Wasn't Taylor Swift the singer who once had it in for Apple Music? Photo: Apple
Taylor Swift continues her about-turn on Apple Music by appearing in a new ad for the streaming music service, in which the hit-maker rocks out to Jimmy Eat World’s “The Middle” while appearing to get ready for a night on the town.
It's way less awkward without the sound. Photo: Apple
Drake’s apparently making bank off of a recent Apple Music ad featuring Taylor Swift faceplanting onto a treadmill.
The video launched less than a week ago on April 1, and since it went live, iTunes sales of Drake’s song “Jumpman,” which features prominently in the spot, have more than quadrupled, Billboard reports. And the playlist Swift pulls up to motivate herself for her cardio workout is showing pretty good numbers on Apple’s streaming service, too.
If you aren’t one of the millions of people who has already seen the Apple Music ad, you can check it out below.
Alex Gale joins Apple Music. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Festivities for Apple’s 40th birthday have spilled over onto Apple Music this week, with an all-new playlist that celebrates songs from the company’s iconic ads over the years.
The 40-song playlist spotlights some of the best tunes of the present and the past. It’s available to all Apple Music subscribers, and includes hits from The Beatles, Rolling Stone, Eminem, Adele, Daft Punk, Lauryn Hill, Coldyplay, U2 and Bob Dylan.
Taylor Swift hates doing cardio! The latest ad for Apple Music pits the singer against one of the most ferocious machines in the gym: the dread treadmill.
It’s Swift’s first appearance in an Apple ad, and it also reveals that the country-turned-pop star has a soft spot for hip-hop icons Drake and Future. She says her hilarious ad is “based on real events” that reveal her alien talent for rapping and keeping on beat no matter what happens.
Kanye West showing off his snazzy Apple Watch Edition. Photo: Justjared
Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo album has arrived on Apple Music — making something of a mockery of Mr. Kim Kardashian’s claim last month that the album would “never never never be on Apple.”
We guess by “never” he meant “you’ll have to wait six more weeks.”
Admiring fans check out the first iPhone in its public debut. Photo: Traci Dauphin/Cult of Mac
Apple turns 40 years old today, and what a journey it’s been: from a promising homebrew startup to an underdog fighting off bankruptcy to an industry-straddling behemoth with $233.7 billion in revenue, all thanks to the vision of theco founder of apple.
It’s impossible to boil down every significant Apple event into one story, but we did our best to pick out the 40 most significant moments in the company’s past.
Check out these key moments in Apple history below.
SoundCloud Go is yet another music streaming service. Photo: SoundCloud
Apple Music’s competition in the music streaming battle just got a little fiercer today with the introduction of a new subscription service by SoundCloud.
The new SoundCloud Go service costs $10 per month, giving you unlimited access to the YouTube of Audio’s vast trove of indie content without ads. You can also save files to listen to offline, but that might not be enough to take on Apple Music and Spotify.
Apple's first documentary is all about apps. Photo: Buster Hein/Cult of Mac
The next piece of original video content coming out of Cupertino is going to look more like a big iPhone ad than a TV show.
Apple revealed today that is working with Black Eyed Peas singer and failed tech visionary Will.i.am to create a new unscripted TV series that’s all about apps.
Vice is diving deep into Reservation Rap. Photo: Vice
Apple is teaming up with Vice for a new six-part documentary that will stream exclusively on Apple Music.
The Score will spotlight music scenes from around the world that are lot more diverse and rich than your typical five-day outdoor EDM rave. The first episode called “Reservation Rap” debuts this week and covers Minnesota Red Lake Reservation’s unique hip-hop style created by the Ojibwa tribe.
Watch members of the third largest indigenous tribe in North America spit some bars:
I recently expressed my frustrations with Apple Music and why I didn’t plan to continue using the service. I want to love Apple Music. Siri integration and the ability to have a singular place to listen to all my music, both streamed and purchased, would be a dream come true.
Unfortunately, Apple Music currently has far too many shortcomings and quirks for me to take it seriously. However, with the help of these third-party apps, I’ve found using Apple Music to be far less painful — and, in some cases, even enjoyable.
Apple Music is taking a big leap forward. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
If you’re a fan of EDM (that’s “electronic dance music” for the older Cult of Mac readers out there!), Apple Music is about to become your best option for streaming music — courtesy of a new deal Apple has signed that will let it bring thousands of rare DJ mash-ups, remixes, and mixtapes to its subscription music service.
One of the world's biggest EDM artists is coming to Beats 1. Photo: Hyunji Choi/Flickr CC
Beats 1 just announced its biggest dance music collaborator yet, in the form of massively-popular, 35-year-old Canadian house music producer Joel Thomas Zimmerman, a.k.a. Deadmau5.
That appears to have changed, however, with the mercurial rapper/pop star sending out a series of bizarre tweets in which — among many, many other things — he pleads with Facebook and Google (but not Apple) to invest $1 billion in “Kanye West ideas” and says that his latest album will never appear on Apple Music.
The first piece of original programming to come out of Apple may star none other than the company’s own employee: Andre Young, aka, Dr. Dre.
The hip-hop mogul turned Beats co-founder is reportedly starring and executive producing the first-ever scripted TV series bankrolled by Apple, but it’s still unclear how Dre’s production will be distributed.
One of Apple Music’s biggest competitors is looking to sellout.
Pandora, the music streaming service with more users than Spotify and Apple Music, has reportedly been meeting with private parties regarding a possible sale of the company after experiencing its slowest amount of growth ever last year.
New Kanye West joint set for Tidal, not Apple. Photo: Tidal
Kanye West takes to streaming service Tidal tomorrow to unveil the latest Yeezy hype: a third line of clothing (Yeezy, Season 3) and a new album, so far titled T.L.O.P.
He’ll put on a show at Madison Square Garden, and even if you’re not a Tidal subscriber, you can check out the new threads and listen to the new tracks starting Thursday February 11 at 4:00 pm Eastern right on Tidal’s home page.
Originally, West was set to show his stuff in various theaters around the world (huh?), but this makes a bit more sense.
Apple Music is about to stream on Sonos smart speakers. Photo: Sonos
Apple Music becomes an official part of the Sonos ecosystem Wednesday after months of beta testing on the wireless speakers.
“The feedback from Apple Music members on Sonos during the beta period has been great,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of internet software and services, in a press release. “Sonos plus Apple Music provides an amazing listening experience at home — and we’re excited to offer it to all Sonos customers starting tomorrow.”
Amazon Echo adds Spotify to its bag of tricks. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Amazon’s Echo smart speaker just upped its music game, adding Spotify streaming to its ever-growing list of skills. Now playing your favorite artists and playlists is just a voice command away — at least if you’re a Spotify Premium subscriber.
Beats 1 will be your only free Apple Music option next month. Photo: Apple
Apple Music is shutting down its ad-supported radio as of January 28, pushing Beats 1 as the premier free “broadcast” for Apple. Apple sent the news out in an email to subscribers and free listeners today.
You’ll still be able to listen to all the Apple Music radio as an Apple Music member, but not as a free listener.
More than a decade ago, the dynamic entertainer — who died Sunday at age 69 after an 18-month battle with cancer — predicted the music biz would look a lot like it does in the time of Apple Music.
Should it address falling iPhone sales first and focus on making iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus the best smartphones money can buy? Should it put more effort into making iPad the tablet it once was? Or is it time for something new?
Join us in this week’s Friday Night Fight between Cult of Android and Cult of Mac as we battle it out over all this and more!
2015 was a great year for Apple -- mostly. Image: Stephen Smith/Cult of Mac
You could say 2015 was a product-ive year for Apple. The company entered the wearable market with the Apple Watch, released a hugely updated version of the Apple TV streaming box, unveiled the massive iPad Pro (and considerably less massive iPad Mini 4), took on tune-streaming with the Apple Music service, and made its annual update to the iPhone with the 6s and 6s Plus.
We also saw updates to the operating systems that run all those things, as well as a new desktop OS in El Capitan, but it wasn’t all great news. Apple encountered lawsuits, shakeups and investigations by countries and entire federations thereof.
So whether we ultimately decide Cupertino had a good or bad year, at least it was pretty interesting. Relive the ups and downs with this Apple year in review 2015, Cult of Mac-style.
It was the best of designs, it was the worst of designs. Apple really went for it in 2015, with varying degrees of success. Image: Stephen Smith/Cult of Mac
2015 was a bold year for Apple. The company jumped into new product categories, polished its existing hardware and software lines, and wowed us repeatedly.
Apple also made most of us throw up in our mouths a little bit now and then, due to some questionable (and some undeniably bad) choices.
These are Apple’s biggest wins and most epic fails of the past year, as remembered — fondly and otherwise — by Cult of Mac staffers.