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

[Mindcrime]

I work abroad but my iTunes account is US-based.

With iTunes Match, I can access my music library in any country.

When I tried the Beats app a few months ago, it required a US phone number to even setup. My phone uses a local number in the country where I work, thus no Beats for me.

So I'm wondering if Apple Music follows the original Beats business model and requires a US phone number not just a US iTunes account. If so, it'll be disappointing.

 

[adammull]

Com'on man. How about burn a CD? Or you can drag and drop music onto a USB drive if you consider burning CD's old technology.

If you buy the music on CDs and then rip it (which can be much cheaper than buying digital music on iTunes if you buy used CDs), all this is even easier. Just loan out or sell the CDs.



Again, you could burn every bit of it to discs. You could drag every file out to a folder. You could convert it all to mp3 or .wav if you were worried about AAC falling out of favor. You own it so you have options. Try any of that with the rental model.

Never pursued any of this because I went to streaming about 4 years ago. My iTunes purchase list ends about 2011 if I look at it.

I've had Spotify, Rdio, and Beats Music. For $9.99 I get way more than I ever could purchasing. I was easily spending more than $10 a month on music. Now I can listen to whatever I want. For people like me streaming is the only option. Purchasing just seems archaic.

The only thing missing here is Apple's presentation of it. Everyone I know has Spotify free or Pandora free. They have no idea that you can pay a monthly fee and listen to anything. Apple, and any of these companies really, need to do a better job explaining this. Every time I tell someone this they are blown away and had no idea this how the paid versions of these apps worked.

 

[usamaah]

I don't like the idea of using iTunes on a computer to play this. The web interface of Google Music, Spotify, etc. is more preferable.

 

[adammull]

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.

There are plenty of us that have been streaming for years. And yes what you describe is correct. I stream most of the time on data. I average between 4-5 GBs a month. I'm on a 20GB shared plan. Maybe this isn't for you but it's perfect for me.

 

[Edgar Spayce]

9.99$ to stream the WHOLE iTunes store library anytime? Sold.

B1 radio and such? NEVER will I let anyone stream their ****** selection to me.

the main problem of Apple Music when it comes to curation is the same as always: sh^t music...

 

[hlfway2anywhere]

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?

Because Apple has been doing that for $25/year since 2011.

 

[Rogifan]

This music presentation could have been so much better. We got ZERO vision from Jimmy or Eddy. No explanation of why Apple Music is better than the competition. No mention of iTunes, iTunes Match or iTunes Radio and how they work with Apple Music. Barely a mention that Apple Music can stream anything you can buy on iTunes (where was the demo playing a Beatles tune?). No mention of being able to cache music for playing offline. And the whole social aspect would be so much better if it integrated other social networks like Facebook, Intagram and Twitter. Just a bad overall presentation that lasted way too long and could have been so much more polished.

 

[usamaah]

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.

Won't you be able to download tracks you think you'll be listening to most so you won't have to stream? Like if you're really into Artist A, you can download their album to keep on your phone and then when you're sick of it you can release it?

Yes just double checked, this "revolutionary" music service allows for offline listening.

 

[SgtPepper23]

Does this come with iTunes Match???????????

I hope so! Was there any mention of this at all?

 

[VTECaddict]

Because Apple has been doing that for $25/year since 2011.

That's not a temporary music subscription service. That's iTunes Match.

Apple states iTunes Match and Apple music are "independent but complementary". If it's the exact same thing (aside from streaming content you don't own) as you're implying, then what makes them independent but complimentary to each other?

 

[AppleZilla]

I would be shocked and dismayed if this included The Beatles catalog.

 

[Supermallet]

I would be shocked and dismayed if this included The Beatles catalog.

You would be shocked and dismayed if it DID include The Beatles catalog, or if it didn't? I would be annoyed if it didn't, since Apple has made a big stink about being the sole provider of digital music sales for The Beatles.

 

[Wreckus]

If  is targeting the younger crowd and want to make a big dent to spotify, get Taylor Swift on board for the streaming service.

 

[maikerukun]

How is this different from iTunes Radio?

Artist pages, "similar to the Ping service they experimented with", a live radio station, human curated playlists, and more.

 

[HenryDJP]

It pains me to even write this as I usually do not have anything negative to say, but that was a bit of a mess. Way too much talking, too many sample songs or videos or "show a video" talk for 10 seconds, "show another video" and the presenters were just not very good today. Also, how hard would it be to get some nice shirts with the Apple logo on them or at least make your own like Drake did, seeing Cue in his pink shirt that's 3 sizes too big and his pot belly just screams sloppy to me. Oh well. I am excited about Watch 2.0, some nice changes and Apple Music should be great as well.

I can't disagree with this post one bit. While I certainly won't comment on how good of a job the presenters did or did not do, as it's very hard to be up on stage in front of a live audience trying to cram an entire show in a certain amount of time, I will say the content was a bit of a mess too.

I really didn't get much out of the Music demo. It was kind of all over the place and I'm not sure they even presented all they wanted to present since it looked to be they were running past time. I'm still excited over the new software updates though and will try Music for the free sub.

 

[maikerukun]

Jimmy: amazingly unimpressive. Ditto, Drake.

I actually appreciated what Drake had to say. He spoke from his perspective and it made sense how this platform will help undiscovered build their fan bases.

 

[maikerukun]

Since you might not have been paying attention, yes, they want you to pay $10 a month for the radio in your car.

You get FM radio, and you even get AM radio. No data connection necessary. You just use the antenna that's part of your car. Here's the one more thing: you get to listen to all the songs and talk shows broadcasted over the airwaves, 24/7!

I mean, I get Sirius and I pay for that. Once I have Carplay installed in my car I will probably cancel my Sirius sub and get this.

 

[Rogifan]

Apple Music won't include the Beatles catalog. So now I really have zero reason to switch from Spotify.

http://www.theverge.com/2015/6/8/8745963/the-beatles-apple-music

 

[MacDarcy]

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.

I'm so glad I kept my grandfathered att data plan for my iPad. I stream music all the time on the road. Average about 55GB a month! If I didn't have an unlimited plan, I'd be shelling out $600 bucks instead of $29 every 30 days!! Yikes.

 

[McCool71]

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.

I agree, this is a great feature - I use it almost every day with my Denon receiver.

The genius is in that the stream (in maximum quality) goes directly to the receiver and not via your phone or tablet (which still can be used to skip, select other songs/playlists and so on). This minimizes the load on the phone/tablet both when it comes to available resources and battery capacity.

Wide support of hardware will be a vital component in the future for all streaming services. There are tons of people out there that only have one Apple device, primarily an iPhone. At my workplace iPhone is the standard issued 'workphone' (which most people also use as their personal phone), but I think only 2 or 3 of the 15 or so in my department actually have a Mac at home, so for 12 out of those 15 there is no Apple ecosystem at all available.

If Apple had walled in the service only to work within the Apple ecosystem they would leave out the majority of their potential customers, so it is wise of them to support other platforms.

 

[Yumbo]

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.

Yes, you can set restrictions in the Store for content.

 

[atxlnghrn]

iTunes Match RULES!

I LOVE iTunes Match! But I wonder if Apple Music will be free for those of us who pay for iTunes Match? I would really love to know if this is going to be an option.

 

[Dimwhit]

Yes, you can set restrictions in the Store for content.

Great!

 

[dlsife]

I LOVE iTunes Match! But I wonder if Apple Music will be free for those of us who pay for iTunes Match? I would really love to know if this is going to be an option.

while I love iTunes Match (and the free iTunes ad free radio streaming it brings with it), I have a hard time believing they'll let you keep free iTunes Radio streaming for $25/yr when Apple Music is doing that now for $120/yr.

 

[VTECaddict]

If  is targeting the younger crowd and want to make a big dent to spotify, get Taylor Swift on board for the streaming service.

Taylor Swift is available on other streaming services, just not Spotify.

The issue is that Spotify provides free, ad-supported unlimited on-demand streaming of their entire catalog on tablet and desktop. Other streaming services either provide her music as free radio station where users can't listen on demand and/or only have on-demand available to paid subscribers.