Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Upcoming Revamped Apple Music Streaming Service Won't Offer Free Ad-Supported Tier

MacRumors

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
68,065
38,788



itunesicon.jpg
As rumors gear up surrounding the revamped Apple iTunes/Beats music service, a new report claims that the company will opt out of offering a free advertising-supported base tier for its upcoming streaming service (via Re/code).

The company will allow customers an initial trial period of some kind, but following that users will have to pay to continue listening to music, the cost of which most recent rumors agree will be around $7.99.

With the slow decline of digital downloads and the steady rise of streaming services, sources close to Apple media head Eddy Cue and Beats Music founder Jimmy Iovine state that the two agree the music industry, and streaming specifically, "needs to get behind a paywall."
Apple executives have been telling the music industry it can help them roll back the tide of free digital music by relaunching its own subscription streaming service this year. Unlike Spotify and YouTube, Apple's service won't offer a free "tier" of music interspersed with ads -- after an initial trial period, you'll need to pay to play.

Now Apple is negotiating with the music labels for licenses for a revamped version of Beats. Sources say Apple would like to make a splash by getting high-profile artists to distribute their music with Apple before it makes its way to other services.
Click to expand...
If made official by Apple, the move would be a direct contrast to a service like Spotify, which allows its 60 million worldwide users (15 million of which are paid subscribers) to listen to anything they want for free, with ads interspersed within the music.

Jonathan Prince, head of communications and public policy for Spotify, said that the company's research found that 12 percent of iTunes users have migrated to Spotify, with 40 percent of that group paying for the premium Spotify service. Prince uses this statistic to claim that, despite the service's immense popularity, they aren't single-highhandedly the culprit behind the declining digital download sales of recent years.

Despite these new reports, similar sources say that the company plans to keep the iTunes Radio service intact, claiming web-based radio won't directly impede music sales. The most recent news regarding the long-rumored Apple music service suggests an official unveiling by the company at WWDC this year, with Apple tweaking aspects of the current state of iTunes all the way up to the launch of the revamped service.

Article Link: Upcoming Revamped Apple Music Streaming Service Won't Offer Free Ad-Supported Tier
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2015/03/06/apple-streaming-service-free/
no one NO ONE but the marketing department benefits from "exclusive to xy" BS. no ones gonna pay for 3 different services just to listen to an particular artist. they tried the same crap with different kind of media years ago. it only pushes people to pirating again. just my 2 cent.
 
Dammit! I saw "Upcoming Revamped Apple Music Streaming Service..." in my notification centre and thought this would be news they were going to announce it on Monday!

It was a long shot, I know.
 
If Apple can get the notable omissions that sporify lacks for cheaper I'd jump ship.
 
ButteryScrollin said:
wonder if iTunes Radio will be killed off when this is launched.
Click to expand...

From above:
"Despite these new reports, similar sources say that the company plans to keep the iTunes Radio service intact, claiming web-based radio won't directly impede music sales."
 
As long as that source is correct and iTunes radio will remain, cool (even though the UK still doesn't have it yet).
I also hope the app doesn't come bundled. I don't like that Apple keep doing that now. Especially with podcasts app hijacking RSS links.
 
I don't have an issue paying for a music subscription. My main issue with them is that the interfaces are not robust enough. If Apple brings in things like smart lists and more things to sort by (release year, genre, popularity etc.) I'll be happy to switch from google play music. The extra bonus would be to have an option to listen to hi fi lossless music. Of course I'd also need to option to download to mobile device since I'm living off a gig of data a month.

Cherry on top would be to have more content then Google Play Music and Spotify. :D

Bring it Apple!! I need to be wowed by you again. It's been awhile.
 
That's fine with me. I switched off the iPhone after the "innovation" died. Itunes radio was okay, and a great deal at $25 a year, but like all apple products extremely limited to only their platform which does me no good anymore. No point in paying for a service I can no longer use.
 
JGIGS said:
I don't have an issue paying for a music subscription. My main issue with them is that the interfaces are not robust enough. If Apple brings in things like smart lists and more things to sort by (release year, genre, popularity etc.) I'll be happy to switch from google play music. The extra bonus would be to have an option to listen to hi fi lossless music. Of course I'd also need to option to download to mobile device since I'm living off a gig of data a month.

Cherry on top would be to have more content then Google Play Music and Spotify. :D

Bring it Apple!! I need to be wowed by you again. It's been awhile.
Click to expand...

My car doesn't seem to like non apple players like Spotify. I try to use Siri to even start it and she fails. This service will be welcome provided it integrates better than these third party apps.
 
bushido said:
no one NO ONE but the marketing department benefits from "exclusive to xy" BS. no ones gonna pay for 3 different services just to listen to an particular artist. they tried the same crap with different kind of media years ago. it only pushes people to pirating again. just my 2 cent.
Click to expand...

I agree. Any barrier between people and their music will push people to piracy. These companies have to think of piracy as a business competitor - how can we make it easier for people than pirating? iTunes and Spotify have made huge strides in this, but it seems to be exclusivity just makes the catalogs unpredictable and therefore inserts friction into the process for the user.
 
34 Volt said:
Assuming iTunes Radio will be the ad-supported/free option?
Click to expand...

And even if that ends up being the case....I'm wondering just what can Apple / Beats can do to differentiate themselves from the zillion options available already.
 
Last edited:
So right now I pay for iTunes Match, and one of the perks I get is ad free iTunes Radio - it's the reason I use iTunes Radio over Pandora most of the time. I'm going to be disappointed if Apple pulls this perk from Match.
 
On regular FM radio I have to endure commercials and obviously cannot skip songs, but I get what I pay for. For $7.99 they should ditch the ads AND offer UNLIMITED skips.
 
iTunes Radio needs a shuffle option. I loved that feature while I was subscribing to Pandora. Give me that and I would not even feel the need for Beats.
 
dontwalkhand said:
My car doesn't seem to like non apple players like Spotify. I try to use Siri to even start it and she fails. This service will be welcome provided it integrates better than these third party apps.
Click to expand...

Ahem, if SIRI fails then why is it not SIRI's fault? The blame and the root of the problem should be laid at SIRI's feet; she has cottonballs in here ears sometimes.
 
So iTunes Match customer will or might lose iTunes Radio and not gain anything from Beats because Beats will or still be a separate service? WTF? This is dumb for many reasons Beats is a terrible service because I tried it for 14 days free they do not have every music to stream like Spotify, Beats is like Amazon Prime music the music Beats has is the music Amazon Prime Music is missing and the music Amazon Prime Music should be streaming on Beats both terrible service.


Beats also has a terrible UI on the iPhone and through website. Sorry but Beats is only good for those enjoy listening to commercial or Pop music their is no need for this junk I might as well stick to purchasing music from iTunes.

I have a better idea for Tim Cook kick Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre off the team like Steve Jobs would do and take over the whole thing like it should be done or make iTunes a streaming music service instead of trying to profit from a crappy service while you have your own service. Here is another idea for Tim Cook turn iTunes not only a Music Streaming service also into a Movie/TV Show streaming service to become king of streaming.
 
Last edited:
bushido said:
no one NO ONE but the marketing department benefits from "exclusive to xy" BS. no ones gonna pay for 3 different services just to listen to an particular artist. they tried the same crap with different kind of media years ago. it only pushes people to pirating again. just my 2 cent.
Click to expand...


Agreed and this has become the same thing for Movies and TV Shows once again since Netflix and Amazon Prime lacks in content which constantly get removed. The industry is still living under a cave and not understanding what customers are asking for but we have artist like Taylor Swift thinking she is special that people who enjoy auto tune music buy into her crap.

Sometimes I wish Napster was back just to show the major Music labels or Cable companies how they are failing in what people are asking for.
 
chasemac said:
Give us high quality lossless music. Fix that and I would be very interested.
Click to expand...


Yes! This would be really great instead of worry about crappy Beat service. Apple should sell back Beats and spend money on their own music service.
 
34 Volt said:
Assuming iTunes Radio will be the ad-supported/free option?
Click to expand...

Sounds like iTunes radio will remain intact. It will remain 'radio' where you do not get to select individual tracks you want to listen to on demand. Free ad supported option will remain.

Whatever Apple/Beats becomes will be the paid service that allows you to stream individually selected songs and albums and create playlists for on demand listening.

At least thats what I am understanding from the quotes in the article.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back