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Apple Working on New Beats Music Service Integrated into OS X and iOS, Available on Android

Huh, I wonder how this works with iTunes Match (Yes I realize it says it will continue to exist).
 
I dunno about you guys and gals but I use iTunes Genius playlists a lot. It's probably the most used feature for me in iTunes after just clicking play on a song.

And from what I've heard (Beats isn't available in my country yet so I can't try it easily) Beats Musics main selling point is its Genius like functionality but instead of being limited by your own library it uses their cloud full of songs.

So for me if they bring Beats to iTunes and to my country I would sign up in a second.
 
I could see using an iTunes streaming service IF it were compatible with Family Sharing rather than pay per user. I suspect that's doubtful though and I will have to move to Spotify.
 
I use iTunes Radio a lot so I hope it stays. Tbh the best streaming service currently is free and it's by Samsung. Go figure they make the crappiest Android UI but make the best streaming service.
 
I have a horrible time trying to find music on iTunes or iTunes Radio. Meanwhile I can always find exactly what I want on Beats Music, quickly and easily.

Let's hope this "seamless integration" doesn't screw up everything Beats does right that iTunes does wrong. Also not looking forward to the inevitable BUY NOW! button next to every track.

Here's a tip Apple: if I'm paying a flat monthly fee to let me access any song I want whenever I want, online or off, then there's not much point in also paying $1.29 per song, now is there?
 
So we're going to have two streaming services from Apple? That doesn't make much sense. Why not just kill off iTunes radio since its a poor product.
 
Still doesn't beat the $4.99 Spotify deal for students. I wonder if they will have a similar promotion.
 
I like Beats. Have been a satisfied paid subscriber since the week it went on the market.

I have a concern, however.

I rely h-e-a-v-i-l-y on iTunes playlists - specifically, "smart" playlists. I have spent years and years and years categorizing, rating and adding comments to my library. Smart playlists play so nicely with an iTunes library that has been curated in this way.

My concern is that if the Beats player becomes the app, or even just a Beats-friendly overhaul occurs, then the smart playlists may get chuncked. And I wouldn't necessarily blame Apple. No doubt they have to cut some of the bells and whistles to merge all of this.

To look at it yet a different way, I wonder whether users will be able to rate and comment on songs from the Beats cloud that can then be part of a smart playlist.

Not trying to get greedy here. Just hopeful that all of this will play nice when merged.

One other thing. I still have hundreds of CDs I haven't gotten around to ripping. The ability to rip and push into my own personal cloud via iTunes Match is important to me. I have CDs not in iTunes store nor in the Beats catalog. I hope this marriage between iTunes and Beats doesn't kill iTunes Match.

I'd enjoy reading any thoughts on smart playlists and iTunes Match from others here who use them regularly as I do. Thanks.
 
How about integrating the service with/for customers with iTunes Match would make a lot of sense since Apple owns beats now, where is Steve Jobs when you need him, sigh.
 
Quu said:
I dunno about you guys and gals but I use iTunes Genius playlists a lot. It's probably the most used feature for me in iTunes after just clicking play on a song.

And from what I've heard (Beats isn't available in my country yet so I can't try it easily) Beats Musics main selling point is its Genius like functionality but instead of being limited by your own library it uses their cloud full of songs.

So for me if they bring Beats to iTunes and to my country I would sign up in a second.
Click to expand...

I gave up on iTunes Genius a very long time ago. As with iTunes Radio, it's never demonstrated an ability to help me discover new music I like. it typically only rehashes music I already own, or other tracks from the same artist. Human curation - by people who know something about music - is what's needed, and that's what Beats got right.
 
Apple will deeply integrate Beats into the OS the way Microsoft deeply integrated Explorer into Windows. Anti-trust ensues. Apple slammed for monopolistic practices as they ***k with other streaming providers’ software in the same way the MFI does with hardware vendors. The king of the mountain becomes the villain by their own hand. Rinse. Repeat.
 
freediverx said:
Here's a tip Apple: if I'm paying a flat monthly fee to let me access any song I want whenever I want, online or off, then there's not much point in also paying $1.29 per song, now is there?
Click to expand...

Actually there is. Do you rent your home or do you own it? If you rent it and stop paying rent, what happens? If you own it, you get to keep living in it.
 
mrnoglue said:
the 9to5 mac article is really interesting, as it goes in depth about an internal struggle within Apple over the direction of iTunes/Beats. I hope that this power struggle is not affecting the finished product... though to be honest iTunes is a complete mess recently.

Also, the 9to5 mac article states that Apple is considering keeping the iTunes match and iTunes radio services, which seems like a really strange choice to me. Especially since iTunes match performs rather poorly when syncing changes in an established iTunes library (artwork, metadata, etc)
Click to expand...

I really hope this doesn't end up being a complicated mess. Apple doesn't need three different music services.
 
HobeSoundDarryl said:
"What do we need to improve iTunes?"

MGT: "Add another big bloat, er block of functionality in the form of streaming audio"

CODER: "But we already have iTunes Radio"

MGT: "Yes, keep that... but also weave in this paid version of streaming music too. Customers have spoken and they want to pay for iTunes integrated streaming music AND have free streaming music in the SAME application"

CODER: "What customers want that?"

MGT: "Customers!"

CODER (to other coders after MGT departs the room): "I wonder if those are the same 'customers' that wanted Ping?" Another Coder: "Or want to do away with playlists?"

MGT (to other managers after getting back to the executive mtg room): "We'll roll out a free trial and motivate the masses to upgrade iTunes and iOS player because they must for ongoing iDevice & Mac compatibility. Shortly thereafter we can spin how we have more than 100M users on our new streaming music service."

Other MGT: "Genius!"

Soon after the rollout:

Apple fans in full techgasms: "best streaming service ever!", "shut up and take my money"

Others: "but Spotify", "but Pandora"

Apple fans: "Spotify/Pandora is a joke", "...an abomination", "...I never liked either of them", "hundreds of millions of iDevice and Mac users have voted that Beats is best"

Others: "but <either> does this better"

Apple fans: "troll" and "if you like those so much, why are you here?" and again: "hundreds of millions of iDevice and Mac users have voted that Beats is best"

Did I miss anything? ;)
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I'm not going to say you're a troll, but it's troublesome that you have to make up some fake conversation to make whatever point you're trying to make.

Honestly, you're like the reverse of the mythical "Apple fan" you write about- you hate everything Apple does and you want everyone to know it.
 
iphone 7 looks nice. putting the on/off switch on the top is a stroke of genius, not only does it look nice it looks very practical.
 
Tubamajuba said:
I'm not going to say you're a troll, but it's troublesome that you have to make up some fake conversation to make whatever point you're trying to make.
Click to expand...

I was joking.

Tubamajuba said:
Honestly, you're like the reverse of the mythical "Apple fan" you write about- you hate everything Apple does and you want everyone to know it.
Click to expand...

If you read all of my posts, you wouldn't be able to come close to making that claim. I like Apple just fine... own mostly Apple hardware and much of their software too. But, when they seem to be going in the wrong direction on something, I don't pretend to think it will be wonderful. IMO, better to have some counterpoint than 500 posts of "rah rah Apple". This place would get very boring, very quickly if we all played the role of cheerleader no matter what Apple does.
 
Zxxv said:
I didn't. I just looked at the pic in the article. ;)but I have Time Machine. Just didn't need to use it this time. I have in the past or is that the future haha
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LOL, if only I bothered to read the who article I would have noticed the pic.:eek:
 
Spotify is still years ahead of Beats in functionality, availability and usage.

Apple should learn from them. How is it that in 2015 a native music app still doesn't have crossfade abilities?
 
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