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The Apple Music Thread
Topic Started: Jun 2 2015, 03:49 PM (43 Views)
Webster
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Wall Street Journal: Apple To Offer Streaming Music Service

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Apple’s original iTunes Radio service, introduced by Eddy Cue in 2013, has gotten little traction. The company’s new streaming service is aiming for greater appeal. PHOTO: STEPHEN LAM/REUTERS
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With its dominant position in music threatened by a decline in download sales, Apple Inc. is preparing to launch a direct rival to Spotify AB and other popular services that let users stream songs instead of buy them.

The tech giant is betting that for the second time in as many decades it can persuade millions of people around the world to change how they listen to and pay for music. In 2003, the company’s iTunes Music Store made downloading individual songs the most common way for people to buy music—and made iTunes the biggest music retailer on the planet.

Music-industry executives see Apple’s launch, expected to be announced at its developers’ conference next week, as a watershed moment for streaming music that could move the technology from early adopters to the mainstream. While it is late to the game, Apple can aggressively push its hundreds of millions of iTunes customers—most with credit cards already registered with the company—to embrace a subscription model on the same devices where they listen to downloaded songs and albums.

Apple sells an estimated 80% to 85% of music downloads world-wide, according to people in the music industry, but it has a fraction of the streaming business—the only mode of music consumption that is on the upswing globally. Spotify accounts for 86% of the on-demand music-streaming market in the U.S., according to data shared with music publishers. Its share of the international market is believed to be similar.

For its new service, Apple wants people to pay $10 a month to stream songs, according to people familiar with the plans. Unlike Spotify, which has an ad-supported service as well subscription, Apple will make only a handful of songs available for free listening, these people say.

Apple also plans to augment its free, ad-supported Internet radio service with channels programmed and hosted by human DJs.

--Read more: http://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-to-announce-new-music-services-1433183201
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Webster
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Engadget: Apple Music Still Needs Tuning

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Apple Music: As simple as the name is, what it offers is surprisingly complex. It bundles in a streaming service, a 24/7 radio network and a whole new social outreach tool for artists. Oh, and you'll use the same Apple Music app to access all your regular iTunes purchased music too. As soon as June 30th rolls around, the new Apple Music app will be the default one-stop shop for music on devices with iOS 8.4 and up (assuming you'll cough up $9.99 a month for an individual subscription or $14.99 for a family sub for up to six people). Senior Editor Chris Velazco and I had some quality time with the app post-keynote, and while we appreciate what Apple is trying to do to win the hearts and minds of music fans, it's still very much a work in progress.

If there's one thing that struck me immediately about Apple Music, is that its design language is quintessentially Apple. While Rdio and Spotify -- arguably Apple Music's primary competitors -- have their own distinct menu trees and user interfaces, Apple Music looks very much like a default iOS app, with five menu bar options at the bottom and the header up top.

If you're familiar with the default Music app on iOS, you'll already know how to use Apple Music. There are a few differences though. For one thing, you can minimize the music player to a mini version at the bottom of the screen, which you can then expand to the full interface. Just like Rdio and Spotify, if you like a particular song or album, you can add it to your My Music collection for later playback. There's also the option to save the track for offline playback, though Apple wouldn't blab about quality and bitrate.

-Read more: http://www.engadget.com/2015/06/09/apple-music-still-needs-tuning/?ncid=rss_truncated
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Webster
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USA Today: What Exactly Is Apple Music?
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SAN FRANCISCO — What exactly is Apple Music, anyway?

A lot of people left the Apple WWDC developers' conference wondering just that after Apple previewed its new music subscription and radio service Monday.

Is Apple Music, set to debut June 30, Apple's answer to Spotify? Or Pandora? Is iTunes Radio, the new service Apple launched in 2013 at the same conference, now dead?

After Apple made its case to the crowd at WWDC, several reviews were not kind:

-- "One of the sloppiest debuts for any new product or service from the company," said Business Insider.

-- "Apple Music is a major mess," said Mashable.

-- Engadget said it "feels like a mish-mosh of disparate elements the company thinks we might want."

OK, so what is Apple Music?

To answer these questions, Apple invited select journalists for private one-on-one time with the reconstituted app Monday. Under the usual Apple rules, photos, video, quotes and note taking were prohibited.

So here's what I can tell you:

-- On June 30, a new iOS software update will be available. Download it, and the new Apple Music tab will appear on the front screen of your iPhone.

-- The Red music tab on the front page of the iPhone will turn white.

Open the music tab now and you'll see your downloads, categorized by albums and songs, along with tabs for other features like iTunes Radio.

When the new Apple Music kicks in, the computer-generated iTunes Radio is gone, replaced by the human programmed Beats One Radio, a 24/7 free, curated, live radio station with celebrity DJs such as Zane Lowe, who will broadcast from London, New York and Los Angeles.

Like iTunes Radio, this service is free.

-Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2015/06/09/what-exactly-is-apple-music-anyway/28733905/
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Webster
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...couldn't happen to a nicer company...

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Apple’s senior vice president Eddy Cue (L) high fives with recording artist Drake during the Apple Music introduction at the Apple WWDC on June 8, 2015 in San Francisco, California. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
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The Attorneys General of New York and Connecticut are investigating whether the deals struck by Apple for its new music service violated antitrust rules.

The joint investigation by the two states into whether the music industry was acting in collusion to restrain competition among stream music services was disclosed in a letter to the New York Attorney General’s office from Universal Music Group, the world’s largest music company. The New York Attorney General posted the letter on its website.

The letter, sent via email on Monday from Universal’s lawyers, did not specify Apple as the target of the investigation. However, Universal said it was not colluding with Apple; nor was it working with its two major rivals Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group to impede competition in the streaming music market.

“This letter is part of an ongoing investigation of the music streaming business, an industry in which competition has recently led to new and different ways for consumers to listen to music,” said Matt Mittenthal, a spokesman for New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, in a statement.

“To preserve these benefits, it’s important to ensure that the market continues to develop free from collusion and other anti-competitive practices.”

Schneiderman and Connecticut’s Attorney General George Jepsen were among a group of attorneys general in 33 states and private plaintiffs who in 2013 sued Apple and five of the biggest U.S. book publishers for conspiring to raise the prices of e-books. Apple agreed to pay $450 million after a federal judge ruled that the company had violated anti-trust laws, most of it to e-book consumers, as part of a settlement.

The letter came on the same day Apple announced a new on-demand subscription music service similar to Spotify. Apple’s $10 a month offering is the same price as current market leader Spotify. But, unlike Spotify, Apple’s service does not allow users to play some songs for free in return for viewing advertisements. Apple is offering a three-month free trial and will allow artists or record labels to make various types of content including songs available for free.

Universal Music said it didn’t see itself as a target of further investigation after stating that it was not colluding with Apple or other music companies.

“It is our understanding that, given these representations, the Attorneys General have no present intention to make further inquiries of (Universal Music Group) in this regard,” said a company spokesman.
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