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Apple Music Gets New Co-Heads in Latest Leadership Shuffle

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Apple is making another round of leadership changes across two key divisions ahead of its earnings report on Thursday, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.

apple-park-at-night-1.jpg

The company's Apple Music division will now be co-managed by longtime Apple executive Rachel Newman and former TikTok music veteran Ole Obermann. Both will report to Oliver Schusser, who has taken on additional responsibilities over the past year including Apple TV+ and sports initiatives.

The restructuring appears designed to ease Schusser's workload as he continues to oversee the Beats brand and international services while reporting to Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of online services.

On the global affairs front, Apple is adjusting how it manages government relations teams worldwide. The heads of Europe and Asia will now report directly to Lisa Jackson, a former Obama administration official who reports to CEO Tim Cook. Previously, these teams reported to Nick Ammann, vice president of global policy.

Ammann, who still reports to Jackson, will now oversee the India and China government affairs teams. He'll also remain Apple's main liaison with the Trump administration, a role he held during Trump's first presidency.

The reshuffling follows other recent leadership adjustments at Apple, including changes to its retail division, and reorganizations of its Siri and robotics teams.

Article Link: Apple Music Gets New Co-Heads in Latest Leadership Shuffle
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2025/04/30/apple-music-gets-new-heads-leadership-shuffle/
Hope apple will bring back the star rating visibility once pressing on the cover album, the cover flow, the ability to customize the tab bar with artists, albums etc & add artist info and some communication on their page, updates on tours, new albums and such.
 
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Does anyone senior at Apple use their services properly?

I mean with music, anything more than to play me the latest hits / album in x genre?’ (See also: Siri)

This is a serious question, as if I was in charge of Apple Music I think I’d notice quite quickly that it’s sub par.

Apple Music’s experience seems stuck around 2019 on iOS and around 2020 on the Mac.

Pros - their djs (if you like that sort of thing), classical app, dj mixes, lossless. Atmos I guess.

Cons: everything else is sub par compared to Spotify. Ux. music recommendations, navigation.

If you pay for Apple Music outside of a bundle you’re drinking the kool aid.
 
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give me a playlist for all new releases for everyone in my library (not new music mix)
Also give me local concert listings for artists like Spotify
and lastly, recommendations that are actually relevant
 
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For a second I was getting my hopes up that they were gonna actually work on the Music app on the desktop. :rolleyes:
Right now the only way to save changes is to quit the app and wait for the swirly to stop otherwise the app has to be forced quit, especially for those of us to have huge libraries and playlist. Is asking for a save changes button too much?
 
Do you know, if you signed up for Apple Music subscription when it first came out in June 2015, by next month you’ll have spent about $1,236? That’s probably over $100 albums that you could have owned forever, or over about 1,000 songs?

I never cared to pay monthly for access music, I just buy albums as I wish, which isn’t very often.I think I’ve spent less than $50 on music in the last 10 years, and I own access to that manic forever, without a need to pay Apple or for their servers to be active to play them, nor internet working.

Sorry, just feeling justified for never paying for the monthly music subscription lol.
 
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Mrkevinfinnerty said:
Pound for pound one of the worst pieces of subscription software you will ever find. They should hire some decent product managers.
Click to expand...
That is what happens when you send software development to the cheapest foreign team you can find.

Apple's downfall on Services is not advertising (which is what Apple believes), but rather their tendency to develop retail apps at the cheapest cost available. Leading to poor design, poor functionality, and generally a bad taste. Thank you Mr. Cook.
 
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bluecoast said:
Does anyone senior at Apple use their services properly?

I mean with music, anything more than to play me the latest hits / album in x genre?’ (See also: Siri)

This is a serious question, as if I was in charge of Apple Music I think I’d notice quite quickly that it’s sub par.

Apple Music’s experience seems stuck around 2019 on iOS and around 2020 on the Mac.

Pros - their djs (if you like that sort of thing), classical app, dj mixes, lossless. Atmos I guess.

Cons: everything else is sub par compared to Spotify. Ux. music recommendations, navigation.

If you pay for Apple Music outside of a bundle you’re drinking the kool aid.
Click to expand...

A huge issue for Apple Music is there is far too much focus on 'content'. You only have to look who has been put in charge here. Rachel Newman former 'global head of content and editorial'

As you say the UX, recommendations engine etc are far behind Spotify. I see Zane Lowe's latest interview with Chappell Roan or whoever and I wonder who is actually watching it, are people watching that in the music app on their phone? The whole thing seems like a bit of a vanity project.

The software should be front an centre, it should be the star. People are much less concerned about editorial content from their streaming services, the market has shown that, Spotify are dominant and have very little by way of that kind of thing.

Spotify don't always get it right, the Tik Tok style feed was a mess, but you do at least feel like there are people working on the app. I get none of that from Apple Music when they do actually do something it feels like the Music division have been asked to contribute some bullet points to a slide at the WWDC keynote.

They aren't MTV or Pitchfork, they are a software service for listening to/discovering music. Prioritise making that great.
 
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Same meat, different gravy isn't cutting it anymore. Apple needs fresh blood in its executive ranks, not just another reshuffle of the same familiar faces. Tim Cook has had a remarkable run, but his extended tenure is starting to feel like an inability to let go of the reins. The time has come for Cook to enjoy the fruits of his labor and step aside.

A new generation of executives with bold visions could reinvigorate Apple's product lines and services before the company's legacy of excellence fades further from memory.

Apple Music sucks!
 
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I feel like I am starting my day with complaints but I agree here, Music is not a great application. Sound quality is great, if you know what you want to listen to it's fine but, discovery and general layout is poor at best. I feel like I really struggle with it. I dont have CarPlay but have an iPad mini on a dash mount in the car. Trying to navigate music is just too hard unless I am sitting still. I realize it's not made for that but if it at least had radio selections or programed channels that were better I could live with those.
 
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Shalev Lazarof said:
Hope apple will bring back the star rating visibility once pressing on the cover album, the cover flow, the ability to customize the tab bar with artists, albums etc & add artist info and some communication on their page, updates on tours, new albums and such.
Click to expand...
Cover Flow was awesome for listening to albums. I wonder why they got rid of it?
 
Not to say it's perfect, but putting on the Discovery channel every now and then has opened up a lot of great artists that I have never heard of before, same with seeing albums listed as New Releases. IMO there's a good foundation for the app.

On a conspiracy note: I've been noticing Beyonce albums being recommended as the very first option lately, coinciding with the beginning of her tour that has not relatively sold well (due to, you know, incredibly low consumer confidence in the economy).
 
I switched to Apple Music from Spotify about two years ago and I barely discover good new music anymore, at least it pales in comparison to Spotify.

At first I really liked how it integrated my music with the streaming stuff, but I've come to realise that what I want from a local music player and a streaming player is very different. Plus there is no good way to quickly save a track other than adding it to my library, which has has started to clutter up my stuff.

Add to that a general weird bug in the music app that duplicates songs across many of my local albums and it's become a massive pain.

I'm sticking with it because of Apple One, but it's definitely no longer my first choice.
 
aloysiusfreeman said:
Not to say it's perfect, but putting on the Discovery channel every now and then has opened up a lot of great artists that I have never heard of before, same with seeing albums listed as New Releases. IMO there's a good foundation for the app.

On a conspiracy note: I've been noticing Beyonce albums being recommended as the very first option lately, coinciding with the beginning of her tour that has not relatively sold well (due to, you know, incredibly low consumer confidence in the economy).
Click to expand...

IDK. I've been using Apple Music since 2015 and my recommendations are pretty solid and the app, itself, has improved greatly. The only complaint I have is when songs become "currently not available in your country," but that's licensing.

And regarding Beyoncé, she should've done a show in Nashville -- a country album without a show there is crazy.
 
Gengar said:
IDK. I've been using Apple Music since 2015 and my recommendations are pretty solid and the app, itself, has improved greatly. The only complaint I have is when songs become "currently not available in your country," but that's licensing.
Click to expand...

It reminds me how years ago people would hype up that the Youtube algorithm lead them to great music they would have never encountered. That I no longer get on Youtube, but the Discovery and my personal recommended channel on Apple Music has been pretty damn stellar in recommending music.

The things I would personally like to see in Apple Music are some sort of band involvement similar to Bandcamp. I would love if bands are able to put up tour dates and other forms of engagement on Apple Music. That way I would never have to worry about missing some announcement on Instagram because I try my best to avoid Meta whenever possible

(hire me Apple. I got ideas)
 
Mrkevinfinnerty said:
A huge issue for Apple Music is there is far too much focus on 'content'. You only have to look who has been put in charge here. Rachel Newman former 'global head of content and editorial'

As you say the UX, recommendations engine etc are far behind Spotify. I see Zane Lowe's latest interview with Chappell Roan or whoever and I wonder who is actually watching it, are people watching that in the music app on their phone? The whole thing seems like a bit of a vanity project.

The software should be front an centre, it should be the star. People are much less concerned about editorial content from their streaming services, the market has shown that, Spotify are dominant and have very little by way of that kind of thing.

Spotify don't always get it right, the Tik Tok style feed was a mess, but you do at least feel like there are people working on the app. I get none of that from Apple Music when they do actually do something it feels like the Music division have been asked to contribute some bullet points to a slide at the WWDC keynote.

They aren't MTV or Pitchfork, they are a software service for listening to/discovering music. Prioritise making that great.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I've never got the interviews and if they really move the dial for Apple Music.

Maybe they do, maybe they don't - only Apple knows how many people are engaging with it.

But yes, totally agree with you. Where Spotify seems almost psychic about recommending me things - of course, it has an amazing knowledge graph and recommendations engine - Apple Music just seems to push me music that feels like various label pluggers have told them are the 'hot tracks' for that genre/artist, from their label.

Which along with the interviews, makes Apple Music seem like a mix between radio and MTV.

Is that what people really want?

Maybe they do, maybe they don't - only Apple knows how many people are engaging with it.

P.S. I had forgotten about Spotify's Tik Tik style feed - it's still there, way way beneath the fold, on mobile.
 
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