Tag: Apple Music

 

By AppleInsider Staff
Monday, March 23, 2020, 09:08 pm PT (12:08 am ET)

Apple on Monday introduced a pair of Apple Music features that should help users stay positive during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, with the new “Get Up! Mix” and Home Office DJ playing upbeat tunes for those quarantined or working from home.

Located in the For You section of Apple Music, “Get Up! Mix” boasts a tracklist of curated “happy-making, smile-finding, sing-alonging music,” reports Engadget.

Similar to algorithmically assembled collections, like Chill Mix and New Music Mix, Get Up! Mix is curated in part by human editors who refresh the feed with new tracks each week. Computer algorithms parse through those songs and offer up a playlist based on listener preference.

In addition to Get Up! Mix, Apple introduced Home Office DJ, a playlist of “uptempo, easygoing” songs from a variety of genres. The new playlist can be found in the Browse section of Apple Music.

Finally, Beats 1, Apple Music’s live internet radio station, will continue to air new episodes during the global crisis. As Engadget reports, Beats 1 hosts including Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme and Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig are using FaceTime on their iPhones to conduct interviews with artists like Elton John and Hayley Williams.

Get Up! Mix and home Office DJ began rolling out to Apple Music subscribers on Monday.

 

By AppleInsider Staff
Tuesday, February 25, 2020, 07:53 pm PT (10:53 pm ET)

Streaming services like Apple Music, Spotify and Pandora generated $8.8 billion to account for 79% of all U.S. music industry revenue in 2019, according to new data from the Recording Industry Association of America.

In its full-year 2019 revenue report for U.S. recorded music, the RIAA says streaming revenues were up 20% from 2018, a marked rise largely attributed to growth in paid streaming services. The overall industry grew 13% to hit $11.1 billion in retail value.

According to the report, revenues derived from subscriptions hit $6.8 billion last year, up 25% year-over-year. That sum equates to 61% of total recorded music revenues in the U.S., the group notes. Impressively, subscriptions accounted for 93% of streaming sector growth, with for-pay services adding an average of one million new accounts per month to top 60 million subscriptions in 2019.

RIAA Chairman and CEO Mitch Glazier in a blog post on Tuesday said, “Music isn’t transitioning to digital’ – it is leading a digital-first business.”

“Today’s report reflects the prospect of a future in which creators have a path forward,” Glazier said. “But it also reveals how much farther we must go to assure a healthy music community in which all music is valued and creators are fairly compensated. We still have not realized the full value of music on all digital services.”

Over the past ten years, streaming revenue has grown from a minuscule 5% slice of the overall pie to overtake both traditional physical media and digital downloads initially popularized by iTunes. In 2009, physical media accounted for 59% of all industry revenue followed by digital’s 34% share, figures that slid to a respective 10% and 8% of the whole in 2019.

Downloads have dropped precipitously as streaming usurps per-track and per-album purchases. According to the RIAA, digital fell 18% between 2018 and 2019, with last year being the first since 2006 in which downloads brought in less than a billion dollars, reports Variety. For reference, streaming revenues first surpassed sales of digital downloads in 2015.

After revolutionizing the music distribution industry with iTunes and iPod, Apple debuted its own streaming service, Apple Music, in 2015. The product challenges market incumbent Spotify, which boasted 124 million paid subscribers as of February. Apple last released public Apple Music statistics in June 2019, when the service accumulated 60 million subscribers.

 

By Amber Neely
Thursday, November 14, 2019, 12:29 pm PT (03:29 pm ET)

Apple’s Apple News+ launched earlier this year with impressive initial subscriber counts, but the company has failed to bring in significant numbers since then.

When it launched in March, Apple News+ had wrangled more than 200,000 subscriptions in its first two days. Since then, the company has struggled to gain new subscribers, according to those familiar with the subject.

Apple News+ costs customers $9.99 a month, the same cost as Apple Music, and gives customers access to over 300 curated publications. Publications included are People, Vanity Fair, the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal, and paywalled versions of popular online news sites.

However, the subscribers don’t seem to be rolling in, according to CNBC. One publisher had told them his company received somewhere between $20,000 and $30,000 per month in revenue, a number that was far lower than initially expected.

Interestingly enough, another publisher disclosed that while subscription revenue was lower than expected, it had brought in a different demographic of readers that skewed younger and more female. The same publisher had also said that advertising revenue from Apple News, a free news service from Apple, has consistently trended upwards.

Publisher revenue is an issue Apple is reportedly attempting to improve, with one June report indicating it is seeking input from participating publishers to tweak the service. At that time, publishers who were allegedly advised by Apple they would see ten times the revenue of Apple acquisition Texture in its first year of operation, one publishing executive claimed “it’s one-twentieth of what they said. It isn’t coming true.”

Apple News is, however, starting to pay off for some European publishers, despite the relatively small number of countries offering Apple News+. An August report revealed publishers were seeing increased revenues from being on the basic Apple News service, including some where ad impressions had tripled while revenue doubled.

A report on Thursday had claimed that Apple is including a section in deals signed, telling publishers that it reserves the right to bundle services in the future. Sources familiar with the matter say that Apple may roll out these bundles in 2020, in an attempt to get more people to subscribe. This would likely give users the option to subscribe to Apple TV+, Apple Music, and Apple News+ for one lower monthly rate.

 

By Malcolm Owen
Wednesday, October 16, 2019, 10:35 am PT (01:35 pm ET)

A number of Apple’s online services have suddenly gone offline, with websites and online tools no longer accessible and services like Apple Music encountering errors when trying to stream songs.

At around 1:24pm eastern, AppleInsider noticed the official Apple newsroom was inaccessible, displaying a message advising the page “cannot be found.” Shortly after, other areas of Apple’s online existence stopped working or were unavailable.

In further checks by AppleInsider staff, Apple’s developer site also became unavailable, and the official System Status page that usually displays issues with servers is also offline. Other services are also undergoing issues, including some outages of iCloud itself.

Apple Music was also affected by the outage, with attempts to play music not downloaded to a device displaying errors. One error advised that “A server with the specified hostname could not be found.”

In the time since the discovery of issues, some services are slowly being restored, with the newsroom and iCloud back up and running, followed by the System Status page and Apple Music.

AppleInsider has contacted Apple to query about the server issues.

This story is breaking, refresh for the latest updates

 

By Amber Neely
Thursday, September 12, 2019, 07:28 am PT (10:28 am ET)

Announced earlier in September, the Sonos One SL and Sonos Port AirPlay 2 speakers are now available for purchase.

Sonos has released two new products for audiophiles everywhere. The wifi-enabled Sonos One SL speaker gives users a reasonably priced entry point into smart sound. The Sonos Port gives users a chance to incorporate their existing audio equipment into their smart home ecosystem.

Sonos One SL

Sonos One SL is a compact, fit-anywhere wifi speaker designed to seamlessly integrate into your life. At just over four pounds, it’s easily carried from room to room.

Additionally, it’s humidity resistant, giving it the ability to be use in high humidity spaces like bathrooms and kitchens without fear of damaging it.

The Sonos One SL is AirPlay2 compatible and works with over 100 streaming services, including Apple Music, Spotify, and more. Trueplay gives users the ability to tune speakers for a custom experience within their spaces.

Multiple Sonos One SLs can be paired with each other, or with the Sonos One. The Sonos app gives users the ability to group speakers together by room and control them as needed. If you’ve already got a Sonos Playbar, Playbase, or Beam, a pair of Sonos One SLs can be used as rear home theater surround sound speakers.

The Sonos One SL does not feature a microphone, which is likely a boon for those who want a bit of added security.

The Sonos One SL is available in both white and black and retails for $179.

Sonos Port

The Sonos Port gives users the ability to turn their traditional stereo systems into smart devices.

Connecting a Sonos Port allows any amplified audio system to work with Apple’s AirPlay2—stream music directly from your iPhone, iPad, or Mac with Siri integration. Additionally, users can stream music from most streaming services, like Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music, and more.

Connecting the Sonos Port to your vinyl, cassette, or CD player will allow you to play your audio to other Sonos speakers through the Sonos app.

The Sonos Port features a sophisticated digital-to-analog converter, providing a crisp, clear listening experience.

The Sonos Port retails for $399 and can be purchased directly from the Sonos website.

 

By Mike Wuerthele
Wednesday, August 28, 2019, 04:29 am PT (07:29 am ET)

The most recent version of the Apple Music beta app for Android has added Chromecast support, an often-requested feature by participants.

The streaming addition comes very nearly three years after Apple officially released the Apple Music app on the Google Play store. Similar to how Apple Music on the iPad supports AirPlay speakers, a cast icon will appear in the app and the now playing pane.

Radio has been available in iTunes for some time. At WWDC, Apple revealed iOS 13 would include support for live radio, with over 100,000 different stations around the world available for listening, with additional support for iHeartRadio, TuneIn, and Radio.com.

The additions were first spotted by Android Police on Wednesday morning.

In March, analytics suggested that the Apple Music app had been installed on over 40 million Android devices worldwide. Most of those installations were in the U.S., about 28 percent. India was a distant second at 7 percent, followed by Great Britain, Brazil, and Russia and 6, 5, and 4 percent respectively.

It isn’t clear at present how many Android users are Apple Music subscribers.

 

By Amber Neely
Friday, August 23, 2019, 05:28 am PT (08:28 am ET)

Apple has launched the HomePod in Japan and Taiwan, giving Apple fans the chance to snag the smart speaker for themselves.

The HomePod is now available to purchase in both Japan and Taiwan, following an announcement made on August 15.

Buyers can pick up their own HomePod either in brick-and-mortar Apple Stores, or purchase them from select mobile phone retailers.

In Japan, the HomePod retails for 32,800 yen ($310), and in Taiwan for NT$9,900 ($315). Users can purchase a HomePod in ether white or Space Gray.

When announced, the Japanese press release mentioned popular artists such as Aimyon and One OK Rock, whose music would be available to stream from Apple Music. Also mentioned are regional playlists, such as Apple Music’s Top 100: Japan.

The smart speaker debuted in the U.S., UK, and Australia in February 2018, a half-year after being shown at Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference. Since then, Apple has expanded availability to China, Hong Kong, Canada, France, Germany, Mexico, and Spain.

The HomePod is on track to receive some notable upgrades this fall with the release of iOS 13. The update list includes multi-user voice recognition, enhanced Shortcuts integration, and song Handoff with iPhone.

 

By Amber Neely
Thursday, August 22, 2019, 05:14 am PT (08:14 am ET)

Spotify has extended the free-trial period it offers for Spotify Premium from one month to three, the default length of Apple’s free trial for Apple Music.

Streaming giant Spotify is now offering three free months to anyone who has yet to try their service, according to a news post on their site.

“Beginning August 22, eligible users will receive the first three months on us for free when they sign up for any Spotify Premium plan,” says Spotify in a statement about the new trial. “You’ll unlock a world of on-demand access to millions of hours of audio content—no matter when you sign up, winter, spring, summer, or fall.”

The trial period currently only extends to individual and student plans and will roll out across Duo and Family in the coming months. The trial doesn’t extend to Headspace or anyone who is billed directly through their carrier, with the exception of those in Japan, Australia, China, and Germany.

Apple has been offering free three-month trials to Apple Music since it’s inception, though they may begin limiting their trial to one month. Apple had learned artists are wary of lengthy trial periods when Taylor Swift protested the three-month trial by withholding her album 1989 from the service. The protest earned artists the ability to be paid for track and album streams through the free trial period.

Students who sign up for Apple Music can get a free six-month trial by visiting Apple’s Support Page. After the trial ends, students pay $4.99 a month to continue their subscription until graduation, which works out to be about half the price of a standard subscription.

Like most other paid music subscriptions, Spotify Premium offers users the ability to listen ad-free, download music to their device, create playlists, skip tracks, and toggle between devices when listening.

 

By Mikey Campbell
Monday, April 15, 2019, 04:20 pm PT (07:20 pm ET)

In a bid to better compete against market competitors Spotify and Apple Music, Amazon is reportedly in negotiations to launch a free, ad-supported music streaming service that will accompany the retail giant’s Prime Music and Music Unlimited products.

Citing sources familiar with the project, Billboard reports Amazon is angling to make the as-yet-unannounced service available for free on Echo devices as soon as next week.

Like competing free-to-listen streaming services from Spotify and Pandora, ads will support Amazon’s offering. The company is initially offering to pay certain record labels on a per stream basis, regardless of advertising revenue generated in by the venture, the report said.

Beyond expectations that the service will launch on Echo devices with a limited catalog, exact programming details are unknown. Some ad-supported products allow users to search for and stream songs on-demand, while others offer a streaming radio-like experience punctuated by commercial breaks.

The service will join Amazon’s stable of music streaming products that include the subscription-based Amazon Music Unlimited and Prime Music, a value-added service for Amazon Prime members.

If and when the service goes live, Amazon would become the second major music streaming service to offer both free and for-pay tiers, at least for Echo owners. Segment leader Spotify currently markets an ad-supported tier used by more than 100 million users worldwide.

News of Amazon’s plans arrives about one month after Apple Music surpassed Spotify as America’s top subscription music service. In February, Apple Music hit 28 million U.S. subscribers, beating out Spotify’s 26 million for the same period.

 

By Roger Fingas
Friday, March 08, 2019, 11:37 am PT (02:37 pm ET)

Apple is reportedly hiring veteran industry artists to redesign the covers of “many thousands” of Apple Music playlists, hoping to make them look less generic.

One example is Gerard Huerta, known for his custom letter work for bands like AC/DC, Blue Oyster Cult, Boston, and Foreigner. His work now adorns Apple Music’s “The Riff” and “Classic Metal” playlists, The Verge said. Another artist, Stole “Moab” Stojmenov, was commissioned to do the covers of “Hip Hop Hits” and “Northern Touch.”

For three playlists — “Dale Reggaeton,” “Puro Jefe,” and “Al Cien Con La Banda” — Apple turned to Carlos Perez. Perez directed the video for the Luis Fonsi song “Despacito,” which now has over 6 billion views on YouTube.

Hundreds of playlists have already seen redesigns, said Apple editorial director Rachel Newman. The rest should follow in the next few months.

When Apple Music launched in 2015 much of its playlist art was boilerplate, particularly for genres outside the mainstream, such as dark ambient. That stood in contrast with its competition, Spotify — that service has long had stylized art, if mostly photos rather than illustrations.