“In its bid to become a power in music streaming, Apple is devoting its vast resources to create what it hopes will be a first truly global radio station,” AFP reports. “The $750 billion company, whose iTunes revolutionized how disparate parts of the world buy music, on Tuesday launches Apple Music as it sees consumer trends shift to streaming, which allows on-demand unlimited content online.”
“At the heart of the strategy is Beats 1, which bills itself as a first global radio station and will be available in more than 100 countries,” AFP reports. “Beats 1 will be free even without a subscription to Apple Music, whose streaming platform costs $9.99 a month after a trial period.”
“Apple Music has sought to make a splash through big names on Beats 1, poaching the influential New Zealand-born DJ Zane Lowe from BBC Radio 1,” AFP reports. “The company has not named a full list of presenters, but Lowe in a profile by The New York Times said that pop icon Elton John, “Happy” singer and producer Pharrell Williams, rap mogul Dr. Dre and prominent indie rocker St. Vincent had all been enlisted to host shows.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Earlier this month, we ran a poll that asked our readers which of Apple’s myriad music offerings most interested them.
Beats 1 wasn’t high on the excitement meter, barely beating out the marketing-heavy Connect offering.
For now, with MacDailyNews readers at least, it’s very much a case of “Zane. Zune. Whatever.” We’ll see if this changes with time.
SEE ALSO:
Why Zane Lowe left BBC’s Radio 1 for Apple’s Beats 1 – June 25, 2015
Yeah, that’s what Apple said.
Which is the BIG LIE. Beats 1 is just another celebrity infused distraction of crappy music that only kids listen to. And not all kids at that. I’m willing to bet there won’t be a classical show. I’ll also bet that House and Trance music will be scarce too. Beats 1 is a joke to me. And I’m an Apple nut.😖
So you’ve been to the future and listened to it?
I see your point. So yes I am imagining what it’s going to be like. And If I’m wrong I’ll be back to apologize for that.😕
It’s just a free internet radio station that will try and get people to sign up to Apple Music and/or download more music from Apple. I don’t think that’s a particularly bad idea nor do I think it’s an earth-shatteringly brilliant idea. What’s far more interesting is the streaming service itself and whether people will pay for it or not.
Now I’ve listened to it and it’s exactly as I predicted above.😖
I’ve never been a fan of other people telling me what to listen to… 🙂
But I don’t mind a system that makes suggestions for new music based on what I already have and prefer. So I did like iTunes Radio and will probably find Apple Music Radio useful.
However, Beats 1 is a group of people trying to shape musical taste at a global level. I find that to be arrogant and ultimately undoable. Trying to please everyone will please no one.
Popular music is International now. Here are the top 20/40 charts in various markets. It appears that many artists and songs are popular in many different cultures, including places like China:
http://top40-charts.com/charts.php
Since pop music is universal a global Beat is a fun idea, which could be very popular.
I was going to ask “with all this talk of streaming this or that, am I the only one who just wants a 256GB hard drive in my iPhone so I can just carry my own music around and not waste my data on streaming music I most likely purposely do not listen to anyway”.
Then I saw the poll, it appears I am in the majority.
I got/have iTunes Match because most of my CD’s were ripped at low bitrates and it was way easier to upgrade to 256kbps then digging the CD’s out of whatever closet(s) they may have ended up in after three or four moves and re-ripping a few hundred CD’s.
If I don’t load up too many podcasts, audiobooks, and/or season 1 of Firefly, the 128GB iPhone just works.
Pull up the Music app, ignore the iTunes Radio home page(can you change that?), hit the Artists button, flip to either Hank Williams(any of the three) or Johnny Cash, cause you should always start with a favorite, and hit shuffle.
Yeah, but you’ve gotta have Firefly on your phone, haven’t you? 🙂
So we need bigger local storage.
You can’t take the sky from meeeeee!
:~)
While “Howlin’ at the Moon”…?
An awful lot of articles claim that the music download business is dead, dead, dead, with Apple iTunes suffering horribly. Apple is always said to be the big loser and yet it’s like nobody even cares that the streaming music business, in general, is far from being a profitable financial model. Again, it’s always about market share and the market leader is always king whether they’re making any money or not. It’s really pretty stupid to run businesses that lose money even if you are a market leader. Pandora has been around for years and doesn’t seem as if they’re turning any profits.
I’m sure if Apple doesn’t become the streaming music market leader within a month, there will be cries from all the pundits of how AppleMusic is definitely going to fail long before the actual paid subscription period starts.
How’s this for a pre-conspiracy built on the fact that everyone loves to bash Apple. A clear symptom of the “They hate us, cause they ain’t us.” psychosis.
If you accept the premise that no one has profited from streaming music.
You can surmise that likewise Apple will not turn a profit.
If Apple runs their streaming service at a loss, and they are undoubtedly the worlds biggest company.
They will naturally be accused of being a monopoly. And using their unprofitable music streaming service to run other unprofitable streaming services out of business so that they can own the entire music industry, streaming, not streaming, the whole kitinkaboodle.
Will Apple Music Radio still be free or must you pay $10 a month for access to it in October (after free trial)?😨
After the free trial, you can still (without paying):
* View artist feed on Connect
* Follow artists on Connect
* Listen to Beats 1 radio station
* Listen to Apple Music radio stations (with limited skipping)
The pay version gives you:
* All of the above, plus unlimited skipping on radio stations
* Play and save Connect content
* Like Connect content or radio songs
* Enjoy unlimited listening from the Apple Music library
* Add Apple Music content to your library
* Save for offline listening
* Get expert music recommendations
Thanks. I’ve just been misinformed by an incompetent Apple formerly Beats employee.😖
Apple Music Radio (previously free iTunes Radio) will no longer be free in October after the free trial, 😡according to a Beats Apple employee. That blows. 😰 I will NEVER give Apple $10 a month for Apple Music. I’m a download albums forever type guy.😩
Ness misinformed by a former Beats employee who insisted that Apple Music Radio was part of the $10 pay tier.
Here’s a good rundown on all of the various parts:
http://www.imore.com/apple-music-faq
I’m not into pop, c.w or rock and I have about all the classical I want. There is no reason for me to log into iTunes streaming or the radio that I can see.
I don’t see how Beats 1 is the worlds first global radio station when one can stream almost every radio station in the world to any location in the world on all smartphones in the world. How is Beats 1 any different than all other radio stations in the world? What if I love classical music? Is Beats 1 better or more global than all the classical music radio stations we can all stream 24/7 the same as we can the irrelevant to us Beats 1?😠
The only thing that I can find as unique is it will be broadcast from 3 different locations in the world: Los Angelos, NYC & London.
I honestly don’t see myself paying for a subscription to this service, but Apple could find ties to my wallet by showing me new music via their radio stations, and having an easy link to either buy the songs outright or “Wish Listing” them for later purchase. I plan on taking a wait and see approach, and look forward to seeing how human-curated content is different for each genre.
Given the people behind it, Apple “music” will profanity-laden rap that denigrates women. I’ll pass.
My god, it’s (as in this site) full of stars….er, I mean, stupid people. How did that happen?
Welcome home Paul, you’ll fit right in with the rest of us! :~)
I wonder if Beats 1 will take requests like my local radio station.
/s
Also, I hope someday that Apple introduces audio files that we have to rewind.
/s
Call Uncle Brucie, he takes requests.
For the streaming crowd iTunes Match or the Beaten By Dre internet radio might be fine, but many of us do not want to waste bandwidth or listen to lower quality streaming. Based upon current iTunes streaming the audio quality is below Spotify.
I would love to see Apple offer upgrades to existing purchases to Apple Lossless like they did with iTunes Plus when they upgraded iTunes tracks to the current bit rate.