As if OS X El Capitan, iOS 9, and watchOS 2 weren't enough for Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference keynote event, the company also unveiled Apple Music. The company called Apple Music a revolutionary music service, a 24/7 global radio service, and a way to connect fans with artists.
Apple Music set to launch later in June
Apple's Jimmy Iovine took the stage to talk about Apple Music and said it's going to be big for music fans as well as up and coming artists. He said,
Can you imagine being an up-and-coming artist able to share your music on the biggest platform in the world? This is an ecosystem, it's built to fit together. When you upload music to Apple Music, anything can happen.
Apple Music includes playlists curated by Apple's own team of experts to add the emotional touch typical music selection algorithms can't match. In other words, it's all about human curation.
The radio part of Apple Music is more like actual radio in that it includes DJs playing music instead of automated song lists. Apple is calling its worldwide online radio station Beats 1. The service is managed by Zane Lowe, formerly of BBC Radio 1 and includes top name DJs around the world.
Apple also rolled in some serious Siri support so you can request songs in a more general way such as, "play the song from Selma." You can also ask for songs by name, request top song lists for specific time frames, and more.
Apple Music will be available later this month in 100 countries when iOS 8.4 is released. It will bring with it new versions of iTunes for OS X and Windows, and later this fall Android OS, too.
Pricing is set at US$9.99 a month with the first three months free, or $14.99 a month for families of up to six people.