The future of Apple Music will be a lot less focused on music and more about pop culture, according to three of Apple’s top employees working on the project.
Beats One DJ Zane Lowe, marketing guru Bozoma Saint John and Apple Music’s head of content, Larry Jackson, sat down for a three-headed interview to discuss what fans can expect from the streaming service. Music will always be part of Apple Music, but Lowe revealed that other forms of entertainment are coming soon.
“Every day something is changing or moving or evolving for people who love music and entertainment. This is how they will consume it,” Lowe told Complex. “They will go, ‘I get that for news, I get that for entertainment, I get that for magazines, I get that for movies, and I get that for music.’ We’re lining it up, and it’s building to a tipping point over time.”
Apple Music goes beyond the beat
Apple Music launched nearly 18 months ago and has already seen some big changes. Beside giving the streaming service a full UI revamp with iOS 10, Apple also added more video content. The company also plans to launch its own shows on the service.
Planet of the Apps and Carpool Karaoke are set to be two of Apple’s first shows. They will be available later this year and, according to Beats co-founder Jimmy Iovine, Apple is pursuing other amazing content opportunities too.
By weaving music, video and pop culture all into one platform, Apple Music aims to be something like a modern version of MTV, back when the cable channel still played music videos. Rather than just copying Spotify and Tidal, Apple’s brass is trying to make something no one is expecting.
“My five-year vision is that I want every single person on the planet to be engaged on Apple Music,” said Saint John. “I truly believe we’ve created something very, very special. I don’t think anyone else can do this.”
Buster Hein is a freelance writer who lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Twitter: @bst3r.
5 responses to “Apple Music execs discuss the future of music streaming”
So… like YouTube Red and Google Music.
“Music will always be part of Apple Music”. Well, DUH. Jeez, DJ Zane sounds like a complete tool.
I wish Apple would get off their collective ass and get with Meridian and get the major record labels to do MQA and use ALAC so they can stream Hi Res. So far, Warner has about 30,000 albums remastered with MQA and Tidal has MQA decoding embedded into the player. Apple could do the same thing so we wouldn’t necessarily need a MQA enabled DAC. I think the reviews are going to come in with the improved sound quality, especially for those that use streaming services connected to a nice stereo or high end pair of headphones.
I personally am not signed up for Tidal mostly because I hate JayZ and they don’t have the majority of content available, but in the next few years, I think the content will become MQA encoded so that there is a viable HI Res streaming service available for those where sound quality is a big deal.
As far as this CarPool Karakoe? DUMB, STUPID NONSENSE. This is what happens when a tech company goes outside their normal core competencies and hires IDIOTS to run this part of their company. DJ Zane is an idiot. Even though I like Apple and have been a long time fan, Apple Music hasn’t peaked my interest yet. I would much rather see them do high res streaming than worrying about content I have no interest in. The reason why CarPook Karaoke works is that it’s just a short skit that’s done every once in a while and James Corden is the guy behind it. otherwise, if Apple starts doing it, it WILL SUCK. I am embarrassed with how the music end of Apple is bring run. Total idiots that are arrogant and very much a disappointment.
What Apple should have done is buy HBO and let THEM run that end of the business. But bringing in these DJ idiots isn’t helping. They have been doing nothing but wasting Apple’s money.
Agree 100%. There is a creeping culture of self congratulation and complacency creeping in at Apple. I’ve reluctantly come to the conclusion that Cook really isn’t up to this job.
The best thing he did was to get IBM and Cisco to help Apple with getting business from the Enterprise market. The second best thing was to fire Forstall and to get Craig responsible for OS’s. Other than that, the Beats acquisition was dumb, it was far too much money to buy Beats, and to get Iovine and Dre on board was another dumb move. Both of them have street hustler mentality. You know the type. The type of guys you meet on the street trying to shuck and jive their way through life always running a scam on people, kissing up to people as they have their hand in your wallet without your knowledge. Spending the outrageous sums of money to these useless DJ’s to promote pop culture was just a waste of money.
Sometimes I think Apple should buy Telsa, and then get Elon Musk to eventually take over, as they boot Cue, Cook, St. John, Dre, Iovine, Zane and a few others out the door. I’m still wondering if he would be better since he is respected amongst the technical crowd since he does have a strong engineering background. But I’m still wondering if he’s the right guy too.
Tim certainly can’t present a product worth beans. He’s the most boring presenter in the High Tech industry.
Oh well.
I just wish they had someone that would light a fire under people’s rear ends to get things done well, but to do more things to not piss people off. I can tell Schiller is frustrated and I’m sure he would like to say things that he can’t. He definitely hasn’t been very excited about product announcements as he was in the past.
“My five-year vision is that I want every single person on the planet to be engaged on Apple Music,” said Saint John
When someone makes this kind of statement, I wonder if they are actually playing with a full deck. This is just flat out NOT going to happen. Apple might gain some more users, but every person on the planet in 5 years? I don’t think so Ms. Bozo. Stop drinking your own Kool Aid. That’s just a blatant display of someone that has visions of grandeur and isn’t playing with a full deck. She needs to go. She setting herself up for failure and she is clueless about it. Why not get rid of her now so she can commit herself to some mental rehab center.