Jimmy Iovine on Apple Music: 'We're Trying to Make it a Cultural Point of Reference'

[iCloudStrife]

Irvoine just smacks of a guy without a vision chucking “experiments” and “buzzwords” at a wall until enough crap sticks that no one can see out the window to the Music Store or the Video Store or the Book Store or the Movie Theatre across the road (each of which actually knows what it is and has a solid plan to capture its segment of the market).

 

[Thunderhawks]

I use Siri everyday for music and it works great. Maybe you aren't hold it right? I also use it for Hue lights, setting reminders, alarms, finding out when my team plays, etc.. all work great.

I am a patient person, so I try every now and then to use Siri to see if it has become useful.
Since I am old and like to keep training my brain, all the things you list I do not do.
I just remember and many "conveniences" are lost on me.
Trying to still move my butt as much as I can, considering that exercise.

Don't even listen to much music, except in the car where I have Sirius.

Whenever I ask Siri to do something, say find directions it ALWAYS wants to call somebody
or do something totally weird. Hasn't gotten better for years.

 

[unregbaron]

I started a subscription on Apple Music with every intention to continue but cancelled the auto renewal and weirdly found Spotify better, even with the ads. Siri often got it wrong when I asked my phone to play a particular song and there's something more lively about Spotify.

 

[OSXconvert]

While I don't use most of the curated content--Radio, Connect, Browse--I do feel that Iovine knows what he's doing and most of the pushback on this message board is generational. For older listeners, there isn't much compelling in Irvine's work, but for the younger crowd who are novelty junkies and style conscious social media users, I think the hipness of the Apple Music and Beats brands is very appealing. In NYC, everyday I see dozens of teens and twenty-somethings with their white earbuds and colorful Beats headphones walking the streets in their music zone. They, not us, are the current and future revenue stream for Apple Music and its associated products. The latest musical talent, the hippest DJs, and the coolest accessories are why they use Apple.

 

[Uofmtiger]

I am a patient person, so I try every now and then to use Siri to see if it has become useful.
Since I am old and like to keep training my brain, all the things you list I do not do.
I just remember and many "conveniences" are lost on me.
Trying to still move my butt as much as I can, considering that exercise.

Don't even listen to much music, except in the car where I have Sirius.

Whenever I ask Siri to do something, say find directions it ALWAYS wants to call somebody
or do something totally weird. Hasn't gotten better for years.

Since I don't want to derail the thread into Siri works great for XYZ, but not for ABC, I will just stick with the topic at hand which was music and how Siri works with Apple Music. In my experience it works great. That doesn't mean it works for everyone, but that is one thing that separates it from the competition on iOS and it is the main reason I use Apple Music rather than Spotify, Tidal, etc.

 

[oldwatery]

I don't know.
I think it's a pretty close call on that one.

The Apple Death Squad :-(
[doublepost=1486585578][/doublepost]Mr. Imsovain. Cultural point of reference. WTF does that mean you overinflated git? What have you done with this once great company selling amazing products? Made it a cultural reference point. Bravo! Bugger off and take Tim, Eddy and Dre with you.

 

[cfurlin]

I wish I could tolerate this person's appearance better. (yeah, I'm being judgmental).
At least he dropped the backward cap which just made him look like an ol" man trying to look like a kid. Sorry

Iovine produced my two favorite albums of my young adulthood: Belladonna (Stevie Nicks) and Damn the Torpedoes (Tom Petty)

So, I'll cut him some slack... ;-)

Although I will never forgive him for wanting to fire-bomb Sound City.

 

[ssgbryan]

While I don't use most of the curated content--Radio, Connect, Browse--I do feel that Iovine knows what he's doing and most of the pushback on this message board is generational. For older listeners, there isn't much compelling in Irvine's work, but for the younger crowd who are novelty junkies and style conscious social media users, I think the hipness of the Apple Music and Beats brands is very appealing. In NYC, everyday I see dozens of teens and twenty-somethings with their white earbuds and colorful Beats headphones walking the streets in their music zone. They, not us, are the current and future revenue stream for Apple Music and its associated products. The latest musical talent, the hippest DJs, and the coolest accessories are why they use Apple.

Let me know when they have money.

 

[Sevendaymelee]

I wish I could tolerate this person's appearance better. (yeah, I'm being judgmental).
At least he dropped the backward cap which just made him look like an ol" man trying to look like a kid. Sorry

No, it's legit to question his appearance because it's a window into his personality. Any man his age that tries to wear pants as tight as he's wearing in that photo has a motive. In this case, he's obviously worried about people thinking he's "hip" so as to influence consumer behavior.

 

[navaira]

Any man his age that tries to wear pants as tight as he's wearing in that photo has a motive.

Yes, if he was wearing cargo pants, Apple Music would have 10 million more subscribers and would work much, much better.

 

[Sevendaymelee]

Yes, if he was wearing cargo pants, Apple Music would have 10 million more subscribers and would work much, much better.

I never said that.

 

[diipii]

That photo is hilarious.

 

[avanpelt]

Seems he and Apple are trying too hard. Becoming a cultural point of reference doesn't happen via marketing. It's organic. The goal should be to make something great. Then consumers will take notice and THEN it will be come a cultural point of reference.

Iovine is really the epitome of AppleThink in the Cook era.

You nailed it.

I think Tim Cook and company were hoping that Apple Music would be to this decade what the iTunes Music Store was to the last decade. Unfortunately for them, I think they've missed the mark up to this point.

When iTunes came about, there was no other mainstream service that allowed people to legally download music from an extensive catalog of millions of songs. Apple was able to define an entirely new approach to buying music for hundreds of millions of people. When Apple finally got around to launching Apple Music, there were already several mainstream alternatives for streaming music -- and most of them had been around for years prior to Apple Music's launch.

The people who were into streaming music were already doing it with other services. The people who had no interest in streaming music probably didn't become converts when Apple Music was launched. I gave Apple Music a chance; but the sloppy, inconsistent app UI and other issues (disappearing music) made me cancel it after the free trial. I ultimately went back to Google Play Music because for $10, I'd rather have a streaming music service plus no ads on YouTube from Google as opposed to just getting a streaming music service from Apple.

 

[Regbial]

I hate this guy's designer jeans.

 

[Uofmtiger]

You nailed it.

I think Tim Cook and company were hoping that Apple Music would be to this decade what the iTunes Music Store was to the last decade. Unfortunately for them, I think they've missed the mark up to this point.

When iTunes came about, there was no other mainstream service that allowed people to legally download music from an extensive catalog of millions of songs. Apple was able to define an entirely new approach to buying music for hundreds of millions of people. When Apple finally got around to launching Apple Music, there were already several mainstream alternatives for streaming music -- and most of them had been around for years prior to Apple Music's launch.

The people who were into streaming music were already doing it with other services. The people who had no interest in streaming music probably didn't become converts when Apple Music was launched. I gave Apple Music a chance; but the sloppy, inconsistent app UI and other issues (disappearing music) made me cancel it after the free trial. I ultimately went back to Google Play Music because for $10, I'd rather have a streaming music service plus no ads on YouTube from Google as opposed to just getting a streaming music service from Apple.

Rhapsody has been around the longest and they reportedly have around 3.5 million users. Apple Music has been around for about 1 and half years and it has 20 million users. That pretty much puts an end to any idea that they got in too late.

Yes, Spotify has about twice the amount of (paying) subscribers, but it took them years to build up to that size and the real issue is that they lose money every year (actually the amount they lose grows every year). What other mainstream on demand music service has more subscribers than Apple and actually makes money?

Apple is interested in making a profitable business, so they sat out of the market until it was ready for them. Yahoo Music, Rdio and MOG were in the game before Apple and didn't make it. Maybe they got in too early? In other words, Apple didn't want to lose money for years like their competition in the music business. They wanted to continue to cash in on downloads and roll out a music service when they thought it was profitable. It is hard to say just how profitable Apple Music has been since the numbers are part of "services", but their services revenues have grown since adding the service. Also, Apple Music is growing in subscribers every month, so they are either getting new people to streaming (which is a huge market) or stealing them from the competition. In either event, they have already proven that they didn't get in too late.

 

[McGiord]

He made it: it's a cultural point of reference on how to mess up the Apple experience with Music legacy.
Who know for how long they want to keep them in for public relationship reasons, if they get rid of the then the news will mess up with the "stock market" blah blah

APPLE: bring back Genius Playlist functionality to iOS 10 and whatever you do afterwards keep it working. The main thing done right in the past now under this crappy Music team is seriously broken.

 

[Adam Warlock]

In NYC, everyday I see dozens of teens and twenty-somethings with their white earbuds and colorful Beats headphones walking the streets in their music zone. They, not us, are the current and future revenue stream for Apple Music and its associated products.

The same ones who won't be able to find jobs because they've taken basket-weaving courses in schools and, any case, companies just like Apple will have eradicated what few jobs remain via automated cars, robots, software, etc.

Luckily no one can actually predict the future and deep down I'm hoping things will work themselves out, but with my admittedly limited perception it doesn't appear things are headed the right way for the young generation.