Tenille Townes performed at Apple Music’s state-of-the-art studios in Nashville. Photo: Apple Music
Apple Music Sessions are newly recorded live tracks and videos available only on Apple’s streaming music service. The recordings will be from current stars and emerging artists.
Sessions are starting off in Nashville with Carrie Underwood, Tenille Townes and others, but Apple promises to expand to other music genres soon.
First-time Apple Music student subscribers can get the Beats Flex earphones for free. Photo: Apple
Apple is giving new Apple Music student subscribers free Beats Flex earphones worth $69.99. The offer is only for eligible students in the United States and the U.K.
The limited-time offer has been running since June 22, 2022.
Students now have to pay a bit more for an Apple Music subscription. Photo: Apple
The cost of an Apple Music subscription for students just jumped 20%. The music streaming service is still available at a substantial discount, but it’s no longer half price.
This follows a similar price increase in other parts of the world.
Waze embraces Apple Music for a happier commute. Photo: Google
Google’s Waze navigation app makes driving a little more fun by building in support for Apple Music. This allows drivers to make changes to the music streaming through their iPhone or Android without leaving Waze.
The app already supports other music streaming services.
Sonos Voice will give you a new way to talk to your Sonos speakers. Photo: Sonos
Smart speaker maker Sonos will soon deploy its own voice assistant, similar to Apple’s Siri. It will let you play and control music on the company’s products, according to a new report.
The new voice assistant, “Sonos Voice,” will work with Apple Music and a handful of other services.
Apple has confirmed that a pair of its services are having issues. Photo: Cult of Mac/Mabel Amber/Pexels CC
Anyone experiencing trouble with the App Store or Apple Music on Monday can relax. Apple reports that it resolved the issues that plagued these services earlier in the day.
This is after they were down for about eight hours.
Friday Night Baseball starts Friday on Apple TV+. Photo: Apple TV+
Apple revealed who will call the games, and what production enhancements to expect, for its upcoming sports show, Friday Night Baseball. The new broadcast hits the field with a doubleheader Friday on Apple TV+.
Better than iTunes in every single way. Image: Cider Collective
iTunes has become a slow and bloated mess over the years — which is why it no longer exists on Mac. But for those who are stuck with Windows, suffering iTunes is necessary if you want to enjoy Apple Music. Or is it?
There are other ways to take advantage of your Apple Music subscription on third-party machines. You could use the web app in a browser of your choice, or you could download Cider, a new and far greater iTunes alternative.
Cider, which is also available on Mac if you aren’t happy with the default Music app, offers a clean and simple user interface and almost all of the features we’ve come to expect from Apple’s streaming service — plus extras.
Kanye West’s upcoming Donda 2 album will not be available on Apple Music — or any other streaming service. The rapper claims he turned down a $100 million deal with Apple because it doesn’t pay artists enough.
“No one can pay me to be disrespected,” read one of a number of Instagram posts that have since been removed. Donda 2 will now be exclusive to West’s own platform, the $200 Stem Player that allows listeners to “customize” songs.
First up on the reading list is Neal Stephenson's Termination Shock. Photo: Apple Books
In the tradition of media personalities helming book clubs — Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon — Apple Books welcomes a new book club with a new host. The Canadian is not exactly a household name in the U.S., but he has a track record with Apple. It’s Apple Music Hits live radio host George “Strombo” Stroumboulopoulos, who said in a tweet on Tuesday he’s going literary.
The new club is called Strombo’s Lit. Bookworms in the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia can check it out now on the Apple Books app.
A reference to the unreleased “Apple Classical” service this week appeared in a new Apple Music beta for Android. The discovery suggests that the service is nearing its official debut ahead of an Apple event in March.
Apple last year acquired (then closed down) Primephonic, the streaming platform for classical music. Fans have been waiting for it to be integrated into Apple’s services lineup ever since — and that wait could soon be over.
First-time Apple Music subscribers get just a 1-month free trial now (unless they bought an Apple device). Photo: Apple
Since Apple Music launched in 2015, it has offered first-time subscribers a three-month free trial — a very tempting proposition in a competitive streaming market. But now the service has cut the free trail for first-timers to one month, starting this week.
Apple Music continues to offer a six-month free trial to those who buy eligible audio devices.
Apple Music is "the home of Neil Young." Image: Apple/Cult of Mac
Apple Music has launched a huge Neil Young promotion just days after Spotify began pulling all of the singer’s content from its platform.
Listeners will today find a “We Love Neil” section under the “Browse” tab that features albums, interviews, and playlists. Cupertino has also send out tweets and push notifications that call Apple Music “The home of Neil Young.”
But Spotify is still way out in front. Image: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac
With a 15% share of the market, Apple Music is now the second-biggest music streaming service in the world, according to the latest data. It remains significantly bigger than rivals like YouTube Music and Deezer. Over the years, Apple has consistently evolved its music offerings, with features like apple.music replay allowing users to revisit their favorite songs and discover their listening trends.
However, Apple Music will have to fight to stay ahead of Amazon Music, while catching up with Spotify will be an incredibly difficult task.
If you’re yet to try out Apple Music, now’s your chance. Shazam is offering five months of free and unlimited access to new subscribers who sign up before January 31, 2022. Some existing subscribers can get two months free.
You’ll need to use your iPhone (or an Android smartphone if that’s what you’re into) to redeem the offer.
It's a lot faster than before. Image: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac
Apple is testing an improved version of its Music app that’s built to run entirely natively on Mac. Parts of the app, such as the music library, were native on macOS before, and now the rest of it is catching up for improved performance.
You can try out the new Music app now by installing the macOS 12.2 Monterey beta, which is available to all through Apple’s public Beta Software Program.
Easily watch videos with friends thanks to SharePlay in macOS 12.1. Photo: Apple
macOS 12.1, the first major update to Monterey, went out Monday. The major new feature is SharePlay, but there are some other enhancements. But it does not include the much-anticipated Universal Control.
Legacy Contacts are among the features debuting in iOS 15.2 and iPadOS 15.2. Photo: Cult of Mac
iPhone users can now upgrade to iOS 15.2. The update adds a cheaper Apple Music option, plus there’s a new App Privacy Report, and parents will be alerted if their children send or receive nudes.
iPadOS 15.2 is also available with these same updates. And there’s overlap with the just-released watchOS 8.3 and macOS Monterey 12.1.
Devs can start testing iOS 15.2. The full release is expected by mid-December. Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
Apple seeded the iOS 15.2 release candidate to developers on Tuesday, along with the iPad equivalent. When released to the public, iPhones will alert parents if their children send or receive nudes, there’s a new App Privacy Report, and users will be able to look for AirTags that might be tracking them.
The macOS 12.1 RC and watchOS 8.3 RC also went to devs on Tuesday.