Spotify might have been more than a little worried when Apple Music launched last June, but the rivalry has so far been beneficial for the streaming music pioneer. Spotify revealed today that it has grown even faster over the past year.
Apple Music’s existing interface is quaking in its boots. In just one month, it could be given its marching orders as Apple looks to make way for a fancy new design that hopes to attract even more subscribers to its streaming service.
But does Apple Music really need a major revamp?
Some say its user interface is already familiar if you’re a long time iOS user — and even if you’re not, it’s arguably still prettier than those offered by rival streaming services. But others say it’s just not friendly enough, and too tricky to learn.
Join us in this week’s Friday Night Fight between Cult of Android and Cult of Mac as we battle it out over Apple Music’s rumored redesign!
The labels may have resisted music streaming early on, but Warner Music Group will be grateful it’s big business today.
So big, in fact, that thanks to services like Apple Music and Spotify, streaming music just raked in more revenue than anything else last quarter.
Apple’s big bet on Drake is paying off huge for both sides and shattering records in the process.
Drake’s new album Views is only available on Apple Music, but it’s already been streamed over 250 million times in its first week and his album sales are on pace to be the biggest release by a male artist since Justin Timberlake’s The 20/20 Experience.
It’s not just you. Finding major apps in the App Store has become practically impossible this morning for iPhone and iPad users, according to numerous reports on Twitter.
Apple has acknowledged that there is currently an problem with the App Store for all users. The glitch replaces search results for apps like Twitter, Instagram and Spotify with third-party apps from the same category.
Spotify is ditching its hamburger button for a more familiar navigation bar on iOS, making it quicker and easier to access your music and features like Spotify Radio.
Users in some countries — including the U.S. — can enjoy the changes today.
As news of Prince’s unexpected death spread today, shocked fans hoping to stream his tunes on Apple Music came up empty.
In the streaming era, the incredibly prolific musician — best known for his string of hits and Grammy Awards in the 1980s — is practically a ghost.
Kanye West tricked fans into subscribing to Tidal, claims a new class-action lawsuit against the rapper for backtracking on his commitment to make ‘The Life of Pablo’ a Tidal exclusive.
Yeezus originally proclaimed that his highly anticipated new album would be available exclusively on Tidal and would never go on sale. In a Twitter rant a few days after the album’s release, West told fans the album would “never ever be on Apple,” only to turn around a month later and put it on Apple Music and Spotify.
It looks like it’s about to all fall down on Kanye, Jay Z and Tidal, now that some gold diggers are claiming it was all just a ploy to boost Tidal’s subscribers.
Apple Music’s competition in the music streaming battle just got a little fiercer today with the introduction of a new subscription service by SoundCloud.
The new SoundCloud Go service costs $10 per month, giving you unlimited access to the YouTube of Audio’s vast trove of indie content without ads. You can also save files to listen to offline, but that might not be enough to take on Apple Music and Spotify.
I recently expressed my frustrations with Apple Music and why I didn’t plan to continue using the service. I want to love Apple Music. Siri integration and the ability to have a singular place to listen to all my music, both streamed and purchased, would be a dream come true.
Unfortunately, Apple Music currently has far too many shortcomings and quirks for me to take it seriously. However, with the help of these third-party apps, I’ve found using Apple Music to be far less painful — and, in some cases, even enjoyable.
Apple’s been getting a lot of flack for its refusal to create a “GovtOS” from the FBI and Department of Justice. Tim Cook and company have also garnered plenty of support for their forceful stance from other tech companies as well as the rank and file Apple consumer.
Check out this week’s Cult of Mac Magazine to figure out why Apple refuses to create GovtOS, how to get its latest and greatest software, find the best iPhone and iPad password managers around, check out a virtual tour of Tim Cook’s office, and see how the beloved iPod shuffle has been reborn for the age of Spotify.
Here are the week’s top stories.
Today, the iPod shuffle you’ve been hoping for is getting a shot at life — no thanks to Apple. Mighty Audio is launching its Kickstarter campaign for the new Mighty streaming music player, a small clip-on device that can stream Spotify wherever you go without having to use your smartphone. A portable, affordable music player with streaming capabilities? Yes please.
The latest update to the Amazon Echo adds a host of new news sources to the smart speaker’s Flash Briefing feature — and also gives it some mad rhyming skills.
One of Apple Music’s biggest competitors is looking to sellout.
Pandora, the music streaming service with more users than Spotify and Apple Music, has reportedly been meeting with private parties regarding a possible sale of the company after experiencing its slowest amount of growth ever last year.
Apple Music becomes an official part of the Sonos ecosystem Wednesday after months of beta testing on the wireless speakers.
“The feedback from Apple Music members on Sonos during the beta period has been great,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of internet software and services, in a press release. “Sonos plus Apple Music provides an amazing listening experience at home — and we’re excited to offer it to all Sonos customers starting tomorrow.”
Amazon’s Echo smart speaker just upped its music game, adding Spotify streaming to its ever-growing list of skills. Now playing your favorite artists and playlists is just a voice command away — at least if you’re a Spotify Premium subscriber.
Understanding what your favorite rapper is saying is finally going to get a lot easer, if you’re a Spotify user.
Spotify revealed a new feature going out to users, starting today, that allows you to look a song’s lyrics, as well as the meaning behind them. Songs will be compiled into a weekly ‘Behind the Lyris’ playlist that utilizes Genius’ collection of rhyme translations.
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.
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.
Rdio made the date of its demise official this morning. The streaming music service as we know it will cease to exist on December 22 — just six days from today — at 5 p.m. Pacific time. Rdio sent around an email to its users to let them know the specifics of the shutdown.
“Rdio is being acquired, and the service is shutting down worldwide on December 22,” the company wrote on its Goodbye page. “We’re excited to bring great music experiences to even more listeners in the future as part of the Pandora team.”
The latest quarterly report from antivirus company AVG has outed the battery-killingest, storage-hoggingest apps currently available.
Some of the culprits are unsurprising, but a few might be murdering your phone’s performance without you knowing, like some kind of ninjas that have somehow taken app form. All of this and more happens in “Appsassins,” the screenplay I’m pitching to SyFy.
But here are the biggest offenders, because that’s really the more important information here.
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?
