The new Apple TV, long-rumored and long-awaited, is finally headed to consumers. During an onstage interview at the WSJD Live conference in Los Angeles on Monday night, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the rebooted set-top streaming box will be available for purchase starting Monday, Oct. 26.
As BuzzFeed News previously reported, the new Apple TV features revamped hardware, universal search, Siri integration, and a redesigned remote control. Price: $149 for a 32GB version, and $199 for the 64GB version.
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Cook also used his WSJD Live appearance to tout Apple's latest Apple Music subscription numbers. To date, the service has amassed 6.5 million users who stayed on past the expiration of their three-month free subscription.
Six and a half million is a large number, and it's one that makes Apple Music the fastest-growing streaming service launch to date — it took Spotify five years to hit 6 million. That said, it's smaller than many expected. In August, Apple said it had hit 11 million free trial users, which suggests that convincing free users to shell out for the service hasn't been as easy as the company had hoped.
Cook went on to say that there are an additional 8.5 million listeners still on Apple Music's free subscription, bringing the service's total user base to 15 million. Again, this is fast growth, but it still pales in comparison to Spotify, the reigning champ in on-demand music streaming. Currently, Spotify has triple the number of paid subscribers Apple does: 20 million. It also boasts an additional 55 million ad-supported listeners who use the service without paying. And, according to CEO Daniel Ek, its numbers are growing faster than ever.
Apple Music may not yet be the behemoth music service that Apple clearly envisions, but it's still early in the game. With Apple Music preloaded on every iOS device Apple sells, the company has plenty of opportunities to juice its subscriber numbers.