Apple Music - page 9

Apple seemingly hasn’t abandoned its possible plans for an “Apple Prime” service that combines all its subscriptions into one single package. In a report published late Wednesday, 9to5Mac discovered references in the iOS 13.5.5 beta code to a “bundle offer” and “bundle subscription” that didn’t previously exist.

The idea could be to offer a services bundle combination of Apple Music, Apple News+, Apple TV+ and, potentially, Apple Arcade, at a lower price than buying each individually. Whether it happens, of course, is another matter entirely.

Apple Music has joined Blackout Tuesday, a music-industry-wide initiative seeking to raise support for Black Lives Matter following the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis. Floyd’s death, captured on camera by onlookers, sparked protests and riots across the United States.

Doing its part for the day, Apple Music canceled its Beats 1 radio service on June 2. The service also changed its “For You” tab. Both redirect to a “For Us, By Us” stream playing music by black artists. A regular voiceover says that it is designed to “stand in solidarity with black communities everywhere.”

Amazon is helping us all say entertained during COVID-19 lockdowns with generous savings on its own Fire TV devices. You can pick up a Fire TV Stick for as little as $29.99, and Fire Edition TV sets from just $139.99.

All Fire TV devices now support Apple TV+ — as well as a host of other streaming services, including Netflix and Disney+. These are limited-time savings, so enjoy them before they disappear.

American singer and songwriter Billie Eilish is continuing her connection with Apple Music listeners with the release of a new radio show featuring she and her father, Patrick O’Connell.

Her new show, me & dad radio, will debut Friday on Apple Music at noon Pacific time with six episodes planned.

Spotify has 163 million free, ad-supported users, and an impressive 130 million paid subscribers, the streaming music giant announced Wednesday in its financial earnings for Q1 2020. These premium subscribers are up 6 million from the end of the previous quarter, and 30 million year-on-year.

While Apple hasn’t released updated Apple Music subscriber figures for a while now, it last announced 60 million paying customers last summer. Although Apple Music has reportedly experienced a nice bump while people are stuck home during lockdown, that suggests that Spotify is still enjoying a comfortable lead in the streaming war.

Hip hop luminary Lil Wayne, one of the most well-known and respected rappers of the 21st century, is headed to Apple Music!

No, Lil Wayne (or Weezy F. Baby as the kids call him) isn’t debuting an exclusive new album on Apple’s streaming music service. Instead, he’ll be playing host on Young Money Radio, a new show debuting on Beats 1 Friday, April 24 at 7pm EST/4pm PT.

If your music career or business would be boosted by meeting with someone high up at Apple Music, then this is your lucky day. Three high-level executives at Apple’s music streaming service are auctioning off private meetings.

Proceeds from these auctions go to the Pablove Foundation, which invests in pediatric cancer research.

Apple announced Tuesday that it is launching a whole host of its services in dozens more countries around the world.

Starting today, the App Store, Apple Arcade, Apple Podcasts, and iCloud are available in 20 additional countries. Apple Music, meanwhile, has picked up an additional 52 (!) international markets.

The head of Apple Music is apparently assuming an additional role. Oliver Schusser is reportedly going to take charge of the company’s Beats line of high-end headphones, while also remaining at the helm of Apple’s music-streaming service.

Apple also took the opportunity to refute a recent unconfirmed report that it’s phasing out Beats.

Having been in beta since September, Apple Music’s web app is finally fully up and running for all users.

The web app, found at music.apple.com site (no longer with the “beta” prefix), lets users listen to Apple Music content without using the dedicated app.

The coronavirus-induced lockdown is affecting huge parts of the service economy. However, one area it doesn’t seem to be negatively impacting in the U.S. is the streaming music market.

According to a report from Music Business Weekly, published Monday, streaming music service subscriptions are not only not slowing down right now; in some cases they’re actually increasing.

TikTok is chipping into the global fight against COVID-19 with one of the largest financial contributions we’ve seen yet from a major tech company. The video-sharing platform has been one of the biggest bright spots of joy and inspiration during this quarantine age, and now it’s ready to pay it back.

On Thursday, the company revealed it is pledging $375 million in relief that will be distributed in various ways to individuals, hospitals, companies and other organizations.

Apple has created a $50 million advance fund to help independent music labels and distributors pay their artists and keep operations afloat.

The global lockdown in an effort to slow the COVID-19 outbreak has been particularly brutal to independent labels. Music stores, in-person venues and TV/movie productions are all closed, killing sales, licensing income and anticipated revenues from shows now canceled.

You may have seen a notification from Apple Music at some point. It popped up, told you about a new album from a favorite artist, and you thought, “Thanks Apple Music! That’s great news.” Finally, you thought to yourself, this is a machine doing what machines are supposed to do. Then maybe you clicked on that notification, and the Music app launched, but didn’t go to the artist or album. Or perhaps you dismissed the alert, and when you opened the Music app later, you were confused because you couldn’t find the notification anywhere.

Now, Apple has (maybe) fixed this problem. Instead of just plain old lock-screen notifications, the Music app will now show you new music alerts inside the app itself. Here’s how to switch them on.

To help people adapting to life in coronavirus lockdown, Apple Music has debuted a series of playlists under the title “Come Together.”

Covering a range of genres, and including some fun tongue-in-cheek titles like the “Social Distancing Social Club,” the hand-picked (hopefully wearing the necessary sanitary gloves) playlists are sure to entertain those locked in-doors. Which is seemingly everyone right now!

Music lovers can make sure they never miss a new song or album from their favorite bands and artists with a new notification feature that is slowly rolling out to Apple Music users starting today.

Beats 1 DJs on Apple Music are being forced to work from home during the coronavirus pandemic and while they’re stuck inside, they’re turning to FaceTime to get the job done.

Apple revealed Monday that its radio show hosts will record interviews with musicians and other artists from their homes by using FaceTime on iPhone.

Planning to buy a lot of apps, movies and iBooks while stuck at home for the rest of the month? You might want to consider adding money to your Apple ID account to get more bang for your buck.

Apple is doing its part to help positive messaging regarding the coronavirus pandemic by sharing a White House video emphasizing the importance of social distancing.

The public service announcement features three core members of the White House’s Coronavirus Task Force. It’s visible in the video carousel on Apple Music and iTunes. You do not need an active Apple Music subscription to view it.

Apple employees at the company’s Culver City offices may have been exposed to COVID-19 after an employee tested positive for the virus. Culver City is Apple’s entertainment hub where much of the work on Apple TV+ and Apple Music is done.

Apple reportedly signed the contracts it needs to keep streaming songs from the biggest labels. However, there supposedly was no mention in the agreements of an “Apple Prime” that would bundle this company’s music and video streaming services.

A music licensing company accuses Apple, Spotify, Google, SoundCloud, and other streaming services of entering into a price-fixing “conspiracy” to keep streaming music prices at anticompetitive levels.

Pro Music Rights (PMR) filed the complaint Monday with the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut. PMR previously filed a lawsuit against Apple in December for allegedly streaming copyrighted music without the necessary permissions.

Spotify is making it a lot faster to find your favorite music or new things to listen to with a big update for its iOS app today.

The music streaming service revealed it overhauled the Home screen on its iPhone and iPad app, packing it with more content you love and better discovery and recommendation features that change throughout the day.

Spotify is reportedly making a big push to get record labels to pay to promote artists’ music in its service as a new way to generate revenue.

Despite having nearly double the number of paid subscribers as Apple Music, Spotify still isn’t a profitable company and is looking to the music industry to help it create new revenue streams. Although the talks are still ongoing, you could soon see sponsored songs in your playlists and other areas of the app.

Shazam is finally offering Apple Music integration on Android, almost two years after the music identification service was acquired by Apple.

Users have the ability to identify songs and enjoy full versions of them using their Apple Music subscription. The feature comes with a beta tag for now, but works just as you would expect.