“Apple Inc. is introducing a program to promote young musicians with a monthlong barrage of videos, playlists and new music, deepening the technology giant’s direct investment in artists through Apple Music,” Lucas Shaw reports for Bloomberg. “”
“The first performer to benefit from the Up Next program is 6lack, a 24-year-old Atlanta singer who released his debut album last fall. On Thursday, Apple released a short documentary about 6lack, as well as video of a live recording session taped in Atlanta and an interview on Beats 1, Apple Music’s radio station,” Shaw reports. “Beats 1 host Zane Lowe will introduce 6lack (pronounced ‘black’) on James Corden’s late-night talk show Thursday evening on CBS, and over the course of the next month, Apple will promote 6lack’s songs on Apple Music playlists, Beats 1 and the iTunes store. Similar promotions with other artists will follow in the months to come.”
“Apple executives hope the campaign will attract more artists and customers to its 2-year-old music service, which has signed up more than 20 million customers since June 2015,” Shaw reports. “With rivals YouTube, Pandora Media Inc. and Spotify Ltd. all offering support to musicians, Cupertino, California-based Apple is eager to show artists it can help them become stars, and to lure fans with exclusive video and music.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As long as those who hit it big thanks to Apple’s multi-pronged promotional barrage provide exclusives to Apple Music, this is, of course, a smart investment of money and resources.
SEE ALSO:
‘Up Next’ is a new monthly Apple Music series highlighting new artists – April 20, 2017
Sound like a great idea. How can I see all this content in my iPhone Music app?
Simply wonderful if you are a young musician starting out. Or a geezer, all good.
That said, fashionista Apple has branched out into pop idol production to buoy a less than stellar music service and overpriced beats acquisition. We get that.
But is this another of the many distractions why I have to wait until 2018 for a new Mac Pro? …
How do I get my music selected for this program?
If Apple wants to make it easy for young wanna-be stars, then it should enable Garage Band/Logic users to upload their music directly to the Apple music store with NO middle-man involved! I do not understand why this has not happened yesterday.
Similarly, they should create a video store/website (AppleTube) which allows creative types—including musicians— to directly upload their video work from Final Cut/iMovie.
Why let YouTube (owned by Google) be the only place in the universe to monetize amateur videos?