Apple CEO Tim Cook on Apple Music: 'We Worry About the Humanity Being Drained Out of Music'

[Lioness~]

Have not Apple music nor Spotify. Have never subscribed to them either.
I won't either. End of story.
Radio works fine to listen to mainstream music.
Sometimes I pick up something I like, and buy it. Not very often though.
Think most mainstream music is too immature emotions for me today
I have a good music library.
I like silence too.

 

[CPTmom2wp]

Gone are the days of self discovery in a music store....

Agreed. I spent nearly as much time in music stores as I did at the Library, and still have a decent collection of vinyl. I also really enjoy Apple Music by asking Siri to play some jazz piano without the hassle of physically playing music.

 

[mikzn]

"Music inspires, it motivates. It's also the thing at night that helps quiet me. I think it's better than any medicine," said. Timé Jobs

Tim Jobs's playlist:
"We're in the Money": The Gold Diggers'
"Money": Pink Floyd
"Money changes everything": Cindi Laupner
"She Works Hard for the Money," Donna Summer
"Money for Nothing," Dire Straits
"Money, Money, Money"—ABBA
"Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots of Money)"—Pet Shop Boys
"Money (That's What I Want)" by Barrett Strong
"It's Money That I Love" by Randy Newman
"Money Honey" by The Drifters

Hey - Wow - You forgot the theme song!
"For the Love of Money" : O'Jays

and he did have this to say . . .
"We're not in it for the money," Cook told Fast Company.
LOL - sure Tim!

 

[Krayzkat]

I'm fed up having to re-download albums that i have owned for years, many i had on cassette and CD and stored them on my iMac. For some reason albums get deleted for no apparent reason (and yes i have 36Gb of memory currently available out of 128Gb).

I suspect it might be something to do with the certain artist removing their albums or certain albums from AM and then maybe re-adding them a later date, and that causes me to not have access to them (unless i can re-download them there and then -i'm ****ed on a plane).

I just wish that paid for music through iTunes or what you transferred from iMac etc, was left alone by AM, and none of this changing a live version of a song to a studio version or vice-versa crap either.

 

[fmalloy]

I just wish that paid for music through iTunes or what you transferred from iMac etc, was left alone by AM, and none of this changing a live version of a song to a studio version or vice-versa crap either.

The thing that's so ironic is that Apple is all in on the whole subscription thing, but it was Steve Jobs who famously said that people don't want to rent music. I thought he was supposed to be some kind of tech god who was right about everything...

 

[brendu]

Except for those of us who have gone back to Spotify because Apple Music has dismal recommendations.

Oh god yes. I’m about to switch. AM “for you” playlists are ****ing awful. I liked a reggae song once and my weekly playlists have been ganja anthems nonstop since, despite me disliking several songs and liking other stuff. It’s ridiculous.

 

[oldmacs]

Accessing Apple Music through iTunes and the iOS music app sucks. Poorly designed interfaces and clunky methods of doing things. Spotify is so much better.

Having said that, I prefer owning my music anyway. CDs give me the most flexibility.

 

[LKillian]

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'

[doublepost=1533680043][/doublepost]"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.

Without at least CD quality I don’t know how either of these two companies can say that Music is important to them. I use Qobuz at the moment but would love to use either Spotify or iTunes if they improved the streaming quality.

 

[scoobs69]

Tim Cook says: "We worry about the humanity being drained out of music, about it becoming a bits-and-bytes kind of world instead of the art and craft."


Yet, Apple still pays the artists squat for selling/streaming their music. If he's so worried about the "art and craft" of music, maybe Apple and the record labels could pay the artists to actually....i dunno.....create?

 

[MBAir2010]

Hey - Wow - You forgot the theme song!
"For the Love of Money" : O'Jays

and he did have this to say . . .
"We're not in it for the money," Cook told Fast Company.
LOL

tim jobs, you need to speak with tim jobs, that is his playlist, not mine.

"black money" by Sniffin the Tears from "downstream" would be my pick. that song exemplifies apple to the core!

 

[Feenician]

Tim Cook says: "We worry about the humanity being drained out of music, about it becoming a bits-and-bytes kind of world instead of the art and craft."


Yet, Apple still pays the artists squat for selling/streaming their music. If he's so worried about the "art and craft" of music, maybe Apple and the record labels could pay the artists to actually....i dunno.....create?

Apple pays nearly twice as much as Spotify does per play, and more than 10 times what Google pay for Youtube plays.

 

[KrispE00]

I don’t understand the hate for Apple Music. I’ve never had a problem with with the recommendations. And when I tell Siri to play some music I’d like, it knows to play the specific types of hip-hop that I like from the last 20 years, and it leaves out the mumble rap.
Also, the best part is being able to upload your own music from iTunes that isn’t on AM and mix those songs into playlists with songs from AM. AFAIK Spotify does not have this critical feature.

 

[CPTmom2wp]

Question?.....Do you all feel that CD's will be phased out in the near future?

Why do I ask? I have noticed that the new Seasons of some DVD's I've been collecting are no longer available other than streaming. This seems to be trending. It is unfortunate, as we have friends in the country who do not have access to the internet. I also like to share CD's with a family member in LTCare.

 

[thadoggfather]

I’m not sure I understand what this means at face value: “we worry about the humanity being drained out of music”

Sounds like a Patrick Bateman kinda quote

 

[Feyl]

Remember the guy that laughed when Jimmy Iovine said Apple Music is a revolutionary service at the keynote? That’s me right know while I’m reading what Tim said.


I’ve been using both services for almost a year now and they’re quite similar. I don’t use music recommendations too much, but Spotify has definitely better playlists and suggestions than AM. It seems to me that Spotify also care more about the music itself and it’s more diverse with artists they promote. I think the main thing that’s worth thinking about is the UI/UX of both services and music quality.


Apple should quit smoking stuff and start focusing on their own things.

 

[mariusignorello]

"There's only so much money a man really needs, the rest is just for showing off."

I also don't support monopolies. Apple fanboys DESPISED (and still do) Microsoft when they got as big as they did years back... but Apple get's a pass?

No. I'm not going to cheer with pom-poms for a company as if it's my favourite sports team or even some kind of human entity. Apple doesn't care about consumers, they only care about their profits (much more so than customer satisfaction). So why should I support them?

Besides that, Apple music sucks. Spotify is way better.

You made a good point. Sports teams don't care about consumers either. Yet people adore them like crazy. And who the hell are you decide how much money a person or company needs? Mind your business.

 

[Bin Cook]

Just a stream of meaningless drivel and hollow soundbites from Cook (again).

 

[robbyx]

Streaming - not Spotify - is devaluing music.

This. I feel sorry for kids that they’ll never know the joy of hunting through the record or CD bins on release day and finding a treasure. Buying music online took the fun away, but it didn’t devalue music the way streaming has. Streaming has turned music into a throw away commodity. There are still lots of big releases, but they seem to pop and then quickly make room for the next one. I enjoy the convenience of streaming, but I miss the old days where music is concerned. Technology has made it easier to enjoy music but it’s also less special now.

 

[ForumChick]

And just like all these other cloud-based subscription services where you never actually "own" anything, as soon as you have no/poor internet, you have nothing; as soon as you stop paying for the tether, you have nothing.

It’s called downloading music? Ever heard?

 

[MBAir2010]

[QUOTE="kazkan] you have nothing; as soon as you stop paying for the tether, you have nothing.[/QUOTE]
Dr Pavel thought and said that as well

 

[Lesser Evets]

Too late, Timbolina. The big business of music did that since 1980. But you’d love to drain the cash from people’s wallets, I bet.

 

[iSneeze67]

I really enjoy the concept of Beats 1 radio. I appreciate the live shows and DJs on the air. But I don’t like the music they play. I was really hoping they would have added stations by now for other music generates. I still feel this is the best delivery method for music discovery.

 

[Glockworkorange]

I’m not sure I understand what this means at face value: “we worry about the humanity being drained out of music”

Sounds like a Patrick Bateman kinda quote

View attachment 774922

It's just blather from a book burner.

 

[Regbial]

Shut up Tim.

...I don't believe a word that comes out of your reptile mouth.

 

[Glockworkorange]

This is classic PR diversion tactic to cover up the fact that Apple’s music discovery/ machine learning is worse than Spotify.

I’m a former Apple Music subscriber (now Spotify subscriber).

I left (partly) because I felt that Apple didn’t have enough humans creating new playlists.

I got bored of seeing the same curated playlists in the genres that I liked (electronic & dance - hardly that obscure) with barely any new ones for months on end.

At least Spotify has playlists and brilliant music discovery that keeps me finding new favourite songs every month - I couldn’t say that for Apple.

Btw the other reason is that I quit is the iCloud music library match often replaced music that I owned with the wrong versions (different mixes or tracks that were part of mixes replacing complete tracks).

So my message for Cook would be to hire more humans, get better at music discovery and allow people to opt out of iCloud music library track replacemt on a track my track level. And to spend less time trash talking Spotify.

Or, not everyone is into the hip hop, dance, R&B, whatever. I suppose Apple pushes it because that is what pop has become. I think I've stated before Pandora's radio feature is much better re: the genre's I listen to than Apple Music's version of "create a radio based on a song."