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Apple hires the UK's biggest radio DJ to help boost its music service
While Apple reportedly has "hundreds" of employees working to build the fabled "Apple Car," the company is also busy integrating its Beats acquisition into iTunes. We may not have to wait too long to see fruits of that union, but before we do, Apple is acquiring talent to ensure the launch gets off to a good start. The UK's biggest radio DJ, Zane Lowe, today confirmed that after 12 years at the BBC's Radio 1 station, he's abandoning Britain for the sunnier skies of Los Angeles.
Beats' head of subscription-music service is now in charge of iTunes Radio
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple has appointed Ian Rogers, the head of Beats' subscription-music service, to run iTunes Radio. Three executives from Beats -- Rogers, Dr. Dre, and Jimmy Iovine -- joined Apple as part of the company's purchase of the music service and headphone manufacturer. Apple formally welcomed Beats to the family today with the launch of a welcome page for the company. Rogers will reportedly continue to run the Beats Music subscription services in addition to his new duties with iTunes Radio. This news comes on the heels of the European Union's formal approval of the merger.
T-Mobile offers free music streaming to customers
On Wednesday night, T-Mobile CEO John Legere made an announcement that makes the magenta network incredibly attractive to music-minded mobile users and the parents of teenagers. The company announced that it will allow its Simple Choice subscribers to stream content from popular music providers like iTunes Radio, Spotify, Pandora, Rhapsody, iHeartRadio, and Slacker without using any of their precious data plans. This is a massive change of pace. Simple Choice subscribers get 1 GB of data per month per line to use. For perspective, this is how much data Spotify eats up, depending on the quality of your stream. 96 kbps => 0.72 MB per minute. 160 kbps => 1.2 MB per minute. 320 kbps => 2.4 MB per minute. This is a great way for T-Mobile to open up more data to users without having to change plans across the board to actually include more data for things like Netflix. With this move, T-Mobile can partner with and control which companies their subscribers can use for free. Currently the number of services supported is limited, but T-Mobile promises it will be adding more in the future. If you'd like to read T-Mobile's press release on the deal, head over here. And if you're a T-Mobile customer out on a long summer drive during the upcoming holiday, don't feel bad about using Spotify or iTunes Radio as your go-to source of tunes in the car. T-Mobile will handle the data.
iTunes Radio expands sports and news offerings with ESPN and local NPR stations
NPR came to iTunes Radio in March, but at the time it was only one national station. Now there are over 40 local stations like WBEZ in Chicago, WBUR in Boston and WNYC in New York. You can pull in the fresh streams of these local affiliates AM or FM options so you can get all your regional gems in addition to national hits like Radiolab and On the Media. Perhaps more exciting though (since you could always get the best of NPR in podcast form and through its dedicated app) is the addition of ESPN Radio. You can enjoy all the sports-talk you want and you won't get blacked out on nationally broadcast events like the World Cup, the World Series or the Stanley Cup Finals. All you have to do is fire up the iTunes Radio app and you'll find all the new content ready and waiting for you.
Apple adds ESPN Radio, local NPR to iTunes Radio
It's a good day for fans of digital radio. Apple has added new channels to its iTunes Radio service, including a new ESPN Radio station and 42 new local National Public Radio (NPR) affiliate stations. You can find these new stations by searching within the iTunes Radio app on your iOS devices or on your desktop via iTunes. ESPN Radio will features the same content as normal ESPN affiliate stations. You can find a schedule of its available programming, including Mike & Mike and The Freddie Colman Show, right here. Traug Keller, ESPN senior vice president of production business divisions, released the following statement regarding the new digital station. "We are thrilled to make our industry-leading sports talk and championship play-by-play content available to fans via iTunes Radio, and we are excited to partner with Apple to expand our digital reach. Our fans can look forward to expanded ESPN Audio offerings on both the national and local sports levels in the future." NPR's new additions include Austin, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Diego among many others. If you've ever wondered what local stories the Austin, TX offices of NPR produces, you're in luck -- the answer is just a click or tap away. The stations are currently live and available for listening on iTunes.
Billboard claims iTunes Radio isn't the hit Apple was hoping for
The debut of iTunes Radio last summer signaled a fundamental shift in Apple's music strategy. First and foremost, iTunes Radio was Apple's not-so-subtle acknowledgment that the musical landscape that framed Steve Jobs' oft-repeated line about consumers wanting to own their music had changed. Pandora. Spotify. Songza. Hell, even YouTube. Today there is no shortage of ways for consumers to listen to and discover nearly the entirety of the world's music for free. iTunes Radio was Apple's attempt to keep music lovers inside the Apple ecosystem. If consumers were busy streaming music via sites like Pandora, Apple figured it might as well offer its own streaming service in an attempt to funnel users towards the ever-tantalizing "Buy" button. Only problem is, iTunes Radio doesn't exactly offer anything new to music lovers. As a result, it's not terribly surprising that the service hasn't exactly taken the world by storm. A recent Billboard report relays that iTunes Radio has not stemmed the tide of declining digital music sales. During the first quarter of 2014 alone, digital album downloads declined by a whopping 14.2% while digital track sales declined by 12.5%. What's more, the report claims that Apple's iTunes Match service has, to date, only attracted about 1 million subscribers. But again, the looming problem remains that consumers just aren't buying music online the way they used to. iTunes Radio, which launched in September with much fanfare, so far only sees about 1%-2% of listeners clicking the buy button, while overall music downloads have been declining upwards of 15%, according to several label executives. At the same time, Apple is finding that its influence over labels is slipping as YouTube, Spotify, Pandora and other streaming services gather momentum. One independent label said that iTunes's share of the label's revenue has eroded from more than 70% in 2012 to about 50% today. While iTunes undeniably ushered in a digital music revolution, it'd hard to argue that the baton has now been handed off to a slew of newcomers who cater to audience no longer interested in purchasing the music they listen to. As Jason Notte recently wrote, "We're not listening to streaming music services so we can find the next song to buy. We're listening and subscribing to them so we don't have to buy songs anymore." From a streaming perspective, it's hard to categorize iTunes Radio as a bust given that its share of the streaming market is at 8%. Not too bad for a new kid on the block. But again, Apple wants folks to buy music, not stream it. The Billboard report adds: "The a-la-carte consumption model is 11 years old and at this point the decline in the U.S. download sales seems unstoppable; it doesn't seem like the store is refreshable," says one label executive, who went on to suggest Apple has no choice but to embrace the subscription model. So might Apple transition iTunes Radio into a subscription type service? Don't count on it. If anything, Apple will reportedly be taking steps to double down on iTunes Radio. Recently, rumors have indicated that iTunes Radio may be featured as a standalone app in iOS 8 to position the service more prominently amidst homescreens that likely already feature competing apps such as Pandora and Spotify. After all, more visibility means more users which translates into more digital purchases, which is ultimately what Apple really cares about.
Weekends with Engadget: the future of Oculus Rift, new HTC One review and more!
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The TUAW Daily Update Podcast for March 25, 2014
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get some the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the player at the top of the page. The Daily Update has been moved to a new podcast host in the past few days. Current listeners should delete the old podcast subscription and subscribe to the new feed in the iTunes Store here.
NPR comes to iTunes Radio
Today iTunes radio took an important step towards being able to replace terrestrial radio for many of its users with the addition of an NPR channel. The 24-hour channel will offer a free stream of NPR's award-winning content, including its live news segments alongside pre-recorded shows like All Things Considered and Morning Edition. You can find their programming now within iTunes Radio. NPR is promising that this is just the beginning of the services they'll be offering. Later this spring the organization will expand the iTunes Radio service to include streams from member stations around the country. NPR has been working to move towards expanding the reach of public radio with increased online streaming options. They are currently also working on a project called NPR Infinite Player, which will work like a public radio Pandora station. You can read more about that project here.
The changing musical landscape: iTunes Radio, declining digital sales, Beyonce and more
In 2013, for the first time since the iTunes Music Store launched in April of 2003, digital music sales experienced a decline. The news comes courtesy of Billboard which reports that digital track sales dropped from 1.34 billion units in 2012 to 1.26 billion units in 2013, a 5.7% decrease overall. With respect to full-album sales, the statistics aren't as grave. In 2012 digital album sales checked in at 117.7 million units and only dropped to 117.6 million units in 2013, a minor decrease of just 0.1% year over year. When we factor in physical music sales (apparently people still buy CDs and records), the year over year difference is much more stark. Overall, album sales suffered an 8.4% decline, dipping to 289.4 million units from nearly 316 million units in 2012. The CD declined 14.5% to 165.4 million units, down from 193.4 million in the prior year, while vinyl continued its ascension rising to 6 million units from the 4.55 million the format tallied in 2012. That means vinyl is now 2% of album sales in the U.S; digital albums comprise 40.6% and the CD is 57.2% and cassettes and DVDs 0.2%. So aside from vinyl, a medium that hipsters are seemingly reviving with gusto, the overall trend in music sales, digital and otherwise, suggests that folks aren't as keen on owning their music as they once were. And for this, the blame -- or perhaps praise -- falls squarely on the shoulders of streaming radio and music subscription sites. These days, it's abundantly clear that we're living in what you may justifiably call the golden age of music. Never before has so much music been so accessible to so many. What's more, much of this music is available for free courtesy of sites like Pandora and YouTube. Even better, for just $9.99 a month you can have songs on demand at your fingertips while you're on the go, all thanks to an addiction that some folks refer to as Spotify. That being the case, it stands to reason that digital and album sales will continue to decrease in the coming years as consumers increasingly move away from iTunes in favor of more affordable music alternatives. While industry executives initially refused to attribute the early signs this year of digital sales weakness to the consumer's growing appetite for streaming, in the second half of the year many were conceding that ad-supported and paid subscription services were indeed cannibalizing digital sales. What's interesting in all this is that iTunes sales, despite the increasing popularity of sites like Pandora and Spotify, are actually gaining marketshare. Billboard points out that iTunes in 2013 accounted for 40.6% of US-based album sales. So who's really hurting in all of this? Brick and mortar retailers like Target and Best Buy. While overall digital and physical music sales are on the decline, it appears that iTunes now accounts for a bigger piece of the overall music sales pie. Now don't think that Apple is oblivious to the changing musical landscape. While Steve Jobs often liked to say that consumers prefer to own their music, the reality is that many consumers are increasingly streaming music as opposed to purchasing it. Again, Apple is not blind to this. Apple this past summer rolled out iTunes Radio, its own take on Internet Radio tailor-programmed to the musical tastes of each particular user. The introduction of iTunes Radio signals that Apple is well aware that a growing percentage of music lovers prefer to stream music rather than own it. Rather than helplessly watch users leave for rival companies, iTunes Radio represents Apple's effort to keep these streaming-minded folks nestled within the profitable confines of the iOS ecosystem. All this being said, make no mistake that record companies would much rather prefer that users not only buy music, but buy whole albums. One of the revolutionary aspects of the iTunes Music Store was that it, for the first time, enabled users to cherry pick which songs off of an album they wanted to purchase. No longer were music fans forced to pay $16 for a CD that contained, if you were lucky, 2 great songs, 3 good songs, and a whole bunch of filler tracks. With the advent of iTunes, record labels frustratingly saw users downloading single tracks in lieu of full albums. While there have been efforts to curtail this trend (ahem, iTunes LP), no one has really figured out how to get fans interested in full album sales until Beyonce recently decided to shake things up and abruptly release a new album exclusively via iTunes. For the first few days it was available, the album was only available for purchase in its entirety. So while Beyonce may be a fan of the single ladies, the same can't be said for singles (I will willingly bear the repercussions of that bad joke). When news that Beyonce released a new album on iTunes began to spread, fans couldn't hand over money for the full-length $15.99 album fast enough. The album quickly became the fastest selling album on iTunes in history. In the first three days of its release, it was downloaded an astounding 828,773 times, setting a new U.S album sales record for first week sales in the process. In flipping the musical script, so to speak, Beyonce demonstrated that in certain circumstances, there is still a lot of success to be had by offering full albums with a whole lot of extras. Now granted, not every artist has the cachet of Beyonce, and the number of artists who might successfully employ a similar strategy is admittedly minuscule. Still, it might just show that there's still a bit of breathing room left not only for full album sales, but for digital downloads as well. From a broad perspective, the music industry is currently in the midst of some interesting changes. Digital music sales are declining as many consumers find themselves content with streaming services from the likes of Pandora, Songza, Rdio, and iTunes Radio. Meanwhile, the recently released Beyonce album indicates that record labels and artists are willing to try new things in an effort to lure users back to full length album purchases. The end result here is nothing less than a bonanza for music lovers. It's important to note here that this isn't a zero sum game. Streaming music doesn't necessarily have to come at the expense of music purchases. I myself have discovered some amazing new music via Pandora and Spotify, prompting me to purchase a few of these songs off of iTunes. Looking ahead to 2014, it will be extremely interesting to see how digital music sales perform now that we have more avenues for free music consumption than ever before.
Daily Update for December 10, 2013
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
Apple hires radio sales exec Michael Pallad to work on iTunes Radio
AdAge reports that Apple recently hired former Cumulus Media executive Michael Pallad to take charge of ad sales for Apple's fledgling iTunes Radio service. While at Cumulus, Pallad served as the company's VP of sales. Mr. Pallad will report into the iAd organization led by VP and former Yahoo exec Todd Teresi. Mr. Pallad's appointment suggests that Apple plans to make a stronger play at the [US]$1.56 billion US digital radio advertising market, as estimated by eMarketer. One media buyer said the executive should gain traction quickly among agencies. While Apple currently has iTunes Radio ad deals with a host of blue chip companies like McDonalds, Nissan and Pepsi, AdAdge reports that those deals are set to expire at the end of 2014 whereupon Apple will try and pitch iTunes Radio ads to a broader group of companies. And that's where Pallad's expertise, experience and connections will reportedly come into play.
Spotify ups its game, plans to offer free on-demand music for mobile
Spotify is looking to give users an added incentive to choose its streaming-music service over the droves of competitors by offering free on-demand music via its mobile app. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the new option will be offered as an ad-supported alternative to services like Pandora and iTunes Radio. Currently, Spotify's mobile app offers a free radio service that is streamed based on a user's preferred music genre, with the on-demand service reserved for Spotify paid subscribers. If this plan does indeed come to fruition, the only difference between standard Spotify and Spotify Premium, which costs US$9.99 per month, will be that the paid service comes without ads.
Pandora declares iTunes Radio not a threat, investors cheer
When Apple officially unveiled iTunes Radio, it seemed like a bad news for established music-streaming services like Pandora, but now that iOS 7 and the new iTunes music feature have had a bit of time to spread, Pandora seems to have weathered the storm with flying colors. Today the company announced that rather than taking a hit in the post-iTunes-Radio world, its overall "hours of listening" metric rose 9 percent from September to October, and 18 percent year-over-year. The company also revealed that its overall slice of the US radio pie grew from 7.77 percent to 8.06 percent in the span of a month. Pandora's stock price took the news particularly well, climbing almost 9 percent, as fears that the company's inevitable death at the hands of Apple seem to have been soothed. Of course, iOS 7 is still relatively new, and Apple hasn't done much in the way of pushing iTunes Radio from a marketing perspective. A few TV commercials could change that in a hurry, but for now Pandora lives to fight another day.
Eminem's 'The Marshall Mathers LP2' streams on iTunes Radio ahead of album's official release
The Real Slim Shady's back with another album, titled The Marshall Mathers LP2. And if you're a fan of Eminem and have iTunes Radio, then there's a way to listen to his latest work in full without going the, well, shady way. Starting today in the US, Eminem's MMLP2 (as it's known for short) can be streamed on the "First Play" station of Apple's newfangled music service, allowing users to tune in to the set of tracks ahead of next Tuesday's scheduled release. As 9to5Mac notes, this marks the first time that an entire album is being given early access to exclusively on iTunes Radio, and it could certainly pave the way for more artists to follow suit. Above all, it is another example of how the music industry is adjusting itself as new services become available -- even if it might not be too excited about it.
92% of iTunes Radio users still listening to Pandora
On September 23, Apple issued a press release announcing that more than 11 million unique users had already tuned into iTunes Radio. Yesterday during Apple's earnings conference call, Tim Cook said that that number had risen to 20 million unique users. That's not too bad considering that Apple has barely been in the internet music-streaming business for even a month now. On top of that, Apple has an unparalleled advantage in that iTunes Radio is baked right into iOS 7, providing millions of new iOS users with a music-streaming experience right out of the box, no downloading required. So should Pandora be worried? Not necessarily. Though Apple continues to rack up an impressive number of unique iTunes Radio listeners, a recent survey of 800 iOS users revealed that 92 percent of those who gave iTunes Radio a test drive either went back to Pandora or continue to use Pandora in conjunction with iTunes Radio. AppleInsider relayed more details from the survey, which was conducted by Canaccord Genuity: When asked to quantify the "overall experience" of both services, 66 percent of respondents call their experience with iTunes Radio "positive" or "very positive," while Pandora scores 78 percent on the same metric. Apple wins with tight margins on app usability questions, but loses out to Pandora in perhaps the most important metric, "Plays songs I want to hear," 63 percent to 72 percent. It's still early in the game, so it remains to be seen if there's enough interest amongst music lovers for both iTunes Radio and Pandora to thrive. One thing's for sure, though. Pandora has its eyes on Apple and isn't taking iTunes Radio lightly. During a recent interview, Pandora CEO Mike Herring conceded that Apple is a "credible threat," noting that the company's iTunes Radio initiative isn't motivated by a desire to create a "really awesome music experience." On that note, Apple's Eddy Cue a few weeks ago talked about iTunes Radio and Apple's ostensible goals with its new music-based service. The most important thing for me, what I was hoping for and what we've been working very hard to get, is what the quality of the feature is. At the end of the day, that's the most important. Now regardless of whether or not you're an iTunes Radio, Pandora or Spotify fan, or even a fan of streaming music for that matter, I think everyone can agree that this is an exciting time to be a music fan.
Pandora CFO talks about iTunes Radio, new markets
With Apple's iTunes Radio being a latecomer to the world of streaming internet radio, it's not surprising that the executives of streaming leader Pandora would not be happy with the new competitor. CNET's Joan Solsman interviewed the CFO of Pandora, Mike Herring, and found that he feels that Pandora is "a great service that does this better than anybody else," and that the latecomers like Apple are "large, well-funded companies that have agendas outside a really awesome music experience." Not surprisingly, Herring said that Pandora sees Apple's iTunes Radio as a "credible threat" to their business. In the first five days of iTunes Radio, Apple reported that more than 11 million unique listeners had tuned in to their favorite streaming channel. Pandora, with years of experience under its belt, had almost 73 million active users last month. Still, the company feels that they offer the top experience to listeners, although Pandora has been criticized by artists who feel that they're getting a raw deal in terms of royalty payments (Apple is paying a higher rate). Herring talked a bit about international expansion for Pandora -- the company is now trying out its model in Australia and New Zealand as an experiment for future expansion elsewhere. Apple has direct deals with the record labels that will make international expansion of iTunes Radio somewhat easier to accomplish, while Pandora lacks those types of deals. However, Herring pointed to another competitor -- Spotify -- as a company with direct deals that is not having much financial success with international expansion. Solsman's interview is a fascinating peek behind the curtain at the internet streaming radio business.
Apple demands site remove iTunes Radio contract
If you scour the tech landscape, you'd be hard pressed to find a company more preoccupied with secrecy than Apple. While Apple understandably takes steps to prevent the release of details surrounding new products, they also like to keep, as much as possible, details surrounding their operations under wraps. That being the case, Apple flexed some of its corporate and legal muscle recently when it demanded that a website called Digital Music News remove a copy of an iTunes Radio contract it had offered to small independent record labels. And just what was the legal theory Apple posited in requesting the site take down the contract? Copyright infringement. Yep, Apple explained that their contract agreement, which was presumably offered to a bevy of small record labels, was subject to copyright protection. The Verge reports on the legality of Apple's position: Eric Goldman, a law professor at Santa Clara University, says that contracts can indeed be copyrighted, although it's rare. "It's not out of legal bounds to do this," Goldman told The Verge. "It's just kind of a jerk move. We all know what's happening here. Apple doesn't care about protecting the copyright of contracts. It's using copyright to try and suppress information that it doesn't want made public." What's curious about the story is that Digital Music News posted the contract back in June, meaning that it took Apple over three months before demanding that it be removed. In any event, it's only natural to wonder why Apple was so adamant in having the contract taken down. To that end, Digital Music News relays that it was because the contract reflects that Apple "forced sub-standard terms" on smaller independent labels that typically lack the leverage bargaining power of larger ones.
Daily Update for October 10, 2013
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
Listen to Pearl Jam's new album 'Lightning Bolt' on iTunes Radio 'First Play'
Apple executive Eddy Cue wasn't joking around when he said that Apple was going to leverage streaming album premieres on iTunes Radio. Not only do advance streams of upcoming albums help generate lots of pre-orders via iTunes, it also helps people dial in to iTunes Radio in the first place. Apple yesterday notified iTunes users that it would be streaming Pearl Jam's upcoming album, titled Lightning Bolt, on iTunes Radio. The album isn't scheduled for release until October 15, so that's a solid six-day lead time for Pearl Jam fans to get acquainted with Eddie Vedder and Co.'s latest release. To access the album, you can either click here to launch iTunes Radio on your desktop or head on over to iTunes Radio on your iOS device where you can find the album prominently featured under the "Featured Stations" heading.
