Apple hosted a conference call to discuss its quarterly earnings this week, and the talk briefly touched on Apple Music. The tech company’s top brass didn’t reveal many hard numbers about the streaming platform’s first weeks. CEO Tim Cook said that “millions and millions” of consumers are enrolled in free trials and added that Apple is “thrilled about the response” to the service. He added that more than 15,000 artists have signed on to Apple Music’s Connect feature for sharing updates with fans.
That positive sentiment is all nice, and it has been somewhat backed by informal polls such as the one at 9to5Mac that we covered yesterday. But the more informative earnings calls will be the ones later this year, where investors will surely call on Apple Music to put up figures reflecting paid subscriptions. At that point, Apple will need to either share some data or give suspiciously vague assurances. The three-month free trial gives Apple a bit of a grace period to not just get listeners on board, but to keep them there.