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Nearly half of Apple Music sign-ups have already stopped listening, survey says

When Apple Music boss Eddy Cue bragged about racking up 11 million subscribers many folks argued the real battle would be keeping them when the free trial expires.

Judging by a survey published on Tuesday, Apple faces an uphill struggle to remain anywhere close to those numbers once the three month period comes to an end.

MusicWatch surveyed 5,000 current subscribers and found, six weeks into the trial, a whopping 48 per cent of sign-ups aren’t even listening to Apple Music anymore.

61 per cent of those people surveyed have already turned off the auto-renewal option in iTunes.

It wasn’t all bad news for Apple though, with two-thirds of current signs up saying they’re “very likely” or “extremely likely” to stay with Apple Music when the free period expires.

If all of those ‘likely’ subscribers followed through, Apple would be left with around 7 million paying customers, a number sure to satisfy Cue and company.

Spotify continues to set the standard for paying customers with 20 million of its 60 million plus users handing over a monthly fee for a Premium subscription.

See also: Apple Music tips, tricks and secrets

Elsewhere in the survey it was revealed 77 per cent of iOS users in the United States knew about Apple Music, but only 11 per cent are signed up right now.

This suggests those users are happy with other providers or are continuing to buy their music from the iTunes downloads store instead. Either way, it represents a huge opportunity for growth moving forward.

Lastly, 30 per cent of Apple Music streamers are currently listening to the Beats 1 radio station, which doesn’t sound like such a bad return all things considered.

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