Apple Music Launches
Apple Music Launches
Apple has launched its Apple Music streaming service, kicking off a three-month free trial with hopes of competing with entities as varied as Spotify, broadcast radio and Facebook.
Apple Music was launched for iOS devices as part of the company’s iOS 8.4 software update.
The service will also be available for PC and Mac computers through Apple’s iTunes software, with Android to follow later in 2015.
The launch represents a major upheaval for Apple’s digital music business, which until now has focused on selling music downloads through the company’s iTunes Store. The store remains open, but Apple is beginning the process of migrating digital music buyers to paying a monthly subscription for access to its entire catalogue of music.
While some elements of Apple Music will be free, full access will cost £9.99 a month once the three-month trial ends, with a £14.99 option for families of up to six people.
Apple Music has three distinct components:
STREAMING - on-demand access to a catalogue of more than 30m songs, with paying subscribers able to store songs for offline listening. This is the direct competitor to streaming services such as Spotify, Deezer, Rhapsody, Google Play, Tidal and Rdio. Subscribers will be able to create their own playlists to share with friends via Facebook, Twitter and Apple’s messaging app, as well as listening to those created by Apple’s team.
RADIO - includes live radio station Beats 1, and will broadcast round the clock – albeit over the internet rather than the airwaves – from studios in Los Angeles, New York and London. DJs Zane Lowe – poached from the BBC’s Radio 1 earlier in 2015 – Julie Adenuga and Ebro Darden will be joined by an array of guest DJs including fellow Apple employee Dr Dre, Elton John, Disclosure, St. Vincent, Pharrell Williams and Drake.
CONNECT - Apple Connect, which blends elements of SoundCloud, YouTube and Facebook. Accredited artists will be able to upload songs, videos and photos for fans who follow their profiles, as well as posting status updates and playlists.
That service continues as a part of Apple Music, although its maximum storage limit will increase from 25k songs to 100k songs later in the year, as part of Apple’s iOS 9 software update.
Apple Music’s launch will intensify competition in the market, including a battle to secure exclusives on big albums or artist back catalogues. Pharrell Williams is debuting his new single on Apple Music for launch, while Swift is making her latest album 1989 available to stream for the first time on it.
Other artists are supporting the full range of streaming services. AC/DC made its back catalogue available to stream for the first time on Spotify, Deezer, Rdio and other services earlier on Tuesday, and was expected to do the same for Apple Music.
All these companies will be trying to crack the biggest challenge in the streaming world: convincing musicians and songwriters that their model can more than make up for the decline in sales of their music both in physical and download form – with a number of artists having complained about paltry streaming royalty cheques.
The streaming services’ efforts to bring them round are complicated by the fact that they do not pay artists directly, but rather the labels that represent them, and whose contracts with those creators dictate the percentage of streaming income that finds its way to them.
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