Apple Music’s secret weapon that almost no one’s talking about

“The WWDC keynote is finally behind us and Apple Music is officially the latest entrant into the competitive streaming music market,” Yoni Heisler writes for BGR. “While Apple spent a good deal of time during the keynote] detailing the myriad of features that differentiate its own music service from the rest of the pack, there’s one significant metric that Apple didn’t even have time to mention — the size of its music library.”

“Apple’s iTunes Music library is the best in the business, with 20% more tracks [37 million] than both Spotify [30 million] and Google Play [30 million] and nearly 50% more tracks than Tidal [25 million],” Heisler writes. “Pandora, surprisingly, only has a library of about 1.5 million songs.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: The sheer numbers — library breadth, user base (not to mention quality of user base, i.e. ability and willingness to pay for services), marketing might, country availability — are all overwhelmingly in Apple Music’s favor.

SEE ALSO:

Apple confirms that Apple Music will stream at 256kbps – June 11, 2015
Spotify founder: Uh ok, we don’t need to be number one in music streaming – June 11, 2015
Why Apple Music will gut and publicly execute Spotify – June 10, 2015
Spotify CEO claims to be ‘ok’ with Apple Music – June 9, 2015
Jimmy Iovine and Eddy Cue: Apple Music gunning for Spotify, YouTube, and terrestrial radio – June 9, 2015
Something about Apple Music betraying Apple’s brilliance by ignoring ‘The Harry Potter Theory of Marketing’ or some such nonsense – June 9, 2015
Bob Lefsetz on Apple Music: What team is Jimmy Iovine on? – June 9, 2015
Apple Music’s huge advantage over Spotify – June 9, 2015
Apple Music is a major mess and it won’t beat Spotify or something – June 9, 2015
When Apple Music arrives, what happens to iTunes Match? – June 9, 2015
What Apple Music says about how Apple views musicians – June 8, 2015
Apple’s revolutionary Apple Music just might prove its skeptics wrong – June 8, 2015
Apple unveils revolutionary Apple Music service – June 8, 2015

39 Comments

    1. That would actually be highly deceptive, because of course the most popular tracks would be on both, but there would be many, many people downloading the less common tracks that won’t show up meaningfully on a distribution curve but would have a material impact on the people using the service.

  1. Does anybody know if Apple Music includes a feature like Pandora where you can type in a song or artist or album and get a radio station based on that and stuff like it? I know iTunes Radio currently has that, but Beats Music does not and the new Apple Music looks an awful lot like a whitened Beats Music. I haven’t heard or read any mention of user-created streaming radio stations in the new Apple Music.

    1. It is our understanding that iTunes Radio will live on as Apple Music Radio. From Apple’s press release:

      Apple has also redesigned radio with human curation taking the lead. Apple Music Radio gives you stations created by some of the world’s finest radio DJs. The new stations range in genres from indie rock to classical and folk to funk, with each one expertly curated. With membership, you can skip as many songs as you like, so you can change the tune without changing the dial.

      1. That’s cool but choosing a genre-based radio station called “Indie Rock” isn’t the same thing as creating a radio station called Violent Femmes that plays Violent Femmes and stuff musically similar to it. Pandora has genre stations too, but nobody uses those. I’m really hoping Apple Music allows you to create your own stations based on songs, albums or artists you like, like the current iTunes Radio does. I’m not excited about human-curated radio stations based on genres rather than something more specific like artist, song, or album. It’s beginning to sound like Pandora doesn’t have much to fear from Apple Music if Apple Music is only going to allow genre stations based on some DJ’s musical tastes rather than my own.

        1. As per Apple’s website:
          “Building your own station couldn’t be easier. Just select any song, album, or artist and it will practically build itself. Adjust the mix to hear more songs you know or discover unfamiliar gems. Love a track? We’ll play more like it. The more you fine-tune the station, the more personalized it becomes.”

        2. Hope this how it works – “Hey Siri, find me an indie/college rock playlist from the 1980’s that is similar in nature to The Violent Femes”

          To satisfy your craving, I quickly put together a playlist for your listening pleasure –

          The Kinks
          https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=z8V26QkVuew

          A House

          The Smiths
          https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_XqNYnV0W6o

          Spot 1019

          The Fleshtones
          https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DadnHEdhY8E

          The Violent Femes

          The Modern Lovers

          Blondie

          Musical Youth

          REM

          The Vulgar Boatmen

      2. Honestly though the 20% more music ‘advantage’ is really useless when the numbers show that users only consume a fraction of the available content anyway. You can spot check this in Spotify and iTunes..

        1. I answered this in my comment above, but this is a highly deceptive stat. Sure there will be plenty of people only listening to the most popular “top 40” hits, but there will also be many people who will branch out and listen to the more rare and less overplayed music.

  2. The stupid DJ thing and the revamped Ping will both utterly fail, as well they should. Apple is becoming superficial, lowbrow and low class, and now instead of being actually cool, it’s becoming pretend cool, as symbolized by Eddie Cue’s stupid, stupid dance, and pretending to like someone named Pharrel.

    Apple’s inability to come out with a development kit for AppleTV is telling. But hey, at least we got have some gangsta wannabe named “Drake” demonstrate his IQ of 85 to a roomful of white guys with an average IQ of 120. After all, that’s just what you want to see at a DEVELOPER’S CONFERENCE.

    Way to go, Apple. Steve Jobs has indeed left the building.

    1. So, I take it you weren’t impressed? Thanks for letting us know.

      The DJ thing doesn’t sound like it’s for me, but millions of people pay for and listen to DJ hosted radio programs, so as far as I’m concerned, the jury is still out.

    2. LOL @ Drake supposedly being a “gangsta wannabe.” That’s like calling Will Smith gangsta. I don’t like Drake’s music, but I have heard it, and it’s as far from Gangsta Rap as you can get.

      1. I didn’t say anything about gangsta rap. I said gangsta. Period. I live in LA, and although I live in a predominantly white upper middle class part, we still get gangsta posers venturing from where they belong into where they don’t belong (Beverly Center, Farmer’s Market, Venice Beach, Santa Monica Pier, etc.).

        I could not care less about his, uh, “music,” for lack of a better word, as I have too much self respect to ever expose myself to such crap.

        1. Ohhh, look at me. My festering negativity and hate for everyone not like me makes me so superior. And I’m such a fine Christian too. Aren’t you all so glad I have graced you with my presence.

        2. >My hatred is not for people who are not like me. It is for those who are backward, dumb, and criminal.

          Oh, you mean the people who run Fox News. Got it.

        3. If you don’t know that black and Mexican hoodlums don’t belong around decent white people then there is really nothing I can say that will cure your leftwing, anti-White, political correct, Social Justice Warrior blindness.

          All of those places I mentioned are examples of things made possible by white people, and I’m really tired of them being invaded by people whose architectural prowess is exemplified by a thatched mud hut.

          If people cannot contain their criminal impulses, nor comport themselves in a civilized manner, then they really do not belong in the company of those who do. To hell with those of the entitlement mentality; privilege must be earned, like it or not.

          Left-wingers don’t understand this because left-wingers HATE standards, which is why they’re always trying to subvert same.

    3. “The stupid DJ thing”

      That you started your comment saying that DJs are a “stupid thing” pretty much sums up your comment.

      “Steve Jobs has indeed left the building.”

      Someone has indeed left the building, you at least (almost) got that part right.

  3. Ecosystem baby!!! The customer is already in the house.

    Apple is just opening the doors to the auditorium of all you can eat music. All inclusive buffet. You are on the Cruse Ship Apple Music, starring deejays, Sirius would like to have.

    There is sooooooo much potential here. Every media outlet should be pissing their pants.

    1. No bout adout it!

      The times they are a changing and Apple is always with the times and leading the future. If it ain’t your cuppa tea, don’t drink it, but I bet all musical tastes will be pleasantly surprised…Iovine knows the old school fluently and Apple knows its customers old and new.

  4. boringbob posts nothing but insults – to Apple, various individuals, cultural groups, countries. Please don’t reply to the belligerent ass-wipe. Engagement is worthless.

  5. The iTunes music library may be larger than those of other streaming services, but Amazon’s music library is much, much larger… Or let me say this differently: There have been innumerable occasions when I found albums on Amazon that I couldn’t find in the iTunes store.

  6. The article did not reference Amazon. Most people I know have shifted over to Amazon for music content, cheaper prices and ease of use. I’ll wait an see if Apple does a better job, but I’m happy with Purchasing and steaming from Amazon at the present. I can also download streaming for when I have no connectivity, which is big deal for me.

Reader Feedback

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.