Your Apple Music Replay 2020 playlist is here. Apple will make weekly playlists, not just a playlist at the end of the year.
streaming music
Apple Hires Jeff Bronikowski From Warner Music Group
Apple recently hired Jeff Bronikowski from Warner Music Group as Apple’s global head of strategic music initiatives.
Music Production, New Hardware – TMO Daily Observations 2020-02-04
Dave Hamilton and Charlotte Henry join host Kelly Guimont to discuss Neil Young’s comments, and Charlotte’s latest trip to the Apple Store.
Jimmy Iovine Worries About the Future of the Music Industry
In a new interview Jimmy Iovine talks about the music industry, it’s future, and how it relates to tech companies. And he’s worried.
You Could Get up to 6 Months of Free Apple Music This Christmas
Apple is running a promotion for Apple Music. From now until December 31 you can get free Apple Music depending on your subscription level.
Here’s How to Get Your Apple Music Replay Mix
Apple Music Replay lets you see the top songs, artists, and albums you’ve listened to this year. Here’s where to find it and download it.
Spotify Reaches 113 Million Paid Subscribers
Spotify announced that it reached 113 million paid subscribers around the world, and it’s growing twice as fast as Apple Music.
We continue to feel very good about our competitive position in the market. Relative to Apple, the publicly available data shows that we are adding roughly twice as many subscribers per month as they are. Additionally, we believe that our monthly engagement is roughly 2x as high and our churn is at half the rate.
Zane Lowe Talks About The Future of Apple Music
Beats 1 DJ Zane Lowe talks about where Apple Music is headed in a new interview. When it comes to Beats 1, Apples radio show, the team found something interesting.
It turns out users are four times more likely to complete an album if they’d pre-added it to their collection, 1.5 times more likely to listen to it again and they listen to music four times longer than other Apple Music subscribers. In short, Apple is trying to build a better hype machine than its rivals to counteract the popular, but depersonalised playlists that have come to dominate music streaming.
iOS 13.1 Adds AirDrop Features, Apple Maps ETA, and More
Apple has released iOS 13.1 today with new AirDrop features, Share ETA in Apple Maps, and more, such as patches for security issues.
Spotify Wants to Track Your Location so Friends Don't Use a Family Plan
In more location tracking news today, Spotify wants to track yours because non-family members sometimes use Family Plans *gasp!*.
“The changes to the policy allow Spotify to arbitrarily use the location of an individual to ascertain if they continue to reside at the same address when using a family account, and it’s unclear how often Spotify will query users’ devices for this information,” said Christopher Weatherhead, technology lead for UK watchdog group Privacy International, adding that there are “worrying privacy implications.”
Apple Beta Tests Official Apple Music Web Player
Apple is starting to get the hang of what being a services company really means. Charlotte and I have wrote about unofficial web players for Apple Music, and now Apple is beta testing an official one.
To use the new Apple Music web version, subscribers can visit the link beta.music.apple.com and sign in with their Apple ID.
At launch, the service includes many core features, like searching and playing songs from the Apple Music catalog, searching and playing songs from your library (if Sync Library is enabled), accessing your playlists and more.
New Shazam Discovery Playlist for Apple Music
Today Apple Music launches the Shazam Discovery Top 50 playlist, which is a weekly global ranking of 50 trending artists.
The chart will be updated every Tuesday and is exclusively available to stream on Apple Music. Artists at the top of the first list include Ohana Bam, A$ton Wyld, Tones and I and Regard…The chart ranks songs that are trending in the U.S. and “over 10 countries”; artists from more countries will be featured soon.
Sounds cool but I hope it’s not filled with hip-hop, because that seems to be Apple Music’s focus.
Music App Deezer Adds Queue List Feature
Music app Deezer is adding a new feature called Queue List for premium users. People can change devices in the middle of a song without having to restart it or search for it again.
Each user’s queue list is now stored in the cloud, making it effortless to switch between mobile, web, desktop, smart watches, autos, Android TV and Xbox.
Users can also edit and make changes to their queue list with all changes reflected across devices. Even if your queue list is set to Shuffle or Repeat, you can still enjoy your music on this setting after switching devices.
Apple Digital Masters Launches with Mastered Music Collection
Apple Digital Masters is a new initiative that combines all of the Mastered for iTunes music into one global catalog.
Apple Music for Artists Now Available to Musicians
Apple Music for Artists is a platform Apple launched last year that gives musicians an analytics dashboard. It leaves beta today.
Apple Music Alternative Playlist Renamed 'ALT CTRL'
Apple is slowly rebranding Apple Music, and its latest efforts include renaming the Apple Music alternative playlist to ALT CTRL.
The playlist, which features 50 songs, will change every week. Each song is hand selected by a group of curators. The songs featured have less to do with genre, and more to do with overall feel and themes.
“ALT CTRL, formerly known as The A-List: Alternative, is where you’ll find the best of those new left-of-center tunes.” reads the Editors’ notes on the new ALT CTRL page, “Alternative is more an attitude than a sound—music that colors just a bit outside the lines.”
Apple Music Free Trial Might Get Reduced to One Month
On Apple’s accessories website, an Apple Music free trial banner was offering one month instead of three. But Andrew still sees three.
Apple Music Student Trial Doubled to Six Months
The Apple Music student trial has been doubled to six months, giving students even more value as they decide whether to join or not.
You Could Add Music to Snapchat in the Future
Snap is seeking rights to the music catalogs of Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and more to let users add music to Snapchat.
Pandora Desktop App for Mac is Now Available
Pandora announced today that the Pandora desktop app for macOS is now available to download, giving you full-featured access to the streaming service.
Get Premium Spotify for $1 for Three Months
Spotify’s special deal is back: Get Premium Spotify for just US$1 for three months. Regular prices will take effect after that.
Which One is Better for the Environment: Physical or Digital Music?
A study published yesterday found that streaming digital music led to “unintended” environmental and economic impacts. Despite a reduction in the use of plastics in physical music media, storing and transmitting digital music led to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs).
Researchers discovered that the amount of GHGs generated by the streaming and downloading of music online is actually much larger than the amount that was once generated by the production of plastic used to make vinyl records, cassettes and CDs in earlier decades.
The study seems focused on plastic use in physical media vs. storing and streaming digital music from servers. I’d like to see more data, such as how much electricity is used when billions of people play the average CD vs. a digital song.
Apple Music vs Spotify, AI and Special Projects – TMO Daily Observations 2019-04-05
Andrew Orr and Charlotte Henry join host Kelly Guimont to discuss Apple Music/Spotify subscriptions, and new hires in Special Projects.
Apple Music Paid Subscribers Surpass Spotify in U.S.
The number of Apple Music paid subscribers have overtaken Spotify in the United States, with the former reaching 28 million.