Beats Music was singing the Obamacare Site blues this week as its servers were overcome and it could not sign up new users. Actually, it was able to register users for the free trial, but that’s all. It could not then turn on the service for those users.
The company says it will slowly turn on the service for those who signed up, meanwhile making sure that the service is working smoothly for those that did get in.
To atone for its sins, Beats says it will double the trial period from one week to two weeks for anybody who signs up for the service this week.
Here it is in the words of Beats Music CEO Ian Rogers, sent in a note to users and would-be users Thursday:
Huge thanks to everyone for making our launch day yesterday so successful. We’ve been blown away by the love that made us the #1 Music App in the iTunes Store.
Due to the extremely high volume of interest in our service some users are experiencing issues. Most people are unaffected but our priority is to give everyone a great experience. We prepared for issues like these, have a plan, and are going to hold off on letting more people in while we put this plan in action.
For those of you that claimed your name in the lead up to launch, we still have your username reserved and we’ll be in touch with your invite. We appreciate your support.
Everyone who registers this week will get an additional seven days added to their trial.
Beats Music will compete with Spotify, Google Play Music All Access and Rdio in the on-demand subscription music space. The service will have a tough fight for market share in the long term (especially if a rumored YouTube music service shows up).
But Beats may be helped by the popularity of its headphones, and by the fact that it’s perhaps the first major music service built from the ground up for use on mobile devices.
Our reviewer Christopher Breen gave the new service high marks after his hands-on on Tuesday.
Updated at 4:22 p.m. PT with a video report.