Lol there is so much competition. You must be joking.
also, Spotify is pretty decent, good selection of music, pretty good app.
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iOS 8.4 Launching at 8 AM Pacific Tuesday, Beats 1 Goes Live at 9 AM [Updated]
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also, Spotify is pretty decent, good selection of music, pretty good app.
No, the sad part is you think Spotify will be able to retain their users after Apple Music launches...(I'm talking about the paid users, not the free ones, as those are cheap and won't pay anyway)
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I like Spotify - but nobody with an iOS device will stick with them. Apple Music just offers better OS integration. And for Android, there's Google Play Music which is already pretty cool. Leaving the Windows Phone and Blackberry guys for Spotify: good luck :-/ What Spotify has going for them is the integration into services like WD Player, Sonos etc. - but Google also does Sonos, and it's a niche market. I'm sorry to see Spotify go down the drain - they were the pioneers and their service is really good.
Still no news as to which countries will be included in the launch? Latest rumours say it's US-only for now and other countries will be added later this year. iTunes US is the only site with a specific launch date. For all others it's "coming soon" - that's what it said for the Apple Watch for Switzerland and it took almost 3 months for it to arrive :-/
And actually, for Android AM will be coming in the fall, so I assume Apple will get some thousands more users if the service is as good as it will be on iOS.
If AM actually supported Sonos it would convert a few more people (I assume they'll have that down the line, maybe in iOS 9.1 or something, announced at the iPad keynote - who knows?).
As for iOS/OS X, it's pretty much as you mentioned. I'll be switching all my devices to AM on Tuesday. I'm sick of Spotify making it hard to listen to the artists that aren't in their library (Taylor Swift, AC/DC, etc...), and I'm sure as hell not going to make a playlist and save all my local tracks offline just to be able to listen to them on my iPhone. I want to stream them as if they were actually part of the Spotify service. Apple will allow this and it's huge.
I think it is safe to say that Apple will F this up (yes, with a capital 'F'). And I am not saying this as a "Everything was better with Steve Jobs" fanatic (I still remember Apple's failures under Jobs unlike the nostalgics here), but the recent major updates have not been very smooth, and then there were snafus like the chinese keynote. I think this is one of the most anticipated updates for iOS ever, so I would be surprised if Apple gets this done flawlessly.
First, the servers will be so overloaded that most people will not finish their downloads before Wednesday anyway. Then the support forums will be flooded by posts about people without Wifi connectivity and others who only have a chinese keyboard. Oh, and nobody will be able to connect to Apple Music, because the servers will also crash under the heavy load. Those who are able to log in will get frequent interruptions in their streams or will get North Korean folk music mixed with the latest Bollywood soundtracks when they expected Heavy Metal and 50's Rock'n'Roll. We will then get an iOS 8.4.1 on Friday that brings back Wifi and non-chinese keyboards. The Apple Music load problems will slowly improve towards the end of July, and Heavy Metal fans will at least start getting some Billy Joel in-between the Korean and Indian superhits. By the time the iPhone 6S keynote comes around, we will have a somewhat usable service and a somewhat stable iOS 8.4.x - just in time for Tim Cook to announce how great Apple Music adoption rates were.
So yes, it's gonna suck. But I'll be sitting at home waiting for the 8.4 download at exactly 7:59:59am Pacific Time on Tuesday.
First, the servers will be so overloaded that most people will not finish their downloads before Wednesday anyway. Then the support forums will be flooded by posts about people without Wifi connectivity and others who only have a chinese keyboard. Oh, and nobody will be able to connect to Apple Music, because the servers will also crash under the heavy load. Those who are able to log in will get frequent interruptions in their streams or will get North Korean folk music mixed with the latest Bollywood soundtracks when they expected Heavy Metal and 50's Rock'n'Roll. We will then get an iOS 8.4.1 on Friday that brings back Wifi and non-chinese keyboards. The Apple Music load problems will slowly improve towards the end of July, and Heavy Metal fans will at least start getting some Billy Joel in-between the Korean and Indian superhits. By the time the iPhone 6S keynote comes around, we will have a somewhat usable service and a somewhat stable iOS 8.4.x - just in time for Tim Cook to announce how great Apple Music adoption rates were.
So yes, it's gonna suck. But I'll be sitting at home waiting for the 8.4 download at exactly 7:59:59am Pacific Time on Tuesday.
Well, I surely give it a try. First, I actually never had a big issue with early updates since I started with OS X 10.1 Puma back these days, but sure iOS is a bit different here. But secondly more out of curiosity I will do the update.
But maybe we don't need to update anyway if Apple follows the well known iTunes Radio path...
Nope, Apple Music is the whole package.
These are the countries getting AM on June 30. Note that this link is outdated and some countries that were in doubt are now showing up as 'coming soon' (example: Portugal didn't have a music banner on June 10th, now it does).
I don't think so. The only official site that states June 30th is apple.com/music. As far as I can tell every other landing page says something along the lines of "coming soon..." - like apple.com/de/music
I have Sonos and use Spotify with it (obviously) but as new features have been added to Spotify they haven't been added to Spotify section of Sonos app which is disappointing. And Sonos have no plans to support Spotify Connect which is also disappointing.
Thing is I get a discount with Spotify and generally like it, so Apple Music will have to be pretty decent for me to pay the extra. I also share it with family and it works well, even with the limitations.
Edit: Just searched and read that Apple Music will come to Sonos at some point. So that's great news.
They stated that 100 countries will get it on June 30. Might have been marketing BS, but usually, Apple doesn't spit out a number like that without some actual background. There are 199 countries in the world, AFAIK, so I think it's a bit of a safe bet that Switzerland will be included, because it's not so difficult to come up with 99 non-Switzerland countries that are very unlikely to get Apple Music immediately. There's Tonga, Nauru, Palau, Vanuatu (I am not making these up), Saint Kitts and Nevis, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Niue, Anguilla, Dugupakulakatak, etc. Ok, I did make up Dugupakulakatak, but I think you got the point.
TL;DR: Unless Apple lied about the 100 countries, every First World country should be included in the launch.
No they didn't, Eddy Cue said Apple Music. Apple can't launch Beats 1 separately, it's all part of the music app.
Pricing & Availability
Starting on June 30, music fans around the world are invited to a 3-month free membership...
Starting on June 30, music fans around the world are invited to a 3-month free membership...
You think they will launch in 100 countries but not in Germany?
Heise.de claimed that they heard from Apple that it will launch in Germany on June 30. They are usually reliable about this kind of stuff.
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Yeah, but I'm almost certain by Apple Music they don't necessarily refer to the "you will be able to subscribe"-part of Apple Music. I really hope you are right, though.
I just think it would make no sense to say 'launching in 100 countries on June 30th' and then only launch in the US. Apple have been working really hard with labels to ensure this launch. It's definitely not gonna be US-only like iTunes Radio was.
Does anybody at Apple really follow Twitter? Do a search right now and you'll see tons of people confused about Apple Music, especially when it comes to iTunes Match. Apple spent over 40 minutes of the WWDC keynote on music yet people are still confused about the service. How ridiculous is that?
I do agree it's a bit confusing for those who didn't read Apple's FAQ on AM regarding how Match works. I assume many don't even know what Match is, which isn't a surprise since it's only available in a few countries.
They said explicitly, Apple Music. That's the entire product. Subscribe and the Beats1 radio. Not 'part of Apple Music'.