Drake has bad blood with the bench press. Photo: Apple
Canadian rap star and Apple fanboy Drake gives us a glimpse at his comical side in the company’s latest Apple Music ad by singing along to Taylor Swift while getting beaten by the bench press.
The ad is part of Apple Music’s ongoing “distractingly good” campaign, which has previously featured Swift herself.
The TR-808 drum machine was a big part of the hip-hop and dance scene. Photo: Roland
A documentary titled 808, chronicling the cultural impact of the Roland TR-808 drum machine, will debut as an Apple Music exclusive on December 9.
Narrated by Beats 1 DJ Zane Lowe and featuring interviews with various big music names — including Apple favorite Pharrell — the documentary previously debuted at 2015’s SXSW Film Festival, although this marks its first wide release.
Omnifone's tech is already inside Apple Music. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
To beef up its streaming music service, Apple has hired some key employees from Omnifone, a company that was a pioneer of in music streaming industry.
Rumors floated this summer that Apple was looking to acquire Omnifone after the company filed for bankruptcy. Instead of buying the whole thing though, a new report claims that Apple instead bought some of parts of Omnifone’s tech and workforce.
A mock up of Apple's proposed data center in Ireland. Photo: Apple
The fate of Apple’s proposed data center in Ireland is finally on the fast-track.
After facing an 18-month delay due to an appeal from two Irish residents, Ireland’s High Court agreed to Apple’s request to speed up the legal process. Now instead of waiting until 2018, the court has to resolve the case within six months.
The creator of the high-fidelity PonoPlayer, Young last year published a missive in which he said that he didn’t want his music to be “devalued by the worst quality in the history of broadcasting or any other form of distribution.”
Somewhere along the way, though, it seems his stance his changed.
Apple could cut $2 off its regular monthly subscription cost. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Forget $9.99 per month — Apple might slash the price of Apple Music subscriptions to better compete with streaming music rivals, most notably Amazon.
According to a new report, Apple could drop monthly subscription prices by as much as 20 percent. The Apple Music price drop would mean a regular subscription would cost users around $7.99 per month, while a family package would go for $12.99.
iPhone sales were down in Q4 2016. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Apple can’t make enough iPhone 7 devices to satisfy demand from customers (and from Wall Street to make more money).
During Apple’s Q4 2016 earnings call today, Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri hinted that big things are in the pipeline that should put the company back on track to growth — and it all starts Thursday with the MacBook Pro.
Suge Knight has not forget about Dre. Photo: Beats
Beats co-founder and Apple employee Andre Young, aka Dr. Dre, allegedly hired a hitman to kill Suge Knight, according to a lawsuit filed by Knight.
The former hip-hop mogul who co-founded Death Row Records claims Dre tried to have him murdered because Knight was owed a $300 million payout after Apple’s $3.4 billion acquisition of Beats Electronics in 2014. That deal made Dr. Dre the first billionaire in hip-hop.
Drake is following up on his album Views, which became the first album to hit one billion streams on Apple Music, with a new song collection, scheduled to debut on the service in December.
Entitled “More Life,” Drake announced the collection during his Sunday night “OVO Sound” show on Apple Music’s Beats 1 radio station.
Apple VP Eddy Cue runs Apple's media business. Photo: CNBC
Watching television is still a dreadful experience, according to Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior VP of internet software and services.
The Apple exec sat down for a joint interview with HBO CEO Richard Plepler at Vanity Fair’s New Establishment Summit in San Francisco today. The two media titans discussed the rapidly changing landscape of television, but Cue told the audience that more changes are needed to make the experience better.
Would an Amazon Prime-style service work for Apple? Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Apple should take a note out of Jeff Bezos’ playbook and launch an Amazon Prime-style subscription service, claims an analyst for Goldman Sachs.
“We think Apple should launch a subscription bundle as a way to reinforce iPhone loyalty and leverage it into content,” Simona Jankowski writes in a new note to clients. In the brief, Jankowski and colleagues ponder the potential of a $50 monthly subscription that would get customers the latest iPhone plus other services like Apple TV, Apple Music and freemium access to the iTunes library.
Apple is the U.K.'s top tech employer. Photo: Apple
An early preview of Apple’s redesigned London store reveals lots of new plants, simplified shelves and tables, as well as untethered iPhones and iPads that visitors can pick up and carry around the store.
Apple’s flagship Regent Street store, closed since June for the major remodel, is set to reopen Saturday. Early photos and a video tour show off the retail outlet’s uncluttered new look.
Have you signed up to Apple Music yet? Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Apple’s newer adverts have tended to fall into either the comedy or moody art school genres. However, in its fight to grow Apple Music it just released a more traditional feature showcase ad, laying out the abilities of the “all-new” Apple Music.
Guess who's got a brand new music service! Photo: Amazon
Apple Music has a new competitor in the form of Amazon, which today launched music streaming service Amazon Music Unlimited.
The premium service carries the same $9.99 monthly fee as Apple Music for regular users, although Prime customers get a reduced $7.99 monthly charge — while owners of the Amazon Echo can use an Amazon Music Unlimited subscription through the standalone device for a mere $3.99 per month.
Apple Music wants to have a strong voice in the music world. Photo: Apple
Apple Music remains a long way from being a finished product, according to Apple executive and Beats Electronics co-founder Jimmy Iovine.
In a new interview discussing the struggles of building a product that fuses the worlds of tech and music, Iovine revealed that the company wants to build a product that is more than just a utility for accessing your music or getting a weekly playlist.
Dubset Media brings legit remixes to listeners and ensures musicians get paid. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Apple Music and Spotify have started offering users access to unofficial, user-uploaded music remixes, courtesy of a deal with Dubset Media Holdings.
The company uses algorithms to sort out licensing and royalty payments for musical remixes. It’s an incredibly complicated problem to tackle, since a single remix might have upward of 600 different rights holders.
Users can't wait to get their hands on iOS 10. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
iOS 10 now has a larger install base than iOS 9, just over two weeks after making its public debut. Apple’s latest software has now reached 48.16 percent of all devices, while iOS 9’s share has dropped to 47.79 percent.
Exclusives are keeping Apple Music subscribers loyal. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
The first ever J.D. Power music streaming satisfaction survey found that Apple Music is the most liked streaming service in the U.S.
Spotify didn’t even manage to crack the top 3 in the survey that polled over 4,000 subscribers to music streaming services to gauge how well each company performs when it comes to performance and reliability, ease of use, cost, content, communication and customer service.
Tim Cook has been outspoken in his support of Hillary. Photo: Apple
Shortly after last night’s presidential debate, Apple Music published a teaser for an Apple Music exclusive conversation between Hillary Clinton and Mary J. Blige.
The interview promises to get up close and personal with Clinton, and to address some hard-hitting subjects like police brutality. And it’s available exclusively to Apple Music subscribers.
Eddy Cue and Tim Cook personally congratulated Drake. Photo: Champagnepapi/Instagram
Apple hit a huge milestone this week thanks to Drake’s latest album, Views, which just became the first album to hit one billion streams on Apple Music.
Apple CEO Tim Cook made it a point to personally toast Drizzy on his accomplishment, and presented a plaque to the singer/rapper alongside VP of Service Eddy Cue.
Apple Music is doubling down on exclusives. Photo: Ste Smith
Apple Music is starting to look more and more like a record label, and it appears the company plans to double down on artist exclusives with the hiring of former Epic Records executive Scott Seviour.
Apple Music is doing good in the eyes of record labels. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Apple Music is having a big impact on the profitability of the music industry, according to a new report from the Recording Industry Association of America.
How big? Apple Music is one of the key players driving what looks to be the recording industry’s first back-to-back yearly growth since 1998-1999.
Corden swims with apples. It's, like, a metaphor. Photo: Apple
Hot off his genuinely hilarious skit with Tim Cook at the start of the recent iPhone 7 media event, James Corden is back alongside Apple executives for a new ad for Apple Music.
Playing himself, Corden pitches various off-the-wall concepts for an Apple Music ad, to more and more bemused reactions from Apple execs Jimmy Iovine, Eddy Cue and Bozoma Saint John.
Apple's got 99 problems, but a Tidal acquisition ain't one. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Jay Z and Apple aren’t going to be joining forces anytime soon, according to Apple Music head honcho Jimmy Iovine.
In a new interview, Iovine poured cold water on Tidal takeover rumors, saying: “We’re really running our own race” and “we’re not looking to acquire any streaming services.”