Apple Music: all the best reactions, information and stats

Are you excited by Apple Music? I think I'm excited by Apple Music. Let's discuss whether this is avalid opinion or not.

One of the first subjects I really got my teeth into on the blog two years ago was digital music, bothin its streaming and downloadable formats.

I have a music journalism background (you can't see me right now, but I struggled to write that witha straight face), I was new to digital marketing and I wanted something exciting and personal tocover, so I thought "hey, let's take these various platforms like iTunes, Spotify and Beats to task andfind out which is truly the best one."

It was hard, thankless, pointless work. Nobody cared, nobody read the articles and save for somereactionary comments about U2 last year, I barely wrote about digital music platforms ever again. Itprobably didn't help that I called the series 'Death to iTunes'.

However I have decided to wade carefully into the dark waters of music streaming rivalry again, butthis time I come armed with expert opinion (from other people) and some cold hard stats (from therespective companies involved).

First let's take a look at Apple Music, comparing it to the two other major players, Spotify and Tidal,and then check on the current state of play.

Apple Music: what do we know so far?

I'll break down what we know so far...

Launch date: 30 June, so really soon. Expect my 'expert' review around then.

Price: $9.99 a month, or $14.99 for a six-member family plan. The basic price is the same as Spotifyand Tidal.

Freemium model: no, it's all pay-to-play I'm afraid. Interestingly though, many major record labelssuch as Universal and Sony are complaining that ad-supported streaming may be harming the musicindustry.

Free three-month trial membership: so you basically may as well try it anyway even if you're on thefence.

Beats 1: without a membership you will still be able to listen to the Zane Lowe fronted, flagshipradio station Beats 1 for free.

Downloadable content: one of Spotify's greatest strengths is its ability to sync tracks on to yourdevice when offline. Apple Music allows you to do this.

Device agnostic: The blurb on the Apple site states that you will have full access to Apple Musicacross iPhones, iPads, Macs and PCs. Android devices and Apple TVs will follow in Autumn, howeverit says nothing about Windows phones.

Curated content: just like Spotify and Tidal, there will be curated playlists from industry experts,artists and brands.

Apple Watch integration: yes, millionaire spies will be able to access Apple Music via their wrist.

Siri is DJ: ask Siri "what was number one in December 1979?" and Siri will play it for you.

Apple Music: What we don't know yet

Slightly more ambiguous however are the following issues:

Lossless high-quality streaming: there's no mention of this, so clearly Tidal can still differentiateitself in this area.

Exclusive content: where Tidal has the upper hand is in providing exclusive concerts and videos fromits phalanx of board members/global super-mega pop stars such as Jay-Z, Beyonce and uh... CalvinHarris. Will Apple be able to match this? So far there aren't any major album releases exclusive toTidal, but what if Apple releases a new Drake album, exclusively on its platform? This would truly bea major coup.

Number of songs available: are we to assume that we'll be able to stream absolutely every songthat's already available on iTunes? This leads me to my next point...

Exclusive artists: The Beatles aren't available to stream on Spotify or Tidal (and neither is Oasis or

AC/DC bizarrely), however you can buy their albums on iTunes. If we can stream The Beatles onApple Music, this could be one of its biggest attractions.

Fair to musicians: and finally one of the most contentious issues around music streaming. How fairlywill artists be paid on Apple Music? Again this is one of the key points of Tidal's launch, but it hasn'tbeen mentioned at all by Apple.

How did the music industry react to this news?

Risibly, from Spotify's CEO...

Sarcastically, from Rdo...

Witheringly, from Rhapsody's CEO...

It's flattering to watch new competitors bring a product virtually identical to the one we've had inmarket for years.

Now let's take a look at some key figures from the three rivals...

Stats

Spotify:

Spotify chose today (10 June), two days after the Apple Music announcement, to reveal its currentuser statistics...

75m active users

20m of which are subscribers who pay for its service

This is massively up from 10m paying subscribers and 40m active users this time last year.

Tidal:

Tidal was launched 30 March so of course it has yet to build a comparable audience. Recentspeculation puts it at about 800,000 subscribers but I wouldn't take that as a definite.

One unfortunate piece of news that The Guardian reported recently was that within one month afterlaunch, Tidal slipped out of the US iPhone top 700 download chart. Whereas rival services Pandoraand Spotify surged ahead, occupying the No 3 and No 4 spot on the US iPhone revenue chart.

Seemingly all the news around Tidal has only spurred people on to try its rivals instead.

To learn more about Tidal, I highly recommend this article on Black Ballad: #TidalForAll except you.

Apple Music:

Clearly Spotify is the biggest concern with its 75m active users and 20m already paying for it. Wheredoes this leave Apple Music?

When Apple purchased Beats Music in 2014, the subscription service only had 250,000 customers,rising to 303,000 by the end of the year, so it is essentially starting from scratch.

However, with Apple Music automatically arriving on every single iOS device and iTunes accountwith a simple update at the end of the month and the offering of a three-month free subscription,Apple may end up with an incredibly strong user-base.

Final thoughts

As a user I've been so frustrated that every platform I use is so rigidly tied to an operating systemand that every company involved is fundamentally wary of launching a cross device platform thatsolves all of the problems.

The victor in this battle will be the format that backs down and offers a cross-device platform thatworks equally well for all operating systems or a third-party offering a brilliant solution that isdevice agnostic.

It's not necessarily about lossless audio or exclusive curated content, it's about providing an easyseamless customer experience. If Apple can provide this, Apple will win.

https://econsultancy.com/blog/66570-apple-music-all-the-best-reactions-informa-ion-and-stats/?utm_medium=feeds&utm_source=blog