You're right. Just not in the way you think. Apple Pay almost twice the amount to artists that Spotify do.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple CEO Tim Cook on Apple Music: 'We Worry About the Humanity Being Drained Out of Music'
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
You're right. Just not in the way you think. Apple Pay almost twice the amount to artists that Spotify do.
The humanity has been gone from music for 20 years. It isn't Apple fault, but there also isn't anything Apple can do to bring it back. The genre focus went to hip-hop after grunge had its time in the spotlight and nothing new has come along since. Now the music industry is inundated with songs glorifying drugs, violence, gangs, guns, and abuse of women. Pretty much every song is either about making it to the top and getting rich or about shooting your way up the ladder.
Country sounds a lot like 70's rock and has completely lost its way too.
The music industry is going to have to dig itself out of the soulless hole it has dug for itself.
Country sounds a lot like 70's rock and has completely lost its way too.
The music industry is going to have to dig itself out of the soulless hole it has dug for itself.
Tim Cook should be more concerned with draining customers' pockets with excessive profit.
How does he even say this with a straight face?
How does he even say this with a straight face?
I don't want to be walled in to Apple's sandbox when it comes to music and devices.
Steve Jobs himself used a record player and laughed at the thought of using MP3's as an audiophile.
Steve Jobs himself used a record player and laughed at the thought of using MP3's as an audiophile.
Spotify has the edge for me solely because the Apple Music app is atrocious.
Like how Timmy was worried about Google using privacy invasion as a business model but then still accepted billions from Google to make them the default browser on Safari? Or is this an actual authentic worry vs his usual BS self-serving ones?
What’s wrong with Spotify’s algorithms? I like being offered music I might like. Doesn’t Apple do the same thing? Or do they have people handpicking recommended songs for each user individually? 
Spotify is OK, but inability to change that black interface is what is driving me crazy.
i agree, but they scratch and don't fit in my sony walkmens.
and as of the music industry fading:
Neil Peart (musician) "Well, tomorrow we are headed back into the studio to work on our upcoming album"
Pete Townsend (musician) "Why? no one records albums anymore"
2013 RR hall of fame, i think
nothing wrong with that, tears for fears over produced their albums as did Peter Gabriel's So
i think you mean simplified and disposable. what ever garbage songs that was popular last year, died last year.
Last edited by a moderator:
I worry about the humanity being drained out of music too Tim, so I ignore algorithms and things that say FOR YOU in big ugly letters all over the place, and I buy lovely lossless audio elsewhere, which gets me a superior product and gives the artists more money for their craft. Sad that Apple can deliver 4K video files but still only manage to give consumers a 256kbps AAC file for music. What’s that about (rhetorical question)?
Uggh. The quotes from this article highlight the dichotomy of my feelings towards Cook. On one had, I think he's done a pretty darn good job shepherding Apple the company and AAPL the stock. The man took a company valued at $300B 7 years ago and, well... you know.
Contrast that with his overly dramatic way of describing the mundane. Everything is turned up to 11 on an emotional level. Not everything deserves that type of flourish. He's essentially trying to get people to sign up for a music subscription service, sell a phone or other piece of electronics. That should not warrant the same descriptive wording as committing to renewables, matching employee donations, or any of the other good things Apple does. Hyper-emotionalizing everything sort of devalues it when it's actually warranted.
Rant over.
On topic: @Rogifan said it best. If the algorithms do a better job of music recommendation what does it matter if it wasn't human curated? The goal is to get you music you want to hear.
Contrast that with his overly dramatic way of describing the mundane. Everything is turned up to 11 on an emotional level. Not everything deserves that type of flourish. He's essentially trying to get people to sign up for a music subscription service, sell a phone or other piece of electronics. That should not warrant the same descriptive wording as committing to renewables, matching employee donations, or any of the other good things Apple does. Hyper-emotionalizing everything sort of devalues it when it's actually warranted.
Rant over.
On topic: @Rogifan said it best. If the algorithms do a better job of music recommendation what does it matter if it wasn't human curated? The goal is to get you music you want to hear.
Last edited:
Apple Music is the least intuitive and the cheesiest generic playlist's ever! I rather listen to songs in Youtube literally.
I agree. For that reason it might be difficult for Apple to ever produce good original TV shows.
They would be so middle of the road, so politically correct, that it would be utterly boring.
No edginess, because somebody, somewhere, might be offended by something said or shown.
According to Wall Street. Apple is worth whatever their net profit is. Not what a bunch of finance geeks who 10 years ago helped sink the US economy thinks. Theres reality, then theres the financial sector fantasy they all live in.
Every singe time apple has an event their stock sinks only for the finance weenies to buy up more more more. Artificially inflating and deflating constantly. Eventually that ballon gets worn out.
I've used both - was so disappointed with Apple's "curated" music I switched to Spotify and am on a premium plan (I pay for it). I have found a lot of music from Spotify's recommendations that I really like. After 3 months of Apple - their curated recommendations resulted in 1 - ONE - song I liked. And I kept getting Asian pop music which is nothing close to what I like - I tend to like hard rock more than anything, but kept getting Korean and Japanese hip-hop - and Eastern European Techno - don't like that either - particularly since I don't speak any of those languages. I even contacted Apple to see why I was getting those - and they were surprisingly unhelpful - just told me I must have selected something in my preferences and there was nothing they could do. I went back and double checked - there was nothing that would remotely suggest I liked Asian or Eastern European Techno... One of the few negative issues I've had with Apple - but it cost them a subscriber.
In an extensive profile of Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek, Fast Company's Robert Safian recently sat down to speak for a few minutes with Apple CEO Tim Cook at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, California.
The topic was, of course, Spotify and Apple Music, two of the major players in the streaming music market and fierce competitors. Cook said that he looks to music as inspiration and motivation, a philosophy that's shared at Apple and has guided its focus on human-based music curation.
"Music inspires, it motivates. It's also the thing at night that helps quiet me. I think it's better than any medicine," Cook said.
While he declined to mention Spotify by name, Cook told Fast Company that Apple worries about streaming music losing the human touch, alluding to Spotify's more algorithmic approach to highlighting content.Despite launching just three years ago, Apple Music has 50 million paid subscribers and free trial members, with the company slowly catching up to Spotify. At last count, Spotify said that it had 83 million paid subscribers around the world.
Apple has always had an edge over Spotify due to its massive 1.3 billion active installed base, and the fact that it's never needed to worry about profitability like Spotify has. "We're not in it for the money," Cook told Fast Company.
Ek, too, didn't mention Apple Music by name, but he said he believes Spotify has something going for it that other companies don't: a singular focus. "Music is everything we do all day, all night, and that clarity is the difference between the average and the really, really good," he said.
Spotify's dedication to music and music alone is what Ek believes will ultimately help the company beat Apple and expand the Spotify service in the future.
Competing with Apple was always Spotify's plan, says Ek, even before Apple Music. Apple dominated digital music downloads via iTunes in 2008 when Spotify launched, with Ek aiming to replace the iPod with on-demand music.
Competition with Apple and working within tight margins, Ek says, has driven Spotify to be more disciplined.
Despite industry complaints and criticism from Apple, Spotify has continued to focus on free music, which is how Spotify draws in new paying subscribers. After going public earlier this year, Spotify overhauled its free listening tier, offering new features that include on-demand playlists and a data saving mode, which were previously limited to paying subscribers.
Ek believes that there's money to be made with Spotify's free tier, with radiolike advertising options. "Billions of people listen to radio, and most of that today isn't monetized very efficiently," Ek said.
Going forward, in addition to working to expand revenue via its free tier, Spotify plans to focus on artists. Ek eventually wants to get 1 million artists to make a living off of Spotify, ultimately imagining something akin to YouTube where artists and listeners can interact.
For anyone interested in the inner workings of Spotify or how Ek operates, Fast Company's full profile of the founder is well worth checking out.
Article Link: Apple CEO Tim Cook on Apple Music: 'We Worry About the Humanity Being Drained Out of Music'
Obviously everybody has their preferences, I think Apple Music for me is much improved from what it once was, where as Spotify I think is more diverse in offering more specific music that is accustomed to my liking, but I prefer using both, but they both have their drawbacks and positives, but obviously Apple Music just works preferably in my situation also with the HomePod as well.
Why do you have to choose?
I have over 60 GBs of Music in my Library; but I also enjoy having a zillion Albums I like to listen to once in awhile, but not enough to purchase them, and also to discover new music in the Genres I like.
The two "models" are in NO way exclusive.
He's no better than Washington at that stuff. It is pretty funny indeed.
Ping was killed-off YEARS ago, almost as fast as it started.
I don't have a specfic taste in music, easy listening, played through my echo in the back of the room, what I have found after using both is that Spotify appears to have much more of what I like and can deliver a daily mix suited to what I like. Apple Music on the other hand just comes across harder to use and does not deliver what I want.
Perhaps the music I like is there on Apple Music but I have to work too hard to find it. So for me, it's Spotify all the way, has been for some time. And for someone who is all in on the Apple Walled Garden I could not consider a Homepod because it won't let me use Spotify properly through Siri...
Perhaps the music I like is there on Apple Music but I have to work too hard to find it. So for me, it's Spotify all the way, has been for some time. And for someone who is all in on the Apple Walled Garden I could not consider a Homepod because it won't let me use Spotify properly through Siri...