Sony Music CEO Confirms 'Apple Music' Unveiling at WWDC

[Paradoxally]

Doesn't the D in WWDC stand for Developer or am I missing something this year?

Okay, what most people miss is WWDC is not one event, one day. It's not just the keynote address. It has platforms state of the union and tons of developer classes throughout the 5 days.

Obviously, the keynote is where everything happens and obviously non-tech people will only care about that since they barely know what Swift is (they probably think it's something to do with Taylor Swift).

 

[Ihatefall]

This is GREAT NEWS.
I don't really care about an Apple branded steaming service. What I do care about is iOS 8.4 finally coming out because that means the pangu JB will soon follow and then I can finally use my Apple Watch!!!

Woot woot for that!

 

[HenryDJP]

If you have T-Mobile streaming music doesn't count against your data. Streaming music eats up data way more than you are describing.

Well you tell me why my data isn't eaten up then. I never stream at home on my iPhone. Unless you're suggesting that Verizon doesn't count music streaming against my data. I'm not making stuff up.

 

[HenryDJP]

It does seem very low, 0.06GB is only 30 minutes of music if it's encoded at 256kbps or an hour at 128kbps.

Yes and it's not just this billing cycle. Every month I use no more than 0.5GB of my 2GB data plan. Like I said I never use t for video, but I use my phone for business so while visiting clients I have to use Safari to look up business sites through LTE and play music through Spotify in 3G in the car. I would say based on some of the responses many people here play hours of music through streaming each day. 4-5 songs that I play per day averages to about 20 minutes of music. That might be why my data is low.

 

[Paradoxally]

This is GREAT NEWS.
I don't really care about an Apple branded steaming service. What I do care about is iOS 8.4 finally coming out because that means the pangu JB will soon follow and then I can finally use my Apple Watch!!!

Woot woot for that!

Highly doubt that...waiting for a jailbreak nowadays is like watching paint dry. There have been rumors but for 8.3, not 8.4.

 

[anomie]

2015 Keynote:

- 30 minutes of "Look at our sales, WOW! Everyone give each other a hug, did we mention we love our customers?"
- iOS 9: Stability improvements!
- OS X: Stability improvements!
- Apple Music: "OMG look it's U-2!!!"
- Fade to black...

There. I just saved you two hours of time and months of Mandarin or sign language classes. You can thank me later.

You are writing this as if it was a bad thing. I really hope they do not "invent" anything new just to feed some nerds´mouths but instead really work on stability improvements to make Apple OSs feel as stable as in the past.

 

[uid15]

This is GREAT NEWS.
I don't really care about an Apple branded *steaming service. What I do care about is iOS 8.4 finally coming out because that means the pangu JB will soon follow and then I can finally use my Apple Watch!!!

Woot woot for that!

*LOL

 

[mwanderer]

This is shaping up to be an unusual WWDC.

Cook "hints" the keynote will be an opportunity for Apple to demonstrate diversity, Sony leaking Apple's intention to announce a music streaming service, etc.

Remember when this event was about software development?

 

[iZac]

It's not that cunning, they drop the i and replace it with Apple . AppleZac can be reborn !!!

Haha yes, and a glorious Phoenix I shall be!

 

[oneMadRssn]

Um, yes. Like almost everyone? Streaming is way more prevalent than downloads in this day and age.

Is it though? Spotify has 15 million paying subscribers, and it's supposedly the king-crab of streaming services to beat. Getting 15 million people to pay for a subscription is certainly impressive, no doubt, but it's hardly enough to say its prevalent. Pretty sure Amazon has more people subscribing to weekly baby diaper deliveries.

Spotify is growing at very fast rate, and iTunes music sales are falling slowly. This is an important indicator. However, small companies will have fast growth rates and large established businesses will go up and down with trends. I believe that long term, music purchase is still a better business for everyone involved (consumers, musicians, and marketers).

 

[pcote]

How long have you truly been an Apple customer, or are you one at all? There have been multiple pre-reveals of MacWorld and WWDC under Jobs' time at Apple. I have no idea why some people think Apple was any different in terms of leaks getting out when Jobs was on board. And you just don't break a relationship with a major corporation such as Sony just because they leaked out information one day before the show. Do you realize how many major case manufacturers revealed the iPhone and iPod products weeks before the keynote? Do you truly think Jobs cut their relationship with Apple because of it? Come on.

I'm with Apple since before Job's return. I got my first Mac 21 years ago. I just think it's always fun to remember old times, like when ATi revealed their partnership with Apple in 2000 before the keynote. Steve was so mad he had the ATI cards removed from all Macs before the show and they never ever mentioned the partnership with ATi.

 

[pcote]

And that's a good thing? Canceling the partnership over some petty BS? Everyone knew it was coming anyways.

Second, you have no idea what Steve would have done. Everyone acts like they were friends with Steve.

Laughing about old times never gets old. I was just remembering that time when ATi revealed in advance in 2000. Steve got so mad he had all ATi cards removed from all Macs before the show and they never mentioned ATi in the keynote. Know your history, friend, and don't be ashamed of it.

 

[pcote]

So.... you rather that people get fired over leaking freaking small things like this (that everyone will know the next day anyway)? People actually have to support their families and need jobs, you know. I'm just glad that I don't work for you and all those who clicked like to this comment. I like it that Apple is becoming more human under Cook.

I'm an Apple fan, but geeeesh! Talk about freaking obsessive fanboys.

I was just remembering old times, that's all. Remember that event in 2000 when ATi revealed in advance of the keynote?

 

[pcote]

Do you really think apple would just cut ties with Sony? No Sony music in iTunes. No Sony movies? They would have been livid at such a leak, as I am sure they currently are, but ton imagine Steve jobs dumping Sony as a partner is a little... Too much?

Like I said to many others who didn't get the point: I was just remembering old times, like when ATi revealed their partnership with Apple in advance of the keynote. Steve was so mad the partnership ended instantaneously.

 

[ToroidalZeus]

I believe that long term, music purchase is still a better business for everyone involved (consumers, musicians, and marketers).

How?

Consumers:

Buy Music--The music is located in the internet and downloaded to your phone.
Stream Music--The music is located in the internet and downloaded to your phone.

There is absolutely no difference between how you get and play the songs.
The difference between buying and streaming is that when you buy a song, you have to pay for each individual license separately; while with streaming you pay for access to the entire music library at once. So for consumers streaming is far superior to buying.

Musicians:

They make their money off tours and concerts while the marketers and publishers make it off sales.

Marketers:

Traditionally these people have been the ones opposed to streaming. For consumers that purchase a lot of music, streaming is typically cheaper so the marketers/publishers lose money. However sales are going down and streaming is going up so they got no choice but to get on board.

In short streaming is good for consumers, neutral for musicians and bad for publishers. Overall I'm happy with the new system as a consumer.

 

[pcote]

Except for when that time when info on the iPad was leaked the day before the reveal and said publisher has a relationship with Apple.

http://www.inc.com/news/articles/2010/01/mcgraw-reveals-details-about-tablet.html

Insert foot to mouth.

Nope. Their partnership ended promptly as well:
http://venturebeat.com/2010/01/27/mcgraw-ipad/

 

[OllyW]

Laughing about old times never gets old. I was just remembering that time when ATi revealed in advance in 2000. Steve got so mad he had all ATi cards removed from all Macs before the show and they never mentioned ATi in the keynote. Know your history, friend, and don't be ashamed of it.

That makes him sound like a bit of a nutter.

 

[phillipduran]

Under Steve Jobs, a reveal in advance of the keynote would have meant a broken partnership with Sony. The employee who revealed on Instagram would have been fired instantly as well.

"The times they are a changin'."

In Steve Jobs day, someone would "accidentally" fall out of a window for a breach like this. Apples gone soft.

 

[ToroidalZeus]

That makes him sound like a bit of a nutter.

maybe that's what it takes to run a successful innovative tech company.

 

[TallManNY]

It's not hard to find ad-free radio these days. The Internet has endless specialised radio channels for free. And in the UK, all the main radio channels have no ads. Never have.

No doubt, some will like the appeal of streaming. But the average person buys one or two albums a year. Trying to persuade that person to raise his spending on music from $7.50 a year to $120 a year is a tall order, and is why it is unlikely that paid streaming will ever garner more than a niche audience, unless the price comes down to $1 or $2 per month.

Well subscription free and ad free means subsidized. In UK it is subsidized by taxes that are slated for the BBC, right?

Also, I don't think the music industry has much interest in the person that buys one or two albums a year. Nor do they have much interest in the person who will only stream for free, if that person also insists that this be an ad free experience. There has to be actual payments either from customers or from advertisers.

 

[HenryDJP]

I'm with Apple since before Job's return. I got my first Mac 21 years ago. I just think it's always fun to remember old times, like when ATi revealed their partnership with Apple in 2000 before the keynote. Steve was so mad he had the ATI cards removed from all Macs before the show and they never ever mentioned the partnership with ATi.

I've been around as long as you have. Wow I don't remember him doing that, but I'm not too surprised since he was much more of a hot head back then. On this current situation I don't think it will be much of an issue since all the Sony CEO did was mention the name "Apple Music" and not really reveal any pertinent details. Besides, Sony Music is too large for Apple to get into a hissy fit. They need Sony Music at this point.

 

[Paradoxally]

This is shaping up to be an unusual WWDC.

Cook "hints" the keynote will be an opportunity for Apple to demonstrate diversity, Sony leaking Apple's intention to announce a music streaming service, etc.

Remember when this event was about software development?

Again, take a look at the WWDC schedule. The keynote just scratches the surface of what WWDC is.

 

[NY Guitarist]

Musicians:
They make their money off tours and concerts while the marketers and publishers make it off sales.

My understanding is that only the corporate backed mega-artists make any significant money from touring these days.

 

[dontwalkhand]

Spotify is now over $12 or something a month. Apple's is rumored to be $9-$10? I'll do it and I'm sure it'll be better integrated too.

 

[senseless]

It would be nice if Apple also inked deals with cell carriers in countries where Apple Music is launching that would allow the use of the service to not count against data usage. That would allow for a sweeping change in the way people consume music.

Why can't all the popular songs be stored locally on your device and then enabled by the streaming service? That way they could cut data usage way down.