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.
Staying on top of your favorite bands’ new albums just got a little bit easier, thanks to an Apple Music update that adds a “Coming Soon” section to the iOS app.
Apple began rolling out the new feature, which showcases new music expected to be released in the coming weeks, to Apple Music users today. Here’s where to find it – and how to use it.
Improvements to Apple Music could be showcased at WWDC later today — but one new feature has slipped out early. A new web player gives Apple Music fans the ability to sample and enjoy full tracks in their browsers.
Kanye West’s album is launching today — and unlike 2016’s The Life of Pablo this one will be available from Apple Music and other platforms right away.
Given the trouble that Tidal, which had early exclusive rights to TLoP, is reportedly in, that’s not a huge surprise…
Apple is launching a new music publishing division, headed up respected industry executive Elena Segal.
The newly created Global Director of Music Publishing role will involve working in both the United States and London. Creating the post was apparently one of the first moves made by Oliver Shusser, who recently took over as head of Apple Music.
YouTube Music, a new service that will take on the likes of Spotify and Apple, goes live next week.
Listeners will be able to enjoy the service for free if they don’t mind their music interspersed with advertisements. An upgrade to YouTube Music Premium, priced at $9.99 a month, will remove those ads and allow for background playback and music downloads.
Apple Music has passed the 50 million active user mark, just one month after it passed the 40 million user landmark.
Tim Cook shared the news during an interview with Bloomberg Television, during which he also talked about Apple’s original content push and his recent meeting with President Donald Trump.
You no longer need an Apple Music subscription to enjoy Carpool Karaoke.
Apple has made the first season of its original show available for free through the Apple TV app. There are 19 episodes in total, and you can watch them on iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV.
Apple is famously bad at social networks. Unless you count iMessage, which is easily successful and popular enough to exist as a standalone business. Or iCloud Photo Sharing, which brings families and friends closer together every day. What’s that you say? Ping? Sure, that didn’t work out, but using it as your sole representation of Apple’s social efforts is lazy at best.
Apple, then, is pretty good at social stuff. It’s just that it’s hidden. For instance, now you can hook up with friends in Apple Music, and spy on what they’re listening to. How? Let’s see.
Apple plans to shut down the Texture app for Windows following its acquisition of the magazine subscription service back in March. The app remains available to download from the Microsoft Store for now, but it will stop working on June 30.
Apple Music may have made enormous strides, but Spotify remains the king of streaming music. For now, at least.
In its first ever earnings report as a public company, Spotify says that it ended the quarter with 75 million paying customers — and a massive 170 million monthly active users, taken across all user types.
Apple blew analysts’ expectations out of the water this afternoon with its historic Q2 2018 earnings report that saw the company post the most revenue ever in the March quarter.
Tim Cook and Apple CFO Luca Maestri were absolutely giddy during today’s call with investors. Everyone expected the iPhone X to be a bust, but even Apple was surprised by its success as it still dominates the iPhone sales charts. New products are on the horizon too as Apple’s executives teased new goodies coming down its pipeline:
These were the biggest takeaways from the call:
The second Apple earnings report of 2018 is set to come out on May 1 and Wall Street’s top analysts are worried that disappointing news is on the horizon.
Rumors have been circulating for months that iPhone X sales have been far weaker than Apple expected. The company’s stock price has been slipping in the last two weeks leading up to the Q2 2018 earnings report. Everyone’s waiting to see if Apple can pull out another surprise, but the signs don’t look too promising.
Per usual, Cult of Mac will be here to live blog all the action as it transpires on Tuesday, May 1, at 2 p.m. Pacific. Here’s what to watch for on the call: