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Apple Music Festival 2016 kicks off September 18

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Apple promises "10 exhilarating nights of live music."
Photo: Apple

The Apple Music Festival will return to the U.K. this September for “10 exhilarating nights of live music,” according to Apple.

No musical acts have been revealed yet for the festival, which will run from September 18 to September 30. But if previous years are anything to go by, 2016 promises to deliver a star-studded lineup — and Apple Music subscribers get to watch the whole thing for free online.

Birdman’s label takes flight in first trailer for Cash Money doc

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Cash Money co-founder Birdman confirmed the deal this week.
Photo: Birdman/Instagram

Apple has released a trailer for its upcoming documentary The Cash Money Story about popular hip hop record label Cash Money Records, which will be available exclusively on Apple Music.

The story of the label which introduced hip hop fans to Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj, Young Money and Birdman, the documentary was teased earlier this week by Cash Money co-founder Birdman, who said he had struck a “power move” deal with Apple.

Frank Ocean debuts Endless visual album on Apple Music

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Frank Ocean Endless
45-minute 'visual album' now available on Apple Music.
Photo: Apple Music

Apple Music added to its impressive string of exclusives by releasing Endless, a 45-minute “visual album” by Frank Ocean.

The film, which is available now to subscribers of Apple’s streaming music service, is thought to be a tease for an upcoming album by the Grammy-winning singer that could be released this weekend.

Apple is producing an exclusive documentary about Cash Money Records

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Apple is all about that Cash Money.
Photo: Instagram

In its quest for more exclusive music content, Apple Music has signed an agreement with Cash Money Records: the record label which brought fan Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj, Young Money and Birdman.

According to the deal, which was described as a “power move” by co-founder Birdman on his Instagram, Apple will produce a documentary about the label — set to air exclusively on Apple Music.

Apple is hiring a team of lyrics curators for Apple Music

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iOS 10 brings lyrics to Apple Music.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

The new lyrics feature in Apple Music might not be powered by a third-party company, according to a new job posting found on Apple’s website.

It appears that Apple instead plans to do most of the work compiling lyrics all on its own by hiring “a team of lyrics curators with excellent writing skills, music knowledge, and attention to detail.”

Apple seeds fifth betas of iOS 10, watchOS 3 and tvOS 10

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iOS 10 beta 5 has arrived.
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

Developers received a brand-new batch of betas from Apple this morning after the company released the fifth builds of iOS 10, watchOS 3 and tvOS 10, which bring a number of changes and performance improvements to Apple’s platforms.

The updates come just over a week after Apple dropped the fourth beta of iOS 10, which included more than 100 new emoji, new sounds for keyboard clicks, quicker animations and tons of other improvements. We can’t wait to see what improvements Apple has made this go-round.

How to use Apple Music inside iTunes with macOS Sierra

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Get the most out of your music with macOS Sierra.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple Music has had a nice clean refresh in macOS Sierra — making it far easier to search for and discover the best Apple’s streaming music service has to offer.

Here’s what tune-lovers need to know when running the new operating system, which is currently in public beta and will be released this fall.

Gwyneth Paltrow is bringing her coding skills to ‘Planet of the Apps’

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Welcome to our new world Gwyneth.
Photo: Twentieth Century Fox/Apple

Apple has signed Hollywood superstar Gwyneth Paltrow to join its unscripted series ‘Planet of the Apps’.

Paltrow will be joined by will.i.am and serial entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk on the show where all three will serve as mentors and advisors to app developers in the series that will reportedly act as a launch pad to exceptional developers.

Apple Music for Android is finally out of beta

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Apple Music for Android is keeping up with iOS.
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

The first major Android app made by Apple engineers is finally ready for primetime.

Coming over a year after the launch of Apple Music on iOS, Apple released the first non-beta version of Apple Music on the Google Play Store today and it comes with a couple new features.

7 takeaways from Apple’s surprisingly good Q3 earnings

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Apple made $7.8 billion in profit last quarter.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple shocked investors with better than expected earnings for Q3 2016 today, despite some ominous signs that some analysts claimed signaled we’ve reached peak Tim Cook.

Thanks to the booming App Store business and other Services, Apple raked in an impressive $42.2 billion in revenue, which Tim Cook says, “was way better than we expected from so many different points of view.”

Here are the most important takeaways from today’s earnings call:

Carpool Karaoke TV show will be an Apple Music exclusive

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Carpool Karaoke
Missy and Michelle be puttin' it down in Carpool Karaoke.
Photo: CBS Studios

James Corden’s popular “Carpool Karaoke” segment from The Late Late Show on CBS is set to become its own show later this year — and you’ll only be able to watch it on Apple Music.

The viral segment has been a breakout hit of 2016, thanks to appearances by Adele, Justin Bieber, Michelle Obama, Elton John and dozens of other stars who drive around Los Angeles singing popular songs. Now fans will be able to get their karaoke by streaming full episodes every week.

All the iOS 10 beta 3 changes that make iPhone even better

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Apple made a lot of improvements to iOS 10.
Photo: Apple

Apple’s jam-packed iOS 10 update has gotten even better in its third beta, which brings a bunch of tiny new features that start to make iOS 10 feel like a polished product.

The list of changes in iOS 10 beta 3, which was seeded to developers this week, isn’t as long as the last update. But Apple has added some really nice tweaks to the lock screen, Apple Music, iCloud Drive and Messages, in addition to a ton of bug fixes and stability improvements.

Check out the most important new additions to Apple’s upcoming mobile OS, which is slated to launch on iPhones and iPads this fall:

Apple Music finally gets audio fingerprints from iTunes Match

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This fix might stop Apple Music from garbling your library.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple Music’s matching software has a terrible history of replacing artists’ live songs with a studio version, but that will finally be a thing of the past, thanks the addition of audio fingerprints from iTunes Match.

A quiet rollout of the iTunes Match audio fingerprint to all Apple Music subscriber is currently underway, fixing the less accurate metadata version of iTunes Match that was currently used on Apple Music.

Katy Perry’s new single is latest Apple exclusive

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Katy Perry Rise
“Rise” is available for streaming now!
Photo: Capitol Records

Katy Perry’s new single, her first since 2014, is out today — and you’ll find it only on Apple Music and iTunes. “Rise,” which will be used as the anthem for NBC’s coverage of the Rio Olympics this summer, is exclusive to Apple’s services at launch.

How to make Amazon Echo default to Spotify or Pandora

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The Amazon Echo may finally have competition from Apple.
It's easier than ever to get the Amazon Echo to play tracks from Spotify Premium.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Barking out a song request at my Amazon Echo smart speaker, then hearing the track magically start playing, makes me feel like I’m living in the future.

Unfortunately, that feeling evaporates when the song isn’t part of the relatively skimpy Amazon Prime Music catalog. If it’s not there, Amazon’s AI assistant Alexa queues up an annoying 30-second sample — and that makes me realize I’m living in the very buggy present.

Luckily, you can fix that. Here’s how to make Amazon Echo default to Spotify so you don’t get stuck with those annoying song and album previews.

iOS 10 and macOS Sierra betas are now open to the public

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iPhone SE
Public testers can download iOS 10 now.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple fans who want to get a glimpse of iOS 10 and macOS Sierra before their public release later this fall will finally get the opportunity to install the new software today.

Coming just two days after the release of the second beta of iOS 10 and macOS Sierra to developers, Apple is now letting members of its public beta program install the new software, which debuted last month at WWDC.

All the changes Apple made in iOS 10 beta 2

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There's a lot to love in the new iOS 10 beta.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple’s second beta for iOS 10 is jam-packed with new features and changes to go along with the big batch of bug fixes.

More than 50 changes have been discovered by developers, affecting everything from Apple Music to widgets. A lot of the changes are very minor UI tweaks that would probably go unnoticed by many users, but Apple has also added some huge additions to the Home button, Messages, Notification Center and more.

Here’s what’s new in iOS 10 beta 2:

Why Apple should buy Tidal (and why it shouldn’t) [Friday Night Fights]

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Tidal could be Apple Music's biggest rival later.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

When you have the kind of cash Apple has, the easiest way to take down the competition is to just buy it. That’s exactly what the Cupertino company is planning to do with Apple Music rival Tidal, according to a recent report.

FNF-bugBut would a Tidal takeover be a good move? Would Apple be using its money solely to wipe out a rival, or will Tidal’s talent and connections to the music industry be great for Apple Music?

Join us in this week’s Friday Night Fight as we battle it out over the latest Apple acquisition rumor!

Bon Iver frontman slams ‘horrid’ Apple Music

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Bon Iver is no fan of Apple Music.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

From Taylor Swift to Drake, Apple’s pretty adamant on coming across as artist-friendly when it comes to Apple Music. But one artist who’s apparently less than impressed with Apple’s streaming music service is Bon Iver singer-songwriter Justin Vernon.

In a pair of tweets sent today, Vernon referred to Apple Music as “literally a horrid platform” and slammed Apple for its “commercialization.” Check out his comments below.

Apple might buy struggling competitor Tidal

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A Tidal acquisition would give Apple Music even more artist exclusives.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Jay Z and Apple might be joining forces.

Apple has dominated the jigga man’s streaming service, Tidal, ever since the launch of Apple Music one year ago, but a new report claims that the iPhone-maker is in exploratory talks to acquire the music streaming service.

Apple celebrates NASA’s Juno mission with hypnotic space video

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Music and space have a lot more in common than you'd think.
Music and space have a lot more in common than you'd think.
Photo: Apple

NASA’s Juno mission is set to arrive at Jupiter on July 4th, so to celebrate the space agency did the most sensible thing it could think of: team up with Apple and Weezer to make awesome videos about space and music.

While Weezer created the patriotic rock anthem “I Love the USA” to mark the occasion, Apple created a hypnotic short film called “Visions of Harmony” that explores the link between space travel and music. The soundtrack for the hypnotic film was created by Nine Inch Nails frontman and Apple VP Trent Reznor and collaborator Atticus Ross.

Watch it below:

Spotify accuses Apple of blocking app update

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Apple is making it harder for Spotify to compete on iOS.
Photo: Spotify

Apple is allegedly stopping Spotify from competing with Apple Music by blocking the streaming service’s latest iOS app update from the App Store.

Spotify sent Apple’s general counsel Bruce Sewell a letter this week claiming that Cupertino is inflicting great harm on its streaming music competitor (and Spotify’s customers) by not allowing Spotify to use its own billing system for subscriptions.