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

[Keirasplace]

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.

yet, Apple Music is gaining quickly on Spotify and likely already passed it in revenue (passing it in paying subscribers in the US).

Spotify's music selection for me is way way worse than Apple Music, a much lesser breadth; often Spotify has the wrong version of the song too (or it doesn't exist at all)..

The only one who is smoking something seemingly is you; Apple's doing fine.

 

[MBAir2010]

Just came back, looked at a link to a song posted on anutter thread, click, iTunes app opens, went to song, I NEED APPLE MUSICK to play linked song.

Silence

This is all about control, Apple and Tim Jobs wants to control your life, the words we type, your computer, your health and music. Christ, they even contolled the governmants in 2016 after that shooting in socal were they refused to unlock one cell phone.
Watch out tv land, your next!

 

[826317]

Apple Music is good and all, especially for multiple accounts....but overall I miss the buying/library model overall. Knowing I owned the music. Now that I have been using it, it would cost way too much money to go back to the other model so I guess streaming is it.

It's kind of like the renting vs buying dilemma when it comes to housing. Except you cannot resell your music collection.

 

[MBAir2010]

It's kind of like the renting vs buying dilemma when it comes to housing. Except you cannot resell your music collection.

Some CDs i own are triple what i paid for on that ebuy.com websitethingee.
Around 20. Mostly ryuichi sakamoto recordings, i guess i lucked out when i decide to sell em.
The other i think 400 can be used to deflect the solar flare that will arrive in 2026.
Maybe then apple can make music listenable and a macbook pro that no one will return.

 

[AdonisSMU]

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.

I went the opposite way because Spotify was recommending covers of popular songs and not the real thing in my search results. Plus it would regularly screw up the MacBook.,, that was the last draw.

 

[Braderunner]

Then, why, Tim...do I keep discovering that an artist I like has new music out, when I look on iTunes. Not Apple Music.
Apple Music’s recommendations need a lot of work.

 

[Tech198]

"We're not in it for the money," Cook told Fast Company"

No, of course not *rolls eyes*

Artists get paid per download.. or steaming, which is why Apple cares much less about ripping off DRM than Spotify does. Most of the issues surrounding that are from Spotify users, never Apple... so why do you think that is.

Then, why, Tim...do I keep discovering that an artist I like has new music out, when I look on iTunes. Not Apple Music.
Apple Music’s recommendations need a lot of work.

They should bring Apple music and iTunes Store together *as one*

One store, one catalog,, NOT two separate...

That way, you can either "Buy",or if your subscribed to Apple music "Listen" as well without buying.

It would solve allot of problems. There would be no more reasons to say "its on one, but not the other" because one catalog would be the same for both..

 

[RodSerlingLives]

Is that some sort of homophobic reference?

It's a reference to the Connect feed in Apple Music, which I consider to be useless and inferior to simply following the artist and their catalog in Spotify. Apple doesn't allow me to search alphabetically through artists I follow unless I have downloaded their music to my library.. I can't even begin to understand how you could correlate my statement with homophobia, unless you ignorantly take things out of context on a regular basis.

 

[bmac89]

Cook's words embody Apple's longstanding critique of Spotify, which is that its algorithms are eroding music's spiritual role in our lives. Cook doesn't mention Spotify by name but 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."

Fast forward to the future....

Apple Music - your music elevated to the next level.
Introducing the world’s most intelligent music discovery algorithm.

 

[Gameboy70]

You have it backwards. Algorithms are still primitive and cannot possibly measure our experience or enjoyment of a track or any part of any album. DJs (the good ones at least) can read the room and adjust to it based on the feedback from real people in real time. Once wearable sensors become more powerful and commonplace, we will see real advances in AI music selection. Right now it's just dumb algorithms that are mostly based on what the record labels are pushing anyway.

It's not about "measuring" experience or enjoyment, it's about finding affinities across listeners. Spotify looks at your play history and builds your personalized Discover Weekly playlists using tracks from other listeners' histories that overlap your own. If I listened to songs A, G M, P, and X, and another listener had G, L, M, Q, X, and Z in their history, Spotify assumes that there's enough alignment between our track histories to drop L and Q in my Discover Weekly. No DJ can do that. They can be superior dance floor conductors, but that doesn't have much to do with music listening.

It's counterintuitive that an algorithm can curate better than a DJ, but that's been my experience. For decades, many investors assumed that index funds were no match for the street smarts of an actively managed fund, but the results of rule-based investing speak for themselves.

 

[pratikindia]

I have a paid subscription to Apple Music and free subscription to Spotify. Spotify has better UI and recommendations are spot on. The music discovery works much better on Spotify. The only reason for sticking with AM is FamilySharing. But I always buy music I like.

 

[Abazigal]

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?

Are you sure you really want Apple being the dominant record label company in the future?

I don’t mind, but I am supposed to be the Apple sheep here.

 

[BGPL]

"We worry about the profi.... I mean, humanity, being drained out of our pocke.... I mean, music."

 

[iSayuSay]

I personally never even use Apple Music's discover feature. I know the music I like and don't need Apple helping me find more.

In which case, algorithm may be useless to you. Just search away and make your own playlist, you know what you like, right?

In that case, you'll appreciate library collection more than discovery features. Apple Music happens to have bigger collection of music than Spotify (thanks to iTunes store's legacy). Any rare, unavailable collections can be uploaded to iCloud Music Library, which don't count through your iCloud storage. Which is awesome for me.

 

[JadawinUK]

"We're not in it for the money"

I LOLed at that. I love Tim but come on.

Yeah, it's almost like he believes his own lies by now.

 

[iSayuSay]

Yeah, it's almost like he believes his own lies by now.

Everybody's in it for the money of course, that includes Spotify. But "not for the money" for Tim Cook may translate to "profitability".

Up to some point, it's the truth. Apple Music may not be the most profitable service. For Apple to list Apple Music costs the same, or even lower in some places than Spotify, is "cheap" by Apple standard.
Apple Music is still #2 compared to Spotify, and costs the same too, which means the revenue is lower.

But yes, Apple has this little $1 trillion pocket to actually "subsidize" Apple Music cost that cheap forever, and not suffering.

Spotify needs big backup, ASAP. Think of acquisition from the like of Microsoft, Netflix, or even Google to be able to compete with Apple in long term. It's sad Spotify still struggles for profitability after 10 years.

 

[x34]

tim cook is pathetic.

this is a promo move by him and apple because spotify is so much ahead of apple music.

 

[iSayuSay]

tim cook is pathetic.

this is a promo move by him and apple because spotify is so much ahead of apple music.

Well, considering Spotify started in 2008, and Apple just in 2015 and has already been #2? I think Apple Music is doing fine. At current state, it's only a matter of time before Apple Music crushes Spotify. It costs the same, even lower in some countries than Spotify.

Spotify has some great discovery tool, but the convenience of Apple Music to work with my HomePod, Watch, and CarPlay is where it shines for me.

So yeah Spotify needs ecosystem more than anything, which means it needs big backup, I think of Microsoft or Google.

 

[DeepIn2U]

Apple Music is good and all, especially for multiple accounts....but overall I miss the buying/library model overall. Knowing I owned the music. Now that I have been using it, it would cost way too much money to go back to the other model so I guess streaming is it.

Personally I love the buying/iTunes Library model.

The problem I have with Apple Music is the complete mingling and replacement of my OWNED music once I've enabled Apple Music. I'm now sorting my owned music vs Apple Music and how to keep MY music remain UN-REPLACED! Arrrgh this ticks me off something AWEFUL!

I think both companies have strengths and weaknesses. Competition is good for competitors and especially consumers.

Competition IS good!

 

[Chaseyoboy]

I like YouTube music which was included free with my YouTube premium subscription which I'm happily still only paying $9.99 for. I listen to songs all over and only really listen to 3 albums. I'd happily buy the albums to support the artists but don't have that kind of money for now

 

[7 others]

I'm the consumer... someone with a wallet that Apple wishes it could get it's greedy fingers into. But my distaste for Apple goes far beyond something as relatively trivial as to their worth.

But hey, thanks for letting me know that a trillion dollars STILL isn't enough.

Yes indeed, being a sour consumer has all the rights in the world to complain, complain and complain..

 

[Abazigal]

tim cook is pathetic.

this is a promo move by him and apple because spotify is so much ahead of apple music.

Oh really?

https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2018/07/05/apple-music-spotify-us-subscribers-2/

Apple Music has more paying subscribers in the United States than Spotify, according to confidential details shared with Digital Music News this morning.

One bets against Apple to their own detriment.

 

[carambo]

"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."
"We're not in it for the money"

That's the quote of the year from Tim Cook .

That's why they didn't want, in first intention, to pay artist during testing period.

Anyway, Spotify will not resist alone, so expect an acquisition by another GAFA sooner or later.

 

[simonmet]

I'm not altogether sure Tim Cook is human.

 

[Winni]

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

What? You don't like all that hip-hop? Tsktsktsk.