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.
David Bowie’s uncanny vision of the future didn’t stop with songs about holographic TVs or astronauts adrift in space.
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.
Now available in more than 100 countries, Apple Music has reportedly hit 10 million paid monthly subscribers.
Provided these numbers are accurate, Apple Music now has a little under half of Spotify’s 25 million paid subscribers.
2016 is here, and so far, it hasn’t been good to Apple.
Just this week, the Cupertino company saw its stock price fall below $100 for the first time since 2014 amid countless reports that iPhone demand is weakening at a rapid pace. Apple needs to do something, but what?
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!
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.
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.
Witnessing the ingenuity of app developers both small and large is a real highlight of my job writing about the Apple ecosystem. In that regard, 2015 didn’t disappoint: Some tremendous new apps got unleashed this year on both iOS and OS X.
Here are Cult of Mac’s picks for the absolute best apps of the year for iPhone, iPad and Mac.
Forget The Ed Sullivan Show, The Beatles are coming to Apple Music, Google Play, and a variety of other online streaming music services — and just in time for Christmas, too.
Starting Christmas Eve, the Fab Four will be available for your listening pleasure on Apple Music, Spotify, Slacker, Tidal, Microsoft’s Groove, Rhapsody, Deezer, Google Play, and Amazon Prime.
As an Apple fan, there’s a great gift you can bestow upon your friends and family this holiday season. The amazing part is, it’s free.
I’m not talking about the free tech support you’ll inevitably dole out to befuddled relatives (Cult of Mac’s how-to section can help with that, BTW). I’m talking about evangelizing for two of Apple’s least-loved products — and this gracious act will also goose the greater good.
Apple users may get a music quality upgrade in 2016, with a new report claiming that the company has been developing hi-res audio streaming up to 96kHz/24bit.
If you’re already bored of playing Christmas songs on repeat, there’s some good news — since Star Wars fans can now enjoy John William’s The Force Awakens soundtrack on iTunes and Apple Music.
Apple Music has a respectable 6.5 million subscribers right now, but respected music business analyst Mark Mulligan estimates that Apple’s streaming music service will come close to hitting 8 million subs by the end of this year — and a massive 20 million paying customers by the close of 2016.
In news which could well be good for Apple Music, but bad for rival free streaming music services, the federal Copyright Royalty Board has ruled that ad-supported internet radio companies such as Pandora must pay higher royalty rates to artists and record labels.
Starting next year, Pandora, iHeartMedia and others will pay 17 cents for every 100 plays of a song on their free tiers. This fee will increase over the following four years in line with inflation.
Taylor Swift has announced that she will debut her new concert movie, The 1989 World Tour Live, on Apple Music — six months after her public spat with Apple over artist royalties.
“I have a little surprise for you,” Swift wrote on Twitter, with a link to the trailer of the upcoming behind-the-scenes concert documentary, which will also presumably include appearances from special tour guests such as Ellie Goulding, Justin Timberlake, Mick Jagger, and others.
If you’re still subscribed to Beats Music instead of Apple Music, your days are numbered. Until January 19, you have the opportunity to save all of your playlists and migrate your account data over to Apple Music if you wish to do so. But after that, Apple will discard of your current data.
Apple is trying to boost sales of its Beats by Dre accessories going into the holiday season by offering $60 Apple Music/iTunes Gift Card vouchers for a variety of headphones and speakers.
Sonos, maker of some the best wireless speaker systems in the world, revealed today that it will add support for Apple Music by the end of the year.
The says a public beta for Apple Music on Sonos will be made available December 15. Sonos’ integration with Apple Music will allow subscribers to access the For You, My Music, New and Radio features of the service. A general availability to all users is scheduled for an early 2016 launch.
You might be sick of the sight of Turkey by now, but you can’t spend enough time being thankful. The big question we have is: Should we be thankful to Apple for the lineup it has delivered in 2015, or was this a year to forget?
Apple certainly hasn’t been slow this year; we’ve had the Apple Watch, Apple Music, iPhone 6s with new technologies like 3D Touch, the new Apple TV, and the giant iPad Pro. But will any of these things stand out as smash-hits in a decade?
Join us in this week’s Friday Night Fight between Cult of Android and Cult of Mac as we battle it out over these questions and more!
Like an over-the-air update to fix a faulty piece of software, Apple sprang into action following Jimmy Iovine’s Thursday interview with CBS This Morning — with Iovine apologizing for his sexist comments about women’s inability to find music because… you know, women.
“I could have chosen my words better,” the Apple Music boss, Beats guru and Interscope Records co-founder said in a statement.
Apple Music head Jimmy Iovine has won today’s “Yes, they really said that” award after an appearance on CBS This Morning.
Iovine was there talking up the latest ad for Apple Music, which features singer Mary J. Blige, actress Kerry Washington, and singer/actress Taraji P. Henson just kinda hanging out with knives and salsa dancing. This one follows the also-great original spot from September, but Iovine didn’t necessarily explain the origin of the woman-centric campaign (Selma director Ava DuVernay helmed both of them) as well as he could have.
Spotify and Apple Music subscribers won’t be able to stream Adele’s highly anticipated album “25” when it is publicly released tomorrow.
The album is sure to be one of the biggest sellers of the year, but according to a report from the New York Times, Adele’s people have informed companies that “25” will not be made available for streaming.
Apple Music may be gaining an edge over rival companies like Spotify thanks to its remuneration of artists — but in a new interview, the artist currently known as Prince inexplicably blames Cupertino for musicians making no money on the Internet.
“Tell me a musician who’s got rich off digital sales,” Prince told the U.K.’s Guardian newspaper, adding that, “Apple’s doing pretty good though, right?”
Because, as everyone knows, all of Apple’s money comes from withholding royalty payments for “Purple Rain,” right?
Apple has confirmed that it will shut down its Beats Music streaming service on November 30. The news comes just days after Apple Music finally arrived on Android, and users are being encouraged to switch over to its new platform.
Apple Music for Android has finally arrived on the Google Play Store today after being publicly demoed at WWDC in June.
The new app brings Android users over 30 million songs from the Apple Music catalog, Beats 1 Radio, Playlists, Connect, and more. Apple’s offering users a 3-month trial, just like iOS. Pricing starts at $9.99 for a single plan, but Apple says your’ll need a Mac or iOS to sign-up for a $14.99 family plan.
Apple VP Eddy Cue says the launch is part of Apple’s plan to do things in music for everyone:
Facebook is dipping its toes into the music biz this week with a brand new feature that makes it easier than ever to share your favorite tunes with all your social network friends.
The new Music Stories feature rolls out to iPhone users today and allows you to share 30-second song samples from Apple Music and Spotify by simply copy and pasting a link into your status update.
Here’s a preview of how it works:
