Apple Looking to Sign Drake, Pharrell and David Guetta as iTunes Radio Guest DJs

[Ajones330]

The guy grew up in Forest Hill (very affluent, multi million dollar homes) area of Toronto. he's a "kid star" from being on Canadian TV.

you can like his music, but the guy is nothing more than an act. there was no "starting at the bottom"

So again, I say he isn't rapping about how hard his life is. "Started from the bottom" is true for any artist starting out. Like I said I'm a true hip hop fan and I'm not saying a true Drake fan. He wasn't taken serious when he came out and it took a while for people to even listen. He left Canada and moved to Houston to get put on so please stop with the whole "act" argument. Its all a act to me regardless if we are talking about Drake or Jay-Z. Previous poster made the comment of him rapping about how hard his life is. He raps about his life coming from a single parent household and staying in an affluent neighborhood with one income may be a struggle for some. His father stays in Memphis, Tn where my girlfriend is from and lets just say I'm sure he has dealt with tough times in his life dealing with the split home. As I said before he has a huge following which Apple is smart enough to capitalize on so you all may not be fans of his music but it's a smart business move for Apple.

 

[diamond.g]

The guy grew up in Forest Hill (very affluent, multi million dollar homes) area of Toronto. he's a "kid star" from being on Canadian TV.

you can like his music, but the guy is nothing more than an act. there was no "starting at the bottom"

He seems more accessible than Neyo or Chris Brown.

 

[LordVic]

He seems more accessible than Neyo or Chris Brown.

fair guess its safe to say we don't know that he's beaten any of his girlfriends

 

[hauntvictim]

This Streaming music service must be compelling enough to pull me away from $4.99 a month. I have tried the iTunes Radio and nothing beats the way Pandora serves up the variety that matches my likes. iTunes always replayed same songs. Sounds interesting and will try it for the 3 month trial period. I am open.

 

[Mums]

A+ trolling

Paradoxally (sic), you are the one trolling.

 

[diamond.g]

fair guess its safe to say we don't know that he's beaten any of his girlfriends

lol

This Streaming music service must be compelling enough to pull me away from $4.99 a month. I have tried the iTunes Radio and nothing beats the way Pandora serves up the variety that matches my likes. iTunes always replayed same songs. Sounds interesting and will try it for the 3 month trial period. I am open.

To be honest I am unsure of the value of having someone curate a playlist. Especially when their tastes in music isn't likely to truly match my own. Now it would be interesting if they used artists recommendation to surface new/upcoming unknowns in the industry, but that doesn't seem likely.

 

[marty11]

NEWSFLASH: Metal is not music; it's noise.

To the "NEWSFLASH" in your head. Metal musicians are some of the best trained in the world.

 

[Soni Sanjay]

Yes I do think think so. Of course Apple needs a streaming music competitor of their own but I don't think they need to spend millions on exclusive content and celebrities to 'curate' music for them. If you ranked the top priorities for Apple right now I'm not sure music would make the top 5. Look at Apple's biggest competitors, their top priorities aren't streaming music. Google didn't need to spend $3B+ to roll out a decent streaming service.

OK, that may sound reasonable, but calling music so last decade is a little bit over the top. I do agree with these reasoning, but Apple has billions of dollars in the bank, no harm on doing this. Plus it will most likely destory the competition.

 

[Soni Sanjay]

To the "NEWSFLASH" in your head. Metal musicians are some of the best trained in the world.

Dude do not bother, it is clear Benjamin is trolling. Ignore him.

 

[Jimrod]

"Worldwide" Developer's Conference indeed, so does anyone outside the US have even standard iTunes Radio yet? Not a sniff of it in the UK so whatever flavour-of-the-month trendy hipster DJ's they may be hiring doesn't really matter one little **** to me. It's yet another Apple "feature" that is ever more US only (cough *Apple Pay* cough) and makes the already inflated price we pay for Apple products over here seem more of a piss-take with each new product revision.

 

[Dranix]

Well Apple is getting more and more an us only club... Apple Pay doesn't work anywhere else, too.

Take the AppleTV - Most channels are totally useless outside the us.

 

[JAT]

That's actually a great song. It's something upbeat and positive and was obviously good enough to be put into a great movie and get an oscar nomination. Maybe your tastes in music aren't that great?

Not half as good as its parody Tacky, though.

 

[trife]

I think it's pretty funny to see how people are defending these 'artists', while massively bashing Dr. Dre when Apple took over Beats. I remember quite a few comments on him being not an artist. At least Dre made many classics that are still popular today, and knows how to rap. I can't say the same about Drake or Pharrell. Apple could've at least found some inspiring, original artists.

Enh, you do know that Dr. Dre doesn't write his own rhymes, right? And I'm almost positive that he never has.

And you do know that he has an entire production team that works with him that really never gets the credit they deserve, right?

As far as actual rapping ability goes, Drake > Dr. Dre. And it isn't really even close. I'm not a huge Drake fan, but I'm going to give credit where credit is due--the guy can rap and has remained popular for about 5-6 years straight now. He isn't just some one hit wonder type of artist. He's going to be around for a long time.

 

[Yakibomb]

Its all great on paper, but i'm not going to be too happy if they limit this to the US as beats did

 

[Aeolius]

Where are the MTV VJays when we need them ?

Working at SiriusXM on 80s on 8.

 

[ProVideo]

I didn't like his music, but I didn't have a problem with Pharrell until he wrote that Date Rape Anthem for Robin Thicke. I don't even care that it was a rip off of a Marvin Gaye song musically. The lyrical contents just made it clear him and Thicke are scumbags.

 

[Digital Skunk]

....
The only good rap songs to have ever been written were a few hits of the 80s performed by the Beastie Boys, Andrew Lloyd Webber (Starlight Express), the Rock Steady Crew and the like.

...thuggish animal music whose advocates were particularly prevalent during the Ferguson riots.

... violent thugs, sadly, doesn't surprise me these days. Let us all look forward to a time when rap and hippo-hop music is wiped off the face of the earth forever....

Oh yeah. Because Drake came from the rough streets of Hackney, London!


Seriously I expected more from a person across the pond. But it seems that many over there have fallen into the same self delusion that the US has succumbed to. Sadly, not everyone is as dimwitted as you would like. Replacing a slur with another word still makes it a slur.

So please do tell me, what kind of music do you fancy? I doubt you have Beethoven and Bach rocking on your iPhone right now?

As far as streaming goes, I'm unimpressed. Maybe I'm old school but I still like having my music actually with me when I listen to it. The Pandora app didn't even last that long on my iPhone. I'lll reserve WWDC judgement for after the even.

That's not for me to say.

I like much of what you say, minus the bigoted parts and this quote here. Not too much, just enough to foolishly attempt to redacting what you said and what everyone called you out on.

Well Apple is getting more and more an us only club...

Take the AppleTV - Most channels are totally useless outside the us.

Wait what? Given your previous comments you should have no problem with that.

 

[Lycanthrope]

Who and who and who?

 

[elmateo487]

So if you do not like someone's music, then they are like Hitler - aka bad guys?

Terrific logic....not...

Lol. Wait what?

 

[elmateo487]

Music is, pretty much, noise that people like. If there's music you don't like but I do, is it good music or not?

And now I know why popular music sucks in this generation. It's just noise.

 

[maikerukun]

What dispiriting news.

The only good rap songs to have ever been written were a few hits of the 80s performed by the Beastie Boys, Andrew Lloyd Webber (Starlight Express), the Rock Steady Crew and the like.

Since then, all we have had is thuggish animal music whose advocates were particularly prevalent during the Ferguson riots.

Apple aligning itself with violent thugs, sadly, doesn't surprise me these days. Let us all look forward to a time when rap and hippo-hop music is wiped off the face of the earth forever; that will be a great day for humanity and the fight against evil.

$10 a month streaming will, of course, be a failure. But Apple knows that; it hardly wants to kill its golden goose, iTunes. It's just a sop to current trends, like the Apple Watch. Wearables will soon revert to dismal failure. The great thing is, however, that tech will get cheaper, and, in the light of such failure, will be a boon to us all.

Ahh yes, spoken like a guy that doesn't actually listen to rap music. Childish Gambino, Lupe Fiasco, Common, Chance the Rapper, Talib, Tribe Called Quest, The Roots, and several hundred others beg to differ. But continue with your ridiculously racist ramblings...it clearly suits you. I'm ashamed someone like you even uses Apple products. You must hate that Dre is on the board.

 

[maikerukun]

Who the f*** are these 3 guys? DJs are no artists - they just put on music. This job is totally superfluous today. And please leave me alone with all the hiphop and rap junk.

Pretty sure Apple wasn't bothering you in the first place. They are catering to a specific crowd...you are not a part of that crowd. However, non-racist age 40 and under are very much active in this scene. Case in point, top 3 artists on Spotify since they started:

1. Rihanna
2. David Guetta
3. Coldplay

I own all three of their albums...in fact, everything they have all ever put out.

And the top 5 songs on spotify of 2014 were:

1. Happy - Pharrell Williams
2. Rather Be – Clean Bandit (feat. Jess Glynne)
3. Summer – Calvin Harris
4. Dark Horse – Katy Perry
5. All of Me – John Legend

In other words, you are a dinosaur. Most of us in this demographic are extremely diverse in our listening habits. I have all 5 albums by all 5 of these artists. I also own everything Drake, Dre, 2Pac, Childish Gambino, Rascal Flatts, Jason Aldean, Lana Del Rey, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Zedd, Jimmy Hendrix, The Beatles, and Taylor Swift have ever put out. From Rap to Rock to Country to classics, I love music. And the story behind each genre and sub culture is fascinating. You come at it from a judgmental point of view "as racist/sexist/...ist tend to do". The only music I don't listen to is death metal and mosh...why? Because it doesn't appeal to me. I won't call it garbage because if it was garbage there wouldn't be a market for it. Nope, instead, there are people out there that relate to whatever stories are being told via death metal. Just because I don't like it doesn't mean it's horrible. I also don't blame Columbine, etc...on them listening to death metal music. That's ridiculous.

But continue with your nonsense. Just know that it's nonsense.

 

[maikerukun]

Maybe if you did a small bit of homework rather than showing your ignorance you would at least know that Pharrell received an academy award nomination for his song Happy that was in the movie Despicable Me 2. Pharrell has been in the music business as an artist for over 20 years. Sheesh, the people here.

Dude I am completely shocked out how many racists are on this board. I literally had no idea. Goes to show you how much times are changing. The world is moving on. America is moving on from racism, and all the leftover racists have nowhere to hide now so they are flooding every comment board on every website they can find. It's ridiculous.

 

[Digital Skunk]

Dude I am completely shocked out how many racists are on this board. I literally had no idea. Goes to show you how much times are changing. The world is moving on. America is moving on from racism, and all the leftover racists have nowhere to hide now so they are flooding every comment board on every website they can find. It's ridiculous.

Sorry that you're finding this out late. It's been this way for years, but they used to just stick to the PRSI forums and spread their ignorance there.

Now, it seems, they can replace "certain" words with others yet keep the same connotation, call other ethnic groups animals, and compare them to lesser species and get away with it . . . . all on front page news.

I'm glad to see that Apple Inc. thinks differently . . . no pun intended.

 

[flat five]

I have doubts about this as well. My problem with Apple's approach to hiring these three artists as DJs seem to be a professional conflict of interest.
[...]
Having 'big name' artists curate other music could be a conflict of interest.
[etc]

fwiw, beats already does this.. like, you can listen to a snoop dogg playlist etc.
i don't know, personally, i rarely listen to a big name playlist unless it comes up on the daily suggestion.. i might have a listen.

most of the playlists i listen to /subscribe to, i'm not familiar with the curator.. only that they have good taste or maybe clever sequencing.

i think (like wild guess) apple might be contracting/promoting a few big names in order to make people aware of the difference between a beats style service and most of the rest.. that being, it's focused around curated content.