Since re-launching Tidal under his watchful eye at the end of March, Jay Z has had quite the uphill battle in convincing the public to give his streaming service a decent look.
Despite a star-studded list of owners and endorsers including Beyoncé, Kanye West, Lil Wayne, and Usher, by all accounts the music platform got off to a slow start in regards to paid memberships and just crossed the one million paid subscribers mark at the end of September.
The fledgling Apple Music, however, does not seem to be having the same problem according to CEO Tim Cook.
Cook recently announced at a Wall Street Journal conference that the company’s still very fresh music streaming service now has over 6.5 million paying subscribers, in addition to another 8.5 currently trying the service’s free three-month trial.
Cook attributes Apple Music’s rapid success to the human curation factor, though all the major music streamers have promoted hand-crafted playlists by renowned musicians and tastemakers.
More than anything, Apple’s fantastic subscriber numbers may point to brand loyalty. Who doesn’t have an iPhone, iPad, or iTunes downloaded on their computer? And it looks like television is in the brand’s to-do-list next.
At the same conference, Cook also unveiled the new and improved Apple TV, which will be available in the coming week.
