Apple Announces 'Apple Music' With 'Beats 1' Live Radio Station, Launches June 30 for $9.99/Month

[milo]

He explicitly states "But now you can search and stream the millions and millions of songs that we have on iTunes". He then goes on to say again that you can search and stream any song you want.

If that's the case, they've done a horrible job of making that clear on their website. They should just come out and say that. But they don't, instead it's this confusing thing with different names.

Also, there are going to be some artists that are going to be pissed that their music is being streamed if they didn't give explicit permission for it. As I asked before, have they even given artists the info about what royalties they will get from streaming?

 

[nyctravis]

The real killer feature here will be in the size and breadth of the catalog they put up. What kept me away from streaming services in the past was searching for many of my favorite artists, who are more independent and lesser known, and not finding them in Spotify or the other services. If I could get access to them it would be a key differentiator for Apple.

 

[Zimmy68]

Actually they did. Go back and rewatch the keynote and start it right where Cue starts talking about Apple Music (it's at the 115:00 mark).

He explicitly states "But now you can search and stream the millions and millions of songs that we have on iTunes". He then goes on to say again that you can search and stream any song you want.

Yes, I actually read the live stream on The Verge so I didn't hear that.

I think they really should have shot for $7.99.
$9.99 is too much. Netflix can do it for movies.

Now my question is, can you use iTunes credits to pay for it?
In that case, the price is a little easier to swallow with all the $100 for $85 deals around.

 

[gijoeinla]

Great.. so with family basically 15.00 a month, not to mention the AT&T overage charges for streaming music (Cause lets face it, you will stream when you are not at home on Wi-Fi - Most likely in car) so that means the 3GB plan will have to be increased. So assume another 10.00 or more per GB.. so have to go to a 10GB plan.. essentially that's like 20+ songs a month if you just buy them. Will try it, but will just pay the 1.29 per song... not broken.. don't fix it.

Simple. Don't sign up. This service isn't for YOU. Thanks!

 

[trife]

If that's the case, they've done a horrible job of making that clear on their website. They should just come out and say that. But they don't, instead it's this confusing thing with different names.

Also, there are going to be some artists that are going to be pissed that their music is being streamed if they didn't give explicit permission for it. As I asked before, have they even given artists the info about what royalties they will get from streaming?

I'm almost positive that record companies give artists that info, as Apple doesn't negotiate royalties with each individual artist. Record companies are also the reason that musicians don't get paid like they should from streaming revenue--they could give them a bigger cut, but record companies are going to do what record companies do.

 

[Loge]

So is it possible to subscribe to Apple Music and not use iTunes Match, if for example I don't want iTunes Match messing with the carefully tagged metadata on my files?

And if you have been sharing a single AppleId for purchases with your SO, you have to now also set up family sharing to set up the joint account, or if only one of you wants the single account how would that work?

 

[gijoeinla]

Because if you just want music you own Match is $25 for a year Vs. $9.99 a month. How is it hard to see the diffrence.

OMGGGGG! Exactly~! If YOU are HAPPY with MATCH stick to it - if they keep it active its a great deal! I love it! But... I am going to sign up for the $9.99 a month because I WANT FREE ACCESS TO THEIR LIBRARY and can have as many songs AS I WANT for $9.99. I think that's what I'm understanding. And I can OWN the songs I choose to own.. For that price, right?

 

[tomtendo]

I'm confused what apple music is... The keynote made no sense. To me it sounded like Pandora on steroids. Am I gonna be able to play any song like spotify?

 

[trife]

I'm confused what apple music is... The keynote made no sense. To me it sounded like Pandora on steroids. Am I gonna be able to play any song like spotify?

Yes. Any song in the iTunes music store.

 

[brandscill]

So can I ditch iTunes Match and use this instead to store my music? The website suggests I can but not 100%

 

[FriendlyMackle]

What about those that don't have a lot of data each month... lets say us Canadians!
How does a streaming service effect the data use with each song? 1GB/month is not sufficient to use social media frequently AND have a stream service used to its full potential. If wi-fi was regularly available to you, then yes, I see no problem.

For those that are going to say, just add more data, thats more money to send each month, just to stream music. I'd prefer it be on my device, and available at my disposal.

I would estimate usage at roughly 115 MB per hour, streaming at a 256 kbps rate. So, maybe under 10 hours streaming for 1 GB data use.
What with the cost of the service + accounting for cellular data use (of course, offset by predicted wi-fi use), I'm not sure that I'm willing to spending $120/$99 per year for the service.

 

[McCool71]

I'm confused what apple music is... The keynote made no sense. To me it sounded like Pandora on steroids. Am I gonna be able to play any song like spotify?

I agree that their talk about the 'radio stations' kind of made everything a bit cloudy since lots of people probably do not see the point in that; there are already great and free 24 hour radio stations everywhere around the world, and online services have been offering similar stuff for many years now.

The real strength of a streaming music service is of course to play any song (well, any that is available in the 'central' library of the service) whenever you want and in any order you want. No downloads, just click on the song and it starts in a second or two at most.

 

[dgr874]

I wonder how this will affect my beats app on my windows phone? I will be all over this if I can use apple music on my Lumia. Xbox music sucks.

 

[Slash366]

Couple of points from a UK point of view. US website confirms 30/06 and pricing. UK just says coming soon. Hope we don't get stitched again. Sure he said in the keynote - launching worldwide or something.

Also point on content - during the demo i noted when he was picking his liked artists one of the bubbles said AC/DC. Wonder if this points towards them being available. Also under the charts i noted items by taylor swift tho she had her very public tantrum over spotify.

Might not mean anything but just wondered if points towards full availability (tho in my opinion no taylor swift is a compelling reason to sign up... )

 

[burgman]

Simple. Don't sign up. This service isn't for YOU. Thanks!

Really I'm guessing he never saw the Beats Family deal on AT&T. I hope I can sign up for the three month deal before transferring My Beats account over. I really don't care about all of the video, DJ Bla bla bla, I really want great curated playlists like Beats. If there is truly only three DJ's for the world then a large part of the music won't appeal to many at any given time. If I can't and until it is available on Apple Tv like beats then I'm out.

 

[Wreckus]

Couple of points from a UK point of view. US website confirms 30/06 and pricing. UK just says coming soon. Hope we don't get stitched again. Sure he said in the keynote - launching worldwide or something.

Also point on content - during the demo i noted when he was picking his liked artists one of the bubbles said AC/DC. Wonder if this points towards them being available. Also under the charts i noted items by taylor swift tho she had her very public tantrum over spotify.

Might not mean anything but just wondered if points towards full availability (tho in my opinion no taylor swift is a compelling reason to sign up... )

I went to various countries apple sites (Germany, Australia, etc) and all of them said Coming Soon. It seems the only one that is guaranteed 6/30 is the USA...Even Canada (where I am) says coming soon.

 

[VTECaddict]

With Apple Music, just like iTunes Match, the songs you PURCHASE or add to your library from outside sources (CDs, bittorrent or however you acquire them) will still remain YOURS TO KEEP FOREVER. The matched songs disappear upon cancelation of iTunes Match too, if you didn't download them. Apple isn't going to just yank songs you own away from your library when you cancel Apple Music.

The difference is that with Apple Music, you can save music you don't own to your library so long as you have a subscription. That is what will disappear if you cancel.

I think you're confusing your local music files you own with the matched music files. Of course your original local music files are yours to keep and they're not going to delete the original music files that you have on your computer. I'm talking about the files downloaded from Apple after you've matched your library.

iTunes Match scans your iTunes library and gives you access to a 256kbps, DRM-free, m4a version on iCloud for you to stream to your devices or download to keep. THIS is what I'm saying you you can keep forever once you download them off iCloud.

Apple Music will appear to function in the same way as long as your subscription is active. The matched files through Apple Music will probably have DRM on them so you won't be able to access them without a subscription, even if they had been downloaded to your computer or device.

 

[Bevz]

I think i may be sold on Apple Music. I don't have a streaming service so this might just do the trick for me and my family. Pity the keynote was so dreadful, they could have done a better presenting this.

 

[Dimwhit]

There's one feature they didn't talk about (that I heard--and maybe it's been brought up in this thread) is whether or not you can default to clean versions of songs. If I subscribe, can I automatically have clean versions selected, or skip any explicit songs? That will not only determine if my kids get to use this, but probably if I even bother.

Amazon doesn't do it with Prime. I don't think Spotify does, either. But Apple has always been pretty good about family friendly, so I'm hoping they address this.

 

[GrumpyTrucker]

Couple of points from a UK point of view. US website confirms 30/06 and pricing. UK just says coming soon. Hope we don't get stitched again. Sure he said in the keynote - launching worldwide or something.....

Definitely a good point. And we don't have pricing yet. I'm wondering if a) we won't get it all like iTunes Radio, b) it'll come in about a year like TV Shows did or c) we'll get stiffed on price

 

[FelineTech]

I've used BOTH Beats and Spotify...

We are a Spotify family now ($25 a month for 4 people).... Spotify is great, but it is still a bit lacking.

Why I'm seriously considering switching BACK to Apple Music:

1. INTEGRATED access to all of my music (purchased, iTunesMatch, plus all of the Streaming Library)
2. I can build playlists that integrate all 3 sources
3. Radio, Podcasts, all of the other sources
4. $10 a month cheaper than Spotify for my family!
5. Music Videos are fun. Ad free! Bye YouTube!
6. My Car knows how to "deal" with the Apple Music app. (Artwork, skipping, etc). I'm assuming the car will just think it is iTunes.

Several unanswered questions from the session:

1. in Beats Music, it had an option (when on Wifi, stream at 320kbps, when on Cellular, stream on 64k). I hope Apple kept this feature available.
2. In Spotify, a really neat feature: Spotify Connect. Better than AirPlay. Once I pick a Spotify playlist, tell it to play on my Yamaha receiver, and the receiver takes over. 320kbps streaming. Use the phone/ipad for something else.
3. Have they FINALLY fixed iTunesMatch to work across a family account? Today is does not. This is a huge hole to fix, or iTunesMatch is dead for me.

Jimmy Iovine needs some public speaking lessons. He was reading his lines. Rough to watch.

And Apple really missed the "integrated" solution to beat up on Spotify, but I think they are trying to EXPAND the market, not just steal Spotify customers.

-2 cents-

 

[citysnaps]

Will def try out the 3 month trial. If it's as good as I think it will be $10/mo is a good deal.

 

[hlfway2anywhere]

I think you're confusing your local music files you own with the matched music files. Of course your original local music files are yours to keep and they're not going to delete the original music files that you have on your computer. I'm talking about the files downloaded from Apple after you've matched your library.

iTunes Match scans your iTunes library and gives you access to a 256kbps, DRM-free, m4a version on iCloud for you to stream to your devices or download to keep. THIS is what I'm saying you you can keep forever once you download them off iCloud.

Apple Music will appear to function in the same way as long as your subscription is active. The matched files through Apple Music will probably have DRM on them so you won't be able to access them without a subscription, even if they had been downloaded to your computer or device.

I'm not confusing anything. I'm just disagreeing with what you just said. i think files you own will be treated without DRM just like they are now. because why wouldn't they be...

 

[VTECaddict]

If that's the case, they've done a horrible job of making that clear on their website. They should just come out and say that. But they don't, instead it's this confusing thing with different names.

Also, there are going to be some artists that are going to be pissed that their music is being streamed if they didn't give explicit permission for it. As I asked before, have they even given artists the info about what royalties they will get from streaming?

I don't know, but I understood it to mean all of iTunes music content. It's only everyone on here that has been dissecting and over analyzing the wording between "Apple Music Library" and "iTunes Store Library".

 

[VTECaddict]

I'm not confusing anything. I'm just disagreeing with what you just said. i think files you own will be treated without DRM just like they are now. because why wouldn't they be...

Because you possibly own an inferior quality version, a pirated copy or a previous DRM version (eg bought from iTunes before iTunes Plus). Why would you suddenly get a permanent, DRM free, high quality version from Apple to keep forever when you're just paying for a temporary, monthly music subscription service?