Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Yvan256

macrumors 603
Jul 5, 2004
5,081
998
Canada
I don't even know if these streaming services are even available in Canada and how much they cost. To be honest, I've had enough of the endless monthly fees from everyone, so I never bothered to check either.

edit: check page two for my quick review of Pandora and Spotify.
 
Last edited:

joejoejoe

macrumors 65816
Sep 13, 2006
1,428
110
Hard for me to believe this is all true.

Sure, Apple has always had a corporate culture of "focus on making the best, regardless of what other people are trying to do, don't emulate, work from the ground up to make an amazing experience" etc etc etc.

Sure, Apple has been very slow to do anything with subscription based music. But not knowing how spotify works? Choosing pandora over iTunes radio?

This puzzles me. Most people I know use iTunes Radio because of the ease of integration rather than pandora, even if pandora makes better playlists.

Maybe because it's browser based?

I still can't fully buy that they didn't know how spotify worked... really this boggles me.

Has apple become nothing more than corporate?
 

JayCee842

macrumors 6502a
Jan 21, 2013
589
0
One has to be really arrogant to ignore one's competitors. Not cool Apple (if this is true).
 

Bolteric

macrumors newbie
Jun 30, 2012
7
0
All of "middle management?" Highly doubtful

Willfully ignorant means that middle management intentionally ignored iTunes competitors. Highly doubtful

Engineers preferred to listen to Pandora and Spotify. When? In the early development of iTunes Radio?

Is there a second verified source?

I am not saying Apple shouldn't embrace a different iTunes model ... the buzzfeed article has a rocky logical foundation.
 

Mildredop

macrumors 68020
Oct 14, 2013
2,478
1,510
I used Spotify before Apple bought Beats. I gave Beats the 14 day trial after the merger & I have to say I really like Beats. It gives great recommendations & the ability to download & listen offline was the biggest reason I liked Spotify, & that feature is available in Beats.

I would suggest everyone give Beats a try. i think you will be pleasantly surprised.

Apple fanboyism at its best.
 

musser

macrumors member
Dec 16, 2004
39
1
Duh... and duh.

Preface... I'm an Apple admirer (lover, okay). But, this seems to be an example of how power corrupts. When you get so big and so empowered and so pretentious... this is the kind of thing that happens. These pushy 20-somethings at Apple simply think they're 'the bee's knees...' to date myself. I'm a Spotify user. I adore it. I tried Apple's parallel version but couldn't figure it out... or, at least, couldn't understand why it's any better than Spotify. So, I gave up on it. Yes, that's right, an Apple guy ignoring an Apple 'thing.' But, this brings me to a larger issue. I PRAY that Apple doesn't get so damned cocky as to ignore the obvious.
 

Alphabetize

macrumors 6502
Oct 6, 2013
452
48
I like Spotify because it's free, don't mind ads at all. But iTunes has rarer music, and I typically like to own that music.
 

Gasu E.

macrumors 603
Mar 20, 2004
5,033
3,150
Not far from Boston, MA.
Rumors based on statements from anonymous people are always true.

Exactly. I can tell you at my Fortune 200 tech company, random engineers do not have a clue what "management" thinks, unless an executive makes a speech at a company meeting. and then, they only know what the party line is.

There are always, however, some immature geeks who THINK they know better, and that "management is a bunch of *******s."

Edit later: hmmm... I actually censored that myself, and then it got super-censored by the censor-bot!
 

Yvan256

macrumors 603
Jul 5, 2004
5,081
998
Canada
Alright, I'll give it a try...


Beats
Available on iOS, Android, Windows and Web.
HOLD UP. BEATS MUSIC IS NOT YET AVAILABLE IN YOUR COUNTRY.

So... Beats doesn't support OS X and I'm going to take a wild guess that it probably requires Flash for the Web version. Anyway it's not available in Canada.


Spotify
Spotify works on your computer, mobile, tablet and TV.
Spotify is currently not available in your country.

Not available in Canada either, nor can I see any technical details about "works on your computer".


iTunes Store
Allows me to buy music in Canada. Works on my 2010 Mac mini, my old 12" PowerBook G4, my iPod shuffle, my old iPhone 3GS and my 3rd generation Apple TV.


Winner: iTunes Store (Canada).
 

swingerofbirch

macrumors 68040
What I still wonder is how Tim Cook didn't know that Maps was a mess before it launched in iOS 6, given that it was in beta for an entire summer with 3rd party developers slamming Apple over its quality.

If the CEO doesn't know that one of the tentpole features of its biggest OS is not up to par, this report doesn't surprise me.

I was a very eager, first-day iTunes customer. I still use it for playing back audiobooks, but I've been a Spotify Premium member for over a year now. It just makes so much more sense to me, both financially and from the aspect of my playlists showing up on any device with nothing to download. Plus in terms of curation, which Apple goes on about so much, Spotify has some pretty good discovery tools now. I've been using their "Moods" lists and enjoying them lately. And the best part is, if I ever stop paying, all my lists are still there and I can still listen to them with ads. I don't care about owning the music. I care about the lists I've created.
 

CrAkD

macrumors 68040
Feb 15, 2010
3,180
255
Boston, MA
I love apple but I don't use iTunes radio.....I actually pay for pandora one even though I have iTunes match. I got turned off of iTunes Radio when it first launched and it played the same 7 songs in the same order and everything is censored (still is) so I signed up for one.
 

nagromme

macrumors G5
May 2, 2002
12,546
1,196
So, the general concensus is, we're pretty certain "Buzzfeed" has accurate inside info on the most secretive of companies?

So secretive it's actually really easy to make stuff up... Apple will never correct this kind of "report."

Good click-bait though.
 

viacavour

macrumors 6502a
Mar 22, 2012
636
0
Haha, yeah right.

They know about Spotify's pricing structure and they don't know how Spotify works ?

Bull.

It's more likely that these are low level or fake Apple employees who don't understand the long business negotiation. If Apple want to do a streaming service, they would want one that can give similar or better profit than the current iTunes offering.

Following Spotify's or Pandora's pricing structure would be shooting themselves without exploring better alternatives. Since Beats is able to generate that margin and yet offer streaming service, it is more compatible with Apple's vision.

They have been talking to Iovine for a few years. iRadio is really just a stopgap or song upsell to iTunes.

Also, those so called streaming services are overrated. They do NOT offer the best songs. Many are old and covers. I still buy songs now and then because I can't find the really good ones there.

You need a combination of purchase and subscription to cover the full range, and Apple has it now.

The article's so called middle managers may just be low level project managers who are not aware of the business dealings anyway. The marketing and top execs call the shots.
 
Last edited:

castlema

macrumors regular
Nov 21, 2003
136
100
While I realize that streaming music is the flavor of the moment I hope Apple keeps in mind the large number of people who have no interest in streaming their music. If you have a fixed amount of data streaming is just not an option outside of home/work. I mostly listen to music in the car and where I drive there is often times no cell signal at all so I am limited to the music loaded into my iPhone.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.