Apple Music for independent musiciansTracy Maddux, CD Baby’s CEO, wrote a piece for Billboard about the positive impact Apple Music could have on the independent music economy.

Tracy makes some good points in the full article (check it out HERE), but the part that interested me most was his take on what success for Apple Music would look like in terms of subscriber numbers:

Apple and more importantly artists don’t need all 500 million iPhone users or 800 million iTunes users to buy to make this a huge success. If only 5 percent of iTunes users tune in, subscribe to a trial period and sustain their $10 per month, the results will be industry changing. Apple Music will have attracted 40 million paying subscribers paying $4.8 billion dollars per year. That’s double what we estimate iTunes sold in downloads last year. Astounding. It’s also double Pandora and Spotify’s gross 2014 sales… combined.

For more about Apple Music’s impact on independent musicians, check out:

1. Podcast: What Artists Need to Know About Apple Music

2. How much of Apple Music’s subscription revenue is being paid back to rights owners?

3. Four kinds of royalties you can earn from Apple Music

4. What effect will Apple Music have on the music industry?

5. How to claim your Apple Music artist profile through Connect

6. How do I get my music on Apple Music?

7. Apple announces Apple Music, the new streaming service

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