According to a new report from Variety, Apple is among the tech companies negotiating with the NFL for digital rights to Thursday Night Football. Earlier this month, the National Football League inked deals with CBS and NBC to divide the TV rights for Thursday games over the next two seasons, but streaming to non-subscribers was not included in that deal.
According to a report this morning from The Wall Street Journal, Spotify is getting ready to finally launch its video content offerings. The rollout is set to start with the Android app getting video by the end of this week, but the iOS app is following suit by the end of next…
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[Update: Apple’s system status board has been updated to acknowledge the blip and note the issue is over.]
If you’re having issues getting started with Apple Music this morning, you’re not alone. The iOS app started the day by asking subscribers to sign up and join Apple Music (a force quit fixed for me but the problem persists) and iTunes on the Mac is also serving up error messages for a great number of users.
Update: It’s now official.
Building on a report from Billboard last week, Re/code now says that starting on Christmas Eve, The Beatles will be available on Apple Music. The report from last week said that the hit British boy band’s catalog would launch on one streaming service on December 24, but left out specifics.
According to a report out of Bloomberg, Apple is putting a hold on its plans to launch a streaming web TV service amid resistance from cable companies and networks. The report claims that Apple, while not entirely giving up on its plans, is instead shifting focus towards creating a platform on which companies can sell directly to the customer.
Update 10:20PM ET: Jimmy Iovine has issued an apology to BuzzFeed News for his controversial quote regarding him believing women have a “difficult” time finding music:
“We created Apple Music to make finding the right music easier for everyone — men and women, young and old. Our new ad focuses on women, which is why I answered the way I did, but of course the same applies equally for men. I could have chosen my words better, and I apologize.”
Apple executive Jimmy Iovine and popular recording artist Mary J. Blige sat down with the hosts of CBS This Morning earlier today to discuss Apple Music. A couple of months back, Apple debuted a new TV ad for its music streaming service starring Blige along with actresses Kerry Washington and Taraji P. Henson. In the ad, the three stars described Apple music as the “Instant boyfriend mixtape service” and touted that the For You feature is the equivalent of having a boyfriend inside your computer.
Pandora announced today that it’s acquiring Rdio for $75 million with plans to integrate the competitive music streaming service’s technology into its own service pending the usual government approvals.
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Apple’s fourth-generation Apple TV has been available for two weeks now and after using it using it exclusively for all my media consumption, I’ve gathered a handful of thoughts. When Apple announced the device back in September, I was perhaps more excited for it than I was the iPhone 6s. And rightfully so. Tim Cook touted the new Apple TV as the future of television, using superlatives that seemed extreme even for Apple. The device had been a long time coming, too, which further contributed to the hype in my mind that surrounded the release.
As someone who had incredibly high hopes for the fourth-gen Apple TV, what do I think of it two weeks later? Let’s discuss…
Just a week after Plex released its official app for the fourth-generation Apple TV, popular media player VLC has today announced that it is looking for beta testers for its app. Details on the app’s features are still sparse, but we can only assume that it will let you play all sorts of media formats on the device.
CNN Money has today shared the second part of its interview with Apple SVP Eddy Cue. In the first part of the interview, shared last week, Cue noted of how the Apple TV has graduated from the “hobby” stage and sold more than 20 million units. While sales of the new fourth-gen box are unclear at this point, Cue did hint at some future features come to the device in part two of the interview, as well as Apple’s ultimate goal with the tvOS platform.
The big question mark over Apple Music has been how many customers would choose to try it out, and – crucially – how many of them would be willing to pay for the service once the free trial ended. Tim Cook answered both questions yesterday, revealing that the service currently has 15M subscribers, of whom 6.5M are paying customers.
There are still plenty of unknowns, of course. We don’t know the exact split between individual and family subscriptions (though family subs were around 18% back in August), and we don’t know how subscribers map out across the countries – both of which we’d need to know to accurately calculate how much Apple is earning from the service.
But if we do a back-of-an-envelope guesstimate and say that the split between solo and family accounts is around 80/20 and that the costlier countries like those in Europe cancel out the cheaper ones like India, then an average monthly subscription of $11 times 6.5M customers gives us $72M a month. Multiply that by 12 months, and we can get $858M Apple Music revenue per year. Given that this is all very rough and ready, let’s call it a billion dollars a year in round numbers …
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I don’t plan on subscribing to Apple Music when my free trial of the service runs out. It’s not really something I care to pay $10 a month for. I’m not an avid music listener; I sometimes put some hip hop on in the car, but that’s about it. For me, paying $10 every month for access to a large library of music that I don’t plan to use to the fullest extent just isn’t worth it, and I prefer to own what music I do listen to.
I also hate the idea of subscription software, like Adobe’s current Creative Cloud offering. Like my music, I’d rather own my software outright than pay a monthly fee to have access to it. The same is true for just about every other subscription service that’s out there.
So it might surprise you to find out that I think Apple should get into the TV and movie subscription business. What’s more, I’d be willing to pay every single month for access to that service. Why the difference of opinion on this topic? Keep reading and find out.
Earlier today a new survey over Apple Music usage surfaced with data over Apple’s new venture into the streaming music space, and Apple has decided to respond (vaguely) to at least one data point. MusicWatch’s survey results said that some 61 percent of its participants have turned off the auto-renew function on Apple Music, hinting that they would not be paying subscribers after the three-month free trial period. With the message being potentially interpreted that only 39 percent of current Apple Music users planning to become paid users this fall, Apple has responded to the survey by clarifying (somewhat) that a higher 79 percent of users that started the trial are continuing to use it, leaving only 21 percent of Apple’s 11 million subscribers as defectors.
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While Apple is expected to unveil a new Apple TV set-top box at an event next month, its rumored internet TV service will not make an appearance at that event according to a new report out of Bloomberg. The report says that Apple, while it originally wanted to launch its streaming TV service this year, has decided to push the service back until some point in 2016. We also reported earlier this year that Apple’s streaming TV service would likely launch after the refreshed hardware.
Apple wants us to believe that its Music streaming service is the best thing to happen to the industry since iTunes was launched. If one report is to be believed, things might not be taking off as well as we might expect from an Apple product.
With a product as young as Apple Music, it can be hard to track how well things are going, especially since there are no paying subscribers yet. But, DashGo, a distributor of indie music has been tracking its Apple Music streams versus Spotify and seen quite a difference in the amount of time spent listening to music between either service. Apple Music streams are 1/25th the volume of streams DashGo sees from Spotify.
Kamcord, a popular platform that lets game developers add gameplay recording features to their mobile apps, is today taking its first step into live streaming. The move is a notable one as competitors such as live game streaming service Twitch, now owned by Amazon, move into the mobile space and live streaming apps like Periscope and Meerkat begin to gain traction among users.
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Many have praised Apple Music’s launch this week, although the focus has largely been on the free component of the service, a 24/7 streaming radio station called Beats 1. But how are users reacting to the rest of the Apple Music service? It received a lot of positive reviews in the media, but users have noticed some user experience issues and technical hiccups with Apple Music that might keep them from making a switch from the competition when the service’s free three month trial is up. Since the issues aren’t getting a lot of attention from the main stream media, I wanted to share everything we hate about Apple Music so far and what Apple needs to fix before converting potential switchers:
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SoundHound, a popular sound recognition app for detecting and searching for songs and other audio clips, today gets an update that brings integration with the just launched Apple Music streaming service.
With the updated SoundHound app landing today, users will now get an “Apple Music Listen Now” link to listen to a song on the streaming service (when available) through the home screen, song pages, and throughout the app.
Other competitive apps, such as Shazam, have already updated with similar functionality. The apps previously only linked users to purchase songs through iTunes and other services, but also promote competitive streaming services for listening such as Spotify and Rdio. For SoundHound, users will find an Apple Music streaming link next to songs through various features, including: music identification, personalized History, Top Charts, or Music Maps.
Interestingly, SoundHound will also be promoting Apple Music’s Beats 1 live radio station:
SoundHound is also showcasing Apple Music’s new global radio streaming station Beats 1. Users will see a “Beats 1 Radio” row within song pages, enabling easy, one-tap access to listen to the streaming radio broadcast, which features various artists hosting programs and full-time DJs, led by ex-BBC host Zane Lowe.
You can grab SoundHound on the App Store now.
The New York Times reports that AC/DC’s catalog of music will be available on Apple Music starting on launch day tomorrow. In addition to Apple Music, the band’s music will also be available on services such as Spotify and Rdio starting as early as Tuesday. AC/DC to date has never offered its music on streaming services and only joined iTunes 3 years ago in late-2012.
Following Taylor Swift’s public criticism of Apple’s decision not to pay artists and labels for plays during Apple Music’s three-month free trial period, Eddy Cue took to Twitter to announce a swift policy change. The executive assured Swift that music producers will now be paid for every play on the Apple Music service, including those that are part of a user’s free trial.
There has been a lot of speculation regarding what artists will be available on Apple Music. Earlier this week, it was reported that artists signed to indie labels, like Adele and the Arctic Monkeys, had still not signed on to appear on the service. BuzzFeed now reports that Taylor Swift’s hit album ‘1989’ will not be available on Apple Music either. This doesn’t come as a huge surprise, though, seeing that ‘1989’ is currently not available from any existing streaming services like Beats and Spotify.
We’ve already heard several times that Apple has been facing investigations from both the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission over how it negotiated with labels for Apple Music. Now, the New York State’s attorney general has posted a letter from Universal Music Group in which it claims that it is not doing anything illegal to prohibit the access of free music services by the consumer. From the letter:
UMG does not currently have any agreements with Apple Inc. (i) to impede the availability of third-party free or ad-supported music streaming services, or (ii) that limit, restrict, or prevent UMG from licensing its recorded music repertoire to any third- party music streaming service on any terms that UMG may choose. Nor does UMG intend to enter into any such agreements.
Apple has been accused of using its large pull with labels to put other streaming music services like Spotify at a disadvantage. One specific example of this that has been pointed out earlier is Apple forcing labels to reduce the music that it makes available to ad-supported services in an effort to bolster the selection available on Apple Music.
Specific details about Apple Music are still rolling out after the iPhone maker announced its new subscription music service at WWDC yesterday. Music quality for streaming and offline playback is bound to be one concern for potential members and it appears Apple will be taking a conservative approach, according to Slashgear.
Apple Music will be at 256 kbps. In comparison, Beats Music uses a 320 kbps bitrate, as does Spotify, while Tidal offers a high-bitrate option.
By default, Beats Music only streamed at the higher 320kbps MP3 quality on the web and when the setting was changed within the mobile app. Download quality, however, did default to the higher quality version of tracks when available.
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Bloomberg provides some detail on our report that Apple is working to dramatically upgrade its cloud infrastructure as it prepares to launch its Apple Music streaming service. The company is said to be working on designing its own storage and network equipment, rather than relying exclusively on third-party companies, and to build its own private fiber optic links between its key data centers in California, Nevada, North Carolina and Oregon.
Apple’s data centers currently use mostly off-the-shelf equipment: HP servers, Cisco switches and NetApp storage. Now it is working on designing its own equipment, to increase efficiency and reduce costs …
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