“The rumor mill is moving into overdrive about Apple launching a new music streaming service that will be announced next week at WWDC,” Jim Lynch writes for CIO. “The company has been working on the service for a while and some rumors have indicated that it may cost as little as $10 per month.”
“But one thing that baffles me is the mention of human DJs in a recent Wall Street Journal story about Apple’s music streaming service,” Lynch writes. “Ugh! DJs? Really? One of the reasons I’ve taken to listening to downloaded music from iTunes while driving in my car is that I detest the small talk and other inane babble spewed by DJs on terrestrial radio. Most of them have little or nothing that is interesting or informative to hear. But they chatter on endlessly, thinking themselves witty while they bore their listeners to death.”
“Frankly, it’s hard for me to understand why Apple would put time and resources into hiring DJs in the first place. It’s such an outmoded way of presenting music to people. Then again maybe it’s just me who can’t stand listening to their blather while waiting for them to play the music that I tuned in to hear on the radio,” Lynch writes. “Are DJs really necessary on a streaming music service?”
Much more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Think optional. It’s just another point of differentiation. We expect that you’ll be able to have it your way: Deejays or no deejays.
SEE ALSO:
Apple in talks to sign Drake, Pharrell Williams, and David Guetta as iTunes Radio DJs – June 1, 2015
Can Apple convince Spotify users to pay $10 a month for music? – June 2, 2015
Apple’s all-in bet to be watershed moment for music; $10/month unlimited subscription service and more – June 1, 2015
From what I’ve heard of US radio the DJ’s are pretty much awful. Radio is still very big in other countries. Take the UK, Radio 2 gets something like 9.5m listeners on average per week, for a population of 60 odd million that’s huge, and there are lots of stations all getting audiences. Good DJ’s are worth listening to.
You don’t have to limit yourself to radio, there’s a lot of other awful stuff coming out of the place. Come to think of it, the list of things that aren’t awful is a lot shorter, Apple is one of them. I mean seriously when was the last time you knew that country to be at peace? Hint: It’s been over 10 years. In fact the number of years that country has been at peace is about 20% of it’s history, since they beat you guys up in seventeen seventy sick.
They did have a great disc jockey (Robert Weston Smith, aka Wolfman Jack) back when they still had enough spine to write great protest songs against war and pro peace but a good listen to the toilet jokes from Howard Stern is enough to give any listener a good idea that the country is going to join the Zune.
On the bright side it does give a new slant to free radio, as in to “liberate radio.”
Bring on the curators.
Look, we’re all real sorry Clinton never thanked you for giving him a bj, but that was between you two, and was a long time ago, so let it go already.
Thank you for your total irrelevance, a true demonstration of your patriotism. Please feel free to continue rearranging the deck chairs as your nation sinks to the abyss just like that Titanic.
Oh and for those of you from the free and civilized world who are not revisionists it was Moanica Lewdwinksky that gave Clinton that blowjob in the oral orifice. I think she’s going to vote repubican cause the demoncrats left a bad taste in her mouth.
I agree with you .
In Canada many people follows the CBC particularly for classical music where one gets a lot of interesting background commentary
Much depends on whether the DJs are choosing great sequences of music, or whether they are talking incessantly between tracks.
There are some DJs who say very little, but play excellent music. There are other DJs who inform us about the artists and their music – some of them are quite scholarly in their approach and clearly do research that goes well beyond a quick check on Google. Then there are the majority of DJs, who are just on an ego trip and where the music is secondary to their ‘personality’. I can’t imagine Apple wanting to use that type of DJ.
That is my thought, as well, alanaudio. If the Apple Music DJs are responsible for providing a more interesting music experience for listeners based on current music trends and personal tastes, then that might set Apple Music apart from a playlist generated by a random number routine.
It does not make sense to me that Apple would attempt to recreate the talk-heavy and ad-heavy experience of modern radio. If there is DJ talk, then it will likely be kept to a minimum and relevant to the music – a bit of background, little known artist/song facts, upcoming events, etc.
But, once again, people hear or read something from Apple and some of them (typically the vocal ones looking for attention) assume the worst is going to happen.
“Frankly, it’s hard for me to understand why” Jim Lynch “would put time and resources into” discussing “DJs in the first place.”
There, fixed it for ya.
Answer to Lynch’s question, “Are DJs really necessary on a streaming music service?” Absolutely not.
Answer to headline “Will deejays ruin Apple’s streaming music service?” If always on, yes, they probably would. If optional, as in the Take, of course not. Options are always good. For us, at least. Whether or not it is actually beneficial to Apple remains to be seen, and I suspect not, but that’s up to them to find out.
DJs have already ruined popular music.period!
DJ’s are a big *reason* music streaming is popular to begin with.
You mean back decades ago when it was actually good, had some differentiating artistry, was fun to listen to and wasn’t populated by a bunch of most of today’s production soundalike me-too techniques?
I am willing to bet that DJ hosted RADIO will be the most popular category once initiated.
I think so too
Bring back Dr. Johnny Fever! 😉
Sorry, OS. I meant 5 stars.
Bring back Bailey Quarters….
Yea, I’ll second that. 🙂
DJs have mostly been shit once Robert J. Lurtsema left ‘GBH and Murray the K left ‘NEW.
😉
That said, take a few hours and stream WMBR.org, especially in the AM, for some very hip DJs and some very hip shows. My own recommendations- Bats in the Belfry Monday nights, the retro shows from noon to 2 every weekday, and the whole Sunday lineup, except the church service, of course. Why is it here in the US that we seem to think we need to broadcast lies?