Apple music
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Streaming dominates the music industry's revenue
The music industry is on the upswing, and the RIAA has services like Spotify and Apple Music to thank. Adoption has steadily increased, and they accounted for 80 percent of the revenue from the first half of 2019. Despite these record-breaking numbers, the artists who actually create and perform the music aren't reaping much benefit.
Apple Music comes to browsers today with a beta web player
Apple Music is making its debut in browsers today as Apple continues to untangle its media services from the confines of iTunes. If you're a subscriber, you can check out the public beta of the web player by signing in with your Apple ID.
Apple Music for Android works with Chromecast devices in the latest beta
Good news for Apple Music users on Android: the music streaming service now works with Chromecast displays and speakers. The feature is available through the latest beta of the app.
Apple Music's latest playlist suggests new tracks every day
Apple Music may be playing catchup to Spotify, but it's still growing rapidly. From today Apple has a new way to appeal to music fans: a daily updating curated playlist called New Music Daily.
Apple Music adds a Shazam-powered playlist to highlight new artists
Until now, Apple hasn't visibly integrated Shazam much into its other services since buying the music discovery service last year. As of today, though, a Shazam-powered chart highlighting new artists will be available to stream on Apple Music.
Porsche Taycan will come with a standalone Apple Music app
Porsche Taycan owners will be able to play their Apple Music collection directly through the vehicle's touchscreen display. According to TechCrunch, the automaker has teamed up with Cupertino to integrate Apple Music into the upcoming electric vehicle. It will be the the first time the streaming service is offered as a standalone app within a vehicle, and by the sound of things, it won't be the last. Apparently, Porsche plans to give new and existing customers free six-month access to Apple Music.
Spotify will reportedly test a price increase in Scandinavia
Spotify may get a little bit pricier for some Scandinavian users. The music streaming service plans to test a more expensive version of its family plan in the European region, reported Bloomberg. It's unclear whether the price hike, which is estimated to be 13 percent, will also include new features or services.
Apple Music's Digital Masters catalog helps you find high-quality tunes
You'd be forgiven if you forgot about Apple's Mastered for iTunes program. It was supposed to offer near-master quality audio from compressed files thanks to clever processing, but it never became a major selling point and was eventually overshadowed by the rise of Apple Music. It's about to come roaring back, though -- Billboard noted the company has launched a Digital Masters initiative for Apple Music that puts all of its Mastered for iTunes songs in one worldwide streaming catalog. You won't have to wonder where to go to listen to tracks that theoretically rival the original recordings.
Apple is reportedly planning to pay for exclusive podcasts
Apple reportedly is looking to buy exclusive rights to original podcasts, reported Bloomberg. The company has reached out to executives of media companies, but there's no clear strategy in place yet. Since Apple's share of the podcast market is so large (anywhere from 50 to 70 percent of podcast listeners are estimated to tune in on the Podcasts app), any movement would likely shake up the industry.
Apple Music student trials now last for six months
Apple has revealed its back-to-school promotions for this year, and they include a much longer trial period for students who want to try out its music subscription service. Eligible college students can now enjoy Apple Music for six months instead of the usual three at no cost, so they don't have to worry about paying the $5-a-month discounted rate for half a year. According to an internal memo obtained by Appleosophy, the offer is already available and will last until September 26th, 2019.
Chance the Rapper’s first two mixtapes hit Apple Music and Spotify
Before Chance the Rapper released his 2016 streaming-only album Coloring Book, he shared his first two mixtapes, 10day and Acid Rap, for free on SoundCloud. They've lived there since 2012 and 2013, respectively, but as of today, they're available on Apple Music, Spotify and other major streaming services, too. As Engadget's Billy Steele wrote when Drake's So Far Gone mixtape hit streaming services, these early works don't always make it to streaming platforms, so it's significant when they do.
Apple Music now has 60 million paid subscribers
Apple Music now has 60 million paying subscribers. The company's Eddy Cue, a senior vice president of services, confirmed the milestone with French business publication Numerama today. According to Music Business Worldwide, Apple also noted that Beats 1 has "tens of millions of listeners."
Final Fantasy soundtracks come to Spotify and Apple Music
Square Enix might have just convinced a ton of Final Fantasy fans to spend their hard-earned Gil on music streaming services. The game developer, with no prior announcement, has just made the soundtracks of almost every Final Fantasy game available for streaming on Spotify and Apple Music. If you don't mind not having a physical disc to collect, you can just fire up the services' apps to enjoy music -- by Nobuo Uematsu and the series' other composers, including Masashi Hamauzu, Hitoshi Sakimoto and Yoko Shimomura -- from the first entry of the franchise to the latest.
iTunes isn't dead
I'll admit it. I had an emotional response to the idea that iTunes, the app that shaped my digital music habit, could be on the way out. With every iPod I owned, iTunes was the lifeline, the sole method for adding to and organizing the precious collection. The only problem was, somewhere along the way, iTunes became the catch-all for everything Apple sold. It wasn't just for music, or even audio content -- apps, movies and TV shows crept into the app as well. And in the end, Apple had a chaotic mess that was confusing and poorly organized.
Apple announces separate Music, Podcast and TV apps for Mac
Apple has announced it's releasing separate apps for Music, TV and Podcasts in macOS Catalina later this year, breaking up the iTunes hegemony that's been in place for 16 years, and hammering a nail in the coffin of that messy, neglected software. Rumors emerged in April about the separate apps, while screenshots of Music and TV leaked last week.
Apple could be done with iTunes
If you have some time this weekend, maybe open up iTunes and double check your MP3 tags again, just for old-times sake. On Monday Apple's WWDC 2019 event starts with a keynote, and as we've heard before, it could mark a final shift away from the company's overburdened media app. Apple has already launched a TV app that will help its Apple TV+ video service reach more platforms this fall. According to Bloomberg, what we'll see on Monday will mark the end of iTunes once Apple shows off macOS desktop apps that mimic their counterparts on iOS, with separate ones for Music, TV and Podcasts. If you need to manage your iThings (local backups, OS updates, etc.), the Music app will take over there just as iTunes always has. The timing makes sense, and not just because Apple is now making billions of dollars from services that didn't exist when it launched the iTunes Music Store in 2003. We're also expecting to see the "Marzipan" apps that devs can port from iOS to the Mac, and iTunes is too old-school to fit that mold.
Apple’s $3 billion purchase of Beats has already paid off
"Oh shit, the Forbes list just changed," Tyrese Gibson proclaimed in a 2014 Facebook video. "The first billionaire in hip-hop, right here from the motherfucking West Coast," Dr. Dre chimed in.
Apple Pay can be used for iTunes, App Store and Apple Book purchases
You can now use Apple Pay to make purchases from iTunes, the App Store and Apple Books. MacRumors spotted the change in a recently updated support document. The added Apple Pay options are coming to users in the US, Canada, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Russia, Ukraine and the United Arab Emirates, but they might not be available in all of those locations just yet.
Google's subscription music numbers reportedly top 15 million
Even as subscription services eat up an ever-growing portion of the overall music business, Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal report that Google's packages are not expanding at the same rate. RIAA numbers showed subscription services added more than a million customers a month during 2018, meanwhile the Wall Street Journal cites sources claiming YouTube Music and Google Play Music subscriptions have been "essentially flat" over four recent months. While Spotify has over 100 million customers, the reported numbers put Google's music offerings at 15 - 16 million. Google told the outlets that subscription numbers and the reports of flat growth are inaccurate, and that as of March, combined subscribers to YouTube Premium and YouTube Music are up 60 percent over last year. Still, the numbers claimed by the sources paint an interesting picture as Google continues to slowly shift from Google Play Music to YouTube Music. A year after launching the YouTube-branded service, it's only just adding features like the ability to play locally-stored songs and still has not replaced GPM's cloud locker for user's own music files. Meanwhile, YouTube continues to be a way many people access music and music videos for free with Google's ads. While it would certainly like to turn those folks into more paying subscribers, having that backdrop means that even with fewer customers, its potential is a bit different than the offerings from Apple, Spotify and Amazon.
EU set to investigate Apple over Spotify's competition claims
The European Union might just believe that Spotify's complaint against Apple has some merit. Financial Times sources have claimed that EU competition commissioners have decided to launch an antitrust investigation into allegations that Apple unfairly hinders Spotify and other rivals to Apple Music through App Store policies. The investigation would start in the "next few weeks," according to the outlet.
