According to an image that former BBC Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe shared on Instagram and Twitter, Beats 1—Apple's new 24/7 Internet radio—will interview hip-hop artist and music producer Eminem as its first guest. Lowe is one of the there celebrity DJs on Beats 1. Lowe will be providing live radio programming from Los Angeles, with a little help from Ebro Darden in New York and Julie Adenoma in London.
Following Apple Music ad blitz with a massive Beats 1 billboard on Times Square ahead of the service's public launch next Tuesday, the world's leading music-streaming service Spotify has decided to extend its Premium trial from 30 to 60 days for users outside the United States, as noted by Android Authority.
Like Apple Music, Spotify Premium costs $9.99 per month, but Apple's service offers a three-month free trial period before charging users' credit cards. It was also revealed this morning that Apple Music pays an industry-standard royalty rate for free users of 0.2 cents per stream, comparing roughly to Spotify's 35 percent revenue share during the trial period.
Lots of ink was spilt regarding Apple's decision to not pay artists during the free trial only to reverse course after Taylor Swift raised a stink about it. Apple's said it'll pay for free users and keep the royalty a bit higher for subscribers but stopped short of specifying the exact sum paid during the free trial.
According to unnamed record label executives who spoke to The New York Times newspaper, Apple is paying an industry-average royalty rate of 0.2 cents per each streamed song during the free three-month trial, roughly on par with Spotify.
Often referred to as The Crossroads of the World, New York City's Time Square is always brightly adorned with billboards and advertisements from the world's top brands. With less than a week until June 30 Apple Music launch, the iPhone maker is now advertising Beats 1 with a massive billboard.
It's dominated by enormous Beats 1 promotional graphics accompanied by the “Worldwide. Always on” tagline and the 6.30.2015 launch date. Interestingly enough, the Apple logo is nowhere to be seen on the advertisement, perhaps indicating the Cupertino firm might be counting on Beats' brand power to push the upcoming radio service into public consciousness.
Hip-hop artist Pharrell Williams has revealed that his upcoming single titled “Freedom” will be exclusive to Apple Music, which launches June 30 in a hundred countries across iPhones, iPads, iPods and Mac and Windows PCs, with a native Android app and Apple TV support due this fall.
The revelation of the exclusive agreement with Apple Music came in the ending credits of a teaser video for “Freedom” that was shared on Facebook and Twitter last evening.
Following a change of heart that will see artists paid for a free 90-day Apple Music trial, Apple's $9.99 per month streaming-music service has landed an important victory by signing up 20,000 independent labels and distributors through a licensing agreement with Beggars Group and Merlin Network, Billboard reported late Tuesday.
The group represents 20,000 labels and distributors worldwide, including artists like 4AD, XL, Matador and Rough Trade, meaning songs by such bands as FKA Twigs, Radiohead and M.I.A. will be part of Apple Music's debut lineup. Beggars has also had a hand in the career of Adele, among others.
Ahead of the June 30 Apple Music debut, Google has cunningly enabled a free streaming tier on its music subscription service called Google Play Music.
The ad-supported tier, which acts as a personalized radio station, is only available in the U.S.
It has hand-made playlists that are personalized around activity, feelings or musical tastes and designed to accompany every moment of your day. You can instantly start radio stations based on songs, artists, or albums—or browse stations by genre, mood, activity, decade and more.
Apple is in full-on PR damage control mode with a sudden change of heart after pop artist Taylor Swift posted her strongly worded editorial on the controversial and much maligned decision to not pay musicians during Apple Music's free of charge three-month trial period. Eddy Cue, Apple's Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services, took to Billboard to discuss what prompted this decision.
Apple's senior vice president of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue put an end Sunday night to several days of controversy by saying that Apple will pay artist for streaming their songs during the customer's free trial period of its new Apple Music service.
In a series of tweets representing a change of stance for the company, Cue clarified that Apple will always make sure that artists are paid.
Apple denies claims made by some artists that it's threatening to remove their songs from iTunes if they don't sign up for Apple Music, reports Rolling Stone. A company spokesperson told the outlet that music "will not be taken off" as a result of license negotiations.
The controversy arose earlier this week when Anton Newcombe of psychedelic rock group Brian Jonestown Massacre took to Twitter to complain about Apple and its bullying tactics. "I said what if I say no, and they said we'll take your music off itunes. hard ball?"
Apple was unable to secure the streaming rights for Taylor Swift's '1989' album, BuzzFeed reports. The outlet says both Swift's label and Apple have confirmed the story, meaning the massively popular album won't be available on Apple Music at launch.
Apparently Apple Music will feature Swift's back catalogue, however, which includes 4 other highly sought-after records. But those can already be found on other subscription services such as Rdio and Tidal, so they won't serve as a differentiating feature.
Beats 1, Apple's non-stop Internet radio station hosted by celebrity DJs, has made its first appearance in latest betas of iOS 8.4 and iOS 9 which are available to developers.
The Beats 1 interface appears unfinished with many features not active yet or performing erratically. Still, I was able to use the Music app on my iPad running iOS 9 Developer Preview to access a new Radio tab and get to Beats 1. I also browsed a list of stations and even streamed select ones and heard the promotional Beats 1 broadcast.
Here are my screenshots.