Apple Music - page 15

Sonos is about to add a new weapon to its smart speakers that will help make it even more competitive against Apple’s HomePod.

The company revealed today that it plans to bring Google Assistant to its smart speakers later this year. Beta testing for the new feature has already begun, allowing Google’s Siri-competitor to be the main voice input on some Sonos speaker models.

iTunes purchases have undergone a slight shakeup in Canada, as Apple Canada has started charging sales tax on top of its standard prices.

This applies to music, movie rentals, audiobooks, Apple Music subscriptions, and more. The move is in line with a new digital sales tax for non-resident suppliers which came into effect on January 1, 2019.

Beats 1 anchor Ebro Darden has been given a New Year’s promotion, being made Apple’s new global editorial head of hip-hop and R&B. In the role, Darden will manage a team of editors in developing editorial strategies for promoting artists, albums, and song releases.

This will be in addition to his Monday to Friday role as a host on Beats 1 and the Hot 97 show, Ebro in the Morning.

Want a summary of your year in Apple Music listening? A new app will help with that — although it’s not one that’s made by Apple.

Mimicking the concept behind Spotify’s yearly “Wrapped” feature, the free “Music Year in Review” app will delve into how many minutes you spent listening to your top artists on Apple Music. It will also tell you your top five songs and artists, along with your most listened genre.

Apple Music will make its way to third-party Alexa speakers eventually, Amazon has confirmed.

The streaming service finally joined Alexa earlier this week — you may have gotten an announcement notification on your iPhone — but it’s currently available only on Amazon’s own Echo devices.

Currently, there’s no officially sanctioned Apple way to play Apple Music in your web browser.

Enterprising software engineer Naveed Golafshani (a.k.a. Reddit user NaveedGol) has sprang to the rescue with a new — totally unofficial — web player at wwww.playapplemusic.com. It allows users to log in using Apple’s own authentication service, and then access their Apple Music libraries online.

Amazon’s Alexa speakers can finally connect to your Apple Music account.

Support for Apple Music on the Amazon Echo was rolled out today, giving iPhone and iPad owners the option to pump out their favorite jams without signing up for an Apple Music competitor like Spotify Premium.

Getting the new Apple Music integration up and running is ridiculously easy, but we’ll walk you through the entire process.

iPhone sales may be slowing down, but investors have held onto promising data points like Apple’s impressively growing Services division. According to some, this burgeoning part of Apple’s business even has the potential to make up 40 percent of the company’s gross profits by fiscal 2020.

Macquarie Research analyst Benjamin Schachter isn’t quite so smitten, however. In a new note to clients, Schachter claims that growth in the Services division is about to start slowing down.

Apple is offering promo codes to Apple Music customers, giving them money off the HomePod smart speaker in time for the holidays.

So far, users in the U.K. have reported receiving the offer for 50 British pounds ($63) off the full price of a HomePod. The offer runs through December 16, giving would-be purchasers until the end of the week to take advantage. It’s not clear how many markets Apple will offer the discount in.

With the holidays right around the corner, you should have started your shopping by now. And if you’re anything like the rest of us, you’re already fed up of it. That’s why Cult of Mac is here to help.

Our handy holiday gift guides will help you pick out the perfect present for friends and loves ones. We’ve hand-picked all kinds of awesome accessories and gadgets that are worthy of your hard-earned cash — and guaranteed to fetch a smile.

This guide is for the iPhone fans in your life, and it includes something to suit every budget.

Apple Music could be opened up to businesses to allow streaming in public places.

The “Apple Music for Business” trademark was filed for late last month in the U.S. — and in other territories back in June. The filing states the trademark would be applied to a number of different areas, including commercial use.

The Recording Academy is trying something unusual with this year’s Grammy Awards: nominations for some of the categories will be announced via Apple Music.

If you’re very eager to find out which artists are  up for Grammies this year, you can get up early Friday morning and tune in via your iPhone, Mac, or iPad.

In an early Christmas present to Apple fans with an Amazon Echo, Apple Music is coming to Amazon’s line of smart speakers next month. Apple Music will be available as an option on Echo devices starting December 17.

“Music is one of the most popular features on Alexa,” said Dave Limp, senior vice president of Amazon Devices. “We’re thrilled to bring Apple Music – one of the most popular music services in the U.S. – to Echo customers this holiday.”

Students can now subscribe to YouTube Music and YouTube Premium at a discounted rate.

Just like Apple Music for students, the price is cut by 50 percent. However, you can save even more if you sign up by January 31, 2019.

The world’s largest paid music streaming service is finally landing on Apple Watch.

Spotify finally revealed its first app for the Apple Watch today that will give wearers the ability to play, pause and skip songs from their wrist. The first version is a bit limited in features, but Spotify is teasing some cool new options that will be coming down the pipeline real soon.

Hot on the heels of Tuesday’s big keynote, Apple is set to unleash its final earnings report of 2018 on Thursday, November 1. The report will give investors their first glimpse into how well the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max are selling.

Apple shares are trading up again today after climbing Tuesday, signaling that Wall Street is pretty optimistic about Apple’s ability to rake in the cash. Tim Cook and Apple CFO Luca Maestri are set to get on the phone with investors at 2 p.m. Pacific today — and there are some key areas investors will be watching intensely.

Apple is in talks over acquiring a stake in iHeartMedia, according to a new report.

Sources say the company could invest millions of dollars to help save the struggling U.S. radio group, which filed for bankruptcy back in March. However, negotiations are at an early stage for now and no deal has been agreed yet.

Apple has published an updated iPhone User Guide for iOS 12.1 ahead of its public release. The document confirms a number of new features are on the way in this update, including Group FaceTime and Dual SIM support for the latest iPhone lineup.

It also details improvements to Apple Music and more.

You know how you can download a copy of all the data Apple holds on you? For many folks, this is an academic issue — it’s interesting to know about, but of little practical value. But a tool from developer Pat Murray lets you visualize your Apple Music listening habits, using a browser-based tool.

All you need is one small file from your Apple data dump — and Murray’s Apple Music Analyser.

Spotify has seen a rise in Premium subscriptions after the music streaming service started cracking down on family plan subscribers who aren’t really family.

New data reveals 38 percent of Spotify users in the U.S. now pay for the Premium service — up from 36 percent last quarter. Apple Music remains the only platform that has presented Spotify with real competition, but it still has a lot of catching up to do.

Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor says he quit his job at Apple because he felt “guilty” over abandoning his work as an artist in favor of a product design and marketing job.

“I have a mixed set of feelings about the whole thing,” he admitted in a recent interview with Stereogum. Reznor joined Apple back in 2014 as part of the $3 billion Beats acquisition. After joining, he worked on a secret project which turned out to be the launch of Apple Music.

Analysts are predicting big things for Apple’s App Store business ahead of the company’s Q4 2018 earnings report coming on November 1.

Search ads from the App Store could generate over $500 million in revenue during all of 2018, according to Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi. Even better, Sacconahi thinks the App Store ad business could be worth a whopping $2 billion by the end of 2020.

The music industry loses $2.65B annually because small businesses are using music streaming services like Apple Music or Spotify without a license.

Nielsen Music surveyed 5,000 small business around the world and found a majority streamed music with a personal account, with many not knowing a business license for streaming music is required by law.

Apple has acquired a music analytics startup called Asaii, according to a new report.

It is believed the acquisition, which could help Apple deliver better recommendations to Apple Music subscribers, cost less than $100 million. Asaii claims its platform can pick out the hottest artists “10 weeks to a year” before they even hit the charts.

If you’ve ever wanted to dive more deeply into the music you love, boy, have we got the announcement for you! Starting today, digital media company Genius (formerly Rap Genius) is teaming up with Apple Music to provide annotations and song lyrics to “thousands of songs” on the platform.