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Spotify - page 11

Spotify boasts more than double the subscribers of Apple Music

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Spotify
You won't have to listen to music you don't like.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple Music’s batch of exclusives haven’t been able to stop Spotify’s impressive growth of paid subscribers over the last year.

Spotify revealed today that it new has over 50 million paid subscribers for its music streaming service, which is more than double the 20 million subscribers Apple Music had at the end of 2016.

Spotify eyes lossless audio to wow your ears

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Spotify
CD quality audio is coming to Spotify.
Photo: James Merithew/Cult of Mac

Spotify appears poised to put the final nail in Tidal’s coffin.

The music streaming service is planning to launch a new feature that will give listeners access to lossless audio streaming, according to a new report reveals the feature is currently in testing.

RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic and other awesome apps of the week

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App holiday1
'Appy holidays everyone!
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

If you find yourself at a loose end today, perhaps after overindulging on the eggnog and looking to sit down for a few minutes, why not check out our picks for the top apps of the last week?

Whether you own an iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch or MacBook, we’re confident you’ll find something to enjoy on our list!

Apple Music racks up more than 20 million subscribers

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Apple-Music-Android
Apple Music has hit a big milestone!
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple Music has passed the 20 million subscriber mark, according to new figures released by Apple.

Last time the company released adoption figures, back in September, those numbers hovered around 17 million — meaning the number of paying Apple Music users jumped 15 percent in the past three months.

Drake sings Taylor Swift in new Apple Music ad

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Drake-Apple-Music-ad
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.

Apple scoops up talent, tech from bankrupt music pioneer Omnifone

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apple music app
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.

Neil Young returns to Apple Music

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Neil Young hates your silly music stream services
Neil Young previously swore off Apple Music for quality issues.
Photo: Kris Krüg/Flickr

Well that didn’t last long! Having previously taken almost all of his music off streaming services due to their alleged poor sound quality, Neil Young is back on Apple Music, Spotify and Rdio — as well as new music service Amazon Music Unlimited.

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 Music might be about to get a big price drop

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AppleMusic
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.

Jimmy Iovine gives a glimpse of Apple Music’s future

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Iovine
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.

Apple Music and Spotify offer user-uploaded remixes

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Apple Music
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.

With new hardware trio, Google makes major play for your home

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google home speaker
Google Home is taking on the Amazon Echo.
Photo: Google

Not only does Google want to replace your iPhone with a Pixel, the search giant revealed today that it plans to invade homes with three new products that directly compete with offerings from Apple and Amazon.

During an event in San Francisco today, Google unveiled a new Wi-Fi router, an improved Chromecast and a new Google Home device that’s a lot like Amazon’s Echo smart speaker, only it’s powered by Google Assistant.

Apple Music tops first JD Power music streaming rankings

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apple music app
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.

Drake’s Views is first album to hit 1 billion streams on Apple Music

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Apple CEO Tim Cook with Drake
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 drives first serious music industry growth since 1999

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Apple Music
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.

Surge in Spotify subscribers makes it twice as big as Apple Music

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Spotify
You won't have to listen to music you don't like.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple Music doesn’t appear to be slowing Spotify’s growth at all, based on the number of paid subscribers the rival streaming service has added in 2016.

During the iPhone 7 event, Apple boasted that it has 17 million paid subscribers. Spotify CEO Daniel Ek fired shots back on Twitter this morning, revealing his company has more than twice as many paid music listeners.

Frank Ocean pulls off heist of the year with Endless and Blonde

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Frank Ocean Blonde on Apple Music
Frank Ocean pulls a fast one with his Apple Music exclusives, Endless and Blonde.
Screenshot: Cult of Mac

By Brandon Shaw

I know, you’re tired of hearing, “Frank Ocean’s new album is amazing!!!” Me too. I’m interested less in the album itself, and more in what it means for the future of music.

With a pair of Apple Music exclusives, Frank Ocean pulled a fast one on his old record label — and shook up the the entire record industry. It’s the latest indicator that Apple sits at the center of a rapidly evolving music industry, where rules and strategies are changing by the minute. Now everyone from Spotify to Universal Music Group is frantically trying to figure out what to do.

Apple Music exclusives earn artists one-way trip to Spotify hell [Update: Spotify denies]

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apple music app
Spotify punishes artists for giving Apple Music exclusives.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Scoring an exclusive album deal with Apple Music can be highly lucrative for artists looking for independence, but it might come with some serious payback from Spotify, which is reportedly punishing musicians that sign such deals.

Musicians have been dragged into the fight between Apple and Spotify, according to new reports saying Apple’s rival is threatening to bury artists in its search results. Meanwhile, Spotify has denied the accusations, which come from anonymous sources cited by Bloomberg and The New York Times.

Sore Spotify says music exclusives are bad for everyone

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Spotify
Spotify wants Apple to quit with the exclusives.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

As Apple secures exclusive after exclusive with the hottest names in music, Spotify is beginning to feel the heat. According to Troy Carter, global head of creator services at Spotify, these deals are “bad for artists, bad for consumers, and bad for the whole industry.”

Apple Music is ruining Spotify’s negotiations with record labels

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Spotify
You won't have to listen to music you don't like.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Negotiations between music streaming service Spotify and all three major record labels have hit a snag lately and Apple Music is a big reason why.

Spotify’s licensing agreements with Sony, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group have reportedly been on a rolling month-by-month basis for much of 2016, yet the companies haven’t been able to hammer out long-term deals yet because Spotify isn’t willing to share as much revenue as Apple Music.

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.