Apple Music Turns One Year Old With 15 Million Subscribers on Board and a Redesign on the Way

[5105973]

Too me the music got terrible in the late 2000's (00's) of course that is when I turned 30.

You've simply got to sample the horror that is crappy 70's and 80's music. My husband has been torturing me on car rides with 70's and 80's playlists consisting of the dreck of those decades. Even some of the songs I liked back in the day don't stand the test of time.

Of course I threatened to divorce him if he tries to subject me to "I went through the desert in a horse with no name." "Midnight Toker" is definitely off the list. I loathe few songs more. Those two songs that make me think of the ugliest parts of that decade, like orange countertops and burnt orange accessories and the ugliest shades of green appliances for their home. Oh and Watergate and bicentennial themed clothing and inflation and the gas crisis.

 

[a.gomez]

Obviously you don't have TWC if you think Internet outages are "a much bigger problem". Also, maybe you could grab a music player or use your phone at work.

Or, I can just keep the better service that also has a web player for the same price.

 

[Sevendaymelee]

Until they offer lossless quality, audiophiles such as myself shan't care one iota

 

[RedOrchestra]

You've simply got to sample the horror that is crappy 70's and 80's music.

I don't know ... Ya' might be short-selling the era - here's a couple of beauts ...

 

[robjulo]

Why does this need to be redesigned? I mean, the genius Jimmy Iovine lectured everyone about how complicated every other streaming choice was and how great the design of Apple Music was when Apple Music first came out.

 

[spscott]

Here are my three biggest gripes with Apple Music since I switched from Spotify... maybe somebody agrees. I can't tell if it's just the product of how I personally listen to music or if they are real holes in their UI...

1. Filter playlist
I love how in Spotify you can quickly search within a playlist. I listen to essentially one playlist, a smart playlist that includes every song I've "liked." It helps me just quickly get to a big bank of the songs I know I'll wanna listen to when they come on. But when I get in my car, sometimes I wanna quickly start off in the playlist with a particular track. Especially because the iOS version gives you NO WAY to sort playlist besides manually, I never know where the eff my most recent additions land. So I have to start the playlist, then GLOBALLY search the song I want, which of course defaults to ALL OF APPLE MUSIC, find it, and add it to up next. W t f.

2. Back/Forward doesn't just correspond to Up Next/History
WHY doesn't the "previous track" button just follow the History/Up Next sequence? When you add a song to your Up Next, and then the track advances past that track, you can't just hit previous track to hear that again... its shuffled out of the order for some inexplicable reason... ugh. Just dumb. That is just dumb.

3. Can't "Add to Up Next" a currently playing track
Does nobody at Apple listen to music? You can't add the currently playing track to your up next because according to Apple nobody in the history of music has wanted to hear a song twice in a row. And no, I don't want to remember to hit the back button at the end of the song. And besides, if I accidentally miss the end of the song, and it's something i've added to my up next queue, hitting previous track SKIPS what I was just listening to, a la item #2. COME ON.

Really sometimes I think the nerds at Apple don't actually listen to music. I like the Siri integration and it's why I switched but... god damn. There are some reaaaaally annoying quirks to Apple Music that make me miss Spotify wicked wicked bad bruh.

Today marks the one year anniversary of Apple Music, which launched in 110 countries on June 30, 2015. The streaming music service was initially limited to the Mac and iOS devices, and it has since expanded to Apple TV and Android.

Apple's streaming music service, an evolution of the Beats Music service it acquired in 2014, has steadily gained listeners over the past twelve months, reaching over 15 million paying subscribers as of WWDC 2016 earlier this month.

Spotify still remains the world's most popular streaming music service, with roughly twice as many paying subscribers as Apple Music, but the Swedish rival has been available in Europe for nearly eight years and in the U.S. since 2011.

Assuming that Apple Music maintains its current pace of growth, it is reasonable to assume that it will eventually eclipse Spotify as the top streaming service worldwide, with Apple Music benefiting greatly from its prominent placement within a default app on iOS and a lengthy three-month free trial to get users hooked on the service.

Apple Music has received its share of criticism since launch, partly due to somewhat confusing layouts that can make it difficult to find content and easily manage downloaded or owned content versus streamed content. Apple's "Connect" social feature intended to allow artists to share content with fans also failed to take hold, with many quickly drawing comparisons to the ill-fated "Ping" social network that debuted as part of iTunes in 2010 but was officially canceled just two years later.

With iOS 10, Apple is undertaking a reinvention of the Apple Music experience on its mobile platform, completely revamping the app with new organization and a new design. The new design in particular has been controversial, with bold fonts standing in stark contrast to most of the rest of the operating system. But the new layout makes for a much more logical organization of content and features, with downloaded music receiving its own section and Connect receiving much less prominent placement.

Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.​

Apple is also pushing forward its relationships with artists for Apple Music, working hard to secure exclusive content as it seeks to follow the model of "MTV in its Eighties and Nineties heyday" in becoming the go-to place for artists and content.

Apple Music is clearly still in its early days, with Apple still evolving its integration of the Beats Music team and their streaming service into iTunes and the stock Apple user experience across all platforms. But with strong subscriber growth and industry trends pointing toward a continued shift toward streaming services, it's clear this is where Apple's content future lies, whether it be the current music service or future video services.

Article Link: Apple Music Turns One Year Old With 15 Million Subscribers on Board and a Redesign on the Way

 

[Armandodj]

Yeah! A year and they still suck.....the worst interface so far. Thank God for Spotify.

 

[hemanwomanhater]

I believe that Apple Music and all streaming services are to the long-term detriment of music.

If musicians don't have an incentive to be rewarded, they won't write music. This is why music has been dead since the early 90s. There has been the odd gem, but that's all.

I’ll stick to CDs and downloads to my dying day.

I don't believe this to be the case in practice. Record labels make their money from distribution of music; artists make their money from shows. UNLESS you're a pop star and have something in your contact to make a decent chunk from record sales.

But for the most part there will always be an incentive to distribute music on streaming services so you can easily share it, get hype, and ultimately attract more people to your shows.

Personally, I listened to far fewer unique records back when I paid for them individually, and subsequently discovered fewer artists, and went to fewer shows.

 

[Goatllama]

Who is this amazing one year old that has 15 million subscribers?? I only have like 40 subscribers and I've been blogging for like three years now!

 

[tonyr6]

I wonder how many of those 15 million are free trial ran out and are paying without knowing. I know people who pay monthly for services they don't even know they are paying for. They never check there bill just autopay everything.

 

[Karma*Police]

Who the hell is Above Avalon and what is their claim to fame - other than being another Apple fanboy analyst website?

Why does it matter who they are and what their claim to fame is? Do you believe everything you read on BGR or The Verge because they're popular? They make some very salient points. Read the analysis and fact check/judge for yourself.

If you disagree, present your own case for why you think they're wrong.

 

[chinesedemo]

Yeah great meanwhile their computers sit stagnant dwelling on past glory. Over at Samsung they are creating folding phones and iris scanners while this very moment at Apple Tim and crew are talking about Snoopy watch bands, font changes and releasing a iPhone with with multiple speakers... Mentioning the Mac mini or Mac Pro over at Apple headquarters is not allowed....

 

[newyorkone]

I have discovered 1741 great new tracks since the start of Apple Music.
I haven't missed Spotify a single moment.

Happy birthday, Apple Music.

Amen to that! Me too. So many great new artists discovered. Once on a long drive from DC to NYC, I chose one song as the basis for a radio station, and I must have discovered 15-20 artists from that one station, and I never skipped a single song on that entire drive.

 

[jayducharme]

I just switched from Apple Music to Spotify

Remember that Spotify is still operating at a loss. They can't run their business that way indefinitely. They keep saying that once they get enough subscribers, then they'll start making money. How many is "enough"? Evidently, not 30 million.

 

[bpeeps]

Did anyone watch the MacRumors video on the Apple Music redesign. I was like ....What the Hockey sticks did I just see in the MacRumors video.

That would be Rihanna.

 

[lordofthereef]

I can't use it on principle. We had ad free radio with match and that was completely taken away in favor of Apple Music. Mind you, the exact service still exists, but now match is only matching songs and nothing else. I get this same service from Google for nothing. I'd have potentially considered Apple Music too if I didn't feel burnt by what they did with match. Oh well. Money spent elsewhere.

 

[tonyr6]

That would be Rihanna.

When Rihanna turned got vulgar, turned to rap and got terrible I stopped listening to any new mainstream music which is around 2007. After which every other artist I liked did the same thing.

 

[FactVsOpinion]

Who cares? Apple has been treating its customers, pro or otherwise, with utter contempt, such that I'm actually, after more than a decade of fandom, shopping for a HP Spectre or Dell XPS 15.

Haha. Everybody makes bad decisions now and then

 

[OTACORB]

I wonder how many of those 15 million are free trial ran out and are paying without knowing. I know people who pay monthly for services they don't even know they are paying for. They never check there bill just autopay everything.

I guess the same could be said for Spotify decided to try the Premium and then just forgot about it. REALLY! Bottom line is that Apple in one year has 15 million subs it matters not if people forgot and continue to pay without knowing, which I seriously doubt is very many. Spotify has been bleeding money like a stuff pig since it's existence and still is today with 30 million paying subs.

Spotify's app is better in some ways than AM, but not in every way by any means. The good news is today we have a choice, but if Spotify don't get their **** together it likely won't be around long term. Rumor has it today that Apple is looking at buying Tidal. Apple wanted a way to roll out hifi music this may just be how they do it. The thing is with Apple's deep pockets they can lose money from now on and just remain a burr in Spotify's money losing ass.
[doublepost=1467345558][/doublepost]

Who cares? Apple has been treating its customers, pro or otherwise, with utter contempt, such that I'm actually, after more than a decade of fandom, shopping for a HP Spectre or Dell XPS 15.

Apple has never treated me bad enough that I would make that mistake. The company I work for bought me an HP Spectre and it's locked in the trunk of my company car and I continue you use my MacBook Pro. I refuse to out of spite have to deal with the POS known as Windows.

 

[sidewinder3000]

Wondering about Beats One's future... Is anyone using it?

I do. Don't have any numbers on it, but it's great. Sort of pop oriented, though. Would love if they created Beats 2 as an alternative/eclectic station.
[doublepost=1467354842][/doublepost]

The fact that they redesigned just a year after the release doesn't give me a warm & fuzzy feeling about Apple (same with watchOS). It's like they forgot about keeping things simple/streamlined (ie. Scott Forstall/Steve Jobs).

Sorry, but that is just nuts. I think you have it 180 degrees wrong. Both of last years launches tackled design challenges that no one has even taken on, and did them both nicely. But as with many groundbreaking new platforms, you learn stuff when it's out in the world. It takes balls to change your mind. Something Steve Jobs did often. People complain that Apple never changes, and then they complain when they do. The redesign of both Apple Music and watchOS look fantastic, I'm glad they did them, and can't wait to get my hands on them.
[doublepost=1467355187][/doublepost]

I hate this AM redesign.

I love it. Reminds me of how Beats used to look when I was a subscriber. Hope it's a harbinger of things to come. Current UI look/feel is so... meh.

 

[MH01]

Well, I could do that. But really, I don't see the point. Since music taste is something very personal. So, those are 1741 tracks _I_ find great, and _I_ discovered last year. But I'm sure a lot of other people wouldn't like half of it. And wouldn't understand the Dutch-spoken tracks.

To find music you like, you really should use the "For You" tab. It rocks!

So there is no ability to share lists like on Spotify ? I think it was a loaded question.
[doublepost=1467357875][/doublepost]

I do. Don't have any numbers on it, but it's great. Sort of pop oriented, though. Would love if they created Beats 2 as an alternative/eclectic station.
[doublepost=1467354842][/doublepost]
Sorry, but that is just nuts. I think you have it 180 degrees wrong. Both of last years launches tackled design challenges that no one has even taken on, and did them both nicely. But as with many groundbreaking new platforms, you learn stuff when it's out in the world. It takes balls to change your mind. Something Steve Jobs did often. People complain that Apple never changes, and then they complain when they do. The redesign of both Apple Music and watchOS look fantastic, I'm glad they did them, and can't wait to get my hands on them.
[doublepost=1467355187][/doublepost]
I love it. Reminds me of how Beats used to look when I was a subscriber. Hope it's a harbinger of things to come. Current UI look/feel is so... meh.

Never used beats as it was not available over here. So the iOS 10 design is moving back to its roots ?

 

[sidewinder3000]

I never bought music in my life and obtained it illegally.

I'm now a subscriber to Apple Music. It's worth it and I can finally say I support the artists.

Dude, that's awesome!

 

[Zirel]

I believe that Apple Music and all streaming services are to the long-term detriment of music.

If musicians don't have an incentive to be rewarded, they won't write music. This is why music has been dead since the early 90s. There has been the odd gem, but that's all.

I’ll stick to CDs and downloads to my dying day.

How can I put it without insulting your intelligence...

The artists get paid by Apple Music reproductions.

 

[Benjamin Frost]

How can I put it without insulting your intelligence...

The artists get paid by Apple Music reproductions.

And the amount they get paid insults their intelligence.

 

[Zirel]

And the amount they get paid insults their intelligence.

How much are they paid by Apple?

71% goes to them!