Billboard's June 5 story is also saying end of June launch for music service, see below. If its mainstream press (WSJ, NYT, FT, Billboard, Bloomberg etc), I tend to believe it more than the blogs, so I'm thinking end of June is more likely. But it could be that 8.4 comes out Monday and there is an 8.4.1 that turns on the music service (or a beta on Mon and 8.4 drops with the music service towards month's end). They have been saying that they are still negotiating with (some?) labels (see front page of MacRumors). On the other hand, they want this to go hand-in-hand with the watch going into stores, I am guessing, as there will be easy control from the watch face.
Interestingly, Billboard source is saying the data shows people either pay for music after 90 days trial or they stay free forever. Also apparently Apple will become a quasi-label itself, signing exclusive artists. Sort of like Amazon and Netflix creating their own content to drive subscriptions, now Apple is doing so also but with music.
"Apple will announce its own long-awaited streaming initiative at an event expected to feature
Drake and
Pharrell Williams, who, sources tell Billboard, will provide the service -- which will launch at the end of June -- with exclusive content."...
“We’ve looked at the data, and what has become clear is that the free funnel isn’t working,” another major-label executive tells Billboard. While the percentage of users that Spotify converts to paid subscribers is among the highest for popular consumer Internet companies, at about 25 percent, 69 percent of those who subscribe after using the free tier do so within 90 days, according to a major-label executive who has seen Spotify data...
Apple’s in the thick of negotiating its own label contracts for its planned streaming service. A high-level label exec says that in 2015 the company will invest more money in the music business than in any previous year. Iovine -- who, as a producer and former head of Interscope, is on close terms with some of the biggest acts in the business -- has been busily lobbying major artists for exclusive albums. “Jimmy is as good as it gets, and he is going to use every possible advantage that comes from the Apple connection, including the company’s vast store of credit card numbers, artist relationships, new design features, the works,” says longtime
Bruce Springsteen manager Jon Landau, who has known Iovine since he engineered Springsteen’s 1975 album
Born to Run...
http://www.billboard.com/articles/b...eature-tidal-apple-record-labels-taylor-swift
