“Something interesting happened with the iPod. It went from a sign of being different to an outright symbol of being cool,” Neil Cybart writes for Above Avalon. “During a time when Macs were destined for art classrooms, and mobile phones left much to be desired in terms of design and functionality, iPods were taking over college campuses and schools like nothing seen before. Music was once again something fun, something that could be listened to mostly anywhere. A fact that now seems like a given was a new experience just 10 years ago. ”
“With Apple Music, Apple is once again looking to leave its mark on music culture, which is arguably much more important and valuable than the $15 billion of annual digital and physical music sales,” Cybart writes. “We are no longer in the iTunes era. The iPod we have come to know is now just a footnote in Apple’s financial statements. Instead, Beats 1 is being positioned as the new iPod.”
Read more in the full article – recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: From what we’ve heard so far, Apple’s Beats 1 is going to be a resounding success.
Beats 1 is something only Apple can do. Google’s not smart enough (they’ll announce “Beeps 1” next year, of course, and flop) and nobody else is big enough to pull it off.
SEE ALSO:
Why Apple’s Beats 1 is genius – July 1, 2015
Apple’s Beats 1 DJ Zane Lowe: ‘Into the unknown we go’ – July 1, 2015
AccuRadio CEO: Apple Music’s Beats 1 won’t garner a huge audience – June 30, 2015
Apple’s Beats 1 starts broadcasting – June 30, 2015
I’ve been listening to it off and on for the last day and sometimes.. it’s absolutely BEYOND annoying. It’s a radio station with a few differences of course.. but if you aren’t into trip hop or a ten minute interview with Eminem.. you just turn it off. The station audio ID’s are aimed at an audience I’m guessing is around 23 years old and younger. It shouldn’t be classic rock of course, or play top 40.. but there are moments when skipping or fast forwarding would sure be welcome. It feels overall like it’s a little too impressed by itself..
Try listening at a different time. I was listening around 7/8 PM PDT and it was completely different. Classic tunes, a DJ who knew his stuff, and was totally mellow.
Since this is a 24/7 station, you tune into a TIME not just simply tune in at the same time and expect something different. I was thinking, poor listeners in India, who have to wake up to a mellow Beats 1, but for me it was just the right thing to take an evening nap.
Yes, later in the day it is a totally different story. I don’t like Beats 1 in the morning, but in the evening it is a totally different story.
In these times, it is unforgivable to force us to be stuck to some arbitrary schedule. We want OUR music at OUR time.
Damn straight. It makes no sense. Let us stream the shows in podcast form, when we want them.
——RM
You can start a personal radio station from literally ANY song in the entire iTunes catalog…and then skip as many times as you want.
I would think so. No, I won’t listen to ads or hiphop. So I would guess we have a case of user ignorance as well as error. If I must, however, I’ll stick to my own playlists. I’ll listen to Little Stevie, Bob, and Tom Petty’s radio, but not Dr. Dre’s or any current “popular ‘music.'”
Maybe the worst article of the year. Apple needs a fun discoverable music app. Not subscription, not DRM, not beats 1, not labels… and just add a link to app store… boom. Apple = fun and quality. Apple Music is far from it. Sorry to say.
Beats 1 is anything but an iPod. I really don’t understand this analogy. I have said this before: Apple Music is a botched product. I don’t believe the Ive rumors of him departing. Personally, I think he’s staying but simply taking a lesser role to stay focused on hardware. Software UI is clearly not his niche and Apple Music’s horrendous UI proves just that.
Apple Music came from the iTunes team not Jony Ive.
It’s really underwhelming and I feel like the word beta should of been placed on it as it’s glitchy and doesn’t play well my iTunes Match. Why are my playlists not syncing anymore accurately? This is really on of the rare times that I’ve used an apple product and felt “yawn”. Hopefully they will continue to enhance this product in some meaningful ways.
Beats is barely listenable for my tastes, one size doesn’t always fit. I much prefer to listen to KCRW.
Not sure why I can’t play Beats on my OS 10.7 computer, Apple apparently thinks Beats is so great that I will buy a new computer just to listen to it. From what I can tell it is just a radio station and shouldn’t require a later OS.
You don’t need a new computer. However, it would be good to have an OS that is still supported and get security considerations. You can stay four (soon to be five) OS’s back, but Apple should not be worrying about you either… Just MO.
I have a few macs but the laptop in the shop is just used as a time clock and music player and it works great. My 2006 MBP is definitely not worth upgrading just to get Beats but I’m sure it will get replaced one of these days.
KCRWs Eclectic 24 should have been a pattern- not BBC1.
You actually don’t need iTunes to listen to Beats 1. There are open streams available that will play in any steaming music player that can stream from URLs. I can’t tell you what they are – I just saw them listed on Reddit.
I don’t think you’d be interested anyway, though, and I can’t blame you.
——RM
It’s a radio station. It’s the exact opposite of an iPod (which played YOUR music and ONLY your music).
An iPod is something the user controls and it becomes a reflection of their tastes. Beats 1 is more centrally programmed bullshit for the sheeple more concerned with what is trending than what is good.
If I wanted to hear a blathering Kiwi talking over A CHR playlist I can turn on any number of stations that do not require a subscription or Apple device.
“do not require a subscription ”
you do not need a subscription to listen to Beats 1
I can see the trolls infesting…
I posted a FACTUAL post: you DON’T need a subscription for Beats 1 and i get one star, only trolls would do that because I’m just quoting a fact.
Beats 1 is to the iPod what a moldy cat turd is to a filet mignon..what a complete freaking disaster for Apple.
Beats 1 plays WAAAAY too much rap, the sh!ttiest music on the planet. One listener here lost.
I’m with you in that I detest rap (and country music). But the reality is that rap is very popular worldwide. If Apple wants to create a successful worldwide channel then some of that playlist will have to contain rap.
Gosh, lets hope not Beats1 sucks. Big time.
Wow, a lot of grump. I suppose you all could do better at running a radio station, and the ROW would think you all failed too.
Moldy Cat Turd, Bullshit, Sheeple, Underwhelming, Beyond Annoying – These are unqualified adjectives. It’s looking at a free gift as if it was an insult. I bet you would be willing sign on to a lawsuit over the U2 give away. Beats 1 is a marketing machine for Apple Music, but separate. Actually, the curated radio stations are also apart of this, yet no one is spending time taking about those. Maybe there is something for you to like.
You listened to 5 minutes and made up your mind, without comprehending what you are actually dealing with. It’s a global 24/7 station. On the one hand they do have to cater to a lot of different tastes. Secondly you are getting the tastes of each DJ, which there are a lot. One Hour Segments, LA/NY/LO, rotating.
You aren’t referring to just one thing, it’s like a subway sandwich, 24 ft long, and 24 different chefs working on making a section to their expertise. But no one is going to be able to consume the whole thing, nor if you did, you would like all of it.
Get off your high horse, take some time and give it a proper go around. Not just today, but next week. next month. Let the groove set in, let the DJs get comfortable. Find your time slot and listen. If you can’t, because what you like is on at 3AM, well sorry. You can’t please everyone…
So the article is off, it’s just an opinion. And what I say is just an opinion. But it seems the complaints are short sighted.
LOL at Gollum the fan boy. Rabid drooling fan boys like Gollum are sickening. I dont care what he says, rap music is beyond awful and pathetic.
No. Interesting thought, but No.
The prevailing view of MDN commenters is that the Beats acquisition was puzzling, a waste of money, and proof that Apple has lost its way. Whatever happened to “Think Different”? Does that axiom hold only in an alternate universe where Steve Jobs is still alive? We seem much more gleeful in whipping out the double standard now that his admonitions can’t be applied to us. No one is more capricious, or more judgmental, than the Apple fanatic. Any more, I can’t tell the trolls apart from the disgruntled faithful.
Rap is a subset of hip-hop, and a distant relative of metrical storytelling found in all pre-literate cultures, as with Homer. Slang is the underclass counterpart to traditional oral expression, and the lifeblood of the English language, legitimized by Chaucer and Shakespeare yet still reviled by myopic social theorists, who are legion, and a dime to the dozen. Purists in either music or language are too self-important to be taken seriously, unless history has come to an abrupt halt.
Rap is for drooling morons who can’t change their own diapers.
No one with half a brain can tolerate 30 seconds of such utter stupidity.
You are completely wrong
So since when was the iPod about telling us what music we have to listen to at any given time, if we use it. Nothing against Beats 1 but seems to be the opposite of an iPod to me.
I keep turning it on and trying it, but it’s never gone two songs for me without playing some slow, thumpy, hip-hop track. I can appreciate why people like that style of music, but it’s just not for me. I need more melody and less bass.
I just don’t see how a single music station can appeal to everyone in this day and age. I thought that ship sailed ages ago.
——RM