Was it being generous to employees or Apple's crafty way of boosting the number of Apple Music subscribers?
iTunes chief Eddy Cue announced through a video message on Monday that all employees of the Cupertino-based tech giant would receive free nine-month subscription to Apple Music which they would get in late December. The music subscription costs $90, notes Fortune.
MacRumors points out that being a benefit to Apple's staff, the free subscription works two ways for the company since "it will allow retail workers to familiarize themselves with the service so they can better explain and recommend it to customers," which would also add to Apple Music numbers.
Together with the free pair of urBeats headphones, worth $100, which Apple employees got last week, the total value of Christmas gifts that workers received from the cash-laden company is $190, higher than the $60 customized Incase backpack that Apple gave in 2014 to its staff.
That would be worth over $19 million since Apple has more than 100,000 employees globally, 66,000 of whom are based in the U.S. The perks include retail employees in Cupertino and other outlets in different parts of the world.
The 100,000 additional free subscribers would boost the current 6.5 million paying Apple Music subscribers and 8.5 million on free trial period for three months as of October, according to Apple CEO Tim Cook. However, it would still be only a fraction of Spotify, the top music streaming service in the world.
Besides the headphones and Apple Music subscription, Apple employees are eligible for restricted stock shares which was before offered only to officials and product engineers.
The Christmas gift and other perks make tech giants the status of desired employer as Facebook, Google and other Silicon Valley companies outdo each other in being generous to workers. In 2014, Google gave each staff a smartwatch and Nexus 5 Android smartphone that costs $329.