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Spotify now matches Apple Music’s 3-month free trial

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Spotify app now playing screen
Spotify and Siri are finally a team.
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

Spotify is now matching Apple Music’s generous three-month free trial for new subscribers.

The offer is available to eligible individual and student users who sign up for any Spotify Premium plan, starting today. It will be extended to support Duo and Family Plans in the coming months.

TV drama will show how Spotify ‘beat Apple’

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Spotify is adding 2x as many monthly subscribers as Apple Music
The battle for our ears. And listening dollars.
Photo: Spotify

Streaming giant Spotify’s history shows a company that rose from nothing to take on Apple — and won. Well, kind of. At least, that’s the story that may be told in a new screen adaptation of Spotify’s rise to prominence.

While it’s not yet in production, the UK division of Swedish film and TV company Yellow Bird (the company behind the Swedish Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) just acquired the adaptation rights to the recent book Spotify Untold.

Think of it as The Social Network, only about the world of streaming music.

Spotify Family Plan is finally getting explicit content filters

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Spotify is adding 2x as many monthly subscribers as Apple Music
Spotify is adding 2x as many monthly subscribers as Apple Music
Photo: Spotify

Spotify is finally making its Family Plan more family-friendly by giving parents greater control over the music their kids can listen to.

It will soon be possible to block out explicit tracks with a password-protected setting that only parents have access to. Spotify is also adding a “Family Mix” playlist.

Spotify might finally get Siri support with iOS 13

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Spotify Premium update October 2018
Apple and Spotify might declare a truce.
Photo: Spotify

Apple might be ready to agree to a truce with Spotify that would allow iOS users to control the rival music streaming service with Siri.

iPhone users have been unable to use Siri and Spotify together even though you can do it with Apple Music. Reports of the negotiations come as Apple is facing more intense scrutiny for anti-trust practices, with Spotify being one of the loudest dissenting voices.

AT&T gives free Spotify Premium to unlimited subscribers

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Spotify discover weekly, daily mix, playlists, and sharing features
This should help Spotify grow its subscriber base.
Photo: Ian Fuchs

AT&T is ready to sweeten the deal for some of its monthly subscribers by offering free Spotify premium as of its new entertainment perks.

The carrier revealed its new entertainment perks today that also gives customers the option to choose HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, Starz or Pandora as their free entertainment options. Even if you don’t have a qualifying wireless plan, you can still get some other Spotify perks.

Spotify has 48 million more paying subscribers than Apple Music

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Spotify app now playing screen
Spotify is still leading the way among streaming music services.
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

In its latest quarterly earnings, Spotify has revealed that it currently has 108 million paying subscribers. That’s approaching 2x the number who subscribe to Apple Music, which is around 60 million at present.

That’s an increase of 31% year-on-year, although it’s slightly below what the streaming music giant had been aiming for.

Rockers Tool are finally bringing their music to streaming services

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Tool
Tool performing a headline slot during their "10,000 Days" tour.
Photo: Denuo/Wikipedia CC

Tool, the American rock band which was a staple of alternative music in the 1990s and early 2000s, is finally bringing its back catalog to streaming services.

The exact services the album will be available on haven’t been named. However, it seems incredibly likely that Apple Music — one of the most popular streaming services — will be among them.

Apple Music may reduce free trial to just one month

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A new ad for Apple Music shows a one-month free trial.
Apple's new banner ad.
Photo: Apple

Right from the start, Apple Music offered a three-month trial to new users to try and get them to subscribe. In some cases, this even extended all the way up to a six-month free trial before users would have to pay a dime.

Apple may be shifting away from this strategy, though. A new banner ad on Apple’s website mentions a one-month tryout period for the streaming music service.

New Spotify book contains a very weird Steve Jobs anecdote

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Steve Jobs’ estate triumphs in battle over SteveJobs.com
Did Jobs intimidate the Spotify founder by breathing down the phone to him?
Photo: Kazuhiro Shiozawa/Flickr CC

Despite his sometimes prickly reputation, Steve Jobs was well known for mentoring select young tech entrepreneurs. When it comes to Spotify, however, he may have taken a different tact.

According to a new book, Spotify Untold, Jobs freaked out Spotify co-founder and CEO Daniel Ek by calling him up and breathing deeply down the phone. (Then again, it may have all been Ek’s imagination!)

Apple might bankroll original podcasts

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Podcasts and Apple TV are among the applications expected to make the jump from iOS to macOS 10.15.
With original content being developed for television, Apple is reportedly looking to create podcasts.
Photo: Apple/Cult of Mac

Apple’s growing services business will soon feature original podcasts, according to a report that, if true, amps up the tech giant’s battle with rival Spotify.

Apple’s pursuit of original podcast content came to light via a news bulletin from a Bloomberg terminal. Even before the full story published, the news sent Spotify’s stock on a fall of more than 2 percent.

Everyone is sleeping on Amazon Music Unlimited

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Amazon Music
Amazon Music Unlimited is bigger than you think.
Photo: Amazon

Spotify and Apple Music are facing increasingly tougher competition from Amazon when it comes to adding new paid subscribers to their services.

Amazon Music Unlimited was the fastest-growing music service over the last year according to new data that shows its subscriber base grew by 70%, even though it launched a year after Apple Music.

You can now enjoy Spotify Stations on the road with CarPlay

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CaPlay 1
Spotify Stations is like your own personal radio station.
Image: Spotify

Spotify has updated its Spotify Stations app with support for CarPlay. The app is intended to provide a radio station-like experience, which customizes itself to your tastes.

With its latest update, you no longer need to use your iPhone to access the app. If you’re a CarPlay user, you can do it right from your dash.

Apple Music hits 60 million paid subscribers

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Apple Music
Apple Music is a very bright spot in Apple’s portfolio.
Photo: Apple

Apple Music passed a milestone: it has 60 million subscribers worldwide. That’s a 20% increase in just over a year.

This news comes straight from the mouth of Eddy Cue, who heads up Apple’s streaming music efforts.

Apple’s not making much money off Spotify

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Spotify Premium update October 2018
Anyone paying for a Spotify subscription probably isn’t also sending money to Apple.
Photo: Spotify

Only a small percentage of Spotify subscribers pay a portion of their monthly fees to the Apple Store. This weakens Spotify’s argument that Apple is using required revenue sharing to stifle its rival’s ability to compete in the music streaming business.

Obamas score podcasting deal with Spotify

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Maybe the coolest, most tech savvy president ever.
Maybe the coolest, most tech savvy president ever.
Photo: The White House

The Obamas are heading to Spotify.

President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama have scored a deal with Apple’s biggest rival in the music streaming business to create a series of exclusive podcasts.

iOS 13 opens door for Spotify to use Siri

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Spotify Premium update October 2018
Jamming out on Spotify using Siri is finally possible.
Photo: Spotify

One of the best features on Apple Music could soon make its way onto Spotify thanks to iOS 13.

Apple is finally making it possible for Spotify and other music, podcast and audio apps to use Siri. Not being able to integrate with HomePod or Siri were two of Spotify’s many complaints in a recent open letter slamming Apple. When iOS 13 comes out that will finally be possible.

Tech company workers are split on Apple monopoly

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App Store
Is the App Store a monopoly?
Photo: Cult of Mac

Nearly 75% of Apple employees are behind Tim Cook’s recent declaration that the App Store is not monopoly.

A recent survey found that Qualcomm and Spotify employees are the biggest Apple haters with over 80% responding that recent App Store monopoly claims are legit. The overall tech industry appears to be split on the case though with 54% of employees from the biggest companies taking Apple’s side.

Spotify’s Social Listening feature will let you jam out with friends

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Spotify Connect
Screenshots of the upcoming Social Listening feature.
Photo: Jane Manchun Wong

Spotify is about to make it possible to listen along to music with your friends, no matter where you’re at.

The new feature, called Social Listening, will allow users to connect to friends and listen to the same thing they’re playing. You’ll also be able to add your own tracks to the queue and control playback from your phone.

How to add your own music to your iPhone without iTunes

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Add your own music to your iPhone without iTunes.
Add your own music to your iPhone without iTunes.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Maybe in iOS 13 we’ll be able to add songs to our music iPhone libraries without having to wake up a Mac or PC running iTunes. Until then, there’s no way to listen to songs downloaded from Bandcamp, or exported from GarageBand, alongside the rest of your music collection.

But there’s a workaround. Vox is a slightly confusing music app that combines your built-in Apple Music library with your Soundcloud, Spotify, and other services. And it will also let you import any audio file, and then add it to playlists and so on. Let’s know more about how to achieve this.

10.8% in ’94. Plus, Apple’s software sales were growing more slowly than those of rival companies. Curious about what is an Apple Fellow? This article provides more insights.

Apple Music apparently isn’t as ‘intimate’ as Spotify

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Apple Music brand intimacy
How does Apple Music make you feel?
Photo: Apple

We make choices based on emotion and feelings can change on a whim. The best brands understand this as a science and if bonded closely with its customer base, can successfully influence its purchasing choices.

So the marketing team in charge of Apple Music may want to huddle up after a report on brand intimacy released today saw the music streaming service drop from its No. 1 spot from last year to No. 5.