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At least now he is free to sign up to a better music streaming service with a decent UI...

Unlikely. The reason for moving to an "unrelated" industry, probably has something to do with a non-compete clause in his contract. You have to imagine the 3 billion Apple paid had lots of stipulations like this.
 
Apple changed the hardware. They improved the sound quality. I'd guess the guy they hired out of the audio industry a couple years ago played a role. I wish I could remember his name.

I wouldn't be surprised if they break even on the purchase with hardware alone. Of course reading these forums I've learned that selling lots of product and making lots of money is flopping.

I agree. If you believe the estimates the Apple Watch revenue was around $1B in its first quarter. That's more than Surface tablets of the same quarter and more than many company make entirely in a quarter. Now of course Apple has huge expectations, but I can only hope some of my failures equate to $B.

As far as Apple Music goes, it's fine. The UI is a bit complicated but that will be improved over time. I use Google Music now and still have the early adopter prices of $7.99/month so not sure I'll drop that to move, but I don't get the Apple Music hate. Beats 1 is fine for a radio station. I try it off and on all the time and find random stuff I like.

EDIT
And the reason the guy left is probably his contract was up. This is super common and happens all the time in acquisitions. Basically they pay the important people to stay X amount of time and as soon as the date is hit there is a mass exodus.
 
The BBC would not exist if it wasn't for government subsidies and the BBC Trust. When commercial alternatives started to show (BSkyB, ITV, etc.) the BBC and their fellow cronies did every dirty trick in the book keep them from growing.

Yeah because everyone in Britain hates paying for the BBC.

Fundamentally if you run the world's best new music radio station (with the arguable exception of Beats 1 which stole a lot of your top talent) and you're from a small island with 60 million inhabitants you're doing something right.

Despite their best efforts, the real ratings for the BBC has been in decline for the past 20 years. It got so bad, they ended of reviving television shows canceled decades ago (Dr. Who and such) in an attempt to get audience share back for their political messages.

Well I agree, the BBC is a little too pro establishment. That said they also annoy some people on the left and the right for bias, which means they are pretty neutral.
 
I like apple music and Beats 1. For me I find the music they play fresh and it's not usually the stuff I listen to but I just keep on listening. Also like the pay per month streaming price- I admit I am totally locked into the apple Eco system and spent a lot on iTunes so this monthly price is a no brainier for me- the only things I don't like are the confusing interface and it's totally screwed up the audiobook and iBook experience- it takes ages to load audiobooks now- but overall I love apple music
 
It's way too early to tell if the Apple Watch is a success or if it's a flop.
It's a flop. There is no way for it reach mainstream appeal with such a hefty price tag. My guess is sales will plummet after the next iPhone gets introduced. It's no coincidence Apple released the AW in the middle of their iPhone cycle cuz whose going to buy it when the next-gen iPhone is out.
That used to be the general consensus about Beats products, but I know many feel that Beats are a much better product since the Apple purchase. I'm not sure how Apple buying them changed opinions, but it did.

I still don't care for the Beats hardware and I'm not sure Apple even cares that much about it. The purchase was mainly made for the music service.

Beats stepped up their quality when they released the "new" series of products. But that was right BEFORE Apple bought them.
 
Steve Jobs was not a great CEO. He was a great sales person. When he had something to sell (iPod, iPhone) as CEO, it sold well because he sold why people needed it. When he had nothing to sell in his previous stint as CEO, he was regarded as a poor CEO (and subsequently dismissed).

Tim Cook on the other hand is actually a CEO who understands many, if not all, facets of his company and that translates into the stock prices. CEOs of publicly traded companies are judged on one thing, and one thing only: how valuable is your company? And Cook has been brilliant in that respect.
Steve Jobs not only was a great salesman but had great taste too. Both micro and macro. He could see the big picture and focus on an area of growth. He could see the little details and focus on making a product great. Tim Cook lacks both these traits, as well as sales skills.

Sure the stock price is going up but that's only because the iPhone (SJ's product) is soo strong. Once the iPhone sales peak and investors realize Cook can't innovate---well they probably already know that now--stock prices will drop.

An important lesson to learn from Steve Jobs is that products, not stock prices, determine how successful a company is.
 
Speaking of Apple Music, the app on the iPhone/iPod needs some SERIOUS work.
1: the UI is cluttered an an utter mess.
2: the UI tends to hang at times when scrolling to the bottom.
3: the UI sometimes resets itself to the very start when going through playlists so I gotta navigate back to where I was.
4: the UI sometimes for whatever reason goes BLANK and I gotta exit the app and try again.
5: rarely the headphones glitch out and the sound gets all muffled and I gotta RESTART the damn device.
 
Steve Jobs not only was a great salesman but had great taste too. Both micro and macro. He could see the big picture and focus on an area of growth. He could see the little details and focus on making a product great. Tim Cook lacks both these traits, as well as sales skills.

Sure the stock price is going up but that's only because the iPhone (SJ's product) is soo strong. Once the iPhone sales peak and investors realize Cook can't innovate---well they probably already know that now--stock prices will drop.

An important lesson to learn from Steve Jobs is that products, not stock prices, determine how successful a company is.
Yep Steve always had great taste. :p

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Yeah because everyone in Britain hates paying for the BBC.
Fundamentally if you run the world's best new music radio station (with the arguable exception of Beats 1 which stole a lot of your top talent) and you're from a small island with 60 million inhabitants you're doing something right.
The fact that they kept Jimmy Savile running Top of the Pops for so long shows how rotten the BBC elite are to the core. Their washing of hands saying they had no idea his personal live 'til his later years is the biggest dodge of responsibility I've seen in decades.
 
The fact that they kept Jimmy Savile running Top of the Pops for so long shows how rotten the BBC elite are to the core. Their washing of hands saying they had no idea his personal live 'til his later years is the biggest dodge of responsibility I've seen in decades.

Oh please, no one else grassed up Saville, or Max Clifford or Edward Heath etc etc.
 
Apple Music will ultimately succeed or fail based upon the commitment of Apple to make it succeed. It might be the most popular music service in the world and still some will talk of its imminent demise.

Apple clearly sees music as important to their business and the current place they need to succeed in is the streaming/subscription based business. That says to me that Apple is going to succeed, because they are willing and able to spend as much as necessary for as long as necessary to build the system to be number one.

As it stands, they have a good system, but it is still a newborn child. As this child matures into a full-grown adult service we can expect great things and a lot of success.
 
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Real good logic there...

Can't you judge things on their merits?

Don't you know? Everything can be boiled down to a simple yes or no answer. :) All too often some commenters reduce the entire discussion to sucks or rules, domination or abject failure. Everything is a horse race. Winner takes all.

We know that Apple Music isn't going anywhere just because some B-list executive decides to move on, but that isn't going to stop people from saying it is a harbinger of doom. You cannot say Apple lacks commitment to making this succeed if they're writing an Android-client. They don't write a client for another OS, especially Android, if they don't see that client critical to the success of the platform itself, on its own merits.

So rather than make sage pronouncements like "Apple Music sucks," Noble Actual, should try to articulate why they think Apple Music sucks in its current form. Are they unhappy with the interface? Is the music selection not complete enough? Do they find the system unreliable?
 
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Don't really see what's wrong with Beats 1...
I didn't see what was wrong with it either until yesterday, when they must have spent about 30 minutes straight talking about smoking weed. My entire drive home, every time I checked back in on them, they were still talking about it. Now just thinking about Beats 1 makes me feel bored.
 
I didn't see what was wrong with it either until yesterday, when they must have spent about 30 minutes straight talking about smoking weed. My entire drive home, every time I checked back in on them, they were still talking about it. Now just thinking about Beats 1 makes me feel bored.

But radio DJs with personality do that. As we all do in real conversations.
 
Well I guess he is not going down with the beats disaster.

"The beats disaster?"According to reviewers and pundits, Beats 1 is the best and most successful part of Apple Music (and it's free, so accessible to anyone with iTunes). Not totally my cuppa, but I have been listening to both it and (for the first time) to BBC 1 some.

And from what I hear the Beats hardware is selling OK (and the decent top of the line is given pride of place in Apple Stores). So the headphones should pay for the whole purchase within a few years tops.

Ergo, what "disaster" are you referring to?

I do think the ultimate success of Apple Music as a subscription venture on the scale Apple would like to achieve is in doubt.

Between the various features of my free Unradio Rhapsody sub courtesy of T-Mobile (e.g., unlimited skips, a changeable list of 25 favorite songs to play any time), my own collection uploaded to Google Play for free (which just added a slew of "radio stations" itself and just extensively surveyed me on my artist tastes), my free I♥Radio sub, plus inTune for extrensive terrestrial radio (plus Rhapsody and I♥Radio also each have some broadcast stations), free NBA All League Audio pass, I can't begin to exhaust all my quality and interesting and discovery-offering audio content. And then there's Apple's own tunable radio stations, also still free and as good as the other services - which are all different in terms of what they expose for discovery.

NTM I enjoy going on YouTube musical expeditions. And have a Pandora sub from the early days of all this streaming I haven't visited in ages.

So $10/month just for more control? I don't think so.... ....for me and likely billions. I never told these folks to make this all free, but they did. And I'll take it.

Still I imagine Apple's likely to overtake Spotify and become the leader in the space over time.
 
Beats 1 is part of Apple Music.

Apple Music sucks.

A lot of people disagree with you. Massive amounts. Especially when actual numbers are brought in. So, something of substance to explain that position, perhaps? That doesn't really explain a lot about what's wrong with it. The catalogue is miles ahead of competition. The ability to sync 25k songs across all devices now, or 100k soon alone is worth it to many and none of the other major services offer something like that aside from Vox with Loop. And it does it very poorly/clumsily. What don't you like? Interface? Something else?
 
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