Apple is struggling to retain Apple Music subscribers

Giving new users three free months of Apple Music was a great way for Apple to quickly gain a bunch of subscribers, but keeping them once the free trial runs out has proven to be quite difficult. According to new data from MusicWatch, a little less than half of Apple Music’s users have abandoned the service once their free trial ran out, which is pretty bad. 

Apple Music may have more buzz than booming success. Nearly half the people who have tried the 6-week-old streaming service are not currently using it, a survey out Tuesday reveals. Apple, which earlier this month boasted that 11 million people have signed up for the three-month free trial period, may be bummed to find out that 48 percent of those who have tried it weren’t blown away and didn’t stay tuned in, according to the survey by MusicWatch. Apple Music, spearheaded by music industry impresarios Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre, is late to the streaming party and counts as one of its toughest battles winning over the 20 million people who pay $10 a month to stream music from Spotify, the sector’s No. 1 brand. In addition, 50 million people listen to ad-supported free Spotify. Iovine and Dre so far have attracted 28 percent of Spotify’s paying customers — but just 11 percent of those listening to the rival’s freemium listeners, the MusicWatch survey found.