Eddy Cue and Jimmy Iovine Talk Apple Music in Series of Interviews

[MacRumors]

Following yesterday's debut of Apple Music, Jimmy Iovine and iTunes Chief Eddy Cue sat down with Billboard to discuss the new service and app, which combine on-demand streaming music with 24/7 radio and a social networking platform where artists can interact with fans.

According to Cue, the $9.99 individual price point for Apple Music wasn't a sticking point for the company as some earlier reports suggested, but the company was invested in negotiating a reasonable family subscription price. Apple Music lets up to 6 family members share an account for $14.99, a price point that Cue says will get entire families on board with the service.

I think the cost of an album for a month of subscription is fair. Could you argue, $7.99 or $8.99? Who cares. I think where subscription is missing the boat is on the family -- you have a spouse, boyfriend, girlfriend kids ... the concept of signing up for these individual subscription plans multiple times is just not going to happen so we spent a lot of time with the labels to convince them that the real opportunity here is to get the whole family. With that, all boats rise.

On the subject of streaming music cannibalizing iTunes downloads, Cue says he expects some of the customer base to subscribe instead of buying music, but he believes downloads will "go on for a long, long time." "There are lots of people who are very happy downloading," he said. "And I think they'll continue to."

Explaining the reasoning behind a 24-hour human-curated radio station, Iovine explained that over the past 15 years, radio's become manufactured, something he'd like to change. "It's either genre-based or beat-driven or research-driven," he said. "So I said, let's build something that's got none of that that just plays music because it's great."

Cue and Iovine also did interviews with The Wall Street Journal and The Guardian, sharing much of the same information, but in the latter interview, the duo also spoke on Apple Connect, the social networking component of Apple Music. The point of Apple Connect and Apple Music in general, said Cue, was to give artists and labels control over content sharing.

"Our viewpoint was very simple: let the artist and label control it. They can put it up on Connect for free if they want to, or they can put it up behind the [subscription] paywall, or they can make it available on the iTunes Store for sale. They're in control of their music and how they want to distribute it," says Cue.

Iovine added commentary suggesting a music service needs to be "a win for everybody." "We wanted to give artists a place where there's a rhyme and a reason," he said. "Where there's a payoff! And not just a financial payoff, but an emotional payoff. A creative payoff."

Apple Music, with its on-demand streaming service, Beats 1 radio station, and Apple Connect platform, will officially launch on June 30, as part of the iOS 8.4 update. As previously mentioned, it will be priced at $9.99 for individuals and $14.99 for families. Existing Beats subscribers will be able to transition their subscriptions to Apple Music.

Article Link: Eddy Cue and Jimmy Iovine Talk Apple Music in Series of Interviews

 

[kmj2318]

Oh Jimmy

 

[WJKramer]

Why doesn't someone ask about the streaming quality?

 

[gugy]

I hope Apple Music is successful but I was very underwhelmed by the announcement yesterday and don't see it as a huge deal at all. Again, I hope I am wrong.

 

[Zimmy68]

Could you argue, $7.99 or $8.99? Who cares.

Ahh, that's the Fast Eddy I know and love.

Let them eat cake.

$9 ebooks? Screw that, make them $15, who cares?

 

[BruiserB]

Still trying to figure out what $9.99 buys me. What is free without a subscription and what is added once I subscribe? What happens to the current iTunes Radio....does it go away? Sounds like Apple Radio includes Match....what if I already subscribe to Match? Will Match continue to be offered as a standalone service? Can subscribed music be downloaded or only streamed? Can it be synced to old or non wireless iPods (shuffles, nanos, classics)?

 

[cmChimera]

I love the family plan....it's too bad it requires iCloud Family Sharing, which in turn requires one person to pay for ALL Apple digital purchases for all six people.

 

[FishyBen]

Why doesn't someone ask about the streaming quality?

it's going to be 256Kbs, I'll stick with my Deezer Elite @ 1141Kbs

 

[HenryDJP]

I hope Apple Music is successful but I was very underwhelmed by the announcement yesterday and don't see it as a huge deal at all. Again, I hope I am wrong.

The problem is their presentation was kind of a hot mess. Organization was all over the place and it seemed rushed at the end. However from the pricing alone and the fact Music has one major artist that Spotify lost is one big reason it's going to be successful.

 

[WJKramer]

it's going to be 256Kbs, I'll stick with my Deezer Elite @ 1141Kbs

Can you link to this in writing?

 

[wombat94]

I think that Eddy is exactly right about families being a big opportunity.

I've been fine with the idea of $10/month for unlimited listening. I've been wanting this to exist for at least the last 10 years. I did originally have a subscription to Rhapsody way back when. I tried Spotify.

The sticking point for me was to provide access to the whole family. When Spotify started offering the discount for additional subscriptions to make it $14.99 for my wife and me, I almost jumped back in but that would have left my two kids out of the mix.

$14.99 for all four of us is what I've been waiting for. I'll jump on the free trial on day one and depending on how it goes, I expect that I'll sign up as a paying customer as soon as the trial is over.

 

[gadgetguy03]

• Will there be an explicit filter for the youngins in regards to your family sharing plan?
• How many songs will be available? Will it be everything in the iTunes Store?
• What about all of the music I currently have? Looks to me that this replaces the whole music app.

 

[KALLT]

Can you link to this in writing?

If the quality would be better than their previous offers, they would have probably mentioned that. It’s kind of a big deal for some people, even though most people probably don’t care about it.

 

[FishyBen]

Can you link to this in writing?

Don't know how reliable the source is though.
http://thenextweb.com/apple/2015/06...-256kbps-below-the-industry-standard-320kbps/

 

[Zimmy68]

I love the family plan....it's too bad it requires iCloud Family Sharing, which in turn requires one person to pay for ALL Apple digital purchases for all six people.

Uggh, I didn't know that.

I hate how iCloud Family Sharing works.

Which brings up a question from me.
How does Apple Music work if all three in my family log onto the same Apple ID?
I'm assuming it will work.

 

[Zimmy68]

Don't know how reliable the source is though.
http://thenextweb.com/apple/2015/06...-256kbps-below-the-industry-standard-320kbps/

Another indicator is that all of the music on their servers are 256k iTunes Plus.
Shocked that anyone would think they would switch to higher.

 

[JasonBricco]

I find this to be an amazing deal. The main problem I have with services such as Spotify and the old Beats are that many of the artists I like or albums from these artists aren't available. Or, they are available and then pulled after due to licensing problems or the like.

I love my music and I don't want the music I love being pulled off the service. I am not sure how this new service will work, exactly. However, I get the impression that I'll be able to mix and match purchased music that I downloaded and music I am streaming into the same library. (If this is not true, someone let me know because that's going to change how I feel).

If so, that's great. I can stream what is available to be streamed, and download whatever isn't on there, and have them all in the same library.

The other problem I had is that I wish to share an account with another person and this wasn't viable with streaming services. But it is now with the family plan.

 

[WJKramer]

Don't know how reliable the source is though.
http://thenextweb.com/apple/2015/06...-256kbps-below-the-industry-standard-320kbps/

Thanks. TheNext Web is pretty reliable. I believe them, however, 256 AAC sounds identical to 320 MP3 so I don't believe this will be a problem. I will continue to build my personal library by buying CDs for 5$ or less on amazon and ripping in ALAC then tossing the Disc.

 

[Nozuka]

every service has the same price... this feels like illegal price fixing.

the music industry is still a mafia

 

[walnuts]

So, the Apple Music service seems to replace the old Music app on iOS. What does the iOS app look like for a non-subscriber? It would be a real bummer if you didn't want to subscribe and your default music player had more than half of it grayed out implying to you all the time that you are missing out by not subscribing...

 

[orioncrystalice]

"Iovine explained that over the past 15 years, radio's become manufactured, something he'd like to change."

Correct, and I appreciate the sentiment, but OH the irony....................

 

[Alumeenium]

$120 for what?

No word on:

Streaming Quality
iTunes Match compatibility
Skipping Songs
Offline listening
Personal Playlists
Select What I Want When I Want

Beats Radio is just mystifying?!
Every Internet Radio station is Global and highly curated!!!
I regularly listen to BBC Radio 1 for Pete Tong Essential Mix
along with Intergalatic FM from Netherlands
KFAT from California (it's off the air, just replays old broadcast from the 70s/80s)
The above are all FREE, besides the (data) I pay for while listening in my car.

Spotify still wins at the moment.

 

[johngordon]

every service has the same price... this feels like illegal price fixing.

the music industry is still a mafia

In order for it to be illegal, there would need to be collusion.

Otherwise, its probably just the going rate.

I'm sure there must be plenty of other things that are roughly the same price wherever you buy them - from a pint of milk, to lawnmowers. Are they also examples of illegal price fixing?

 

[TsMkLg068426]

It's okay I love iTunes Match and purchasing my music I already get discount at Amazon Prime for CDs and MP3s so I am all good.

 

[kilcher]

Glad to see those hard hitting journalists pressed them on the difference between the "Apple Music" library and the "iTunes" library, if there is any. That seems to be a sticking point for a lot of people. Are we getting it all or not?

I know that's what's going to determine whether or not I sign up. I own most of what I want, if it's not everything I'll just continue to buy the songs I want (maybe one or two a month). If it does include everything then I'll probably subscribe and more actively seek out new music.

By the way, "for the cost of a CD" doesn't mean much anymore. Yeah, CD's cost $10-15 new but you can just as easily buy 5 CD's for that price on eBay. To me that speaks volumes on the value of their "product."