Apple has been trying to buy Shazam since last December, but the deal has been held up for months by regulators in the EU. That’s reportedly just about to change.
It’s likely Apple wants this music-identification app as part of its ongoing battle with Spotify.
Beats 1 Radio host Zane Lowe says he’s excited that Apple Music’s competitors are starting to rip off his live streaming radio show.
Lowe, who left the BBC’s Radio 1 to lead Beats 1 Radio, said in a recent interview that he still questions how his radio show fits in with the music scene. In the age of social media where artists can interact directly with fans, radio hosts don’t seem like a necessity, but Spotify and YouTube Music are planning to launch radio shows of their own and Lowe is ready to welcome them to the league.
If you’re a Prince fan and an Apple Music subscriber, today is your lucky day! That’s because the Prince Estate and Sony’s Legacy Recordings have released 23 of the Purple One’s albums, covering the latter half of his career, on streaming services.
Apple CEO Tim Cook’s tweet mourning the death of soul singer Aretha Franklin was among countless remembrances flooding social media this morning after news of her passing began to spread.
Cook’s heartfelt message included a black-and-white photo of the Queen of Soul belting out a song during a recording session.
Spotify is exploring new ways to let users on its free tier skip audio and video ads whenever they want.
The feature gives listeners the chance to get back to their music more quickly by skipping ads they’re not interested in. The company is currently user-testing the feature in Australia, with plans to later roll it out elsewhere.
U.S. telecoms try to lure new customers with free streaming services. Verizon has teamed up with Apple to offer half a year of Apple Music at no additional cost.
What’s even ore interesting is that the wireless provider calls this “just the first step in an exclusive partnership with Apple.”
When Apple Music launched in 2015, the service received mixed reviews. One of the biggest gripes was the impact it had on the Music app. Instead of it being a place for your music library, the app began catering to the streaming service.
Cesium offers a better music library experience. The simple, brilliant app brings back the classic Music app (aka the “iPod” app), making it easy to view and enjoy your personal song library.
In a short interview for Fast Company, Tim Cook raves about his love of music, and talks about Apple’s reasons for getting into the space with Apple Music.
“I couldn’t make it through a workout without music,” Cook said. “Music inspires, it motivates. It’s also the thing at night that helps quiet me. I think it’s better than any medicine.”
You don’t want to be that guy who’s never heard the track all your friends are raving about. But if you use Apple Music, you don’t have to be.
The new “Friends Mix” playlist makes it easy to enjoy the songs your friends can’t get enough of. It’s updated every week, and you can enjoy it now across all devices.
Apple beat Wall Street’s expectations today with its Q3 2018 earnings report. Even though iPhone sales were barely up 1% the company still posted better-than-expected revenues as sales of Apple Watch, services and AirPods picked up the slack leading to Apple’s best Q3 results ever.
Prices of Apple shares skyrocketed closer to the illustrious $204 mark that will make the iPhone-maker the first ever trillion dollar company once the results posted and Tim Cook seemed extremely confident and relaxed on his call with investors this afternoon. While the rest of tech stocks are starting to sink, Apple is as steady ever.
Apple’s weakest earnings report of 2018 is set to be revealed today but it might also contain a few clues about the 2018 iPhone launch this fall.
Tim Cook and Apple CFO Luca Maestri will talk to investors on an open call at 2 p.m. Pacific. Analysts don’t expect a huge boost in iPhone sales and revenue (in fact some are downright pessimistic). However, Apple could pull out a few surprises like it did the last two quarters.
Per usual, Cult of Mac will be here to live-blog all the action starting at 1:30 p.m. (That’s when the earnings report typically lands.) Come join the fun!
Apple and DJ Khaled made a commercial of true cross-promotion genius. Khaled gets to plug his latest single No Brainer by plugging Apple Music. Siri, HomePod and iPhone X also each get a turn to shine.
But stealing the minute-and-half show was Khaled’s toddler son, Asahd, who, with help from the voice of comedian Kevin Hart, is caught with an iPhone X in a highchair nagging his attorney to aggressively negotiate for more money.
When Apple Music made its debut, one of the biggest reasons to switch from rival streaming services was for its $15 family plan. But it wasn’t long before Spotify copied it — and it’s been paying off in a big way.
The bargain family plan helped Spotify attract another 8 million paying subscribers during the second quarter of 2018, taking its total number to 83 million worldwide.
HomePod is expected to get even smarter this fall when Apple rolls out a big software update.
A new report claims the $349 device will be able to handle phone calls, retrieve your voicemail, and run multiple timers. It could also give you the ability to search for songs by using their lyrics, and to translate languages.
Singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran and his creative process will be on full display in Apple’s newest documentary movie, Songwriter.
Filming on the documentary began in 2008, giving fans an unprecedented look at how Sheeran’s songs are created. From the spark of an idea for a song to seeing it sung by thousands of fans at concerts, Songwriter paints an intimate portrait of one of the most popular artists of the last decade. The movie was filmed by Ed’s cousin Murray Cummings and focuses on the making of his third album “÷” that came out last year.
Take a look at the teaser:
Music artists are getting an all-new way to promote unreleased music thanks to a new feature Spotify is rolling out his week.
Getting a song onto one of Spotify’s curated playlists can give a big boost to an artist or band’s visibility on the platform. So starting today, members with a Spotify for Artists account can submit unreleased music directly to Spotify’s editorial team for playlist consideration.
Apple Music’s Carpool Karaoke spinoff has been nominated for an Emmy in the “Shortform Variety” category.
It will compete with digital shorts made by the likes of The Daily Show and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. The awards will be part of the Creative Arts Emmys handed out on September 8 and 9. It looks like Apple’s original content efforts are headed in the right direction!
Texture, the digital magazine subscription service Apple acquired back in March, is simplifying its fee structure. Previously, Texture offered a $9.99 Unlimited Basic Plan and a $14.99 Unlimited Premium Plan, with the difference between the two being the addition of weekly magazines.
Now Texture has lowered the price for the Premium Plan to $9.99. In essence, this means that all customers should now have access to the widest possible range of publications for just ten bucks a month!
Apple Music now boasts more paying subscribers that Spotify in the United States.
Both services have more than 20 million subscribers, but Apple Music is finally “a hair ahead” after creeping up on Spotify for months, according to a new report. Apple’s service is expected to widen the gap in the coming months as it continues to enjoy a faster growth rate than its biggest rival.
Drake’s new album Scorpion may not have been well received by all his fans, but that hasn’t stopped it from destroying pretty much every record on Apple Music.
Scorption launched last Friday and quickly became the fastest growing album ever on Apple Music’s chart. Its rise was so meteoric that it became the number one album in 92 different countries almost instantaneously. And Apple didn’t even spam promotions for it like Spotify did.
Apple still hasn’t revealed exactly how it plans to make its original video content available to customers.
However, a new report suggests that Apple may take a page out of Amazon’s playbook by launching a single Amazon Prime-style subscription package, compiling Apple Music, a magazine subscription service, and its original TV shows into one.
In three years’ time, Apple could bring in an extra $10 to $12 billion in annual revenue through its original video content and Apple Music, analyst Amit Daryanani of RBC Capital Markets argued in a note to clients this week.
In terms of Apple’s share price, that would add up to 75 cents to the company’s earnings per share.
Siri on HomePod is acceptable for quickly playing an album or a playlist, or even for adding a track to the existing up-next queue. But what if you want to switch the order of some songs in that queue, or delete tracks? Or maybe just use your iPhone to skip tracks, or control the volume of your HomePod without having to talk to the damn thing all the time?
Today we shall find out how.
Jay-Z may be the founder of Tidal, but it seems that he still cares more about streaming numbers than he does about long-term exclusives for this streaming company. At least, that’s the big takeaway from the fact that his joint album with wife Beyoncé is already available on Apple Music.
The album, titled Everything is Love, debuted on Tidal as a very short-lived exclusive over the weekend. Along with Apple Music, the new album is also available on iTunes, Spotify’s premium tier, Google Play, Amazon Music, and more.
Apple recently hired Ryan Newman, a key player from the BBC’s main hip-hop and grime radio station, 1Xtra.
It’s not clear exactly what role Newman will perform at Apple Music. However, he was one of the brains behind shaping and implementing 1Xtra’s musical direction. He could perform a similar job at Apple.
