Ben Sisario writing for the New York Times:
In Apple Music’s first major test, the answer is a qualified yes. Dr. Dre’s album “Compton: A Soundtrack” — a loose tie-in to the film “Straight Outta Compton” — had 25 million streams around the world in its first week, and also sold nearly half a million downloads through Apple’s iTunes store, Apple executives said on Sunday.
These numbers are of course great, but I think we also have to consider the major stars alignment that came to be for the release of this album. We are still currently within the free trial period for all the Apple Music users (and there are still questions on user retention when the first bill will come in) and the album was released perfectly timed with the opening of the movie Straight Outta Compton.
To me this is a demonstration of the quality of the media machine within Apple, rather than a real test for Apple Music. It would probably be a more realistic test to do another count toward October-November with a new album release and there we’ll be able to see the real power of Apple Music.
This is not to say that Apple Music is doomed, far from that. I’m a big fan myself of the new system, I’m just trying not to get over excited.
Toward the end of the article there is a passage that also confirms how this is more about the big Apple machine:
Made in secret by Dr. Dre, one of hip-hop’s most celebrated innovators, it came out on Aug. 7, a week before the release of “Straight Outta Compton,” which tells the story of Dr. Dre’s group N.W.A. and had $56.1 million in ticket sales in its opening weekend.
The album very likely benefited from the promotional push for the film. But for the music industry, it also demonstrated the reach and marketing power of Apple’s system. Dr. Dre, who like Mr. Iovine is now a top consultant to Apple, was working on the album until just days before its release. By keeping its existence closely held within Apple, the company was able to prevent it from leaking online, a fate that damages the release impact of many big albums.
Plus it’s interesting how years of hard work to achieve a super level of secrecy are paying off in such an unexpected way.