Apple’s Music Streaming Service

[Jorge-Vieira]

EU clears Apple of anti-competitive behaviour with Apple Music

Earlier this year, ahead of Apple Music’s initial announcement, the European Commission launched an investigation in to Apple’s business practises leading up to the streaming service’s launch. At the time, the EU suspected that Apple may be resorting to anti-competitive tactics in order to get an edge over competing companies.
Today, the EU Commission gave Apple the all clear, after its investigation failed to find any evidence that Apple was using its influence to strong-arm services like Spotify out of the market. While no illegal activity was found during the investigation, the EU will continue to see how things go by monitoring the market.

The EU’s investigation may not have found any traces of anti-competitive behaviour but Apple isn’t out of the woods yet as over in the US, the Federal Trade Commission is also investigating Apple and its deals leading up to the launch of Apple Music.
This all comes shortly after last week’s news that Apple Music has already managed to sway 11 million people in to using the service, though given the three-month free trial on offer, the large number isn’t too surprising. We still don’t know how many people will stick around when Apple Music turns in to a paid service at the end of September, alongside the launch of iOS 9 and the new iPhones.

Noticia:
http://www.kitguru.net/apple/matthew...h-apple-music/

[Jorge-Vieira]

New Apple Music TV Ads Are All About Discovery – Watch Them Here

Apple Music is far from being a hit among consumers, and with the Cupertino company having a long way to go to achieve great success, all efforts are being directed towards the marketing muscle which Apple has under its belt. Now, the Cupertino tech giant has released three new TV spots to advertise its newly found music streaming service, and you can watch them all here.

The three new TV ads focus strictly on music discovery and a way to connect with artists, the latter being all about Apple’s ‘Connect’ social network like initiative for following artists and their updates. The ads feature artists such as Kygo, James Bay, amongst a variety of others.
You can check out all three ads right here.

Currently, judging by how things stand for Apple, it’s a clear sign that getting people onboard the Apple Music bandwagon is going to be a daunting task. After all, the Cupertino music streaming service is well in its infancy, and tutoring people on how to wrap their heads around it is nonetheless a challenging task, which Apple aims to accomplish using finely crafted TV ads, such as the ones embedded above.
Apple has tossed all its cards on its new music streaming service as it’s the way of the future, according to the company itself and general public alike. The idea behind the whole service is: why pay for individual tracks when you can listen to the whole library for a one-off monthly fee? And based on that idea, there’s a subscription model which users have to subscribe to, after which they’ll be granted access to millions of songs in Apple’s iTunes library.
Currently, Apple Music is in its trial stage, after which users will be required to pay a sum of $9.99 to keep things rolling. Apple has even tossed in a family sharing plan for a fee of $14.99, in which up to 6 family members can share a single Apple Music account.
The real test of Apple Music will begin when the trial period ends for users, after which they have to make the stern choice of either sticking with Cupertino’s music streaming service, or jump ship and head straight to competing services such as Spotify. And at this point, it’s hard to gauge how things will pan out, but we’re bound to know for sure when the trial period comes to an end for every user around the globe.

Noticia:
http://wccftech.com/apple-music-tv-a...#ixzz3j4qR5wUV

[Jorge-Vieira]

Apple Music losing customers

Jobs' Mob denies it
Apple Music is losing customers according to a survey of 5,000 US consumers.

The survey conducted by MusicWatch shows that Apple is failing to interest iOS users and that only 11 per cent of them have tried it. We presume it is mostly because they have not worked out how to switch it on.
However of that 11 percent, 48 percent have stopped using it already. It also said that 61 percent of trial users had turned off the auto-renewal option, so they don't have to pay for it when the free trial is over.
Apple was so cross about the survey it did something it never normally does – it commented. It claimed that 79 percent of people who signed up for Apple Music are still using it.
It would appear the survey had Cupertino a little rattled.
It was not all bad but it does show that Apple has a few problems making people aware of the product.
If only 77 of iOS users are even aware of Apple Music Jobs' Mob only needs to get the message out there. Although we are uncertain how much more the service could get. It has been marketed for free by the US tech press, and Taylor Swift for months.
Some of the Tame Apple Press are even trying to spin these figures claiming that the survey data suggests that Apple Music will have 3.4 million paying subscribers come the end of the trial, which would make it the third most popular paid streaming service below Spotify and Deezer.

Noticia:
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/38502-a...sing-customers

[Jorge-Vieira]

Apple: Just 21% of Apple Music testers have left the service so far

After reports that Apple Music members are jumping ship, Apple has issued a statement saying just 21 percent of users have stopped using the streaming music service.

image: http://imagescdn.tweaktown.com/news/...ervice-far.jpg

The MusicWatch survey indicated around 48 percent of people testing the service are jumping ship. In its survey of 5,000 users, 28 percent are Spotify Premium members, 11 percent use Spotify free users, and six percent listen to ad-supported Pandora.

In late July, it was reported Apple Music had 10 million users - and Apple reported 11 million users in early August - are currently enjoying a free three-month trial of the new streaming service. Spotify has 20 million paid subscribers and about 55 million free users.

Apple Music may have won over Taylor Swift, but trying to get users to leave Pandora, Spotify, and other services could be extremely difficult.

Noticia:
http://www.tweaktown.com/news/47181/...far/index.html

[Jorge-Vieira]

Apple censors charity concert for a quick buck

PR... Apple has heard of it
Fruity cargo cult Apple slumped to a new low over the weekend after it appears to have threatened a law suit if the popular beat combo artist Drake was heard on a rival music streaming service rapping at a charity gig.

Drake performed at the Lil WeezyAna festival in New Orleans, which was being streamed by Tidal.
The event raised money for the Carter Fund, which supports after school programmes set up for underprivileged kids in the wake of hurricane Katrina. We guess Apple does not like under privileged kids much because they can't afford the expensive toys that it makes.
The New York Post reported that Apple had threatened a $20m lawsuit if Drake's set was broadcast by Tidal, on the grounds that it has an exclusive contract with the musician relating to its recently-launched Apple Music streaming service.
Tidal was furious and accused Apple of blocking it from streaming video of a charity-festival set by rapper Drake, but the star's manager has rushed to his 20 million dollar contract's defence by accusing the service of a "publicity stunt."
The Post said that legal letters have been sent to Tidal warning that Drake cannot appear on the Tidal stream of the festival, either solo or part of a group, and if the warning was ignored, the liabilities could be up to $20 million.
The story was quickly challenged by Drake's manager, Future the Prince [no really], who flatly denied that Apple had threatened legal action.
"The decision to not have Drake participate in the Tidal steam has nothing to do with Apple or Drake's deal. Point blank, 100 per cent. I made a business decision," he told BuzzFeed News.
"Apple doesn't have the power to stop us from being part of a live stream... If you're going to say something about the situation publicly, you should tell the truth. They saw the opportunity to take a situation and spin it in their favour as a publicity stunt."
Well it is a sensible business decision to refuse to let your star perform on someone else's stream if Apple growls at you. However I would say that the Tidal letter appears a little too specific for it just to be made up.

Noticia:
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/38599-a...r-a-quick-buck

[Jorge-Vieira]

Apple Reports 6.5 Million Paid Subscribers For Apple Music; Spotify Holds Strong With 20 Million

It's taken Apple just three and a half months to amass 6.5 million paid subscribers to its streaming music service. That's nearly a third of the number of users who pay a monthly fee to Spotify, which is sitting at 20 million paid subscribers after seven years in the streaming business. As you imagine, Tim Cook is pleased with how things are going.

Cook revealed the 6.5 million figure while speaking at The Wall Street Journal's WSJDLive 2015 event. According to Cook, "people love the human curation" that Apple Music offers, noting that prior to launching the service he was tired of hearing the same songs being played over and over again (on other services).

image: http://hothardware.com/ContentImages...pple_Music.jpg

Apple Music launched at the end of June to much fanfare. The service runs $9.99 per month for unlimited on-demand streaming access to millions of songs, though you can test it out free of charge for three months. Millions have done exactly that -- Apple announced in early August that it signed up 11 million trial subscribers.

Nearly half of those trial members have now quit the service, which makes it even more impressive that Apple Music has nearly a third as many subscribers as rival Spotify in such a short period of time.

FBR & Co. analyst Daniel Ives notes that 6.5 million subscribers is better than expected, adding that Apple is "off to a solid start" with its streaming service. Going forward, he says Apple should focus on converting more trial members while simultaneously "adding unique content and services" over the next six months.

Noticia:
http://hothardware.com/news/apple-re...S72KWe3KSWV.99

[Jorge-Vieira]

Apple losing its music collectors

Even Wired seems to think so
Apple is losing its music fanbase thanks to some rather silly decisions and even the Tame Apple Press is agreeing that it is happening.

Wired, which normally runs adverts for Apple masquerading as serious journalism, ran a yarn saying that Apple fanboys were irate about the way Jobs’ Mob was undermining music collectors.
The fruity cargo cult has only enhanced services that promote its awful Apple Music, app downloads, and iCloud. Those who have spent a fortune on terabytes of MP3s who want a solid app to catalogue and organize their libraries have been completely ignored.
The problem for such fanboys in leaving iTunes is that they don’t really think that anyone else makes better software because they have had to chant so many times to their friends that “Apple is for music” that they believe it.
TJ Connelly who is a DJ for the Boston Red Sox, the New England Patriots, WZBC, has just penned a step-by-step manual explaining how he deleted his entire iTunes library and is recommending others do the same.
Connelly said that Apple made some pretty dumb decisions including frequent function-shuffling. Then when Apple bought in extras no one wanted such as Genius, Ping, Movies, Podcasts, Ringtones and iTunes University.

“They just kept adding more crap into the app... I don’t even know how many things just showed up in the task bar that I had to turn off. Then with an iPhone mobile apps also end up in the music player to control your phone.”

The last straw was Apple’s latest attempts to back up users’ libraries to iCloud which was done with Jobs’ Mobs traditional autocracy backed with poor networking software.
Users found their MP3s overwritten with replacement files encoded with digital rights management or with alternate versions of the same songs.
Apparently Apple forgot to use iTunes Match, and some found their entire collection copied over with 6 million copies of one track. Some were blocked from listening to their MP3s on their iPhones until they docked the phone to their computer and renewed the license agreements.
Connelly tried Swinsian, one of the many music players available that will run on Macs and found it was much better particularly when it came to long-term file management.
It was probably this reason that Apple refused to allow OS X to supports MediaMonkey, a popular PC alternative to iTunes. In the meantime Swinsian is supposed to be iTunes’ without the bloat.
Still if Wired is correct, then others will soon follow and all because Jobs' Mob wants its followers to carry on chasing the next shiny thing rather than giving them what they paid for.

Noticia:
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/39266-a...sic-collectors

[Jorge-Vieira]

Apple Music exec fails to understand women

More bildge from Jimmy Iovine
Fruity cargo cult Apple revealed that it is essentially a religion for fanboys rather than fangirls, after a top executive demonstrated a complete lack of understanding what women actually do.

Apple Music executive Jimmy Iovine told CBS he found that women “found it difficult” to find what sort of music they liked because they were too busy thinking about boys.
Iovine joined CBS to hawk Apple Play’s curated playlists which the music streaming service provides and was talking about why he used three women in the adverts for the service.
Iovine had an odd explanation for why he chose the three.

“I just thought of a problem: Girls are sitting around talking about boys. Or complaining about boys, when they have their heart broken, or whatever. And they need music for that, right? It’s hard to find the right music. Not everybody knows a DJ.”

What? Women are sitting at home focusing on boys all the time and they can’t find the right music? And you bought shedloads of advertising in that socially retarded premise?
Needless to say Iovine’s comments went down like a bucket of cold sick among “real women” rather than the verson in his head, who do not spend their time pining over boys and really did not like being patronised by an Apple exec.
Firstly there were those women DJs who can mix it with the best of them who felt that for someone who claimed to know about the music industry completely Iovine forgot that. Then there were women who didn't like boys. It appeared that were even those who felt by indicating what he thought women wanted Iovine was giving them a good reason not to use the service.
After all who wanted someone like Iovine selecting what women wanted when he clearly didn’t have a clue.
“Thank you for dumbing down women everywhere, Mr. Iovine. As if we couldn’t use our tiny brains to discover music all on our own,” was one Tweet we saw.
Yep, you can almost hear the sound of Apple’s PR taking time out from thinking how she can please her man to slash her wrists. Needless to say she didn't. She grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and made him bang out an apology to all women everywhere.

Noticia:
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/39297-a...derstand-women

[Jorge-Vieira]

Apple Giving Away $60 Apple Music / iTunes Gift Card With Beats Headphones

Apple has kicked off a new promotion in which the company is offering a free $60 Apple Music / iTunes Gift Card with select Beats headphones.

When it comes to giving away stuff for free, Apple is not a very generous giver. But at times, the company does tend to surprise users in ways one can’t imagine. And today happens to be one of those days, as the Cupertino giant has announced a rather enticing offer, in which it will throw in a $60 value ‘Apple Music / iTunes Gift Card’ if you purchase a select pair of Beats headphones.
The pair of Beats headphones that qualify for this offer are as follows:

• Beats Pro
• Betas Studio
• Beats Studio Wireless
• Beats Solo2
• Beats Solo2 Wireless
• Beats Powerbeats2
• Beats Powerbeats2 Wireless
• Beats Tour2

Apart from the headphones listed above, the offer is also valid if you’re purchasing the Beats Pill+ speaker as well.
The offer is available for users who are shopping online or from a brick-and-mortar store. Once you are done shipping for your pair of headphones, you’ll receive your $60 gift card at the end.

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The offer will end on the 28th of December, and we suggest users to make their move during this time period to decide whether or not they should grab themselves the above qualifying Beats headphones. After all, a free $60 gift card which you can utilize towards apps, games, movies, TV shows, Apple Music is something you do not want to miss out on.
The offer has kicked off right on cue for the holiday season, and we somewhat wished that this deal was available on other products as well apart from just a pair of headphones. Besides, not everyone is going to spend their top dollar on just a pair of Beats headphones would they? Of course not. But hey, it’s better than being offered nothing at all, and Apple is known for not putting up such deals on a regular basis, so who are we to complain.
Apple Music is a brand new music streaming service to come out of the Cupertino camp. While the service is still in its infancy, the above move by Apple is a great way to boost numbers further and add a stamp of approval.
If you were looking for a slightly mundane offer for this holiday season, then Apple has you covered. Also be sure to let us know whether or not you’ll be making use of this offer.
Source

Noticia:
http://wccftech.com/apple-giving-awa...#ixzz3tMIMr1qn

[Jorge-Vieira]

Apple raises iTunes Match/Apple Music library limit to 100K tracks

Apple has gone ahead and raised the iTunes Match and Apple Music library limit from 25,000 tracks all the way up to 100,000. This update has been a long time coming, with Apple’s Vice President of software, Eddy Cue, revealing back in June that this feature was being planned out.
This feature was originally promised after the initial launch of Apple Music, Apple’s own music streaming service, based on the subscription model in order to help combat Spotify. iTunes Match on the other hand is a feature that allows users to upload their music to iCloud and have access to it across multiple devices.

Apple has not yet updated its support page to reflect the new library upload limit, but in a statement sent through to Macrumours, Eddy Cue confirmed that Apple has in-fact begun rolling out support for 100K libraries on its two music services.
While not everyone is a fan of Apple, iTunes is still a very popular bit of software for music listeners who have their own offline libraries, so this feature will be useful to more than just iOS or Mac users in the long run.

Noticia:
http://www.kitguru.net/apple/matthew...o-100k-tracks/

[Jorge-Vieira]

Taylor Swift really loves Apple Music, offers Sydney concert exclusive

Last week Taylor Swift played the Sydney leg of her 1989 World Tour, seeing approximately 76,000 fans flock to the ANZ Stadium to enjoy one of the world's biggest artists in her prime. If you missed out on the action or want to re-live the experience, Taylor Swift has once again entered an Apple Music exclusive deal, offering this content solely to subscribers of this service.


Due to her pulling all content of Spotify, it seems that Taylor Swift and Apple Music have now become best buddies, offering up this new experience on December 21, local time. While Taylor Swift is certainly one of the biggest artists on the globe right now, her sole streaming rights with Apple Music must be an extremely good deal to keep her around, seeing other services like Spotify and Rdio left in the dust.

Noticia:
http://www.tweaktown.com/news/48956/...ive/index.html

[Jorge-Vieira]

Steve Jobs killed the music industry

Industry's tallest tree cut down by a herring
The Apple Messiah Steve Jobs is responsible for the destruction of the music industry, so everytime you hear Justin Bieber or Taylor Swift or that god awful Adel it is apparently his fault, according to Pandora supremo Mike Herring.

Herring said that music has had a rubbish 15 years ever since Steve Jobs developed the iTunes MP3 Store.

He told an earnings call: “Steve Jobs eviscerated the music industry with the launch of iTunes and it’s been downhill ever since. And the download was supposed to save it, that didn’t happen.”

Tragically he did not say how Jobs was responsible and although he might be right we can find other reasons. In the last 15 years there have been very few new artists who have anything meaningful to say. It is sad day when the charts are led by a self-obsessed whining Apple fangirl moaning about another self-obsessed bloke dumping them (Taylor) or high ranking YouTube dubbers (Bieber).
It is these musical runts who are causing people my generation to wake up terrified that they have become their dads and don’t think anyone has made any decent music for the last decade. It is really possible that music piracy has fallen because no one is making any product worth stealing.
Herring also slammed Apple Music, the technology giant’s music streamer which attracted practically no one and those who did sign up left in droves after their free period was up.
He argued that this is a low number considering that hundreds of millions of phones that come with the app installed.

“I guess a few million people do [subscribe], but the reality is you want to get people to choose to do, that is a much bigger trick. You have to have a great product.”

However Herring faces is own terrible time. The Copyright Royalty Board might decides to increase royalties paid to labels and artists. At the moment Herring pays 0.14 cents per stream and wants to lower the rate to 0.11 cents per stream. Royalty distributor SoundExchange wants a 79 percent increase in the rate to 0.25 cents per stream. In Q3, Pandora paid 40 percent of its revenue to labels according to Herring.
Herring said that Pandora would “continue to operate very effectively no matter what the rates are.”
Maybe the reason there has not been any decent music in the last 15 years is because in addition to the parasitic studios there are now music streaming outfits leeching the money out of the system. A musician has to sell millions to make enough to buy a McDonald’s happy meal in royalties.
No wonder anyone who is intelligent enough to string together decent lyrics and a tune has worked out they can make more money busking or on the pub circuit.
The stage is yours Miss Swift
"You Belong With Me"
You're on the phone with your Mum
She's upset, she's going off about something that you said
'Cause she doesn't get iFart is funny like I do.

I'm in the room, it's a typical Tuesday night.
I'm listening to the kind of music ya Mum doesn't like.
And she'll never Coldplay like I do.

Your girlfriend uses Android
I have an iPhone
She's has a Surface
And I'm on an iPad
Dreaming about the day when I wake up and find
That what you're looking for is a girl with overpriced tech.

Can't you see
That Jobs is the one
Who understands you?
Been here all along.
So, why can't you see
Apple’s your cup of tea.

Walk in the streets with you in your worn out Zenfone
I can't help thinking this is how it ought to be.
Looking at your interface thinking to myself,
"Hey, isn't this easy?"

And you've got a smile
That could light up this whole town.
Is it just because it cost you nothing
And your phone bill is right down?

You say you're fine I know you better than that.
Hey, what you doing with a phone like that?

You use an Android
I have an iPhone
You have a Surface
And I'm on an iPad
Dreaming about the day when I wake up and find
That what you're looking for is a girl with overpriced tech.

Can't you see
That Jobs is the one
Who understands you?
Been here all along.
So, why can't you see
Apple’s your cup of tea.


Standing by and waiting at the iStore.
All this time how could you not know, baby?
Apple’s my cup of tea,
It belongs with me.

[Instrumental]

Oh, I remember I drove to your house
Apple Maps couldn’t find it.
I ended up somewhere in Belarus
You know your laptop from Dell.
Works far too well,
But is it thin and made from tin? .
Think I know where you belong,
It is in the iStore with me.

Can't you see
That Jobs is the one
Who understands you?
Been here all along.
So, why can't you see
Apple’s your cup of tea.

Standing by and waiting at the iStore.
All this time how could you not know, baby?


Apple’s my cup of tea,
It belongs with me.

It belongs with me.

Have you ever thought just maybe
Apple’s my cup of tea?
Apple belongs with me.

Noticia:
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/39469-s...music-industry

[Jorge-Vieira]

Beatles coming to Spotify, Apple Music, and more streaming services

It's been a long time coming, but The Beatles music catalogue is finally arriving on streaming services. As of Christmas Eve (December 24) 12:01 AM local time, you'll be able to listen to the catalogue (including "essential" collections like Past Masters) via Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Google Play, Microsoft Groove, Amazon Prime, Rhapsody, Slacker, and Tidal. Even better: it will be available globally.


The Beatles split in 1970 but have remained an enduring force ever since.

They arrived on iTunes in 2010. Media research firm Midia believes coming to streaming services has taken this long for the band because they didn't want to hurt the sales of reissues and retrospectives, and that they've been waiting for the right time to get the best deal.

Noticia:
http://www.tweaktown.com/news/49187/...ces/index.html

[Jorge-Vieira]

Apple Music Reportedly Tops 10 Million Paying Subscribers

So Apple Music is already half as large as Spotify’s paid userbase already. Any thoughts on the service? Google Music and Poweramp guy here, so no comment.


The growth of Apple Music relative to Spotify is impressive; it took six years for Spotify to report 10 million paid subscribers. Apple Music has achieved that number in a little of six months. However, it is important to remember that much of Spotify’s business is derived from free users as most customers use the free ad-supported version.

Noticia:
http://www.hardocp.com/news/2016/01/...s#.VpPOf1Jv4vc

[Jorge-Vieira]

RIP Free iTunes Radio

Apple confirmed a while back that it will be laying to rest free iTunes Radio streaming by the end of this month, or more specifically January 29th. The day has arrived, and the iTunes Radio service is no longer a free affair, until or unless you become a paying Apple Music subscriber.

iTunes Radio Is No Longer Free – Pay Up If You Want To Keep Streaming

iTunes Radio came into being with the release of iOS 7, and has since served up millions of users worldwide. But oddly enough, Apple has taken the decision to put an end to the ‘free’ bit of the whole deal, and now require users to sign up for an Apple Music subscription (individual or family plan) to get the ball rolling.
If you’re not an Apple Music subscriber, then you’ll be pleased to learn that all is not lost yet, as you can still listen to Apple’s newfound radio station – Beats 1 – without tossing in a single dime. The station streams music 24/7, live, and is adorned by shows hosted by a wide range of celebrities such as Zane Lowe.
Users who are in ownership of an iOS device will be met with the following prompt as soon as they tap on the ‘Radio’ tab at the bottom of the display:
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You have two options once you see the prompt, as you can see from the screenshot above, either you can join Apple Music and continue streaming iTunes Radio, or you can just tap ‘Not Now’ to not do anything at all, if that’s the route you wish to take.
While we did enjoy the luxury of Apple’s iTunes radio service in the start, but the fire died down given Apple’s lack of improvement to the service, and of course, the launch of Apple Music, which essentially grants users access to millions of iTunes track for a month fee of either $9.99 or $14.99 if you’re going for a family option.
If you’re a user looking for a good music streaming service, and happen to be in the ownership of an iOS device or a Mac, then we highly recommend giving Cupertino’s streaming service a shot. You get the perk of listening to Apple’s vast iTunes library as well as exclusive content from artists such as Taylor Swift and others. And we’re certain Apple will keep on expanding its service to the point where it’s absolutely ready to trump its competition.

Noticia:
http://wccftech.com/rip-free-itunes-radio/