Apple Music - page 12

In its latest quarterly earnings, Spotify has revealed that it currently has 108 million paying subscribers. That’s approaching 2x the number who subscribe to Apple Music, which is around 60 million at present.

That’s an increase of 31% year-on-year, although it’s slightly below what the streaming music giant had been aiming for.

Apple unleashed its best-ever Q3 earnings report today, and traders subsequently sent the company’s stock soaring in after-hours trading.

Thanks to record-breaking revenue from its services business and strong growth from wearables, Apple is heading into its most important period of the year ready to cash in. Investors had plenty of questions for CEO Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri during today’s call. And the duo revealed some key tidbits we actually weren’t expecting.

Apple hit the road with some of the most popular bands touring the world for its latest round of ‘Shot on iPhone’ ads.

The new one minute spots offer an intimate look at what goes on backstage before Florence and the Machine, FKA Twigs and Kamasi Washington make their appearances at concerts in Colorado, New York and London. Each of the three ads were shot by a different director giving them a unique feel.

Watch all three right here:

Tool, the American rock band which was a staple of alternative music in the 1990s and early 2000s, is finally bringing its back catalog to streaming services.

The exact services the album will be available on haven’t been named. However, it seems incredibly likely that Apple Music — one of the most popular streaming services — will be among them.

The most yawn-inducing Apple earnings call of the year is just days away, and Wall Street is eagerly anticipating the results — though maybe for reasons you wouldn’t expect.

Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri are scheduled to hop on the phone with investors at 2 p.m. Pacific next Tuesday for Apple’s Q3 2019 earnings call. Even though Apple doesn’t reveal quarterly sales for iPhones anymore, there are a lot of metrics to look for that could clue us in on how well or poorly the company is performing lately.

Keep an ear out for these five things during Apple’s July 30 earnings call.

Right from the start, Apple Music offered a three-month trial to new users to try and get them to subscribe. In some cases, this even extended all the way up to a six-month free trial before users would have to pay a dime.

Apple may be shifting away from this strategy, though. A new banner ad on Apple’s website mentions a one-month tryout period for the streaming music service.

Apple Music is letting DJ Khaled take the reigns of its most popular playlists as the company’s first-ever Artist in Residence.

Khaled has already put his stamp on the music streaming service by revamping Apple Music’s popular Office DJ playlist. Some of the new songs added include songs from Drake, Snoop Dogg, Rick Ross, Jay-Z, Lauryn Hill and more.

Check out DJ Khaled’s funny Instagram post about the new gig:

The Wall Street Journal claims Apple is giving its own apps preferential treatment in the iOS App Store search results. During a wide-ranging test of basic app search terms like “maps”, WSJ discovered that some of Apple’s apps show up first in the rankings 60% of the time. For other terms, the rate was even higher.

We’ve already extolled our excitement over CarPlay changes coming in iOS 13. But now that the beta season is well underway, we’ve had the chance to go fully hands on.

After taking it on a road trip, using it while commuting, and exploring the new features, this is our hands-on look at CarPlay in iOS 13.

Apple Music has switched the names of one of its most popular playlists. “A-List: Hip-Hop” is now branded as “Rap Life,” and comes with a new show on Beats 1 radio.

The change was orchestrated by Ebro Darden, global editorial head of hip-hop and R&B at Apple Music. “Rap Life” will be promoted as a segment during Darden’s daily show on Beats 1. Apple is also launching a self-contained “Rap Life” show on Beats 1 every week.

Apple isn’t quite ready to pump the brakes on its celebrity singing TV show, Carpool Karaoke

The iPhone-maker has reportedly renewed Carpool Karaoke for a third season. Production on season three is already underway and we already know at least one group of TV stars that will be joining the show.

Spotify and Apple Music are facing increasingly tougher competition from Amazon when it comes to adding new paid subscribers to their services.

Amazon Music Unlimited was the fastest-growing music service over the last year according to new data that shows its subscriber base grew by 70%, even though it launched a year after Apple Music.

Apple is trying to woo new students gearing up for the school year with a new offer that gives them six free months of service before they have to pay a dime.

The offer popped up on Apple’s educational site just after the company revealed its back-to-school promotion of free Beats headphones with qualifying purchases.

It’s impossible to create smart Apple Music playlists directly on the iPhone. Or rather, it was impossible. Previously, you had to fire up iTunes on your Mac or PC, create a smart playlist there, and then let it sync to your iPhone over iCloud.

Even in iOS 13, this is still the case. But now there’s another way. A new iOS app called Miximum can create smart playlists, and even sync them to the regular Apple Music app. It is, as they say, a game-changer.

iOS 13 doesn’t just mean big improvements for your iPhone. Apple is making some pretty significant enhancements to CarPlay, too, including a brand-new dashboard and better apps.

Some of these great new CarPlay features are long overdue. Here’s everything you can expect from Apple’s in-car platform in iOS 13.

Spotify has updated its Spotify Stations app with support for CarPlay. The app is intended to provide a radio station-like experience, which customizes itself to your tastes.

With its latest update, you no longer need to use your iPhone to access the app. If you’re a CarPlay user, you can do it right from your dash.

Apple is hosting seven exclusive concerts and artist Q&As at Apple Stores around the world. Designed to promote Apple Music and its “Up Next” playlists, the concerts run from July 9 through August 23.

They are free to subscribers to Apple Music.

Apple Music passed a milestone: it has 60 million subscribers worldwide. That’s a 20% increase in just over a year.

This news comes straight from the mouth of Eddy Cue, who heads up Apple’s streaming music efforts.

Apple Music is a great place for listening to official albums. It also turns out that it’s not a bad place to find unauthorized leaked tracks.

According to a new report, a series of leaked tracks belonging to the rapper Playboi Carti have turned up on the streaming music service. They were allegedly uploaded by a person unconnected with the artist.

Only a small percentage of Spotify subscribers pay a portion of their monthly fees to the Apple Store. This weakens Spotify’s argument that Apple is using required revenue sharing to stifle its rival’s ability to compete in the music streaming business.

Headlines this week trumpeted the death of iTunes. While these stories made good clickbait, they understandably caused concern for those who used this application to build up extensive music and video libraries. You may be one of the people left wondering what’s going to happen to decades of purchases.

Relax, your music and video collection isn’t going anywhere. It’s actually getting easier to access.

Apple’s plan to ditch iTunes starts this fall with the release of macOS Catalina, which will offer standalone apps for Music, Podcasts, and TV.

WWDC offered a brief glimpse at how other things — like syncing iOS devices — would work after the update. Now Apple has published a new support document that explains everything for those who are still confused.

The document promises that “all of your favorite iTunes features” will still be available in Catalina. And it tells you where they will be.

One of the best features on Apple Music could soon make its way onto Spotify thanks to iOS 13.

Apple is finally making it possible for Spotify and other music, podcast and audio apps to use Siri. Not being able to integrate with HomePod or Siri were two of Spotify’s many complaints in a recent open letter slamming Apple. When iOS 13 comes out that will finally be possible.

Spotify is about to make it possible to listen along to music with your friends, no matter where you’re at.

The new feature, called Social Listening, will allow users to connect to friends and listen to the same thing they’re playing. You’ll also be able to add your own tracks to the queue and control playback from your phone.

Apple’s long-time ad agency, TBWA\MAL, is injecting some new blood into its leadership ranks to oversea the creation of advertisements for iPhone and Apple Services.