Apple unveiled its long-awaited streaming music service on Monday, entering a crowded market for online music that already includes Spotify, Amazon and Google, as the company seeks to re-exert its dominance in digital music.
The launch at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco was introduced by the rapper Drake. “This is something that simplifies everything for the modern musician like myself, and the modern consumer like you,” he said.
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Apple Music, as it’s known, was built by the team behind the Beats Music service that Apple acquired as part of its $3bn purchase of music-tech firm Beats Electronics in 2014.
“2015, music industry is a fragmented mess. Do you wanna stream music? You can go over here. If you wanna stream video, you can check some of these places out. If you wanna follow some artists, there’s more confusions with that,” said Beats co-founder Jimmy Iovine as he introduced Apple Music on-stage at WWDC.
“So I reached out to [Apple executives] Tim Cook and Eddy Cue and said: ‘Guys, can we build a bigger and better ecosystem with the elegance and simplicity that only Apple can do?’ ... All the ways you love music, all in one place, and that place is in almost a billion hands all around the world already: one single app on your iPhone.”
Apple Music will launch in 100 countries later in June, initially available on iOS, Mac and Windows, with an Android version following in autumn. After a three-month trial, it will cost $9.99 a month, or $14.99 for a family plan for up to six people.
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The core of Apple Music will be a catalogue of millions of songs and music videos to stream on-demand, as well as a wide variety of programmed playlists created by its in-house team of editors, and by musicians. They will including a 24-hour radio station headed up by former BBC Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe.
The radio station is called Beats 1, and will broadcast round-the-clock from Los Angeles, New York and London. “The truth is: internet radio isn’t really radio, it’s just a playlist of songs. So we wanted to do something really big: a worldwide radio station broadcasting around the globe,” said Iovine.
The third plank of Apple Music is something called Connect, a cross between Facebook and SoundCloud, where artists will be able to post music, videos and photos for fans that follow them. They will also be able to post from Connect to Facebook, Twitter and their own websites, as Apple bids to become the hub for their online activity.
“Apple comes late to the music streaming business, due in part to Steve Jobs’ refusal to believe that music subscription services would ever work,” said Forrester analyst James McQuivey. “But the writing is on the wall: digital downloads don’t make sense for consumers that are connected wherever they go.”
“Can Apple beat Spotify? Yes, it can, not because its service will be any better - but because it can build its new music service into the hundreds of millions of devices that its loyal Apple users already love. Advertising will help, but magically updating your iPhone or iPad to include a free month of Apple’s new service will help Apple catch up to Spotify’s paid subscriber base in less than a year. However, it will also inject new energy into Spotify, as the service reaps the windfall of so much attention to the music streaming business it helped pioneer.”
Beats Music started life in early 2013 as a Spotify rival codenamed Daisy, developed within audio hardware firm Beats Electronics – the company co-founded by Dr Dre and Universal Music executive Jimmy Iovine.
They hired veteran digital music executive Ian Rogers to run the service, and Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor as its chief creative officer, before renaming it as Beats Music ahead of its January 2014 launch in the US.
After Apple bought Beats Electronics for $3bn later that year, the company kept Beats Music running while putting its executive team to work on the company’s plans to launch a new streaming service in the summer of 2015.
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Beats Music had 250,000 paying subscribers in May 2014 according to Iovine, although the Wall Street Journal recently reported that this figure rose to only 303,000 by the end of that year – by which point, Spotify had 15 million paying subscribers out of its 60 million active users.
Former Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe and several of his producer colleagues have been poached by Apple to work on the new service, although there have been a few clouds over it in the weeks leading up to its announcement.
Apple’s licensing deals with major labels reportedly went down to the wire before the planned announcement – although this is hardly uncommon in the music industry.
More serious were reports that regulators in the US and Europe are investigating complaints from rivals about potentially anticompetitive behaviour from Apple.
That speculation focused on rumoured plans to strike exclusive deals for music; the way it takes a 30% cut of subscription payments made within those rivals’ iOS apps; and claims that Apple has been encouraging labels to pressure Spotify to restrict its free service.
Apple’s next moves in streaming are being eagerly anticipated by the music industry, which hopes that competition between Apple, Spotify, Google/YouTube and other streaming services will spark a return to growth for the industry.
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An estimated 41 million people paid for a streaming music subscription in 2014, according to industry body the IFPI, which claimed that another 100 million use the free tiers of services like Spotify – collectively generating $1.6bn for the industry.
“A new launch from Apple, when it comes to the UK with its vast digital penetration and marketing reach, could represent one of those pivotal moments when the industry takes its next big leap forward,” said Geoff Taylor, chief executive of industry body the BPI.
“It is sure to give the streaming market, which doubled last year in the UK, a further turbo boost. And most important, it is likely to deliver a fantastic experience for music fans, helping to drive consumer awareness and appreciation of premium music subscription as something that enhances your life.”
The launch at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco was introduced by the rapper Drake. “This is something that simplifies everything for the modern musician like myself, and the modern consumer like you,” he said.
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Read more
Apple Music, as it’s known, was built by the team behind the Beats Music service that Apple acquired as part of its $3bn purchase of music-tech firm Beats Electronics in 2014.
“2015, music industry is a fragmented mess. Do you wanna stream music? You can go over here. If you wanna stream video, you can check some of these places out. If you wanna follow some artists, there’s more confusions with that,” said Beats co-founder Jimmy Iovine as he introduced Apple Music on-stage at WWDC.
“So I reached out to [Apple executives] Tim Cook and Eddy Cue and said: ‘Guys, can we build a bigger and better ecosystem with the elegance and simplicity that only Apple can do?’ ... All the ways you love music, all in one place, and that place is in almost a billion hands all around the world already: one single app on your iPhone.”
Apple Music will launch in 100 countries later in June, initially available on iOS, Mac and Windows, with an Android version following in autumn. After a three-month trial, it will cost $9.99 a month, or $14.99 for a family plan for up to six people.
Apple takes on Facebook with revamped news app
Read more
The core of Apple Music will be a catalogue of millions of songs and music videos to stream on-demand, as well as a wide variety of programmed playlists created by its in-house team of editors, and by musicians. They will including a 24-hour radio station headed up by former BBC Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe.
The radio station is called Beats 1, and will broadcast round-the-clock from Los Angeles, New York and London. “The truth is: internet radio isn’t really radio, it’s just a playlist of songs. So we wanted to do something really big: a worldwide radio station broadcasting around the globe,” said Iovine.
The third plank of Apple Music is something called Connect, a cross between Facebook and SoundCloud, where artists will be able to post music, videos and photos for fans that follow them. They will also be able to post from Connect to Facebook, Twitter and their own websites, as Apple bids to become the hub for their online activity.
“Apple comes late to the music streaming business, due in part to Steve Jobs’ refusal to believe that music subscription services would ever work,” said Forrester analyst James McQuivey. “But the writing is on the wall: digital downloads don’t make sense for consumers that are connected wherever they go.”
“Can Apple beat Spotify? Yes, it can, not because its service will be any better - but because it can build its new music service into the hundreds of millions of devices that its loyal Apple users already love. Advertising will help, but magically updating your iPhone or iPad to include a free month of Apple’s new service will help Apple catch up to Spotify’s paid subscriber base in less than a year. However, it will also inject new energy into Spotify, as the service reaps the windfall of so much attention to the music streaming business it helped pioneer.”
Beats Music started life in early 2013 as a Spotify rival codenamed Daisy, developed within audio hardware firm Beats Electronics – the company co-founded by Dr Dre and Universal Music executive Jimmy Iovine.
They hired veteran digital music executive Ian Rogers to run the service, and Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor as its chief creative officer, before renaming it as Beats Music ahead of its January 2014 launch in the US.
After Apple bought Beats Electronics for $3bn later that year, the company kept Beats Music running while putting its executive team to work on the company’s plans to launch a new streaming service in the summer of 2015.
Daniel Ek: Spotify and free music will save the industry, not kill it
Read more
Beats Music had 250,000 paying subscribers in May 2014 according to Iovine, although the Wall Street Journal recently reported that this figure rose to only 303,000 by the end of that year – by which point, Spotify had 15 million paying subscribers out of its 60 million active users.
Former Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe and several of his producer colleagues have been poached by Apple to work on the new service, although there have been a few clouds over it in the weeks leading up to its announcement.
Apple’s licensing deals with major labels reportedly went down to the wire before the planned announcement – although this is hardly uncommon in the music industry.
More serious were reports that regulators in the US and Europe are investigating complaints from rivals about potentially anticompetitive behaviour from Apple.
That speculation focused on rumoured plans to strike exclusive deals for music; the way it takes a 30% cut of subscription payments made within those rivals’ iOS apps; and claims that Apple has been encouraging labels to pressure Spotify to restrict its free service.
Apple’s next moves in streaming are being eagerly anticipated by the music industry, which hopes that competition between Apple, Spotify, Google/YouTube and other streaming services will spark a return to growth for the industry.
Why are Apple's music streaming plans arousing the interest of regulators?
Read more
An estimated 41 million people paid for a streaming music subscription in 2014, according to industry body the IFPI, which claimed that another 100 million use the free tiers of services like Spotify – collectively generating $1.6bn for the industry.
“A new launch from Apple, when it comes to the UK with its vast digital penetration and marketing reach, could represent one of those pivotal moments when the industry takes its next big leap forward,” said Geoff Taylor, chief executive of industry body the BPI.
“It is sure to give the streaming market, which doubled last year in the UK, a further turbo boost. And most important, it is likely to deliver a fantastic experience for music fans, helping to drive consumer awareness and appreciation of premium music subscription as something that enhances your life.”
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