Tim Cook, CEO at Apple, talked about a number of topics during the WSJ.D Live conference on Monday night, and Apple Music was one of them.
He pointed out that Apple Music has a total of 15 million subscribers who are divided into two categories. 6.5 million paid-subscribers who purchased a registration (or forgot to cancel its auto renewal) add to the 8.5 million who are still testing out the service. For the last category, the free trial period of three months is nearing its end.
Cook underlined the importance of human curation, an element that in his opinion makes Apple Music superior to rivals such as Spotify. In reality, all music streaming services offer users some kind of curation capability.
Apple Music was released at the beginning of June, during the WWDC conference for developers. A couple of tutorial videos were later launched, describing how each section of the service works. The short introductory movies came as a response to the community of Apple fans who were unsettled by the complicated works of the app.
In August, reports from the Cupertino-based company indicated that around 11 million users registered to enter the trial period for the music streaming service.
"It's going really well," Cook said. "Fortunately, lots of people are liking it," he stated.
However, opinions remain divided.
"Tim Cook mentioning Apple Music subscription numbers reminds me I need to cancel the subscription I've never, ever used," Engadget editor Richard Lawler tweeted after the conference.
During his appearance, Cook boasted about his company's TV streaming device. The official release of the newest Apple TV is scheduled for next week. Cook added that the preorders for the device will also start next week and buyers will receive their systems over a seven day period.
Developers can count on the new Apple TV system for two reasons. First, the gadget possesses more powerful hardware than previous variants. Second, Apple announced that the App Store is open to all developers, which means that more app developers will be motivated to design and implement iOS apps.
Cook also received questions regarding the rumored self-driving Apple Car, the iPhone and Apple Watch, and made it clear the his company is still driven by Steve Jobs' vision of changing the world for the better.
