured entity as the previously named “iTunes Radio/iCloud” that has been reported in past months’ mobile rankings. This entity, now under the new name, is referring to Apple’s native music app, which captures all music activity within that app, including listening via the streaming service, radio service and users’ personally downloaded music libraries.

Analytics data from ComScore shows that 37M Americans used Apple Music in its first month, making it the 14th most popular smartphone app, just behind Twitter.

Facebook was the most popular app across both iOS and Android, with Facebook Messenger and YouTube taking second and third places.

Apple yesterday told the Guardian that it would be “adding features and cleaning up certain things” in Apple Music – a likely reference to improvements seen in the Music app in iOS 9.

ComScore also noted that iOS increased its market share in the U.S. by 1.1%, from 43.1% in April to 44.2% in July – with Samsung the main loser, as its share dropped by 1.3%. Kantar recently reported that iOS had seen a 1.3% decrease in its market share in the preceding 12 months, but that there was “ample opportunity” for upgrade purchases.

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Comments

  1. wow, who would’ve thought Pandora was that huge

    • joe smith (@joe815smith) - 9 years ago

      I doubt it is. The list is very suspect and I’d be interested in what methodology they used.

      • chrisl84 - 9 years ago

        Not me personally, but among the people I know personally, Pandora is the most popular music service. So its possible.

  2. Yahoo Stocks at #10. Is that the standalone app, or would integration with iOS also count toward this?

    I’d be interesting to see MoM results for these apps too.

    • nutmac - 9 years ago

      Yeah, I find the list to be quite dubious, especially since Yahoo! stopped making Stocks awhile ago (it’s rebranded as Finance). And frankly, I doubt 31.1% of all US smartphone users check stock prices. The only explanation could be a widget that no one bothers to remove, although by that logic, Weather should rank higher.

  3. You can’t really compare the 11 million with the 44 million seeing as you can use the Music app without signing up for a subscription plan. Also, 2 million of the subscribers supposedly used the family sharing option, making it theoretically twice as many “paying” users.

  4. Chandler (@piacere2327) - 9 years ago

    I’m sure lots use the Music App on their iPhones and iPod Touch, but I don’t think that means they are subscribers to Apple Music. At least that’s my expaination to the gap between 44m and 10m in two different researches. It does shine a light though on figures. If every 4th iPhone user also tries Apple Music, that gives us a nice ratio and not the one with (active) iTunes Accounts or Apple IDs

  5. Ben Lovejoy - 9 years ago

    Yes, it’s possible. Of course, the real test either way is how many pay for it at the end of the trial …

  6. Jake Becker - 9 years ago

    I used it. For about 5 minutes, as I scrambled to save my entire library from inheriting inferior tags and album art from the cloud/Match. All I’d like to be able to do is to use AM as a supplement to my native Mac and iPhone library.

  7. mannyleaders - 9 years ago

    Americans love free. Let’s see how many stick around and actually pay for this service in a month or two.

  8. chrisl84 - 9 years ago

    Lol, what kind of metric is that? “used the app” Well then by golly 44M people must be Apple Music subscribers, I am sure zero of them just used the free radio…..

  9. nice hope they keep upgrading it ! the radio is awesomeeeeeeee! specially the shows, funny and with good music. I have created sooo many new playlist.
    I never try spotify but the only cool thing i see is that you can share your playlist im sure that can be solve with a software upgrade hope that comes soon.
    sorry my english

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Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Ben Lovejoy

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!


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