Apple Music
Apple Music is one of Apple’s most exciting announcements from this year's WWD (Worldwide Developers Conference). The new all-in-one streaming music service will provide paid subscribers to access to Apple's entire music catalog, a live global radio station hosted in LA, New York City and London, a social platform for artist to connect to fans, and the ability to share new music.
Apple Music will work a lot like its well-known competitors, Spotify and Rdio. In addition to unlimited streaming music for paid users, users can create playlists and listen to curated playlists by celebrities. Unlike Spotify and Rdio, Apple Music will not provide a free, ad-supported tier and will charge users around $10 per month. Beginning June 30 however, consumers can try Apple Music for free in a three month trial. In addition to a monthly plan, Apple is offering a family plan of $14.99 per month, which provides service for up to six family members.
Apple comes into the music streaming business as a major threat. Not only does it have the dominant name recoginition and mega celebrity support, Apple already has an army of devices (iPhones, iPads, iPods, Macs) and a popular music store (iTunes) ready to support its arrival. In addition Apple will feature Beats 1 radio. This is a live radio station hosted in Los Angeles with DJ Zane Lowe, New York with DJ Edbro Darden, and London with Julie Adenuga. It will have new content, including exclusive interviews and guest performers. This Internet radio will stream to over 100 countries. Also featured in Apple Music are the genre specific radio stations, similar to those found on iTunes Radio. Subscribers will have unlimited skips, while users using the feature for free will have restrictions, along with ads. Unlike your typical music streaming networks, Apple Music is picking your songs and playlists based on human curation. They are not using algorithm or metadata for like based songs, but instead are going with handpicked content.
Apple Music will be available for Apple devices by June with plans to rollout on the Android platform by fall.
