Spotify has started testing a new Premium Duo plan for two.
The bundle offers two Premium subscriptions at a significantly discounted rate. It makes Spotify the only music streaming service to offer a couple’s plan — but it does come with some caveats.
Spotify is giving users an even greater incentive to upgrade to its paid Premium plan. Those who pay $9.99 a month for the service can now enjoy access to Hulu — on top of tens of millions of music tracks.
Streaming music company Deezer wants to make it easier for users to play the music they want — by adding support for Siri Shortcuts. This means that you can now access your jam (as the kids say) by asking Deezer to “Play my favorite tracks.”
That puts 53 million tracks — including new releases, albums and curated playlists — at your fingertips at the tip of your tongue. And Deezer thinks it has the added secret sauce to make this extra special, too.
Spotify today rolled out a big update for its iOS app, introducing a refreshed design with personalized search. It also adds a new feature called Artist Radio, which offers an endless playlist of tracks based on your favorite musicians or songs.
Apple has acquired a music analytics startup called Asaii, according to a new report.
It is believed the acquisition, which could help Apple deliver better recommendations to Apple Music subscribers, cost less than $100 million. Asaii claims its platform can pick out the hottest artists “10 weeks to a year” before they even hit the charts.
Apple will begin publishing “Top 100” Apple Music charts from its 50 million-plus subscribers as it seeks to apply more muscle in an ultra-competitive music-streaming business.
Apple quietly launched a software update today to roll out the numeric charts that will show a global “Top 100” plus lists for the top-streamed songs in every country the service is offered.
Apple and DJ Khaled made a commercial of true cross-promotion genius. Khaled gets to plug his latest single No Brainer by plugging Apple Music. Siri, HomePod and iPhone X also each get a turn to shine.
But stealing the minute-and-half show was Khaled’s toddler son, Asahd, who, with help from the voice of comedian Kevin Hart, is caught with an iPhone X in a highchair nagging his attorney to aggressively negotiate for more money.
When Apple Music made its debut, one of the biggest reasons to switch from rival streaming services was for its $15 family plan. But it wasn’t long before Spotify copied it — and it’s been paying off in a big way.
The bargain family plan helped Spotify attract another 8 million paying subscribers during the second quarter of 2018, taking its total number to 83 million worldwide.
Apple Music now boasts more paying subscribers that Spotify in the United States.
Both services have more than 20 million subscribers, but Apple Music is finally “a hair ahead” after creeping up on Spotify for months, according to a new report. Apple’s service is expected to widen the gap in the coming months as it continues to enjoy a faster growth rate than its biggest rival.
