When Apple introduced its new streaming service, Apple Music, at the end of June, one of the big questions hanging over it was whether it could compete with outlets like Spotify to deliver blockbuster results for big new albums, reports the New York Times.

The report noted that "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."

Jimmy Iovine, the former record executive who helped build the new service after Apple paid $3 billion last year for Beats, stated that "We're beginning to show what we can do in terms of communicating music to a worldwide audience and helping artists at the same time."

The New York Times further noted that "Apple, long the biggest retailer of music, has more than 800 million customer accounts around the world, but as a late entry to streaming it has to rely heavily on the heft of its brand to compete in an increasingly crowded market. In the first month of the new streaming service Apple racked up 11 million users." Yet at that rate, Apple is likely to fall short of reaching 10% of its iTunes base and there's no guarantee that those who initially signed up for the trial will actually stay with the new service

In a comparison of Nielsen streaming data for a dozen popular albums, most had increases of 10 to 20 percent in the week that Apple Music's numbers were first incorporated into the charts, but had flat results or even a loss the next week."

To help boost awareness of Apple Music, Apple will begin an extensive marketing push for Apple Music this month, with television commercials and outdoor billboards. Below are three new Apple Music ads covering new artists and the discovery process that music fans could enjoy when using Apple Music's feature called "Connect." 

Apple Music: Discovery

Discover Kygo

Discover James Bay

For more details on the NYTimes report, click here.

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