Apple challenges figures on Apple Music user retention

Only 21 percent of users who have tested Apple Music no longer use it, Apple said Wednesday, countering the results of a survey that found defection rates at more than twice that amount.

In a survey of 5,000 people in the US, released Tuesday, music industry research company MusicWatch found that 48 percent of those who had tried out the new online streaming music service have stopped using it.

Apple said that the number was much lower. A spokesman for the company told AFP that "79% of people who signed up for a trial are using the service."

In the MusicWatch survey, 28 percent of respondents who were trying out Apple Music said they also have Spotify Premium subscriptions, but only 11 percent were users of the free version of Spotify and six percent used the free version of internet radio Pandora.

Those products are seen as the main competitors to Apple Music, which was released June 30, years after the competing music-streaming services.

To edge its way into that market, Apple has offered a three-month trial period to new subscribers, after which subscriptions cost $9.99 per month.

Apple has long been a key player in the digital music landscape thanks to its iTunes store and is hoping to capitalize on that established user base, with a goal of reaching 100 million Apple Music users.

Earlier this month, Apple's head of internet software and services, Eddy Cue, said the newcomer music service had 11 million users.

Spotify has 20 million paid subscribers and 75 million users overall, according to its website.