Make the right donation to charity and you can take a meeting with Larry Jackson, Global Creative Director of Apple Music. Photo: Larry Jackson/Instagram
If your music career or business would be boosted by meeting with someone high up at Apple Music, then this is your lucky day. Three high-level executives at Apple’s music streaming service are auctioning off private meetings.
Proceeds from these auctions go to the Pablove Foundation, which invests in pediatric cancer research.
Apple's focusing on growing its services business more than ever. Photo: Apple
Apple announced Tuesday that it is launching a whole host of its services in dozens more countries around the world.
Starting today, the App Store, Apple Arcade, Apple Podcasts, and iCloud are available in 20 additional countries. Apple Music, meanwhile, has picked up an additional 52 (!) international markets.
There’s a new boss of Beats, an Apple product line of top-tier headphones, some aimed at runners. Photo: Apple
The head of Apple Music is apparently assuming an additional role. Oliver Schusser is reportedly going to take charge of the company’s Beats line of high-end headphones, while also remaining at the helm of Apple’s music-streaming service.
Apple also took the opportunity to refute a recent unconfirmed report that it’s phasing out Beats.
The web app, found at music.apple.com site (no longer with the “beta” prefix), lets users listen to Apple Music content without using the dedicated app.
Looks like Apple picked the right time to pivot to focus on Services. Photo: Apple
The coronavirus-induced lockdown is affecting huge parts of the service economy. However, one area it doesn’t seem to be negatively impacting in the U.S. is the streaming music market.
According to a report from Music Business Weekly, published Monday, streaming music service subscriptions are not only not slowing down right now; in some cases they’re actually increasing.
TikTok has been keeping us entertained while stuck at home. Photo: Aaron Yoo/Flickr CC
TikTok is chipping into the global fight against COVID-19 with one of the largest financial contributions we’ve seen yet from a major tech company. The video-sharing platform has been one of the biggest bright spots of joy and inspiration during this quarantine age, and now it’s ready to pay it back.
On Thursday, the company revealed it is pledging $375 million in relief that will be distributed in various ways to individuals, hospitals, companies and other organizations.
Apple is ready to help its indie music partners hurt by COVID-19 shutdowns. Photo: Apple
Apple has created a $50 million advance fund to help independent music labels and distributors pay their artists and keep operations afloat.
The global lockdown in an effort to slow the COVID-19 outbreak has been particularly brutal to independent labels. Music stores, in-person venues and TV/movie productions are all closed, killing sales, licensing income and anticipated revenues from shows now canceled.
Never miss new releases from your favorite artists again. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
You may have seen a notification from Apple Music at some point. It popped up, told you about a new album from a favorite artist, and you thought, “Thanks Apple Music! That’s great news.” Finally, you thought to yourself, this is a machine doing what machines are supposed to do. Then maybe you clicked on that notification, and the Music app launched, but didn’t go to the artist or album. Or perhaps you dismissed the alert, and when you opened the Music app later, you were confused because you couldn’t find the notification anywhere.
Now, Apple has (maybe) fixed this problem. Instead of just plain old lock-screen notifications, the Music app will now show you new music alerts inside the app itself. Here’s how to switch them on.
Apple realizes that music is more important than ever right now. Photo: Apple
To help people adapting to life in coronavirus lockdown, Apple Music has debuted a series of playlists under the title “Come Together.”
Covering a range of genres, and including some fun tongue-in-cheek titles like the “Social Distancing Social Club,” the hand-picked (hopefully wearing the necessary sanitary gloves) playlists are sure to entertain those locked in-doors. Which is seemingly everyone right now!
Music lovers can make sure they never miss a new song or album from their favorite bands and artists with a new notification feature that is slowly rolling out to Apple Music users starting today.
Zane Lowe will interview musicians over FaceTime for the foreseeable future. Photo: Apple
Beats 1 DJs on Apple Music are being forced to work from home during the coronavirus pandemic and while they’re stuck inside, they’re turning to FaceTime to get the job done.
Apple revealed Monday that its radio show hosts will record interviews with musicians and other artists from their homes by using FaceTime on iPhone.
Apple is giving away free money to use on the App Store. Photo: Apple
Planning to buy a lot of apps, movies and iBooks while stuck at home for the rest of the month? You might want to consider adding money to your Apple ID account to get more bang for your buck.
Apple is doing its part to promote proper behavior during pandemic. Photo: Apple Music/iTunes
Apple is doing its part to help positive messaging regarding the coronavirus pandemic by sharing a White House video emphasizing the importance of social distancing.
The public service announcement features three core members of the White House’s Coronavirus Task Force. It’s visible in the video carousel on Apple Music and iTunes. You do not need an active Apple Music subscription to view it.
Apple video's new home in Culver City. Photo: Culver City Planning Dept.
Apple employees at the company’s Culver City offices may have been exposed to COVID-19 after an employee tested positive for the virus. Culver City is Apple’s entertainment hub where much of the work on Apple TV+ and Apple Music is done.
Apple’s new deals with music labels don’t permit an “Apple Prime” bundle with its other services. Photo: Cult of Mac
Apple reportedly signed the contracts it needs to keep streaming songs from the biggest labels. However, there supposedly was no mention in the agreements of an “Apple Prime” that would bundle this company’s music and video streaming services.
PRM thinks music streaming companies are playing dirty. Photo: Stas Knop/Pexels CC
A music licensing company accuses Apple, Spotify, Google, SoundCloud, and other streaming services of entering into a price-fixing “conspiracy” to keep streaming music prices at anticompetitive levels.
Pro Music Rights (PMR) filed the complaint Monday with the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut. PMR previously filed a lawsuit against Apple in December for allegedly streaming copyrighted music without the necessary permissions.
Spotify is making it a lot faster to find your favorite music or new things to listen to with a big update for its iOS app today.
The music streaming service revealed it overhauled the Home screen on its iPhone and iPad app, packing it with more content you love and better discovery and recommendation features that change throughout the day.
Labels might start shelling out big bucks for more visibility on Spotify. Photo: Spotify
Spotify is reportedly making a big push to get record labels to pay to promote artists’ music in its service as a new way to generate revenue.
Despite having nearly double the number of paid subscribers as Apple Music, Spotify still isn’t a profitable company and is looking to the music industry to help it create new revenue streams. Although the talks are still ongoing, you could soon see sponsored songs in your playlists and other areas of the app.
Grab the latest update to get started. Photo: Android Police
Shazam is finally offering Apple Music integration on Android, almost two years after the music identification service was acquired by Apple.
Users have the ability to identify songs and enjoy full versions of them using their Apple Music subscription. The feature comes with a beta tag for now, but works just as you would expect.
It's all about the music subscription services these days. Photo: Stas Knop/Pexels CC
Music streaming subscription services grew 13% in the United States in 2019, while iTunes-style downloads continued to decline.
According to a new report by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), streaming accounted for 79% of the overall music industry in the U.S. Physical sales, such as CDs and vinyl accounted for 10%, while downloads experienced the biggest decline — making up just 8% of revenue.
Like almost all of Apple’s built-in iOS apps, the Music app is capable but hard to use. Apple’s habit of hiding key functions behind multiple button-taps is in full force here, and it’s getting worse. Want to “heart” a track? You used to be able to do it from the lock screen player. Now you have to access the Music app’s share menu, and find it there.
And what if you want to view your recently added items as a list, or your list of songs as a grid? Tough. On the other hand, if you use features like the For You… playlists, and Apple Music’s excellent More by… recommendations, many alternative music apps don’t support them.
The answer to this digital music conundrum is Marvis Pro, a 1-year-old music app that offers everything you need — and nothing you don’t.
You might not be stuck with Safari for much longer. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Apple is finally “considering” giving users the ability to set third-party web browsers and email clients as defaults on iOS, according to a new Bloomberg report. It could also open up HomePod to rival music streaming services.
iPhone and iPad owners can already install third-party alternatives, but iOS currently does not allow them to override Apple’s built-in services. That could change as Apple faces increasing pressure over the tight control it imposes over its mobile devices.
Soon you'll be able to sing along to Drake on your Mac, too. Photo: Apple
Apple Music’s lyric visualizer has arrived on Mac with the second beta release of macOS 10.15.4 Wednesday.
The feature, which gives users scrolling, karaoke-style song lyrics, was introduced as a much-lauded feature with iOS 13. Now Apple is porting it bringing it to macOS users as well.
You can now sing along to your favorite tracks on Spotify without messing up the words. The world’s biggest streaming service has finally caught up with Apple Music by adding time-synced song lyrics, courtesy of Musixmatch.
Look for the "Other Versions" section. Screenshot: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac
Apple Music now has the ability to intelligently sort alternate album versions. The new feature, brought back from Beats Music, presents you with other versions of the same album in a new section beneath the track list.