By Brandon Shaw
Dear Apple,
I wanted to love Apple Music, I really did. It had all the potential in the world, and with all the hype surrounding the WWDC keynote, I watched with cautious optimism. Ultimately, though, I was disappointed. Here’s why.
The Good
First off, let me tell you what you did well.
Large Catalogue
You launched a music streaming service built on the back of the iTunes Music Store. This puts you at an advantage over other streaming services like Spotify and Tidal, which have smaller libraries. So right out of the gate, you have a LOT of music ready to go.
Limited Free Tier
I even hesitate to call it a “tier”. You’ve set your price at $9.99/mo. Perfect. And you’ve let users have a 3 month free trial to test it out. Great. Is there a fully free tier? No! While this move is surely going to be controversial, I’m with you Apple, I got your back. Spotify’s free tier is it’s achillies’ heel that causes the dreadfully low artists payouts. So $9.99/mo. (or $14.99 for families) with a 3 month trial is a pretty great middle ground. Well done.
Unfortunately, this brings a close to the “Good” section.
The Bad
Artist Payouts
What you didn’t explain (and absolutely SHOULD have) was how you’re going to pay artists. You toted out music celebrities to explain how the music industry is a fragmented mess, announced that the entire iTunes music catalog is now streaming, and failed to explain how that works. If an artist’s music in iTunes is going to see a dip in sales from this (which it will), how are you going to make up the difference?
Ping Already Failed
Hey, remember your distant cousin, Ping? It was supposed to build social networking features into iTunes, so you can hear directly from your favorite artists. And it was a dud. It launched in 2010, and closed only 2 years later. Rebuilding Ping into Apple Music is an interesting idea, but considering that artists are already connecting with fans on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Vine, Snapchat, and every other social network that means that this is going to be a tough sell. I like the idea, I just don’t think it’s going to take off.
That Keynote
I’ll give it to you, Apple Music, your keynote wasn’t as bad as the Tidal keynote, but that’s really not saying much.
Why did you bring out Jimmy Iovine? Why did you have a video with Trent Reznor? And why the hell did you bring out Drake? They are terrible public speakers, and Drake literally said nothing. Look, I get it, you need some celebrity star power. But as we learned from the Tidal keynote, musicians are terrible public speakers!
Not only that, you spent way too much time demoing the app. It’s 2015. You can just say, “yeah we have an app, and it does everything you expect it to.” We didn’t need to see how to make playlists, sort through albums, or see how to play individual tracks. We already know how to do that. The extended demo was long, boring, and frankly a little insulting.
The Ugly
I’ma give it you straight, Apple: the Apple Music app is ugly. It looks like the regular music app on the iPhone (which no one uses anymore). It feels like it was designed 2 years ago with iOS 7 (because it was) and doesn’t feel hip or cool at all. Just look at the interface differences between Apple Music, Spotify, and even Tidal. One of these things is not like the other.
The Meh
Siri integration is cool, Beats One is a radio station (interesting throwback), and because it’s Apple Music, you’ll have deeper integration into the Apple ecosystem. Also, I know, this is a developer conference, so that stuff matters to them probably. Cool, but not revolutionary.
The Missed
I just sat through a two and half hour keynote, mainly waiting to hear about Apple Music. The rest of the time was spent talking about upcoming features to OS X, iOS and WatchOS. As an Apple user, my interest was piqued several times, but for much of it, I found myself thinking “BORING! this is nerdy developer stuff.”
I don’t care about how Swift 2 is going to be open source, or how the Metal layer allows developers to get better integration into the Open GL layers of the core Cocoa layer (or whatever).
But then I realized, this is a developer conference. That crap isn’t meant for me anyway. It’s meant for developers. Apple pours a TON of money into development of their SDKs, APIs, and other acronyms that I don’t understand. They want people to develop for their platforms, and they want to make it as easy and profitable for them as possible.
The biggest missed opportunity was for Apple to treat Artists and Musicians like Developers.
We were told that Apple has paid $30 Billion to developers through the App Store. That’s amazing! If I were a developer, I would be super pumped about developing for Apple platforms. Not only would they give me great tools that I can use to easily build great apps (SDKs, easier programming language), but their App Store is straightforward, and I know how I would get paid!
Similarly, musicians are the ones who are creating the content for Apple Music. But zero time was spent telling Artists about the tools they can use to maximize the platform (other than the zombified Ping). No one even knows how they’re going to pay. I understand that it’s a different business model, but at least give us something.
Wrap Up
Apple, you need to start treating musicians and artists the way you treat your software developers. You can do this by giving artists and musicians great tools they can use to easily build awesome things with a clear idea of how to make money. Right now, they’re an after thought. Give us some more info, and don’t be afraid to geek out a little with us!
Also, I’m sorry, but putting a singer on stage with backing tracks for the launch of Apple Music is like having some guy demo his front side user-facing bus server he made with Ruby 1.0. Or something.
Brandon Shaw is a bearded, coffee-drinking, blogging, freelance musician in the Los Angeles area. This article originally appeared on his blog, Startup Musician.
66 responses to “What Apple Music says about how Apple views musicians”
This “review” is extremely unfair given the product isn’t even released yet. It boils down to the author taking issue with the style of the keynote, (yes, it could have been better). Then he rambles on about streaming services paying artists less (although he likes the end user pricing, huh?). You can’t have it both ways–either we ‘rent’ music for a reduced price, or buy it for a higher price.
I’m with the author that Ping 1.0, that was pretty bad, but the Apple Music artist social network is comparable to Spotify’s artist bio pages with a few extras thrown in. Let’s not jump to conclusions yet.
And that ‘boring’ Apple Music app design is a feature: it’s straightforward, easy to see, and has a logical layout. The same cannot be said for all of the music streaming apps out there, Spotify included.
Some opinions don’t matter. The user who wrote this article is one of them. You won’t truly know anything until this hits the wild. Until then, we’ll have to wait and see…
Totally agree with you.
I have 10,000ish song’s with iTunes Match, and I use the Music App all the time.
To be honest the new musc App looks fantastic, I have it on my iPhone 6 with iOS 9 beta 1.
I fully agree with you when you say the “first impression” review is unfair given that the product hasn’t been released yet. Apple does give a very comprehensive rundown of the features, though. You can pretty much know how it works just by looking at it. For me, at least, that’s an amazing thing. To just glance at something and already know how to use it well. That takes time, thought and talent to do.
The author also goes on to say it was a boring and long presentation and that they dragged the features too much. I can kind of see how that is true but also that it was unescapable. This is a service meant for users to grow even more dependant on the ecosystem because, frankly, even though its cross platform we all know its going to be a better experience when you have all things Apple. It’s not going to make them money, its another provided service and one that is deeply rooted into their history of music experience meddling.
Apple isnt shy about releasing stuff that has already been invented. The difference is that the experience is easier, more fun and is deeply rooted on the OS.
This article is spot on. I couldn’t have said it better myself.
It’s worth pointing out that Jimmy Iovine isn’t just celebrity star power, he’s the single most important factor in establishing the legitimacy of Apple Music in the music community.
That’s a crock. Jimmy was terrible up there and Apple doesn’t need help “establishing legitimacy.” Where was Jimmy when iTunes launched? It seemed legitimate without him.
That’s some uninformed opinion right there. Iovine is super duper fucking important.
Tell me, specifically, how he is so important and how they could not do this without him.
Apple paid Iovine and Dr. Dre (and who knows how many investors) $3 billion for the company that became Apple Music.
that doesn’t specifically say anything about how they could not do Apple Music without them.
It’s not an issue of could or couldn’t. They wanted him.
So…you can’t answer the question. Thanks for nothing. Your comments on this thread are vague non-sequiturs that don’t answer anything.
If “Jimmy Iovine isn’t just celebrity star power, he’s the single most important factor in establishing the legitimacy of Apple Music” and “Iovine is super duper fucking important” as the other posters wrote, I would like to know specifically why and how.
You apparently know nothing about Jimmy Iovine or the Beats acquisition otherwise you wouldn’t be so baffled by the previous comments. Jimmy Iovine has 40 years of music industry experience and is respected for his technical and interpersonal prowess. He knows everybody. Apple bought Beats specifically for the music service, Daisy, Iovine had already developed there and was preparing to launch. That service IS Apple Music. Apple Music as it will be launched doesn’t exist without Iovine because it’s his creation.
He may be important but he’s a clown as a presenter.
His performance was cringeworthy.
This article is an absolute and utter pile of drivel. If you believe the design of Tidal is better looking than Apple music then you have no taste whatsoever. And why the hell do you care about how much artists get paid? Are you a musician, how does that affect you? What a joke!
If you read his bio, you would see that yes, the author is a musician.
Musicians are people and people have differing opinions. He won’t use it and that’s fine, millions will and they’ll love it.
That’s fine but his taste in UI design isn’t good. The Apple Music app by far looks better than the other two, clean and elegant. It might be an opinion, but from a design standpoint I couldn’t disagree more about the look of the apps.
No one uses the Music app on the iPhone any more? Maybe you don’t, but I and millions of others do. I have a huge library on my Phone. I listen to music all the time in the music app. I don’t understand why the advent of streaming suddenly means that no one owns music any more and that the only way to listen to music is streaming. Somehow, Vinyl, tapes, and CDs survived Radio. What is streaming but a fancier radio?
Having a huge library of music on your phone is a waste these days. Upload that library to Google Music for FREE and stream it any time you want without taking up space on your phone…and don’t give me the “you are the product – they’ll take my data” nonsense. What negative will come from Google knowing the music you listen to?
Thank you Google employee for that helpful bit of info
Works for me. Especially on the subway.
Not just that, but if there truly ARE fewer people who use it, it’s probably because they’ve switched to a streaming service, which, until now, the Music app hasn’t had.
Fewer perhaps, but nobody.
“I’ma give it you straight, Apple: the Apple Music app is ugly. It looks like the regular music app on the iPhone (which no one uses anymore).”
I disagree with this. I use the regular music app every day and I love the way it looks. I actually hate the way spotify looks (which is one of the reasons I don’t use it). So I am glad that they kept the Music Application itself visually similar to how it is currently. I have also used the Beats Music App. I liked it, but the color scheme was uncomfortable. So I am glad that the Apple Music app is like a combination of the two, with the colors being provided by Apple.
Also, I do not like the idea of the Beats One Radio. If I am understanding this correctly, it is one radio station with music playing 24/7 chosen by a few people who think like “humans,” not “computers.” This sounds great…if you like the music being written today. I personally do not. I like the music of Richard Strauss and Gustav Mahler as well as The Andrew Sisters, Dean Martin, and Andrea Bocelli. I’m pretty sure this music will not be played on Beats One Radio. I was really hoping that they would have more stations with more genres and time periods. I’m only 20 years old, and I’m sure there a lot of people that are much older than me that feel the same way. ({[If I’m wrong about the way that Beats One Radio works, please correct me in a comment, I’d like to know if it’s better than it seems. Thanks in advance]})
Lastly, what will happen to iTunes Match and iTunes Radio? I use both of those a lot and because of my iTunes Match subscription, my iTunes Radio is ad-free. Will iTunes Radio still exist? Will iTunes Match subscribers still have benefits? Will there be a purpose to have iTunes Match when 95% (fabricated statistic) of music will be available with an Apple Music subscription?
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
Beats One is a new idea and sure the music tastes won’t be for everyone, but you don’t HAVE to listen to it and I’m sure if it’s successful than there will be more versions.
They showed iTunes Radio on stage actually. There is a section called “Radio” that shows Beats One and below that are the stations for iTunes Radio.
I must have missed the iTunes Radio section. I was live streaming WWDC on my phone while multitasking. Thanks for letting me know. I appreciate it.
I also hope that they do launch new Beats stations so that they can have something for everybody.
They didn’t talk about it real long, just sort of in passing. They were more obsessed with Beats One. Beats One seems really cool, but yeah my taste isn’t probably the same as theirs so hopefully there will be different versions for different tastes: Hip Hop, Country, Folk, so on…
FYI to the author musicians normally dont make a bunch of money from just music sales. Unless you sell it directly they make about .03 per CD. At least that was the number I last heard from a friend in the industry.
For a few decades there, technology allowed some musicians to make money through other means than live performance. Technology now has shut off that brief interlude and we’re back to the way it was as far back as ancient Greece; you make a living by going on live gigs.
I’m another person who uses the Music app everyday. It took me quite a while to get wireless syncing with my iTunes library, but now it works great. I can rip a CD and know it will end up on my iPhone a couple of minutes later. And I look forward to having access to my entire music collection anywhere there’s wifi. So now problem with the Music app for me.
As for Beats One, will there be a Beats Two, Three, Four. If Apple is following the BBC model (which is a hell of a model), then I think we can expect to see more genre-defined shows/stations in the future.
1. Like you said it’s a dev conference. Not a musician conference. It’s great you’re all excited by it but it wasn’t for you so quit crying about how it didn’t cater for you. It wasn’t meant to. I’m sure there will be a music-only event in the future you can complain about, in the meantime that was a waste of my reading time.
2. Just like you mentioned you’re not a dev. I wouldn’t ask a dev to tell me how they create music, I am not going to ask you (a “freelance musician according to your bio) about UI design. As the others have mentioned, I too don’t like spotify UI (you seriously think it’s *better* than the stock music app? What have you been smoking?)Spotify’s confusing UI is the main reason I barely touch it.
3. Complain away about public speaking skills, who exactly did you want apple to bring out to talk about music? Having a respected music exec is much better than having phoney celebs sign some stupid document on stage crowing about musician rights, meanwhile not a single one of them is less than a millionaire. That’s much more of a slap in the face, and short of Apple picking some randoms off the street I really don’t know what you wanted them to do. Were you expecting a call?
4. Don’t whinge about payouts before the service is even out. You seem like you follow the media (at least enough to write your blog rant here). Have you heard about issues with getting all the labels on board? Can you connect the dots and think perhaps they *can’t* comment on payouts if the deals haven’t been settled yet?
Disappointed cultofmac posted your rant. I come to this site for well thought out discussions and analysis. This article is more suitable for popsugar or TMZ.
Yesss basically everything I was thinking in a nutshell.
Can confirm. Author’s a tool
Man, I couldn’t disagree more with this article. The app is ugly? Seriously? Nobody uses the music app anymore? Where does this guy live?
I love how all the “experts” are calling doom and gloom on an app that ISN’T EVEN OUT YET!
“Apple, you need to start treating musicians and artists the way you treat your software developers. You can do this by giving artists and musicians great tools they can use to easily build awesome things with a clear idea of how to make money.”
You mean like Apple Music and Connect? It isn’t Apple’s burden to fix the monetization of the music industry.
Everyone wants Apple to magically pay artists a ton of money. The problem isn’t in the streaming services, it’s in the labels. Apple can’t fix that.
Wow click bait much? Has to be since You’re going to judge a product that isn’t even out yet.
I thought they keynote was awesome compared to the fact that just last week people were speculating iOS 9 was just going to be a few minor tweaks and a beats relaunch. We got WAY more than expected and I swear most of the writers on this site have been really whiny since yesterday.. Or as I said before desperate for clicks.
What Apple really needs is a WWAC (World Wide ARTISTS Conference) for content creators. That would have given them a more fitting platform for an Apple Music rollout.
That could either be the greatest idea on earth or the dumbest idea on earth.
It could turn out into a really productive session that sets the pop music business on a groundbreaking path to new heights, or a total circus that will generate untold piles of copy for TMZ, People, etc. It all depends on what Kanye does.
I know, right? By artists, I’m also thinking video, photography, graphics and design.
I’m not sure why this was posted, other than to have people comment on how foolish it is.
A: you shouldn’t watch a developer keynote if you’re not interested in it.
B: this is a developer keynote; not a sit down with musicians to work out a pay scale.
C: this was a promo, to help give everyone an idea of what to expect from a new service that Apple is releasing.
D: D has no point, just like this article.
E: I do agree with you about Drake.
This sounds like it was written by an out of touch 60 year old.
Jimmy Iovine might not have been the greatest speaker but he deserves the props of going onstage to be recognized as the key guy in the reinvigoration of Apple’s Music ecosystem.
Well said concerning The Artists ! If I was a small band making money from iTunes, I should be very worried after seeing that Keynote (Apple’s worst for years). It seemed like they were actually avoiding the subject of royalties and Eddy Cues comments afterwards smacked of passing the buck…
Shame he feels this way and won’t get the enjoyment I’m going to get out of Apple Music. Personally I think they did a great job and I can’t wait to sign up.
The Apple Music app, objectively, looks by far the best. I’m surprised the author actually thinks the other two app UIs look better. They look terrible next to the Apple app’s clean design. Of course, it’s a matter of opinion.
i don’t get the point about artist payouts. first you say that the pricing of $9,99 is perfect and you like it that it has a bigger library then Spotify and Tidal. But then you say that Apple doesn’t pay the artists enough and the fact that the entire itunes library is streaming will hurt the artist in the end. You can’t have it both ways .. there’s a contradiction here.
You’re assuming there is a difference to be paid. Businesses change over time. The music industry needs to go along with the times just like any other. They might lose revenue in one end and increase on another. If you think selling music is their only means of money making, its a very short sighted vision.
How Apple will pay the artists is their issue. How artists will make money is their agent’s business. Streaming is the new thing. If you can pay $10 to listen to all the music you want, why would you buy a single record? There is no fighting technology. Only a handful of artists are enjoying enough success to refuse to let their songs be rented and still make money. I suspect that kind of behaviour will die soon enough, though.
This is OBVIOUSLY not a money making service for Apple. This is a new overhead to increase aggregate value to the products they sell. That’s the only justified way to continue charging premium value for them.
Hey CultofMac, I appreciate that you’re getting an outside voice here, and a reaction to Apple Music from a musician is a good idea. But this post isn’t really up to your standards. I have no issue with someone being critical, but I’d like that person to be clear on what they’re being critical of. There’s a difference between not liking the product and not liking the keynote, and neither really reflects what the author claims it does: Apple’s treatment of musicians.
Ultimately, this just wasn’t written very well. I’m sure there’s much more being written right now about Apple Music from a musician’s perspective that matches the standards you’ve set for yourselves.
I use the music app DAILY… And I “Believe” Apple Music is replacing the music app on the phone, but all your purchased/downloaded music will still be there, so that would explain why it looks like the existing music player.
I feel like most of the people commenting here didn’t actually read all the way through this article. Other than his ridiculous statement that no one uses the music app any more, I am in complete agreement with everything he said.
Why would the average person buy music when they can stream it for free? If then iTunes sales drop, how are the artists getting their money back? How can they actually contribute to any of the social media aspects of the new app?
I agree that the music app (current and new) looks a bit dated. Personally I don’t really care that much because I usually just use Siri but his point is still valid IMO.
I thought Trent Reznor did very well in his video and Jimmy Iovine more than acquitted himself. I have to agree that Drake was pure fluff but maybe he was better appreciated by fans. The music app is functional and a long way from ugly and, in any event, easy to improve.
Yes finally!! Someone agrees with me, the new Music app is U G L Y !
Unimaginative, old fashioned, drab.
Tidal is also awful though (Windows Mobile 2009 anyone?)
Spotify gets it right, modern, elegant, sleek. Amazon Music is also close to perfect.
By the way, will we able to turn off all the recommendations, radio channels, connect and other tat??
P.S. I really loved Ping. It was the perfect social network for music lovers.
Always be wary of opinion based articles that claim to speak for everyone, when the author means himself and his friends. “No one” uses the Music app on the iPhone today? Really? No one. Not one person. Seriously, it may not be trendy, but it is functional and the new version looks to be an improvement.
Also, complaining about what Apple may or may not be paying the artists is wrong. You are barking up the wrong tree: The labels have always gotten the bulk of the royalties for downloads and for streaming. The artists need to talk to their management for better deals or go independent. Most big artists make more money off performing anyway.
The real question is, can Apple get casual music users who are satisfied with Spotify’s free tier pony up $120 a year for what they used to get for free?
I do agree, though, Drake is a terrible public speaker. He said literally nothing except the “internet is good.”
This author has a very limited viewpoint to his own situation only. He’s an independent musician struggling to make money from his music. He wants Apple to treat him like a developer because he’s doing everything by himself. He’s not associated with a label, so he needs tools to get his independent music onto iTunes, and that’s what his whole article is about. He’s upset that Apple hasn’t worked out how he can make more money as an independent. He wasn’t even fully aware that this was a developers conference. His peevishness and criticisms are mostly offensive and completely self-centric. Since his needs weren’t met, the whole event sucked.
There’s a big difference between freelance musician and independent musician. You should look into that.
Artist Payout – How else would you expect the artist to get paid? Why do some people expect it to be free? It’s their music. It’s either you have an experience for free and full of ads or a paid service that will properly compensate artist for their work. I don’t have an issue with that. Just like anyone else who has a profession they deserve to get paid for it. I don’t understand this mindset of everything should be free or it sucks.
I use the Music app literally all the time.
Having said that, Apple is going through it’s Walt Disney moment. Losing Steve Jobs was a huge blow, as there’s very few people with that singular of a vision and that aggressive of a personal outlook. They’ll find their way. Tim Cook is not a weak leader, he just has a different outlook for the company than Steve had. He needs to step up and be a bit less “nice”, especially with so many A-players surrounding him. Listening to stories about how Elon Musk runs his camps, it would be super interesting to see him in charge at Apple. As it is right now, though, I don’t mind the new directions Apple is attempting to move into.
I agree that Apple Music should have it’s own showcase and not tacked onto the end of a WWDC keynote. It could have profiled musicians more and put greater emphasis on how new artists will have a forum in which to develop their careers.
You know what’s the difference between an ARTIST and a DEVELOPER? Most developers, are their own company. Artists, are part of a company, and it’s the COMPANY’S RESPONSIBILITY TO PAY THE ARTISTS! If Apple Music is really 1:1 with current iTunes, then guess what? These artists are getting paid in ways, that they are not even close to getting with other streaming services. Why you might ask? This wouldn’t be happening. If someone, artists/company/both, weren’t getting fucking paid.
I agree on the speaking roles for Iovine and Drake, and I know exactly what happened. The Apple execs that present go through a huge rehearsal regime. They have a team of people watch them and give them feedback and they are not afraid to give critical feedback. This helps that team of presenters give a great presentation that doesn’t get boring, most of the time.
Now enter the Rockstar, you can’t tell those fuckers anything because everyone is starstruck and afraid to insult the royalty with helpful suggestions on how not to look like a dork on stage in front of some really smart developers. So, these guys go up there completely unprepared thinking they can wing it.
I bet Craig Federighi practices his presentation for weeks on end, every slide and phrase crafted. It shows.
Could not agree more, well said!
I am a developer, and I liked all the OS X and IOS stuff, and am pumped that Swift is open source. But I could not understand why WWDC was chosen to announce a music service. At all.
Totally agree about artists getting paid. That’s the most important problem in music today and Apple did not saying anything about it.
You have to admit the guy makes a good point though. Apple should have declared how they will treat musicians better and how musicians can stand to gain more by having their content in Apple Music. That allows Apple to differentiate themselves better from Spotify and Tidal, both are feeling the heat from Musicians.
He complains about all the developer stuff that was talked about.
IT’S A DEVELOPER CONFERENCE!!!!
Many statements in the review go like this…
I don’t use product A, therefore No One uses product A
I don’t like this review, therefore no one likes this review.
This is SO spot on.