Apple’s streaming music deals include permissions for additional Beats stations and now it's come to light that the Cupertino firm back in November filed trademark applications for Beats 2, Beats 3, Beats 4 and Beats 5 stations with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
As first reported by the French blog Consomac, all four trademark applications are assigned to “Beats Electronics, LLC” and the word marks look just like the existing logo for the Beats 1 radio station.
Beats 1 launched on Apple Music nearly six months ago to much fanfare, but today, the service doesn't seem to garner as much interest as it first did back in June. I myself listened to Beats 1 a bit, but the novelty quickly wore off, and the multiple genres played all days just didn't sit well with my specific tastes in music.
I know I haven't listened to Beats 1 in weeks, possibly months, and I am curious to see if more people feel the same way as I do, hence this poll.
Siri has apparently gained some new functionality for Apple TV, at least on the tvOS 9.1 beta. You can now direct the remote assistant to play any song or album directly from Apple Music, even if the song or album isn't in your library. Siri can even search for songs on Apple Music, play Play Beats 1 radio, and more.
This makes Siri a lot more useful on Apple TV, and means that you don't have to look at the interface to start playing a song that you want to hear. The lack of Siri integration for Apple Music has been a popular pain point for early adopters of 4th-generation Apple TV.
I'm running the 9.1 beta on my Apple TV. For the record, Siri search for music was said to come as an update early next year, so it's highly likely that this could be a beta-only feature. Other iDB staffers have tried to replicate this functionality on tvOS 9.0 boxes to no avail.
Watch our video that shows Siri integration for Apple Music on the Apple TV...
Speaking to his former Radio 1 boss at the Radio Festival in London, Beats 1 head DJ Zane Lowe admitted that he wasn't sure Apple Music needed Beats 1. In a moment of candor that probably made Apple's PR department choke on these words, Lowe is saying out loud what I've personally been thinking for a while.
Ian Rogers, former Beats Music CEO and Apple Music's Senior Director, has unexpectedly left Apple less than two months following the launch of Apple's music-streaming service, according to The Financial Times newspaper on Friday.
The executive is credited with crafting Beats 1 Radio, Apple's free of charge 24/7 Internet radio available in more than a hundred countries, and shaping its playlists. He was also instrumental in hiring away Beats 1 DJ Zane Lowe from his post at BBC Radio 1.
Apple and Beats co-founder Dr. Dre released statements on Friday regarding the rapper's contentious past. With the recent opening of the film "Straight Outta Compton," which tells the origin story of Dre's hip-hop group N.W.A., several questions have arisen regarding abuse allegations from the 1990's.
During the decade, Dr. Dre was accused of assaulting several women, including his girlfriend at the time and former television host Denise "Dee" Barnes. Since its debut, members of the media have been questioning why the events were missing from the Compton film, and today, Dre commented on the matter.
In addition to releasing the iOS 8.4.1 software update for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad with Apple Music fixes and enhancements, and the OS X Yosemite 10.10.5 software update with a crucial patch for the dangerous DYLD exploit and more, Apple today also posted a new version of iTunes with a bunch of fixes and improvements.
Among other things, iTunes 12.2 for Mac and Windows contains improvements for Beats 1, Apple Music and Connect features while fixing a few issues with the software.
As Apple and its executives continue to point out, what sets Beats 1 apart from other streaming radio services is its human curation. Instead of software algorithms, Beats 1 features real-life DJs that play whatever song they are feeling at any given moment.
But that doesn't mean you won't hear music get repeated. Quartz tracked the Beats 1 playlist throughout the month of July, and according to its data, out of 12,445 songs, only 3,371 were unique. This means that each song was played an average of 3.7 times.
Beats 1 is a great, but what if you're not available to listen to your favorite DJ's show at the time it initially airs? Good news: Beats 1 nowallows users to replay entire shows.
Since Beat 1's inception, it's always been possible to replay a DJ's playlist, but being able to replay an entire show, complete with commentary, wasn't possible. Thanks to the recent change, this is no longer the case.
Users can now easily replay a show from their favorite DJ just by following a few steps. Admittedly, the steps aren't as straightforward as one might expect from a company that prides itself on dead-simple usage, but it seems to be a running theme with iTunes and the Music app to make things more muddled than need be.
Beats 1 may not be the only live radio station on Apple Music for long, reports The Verge. Citing sources with knowledge of the agreement, the outlet says that Apple's current music licensing contracts include permissions for up to five additional Beats radio stations.
"As part of the deal it struck with the major labels for Apple Music Radio," says The Verge's Micah Singleton, "Apple has licenses for up to five additional stations like Beats 1." So it could essentially create a lineup of 6 radio stations without needing to renegotiate.
Dr. Dre's highly anticipated Compton will premiere on Apple Music this week, says Zane Lowe. The popular DJ and Beats 1 Radio host announced on Twitter this afternoon that the album will stream uncensored and exclusively this Thursday from 6pm to 9pm PDT.
This will be Dre's first new album in more than 15 years, succeeding Chronic 2001, which went sextuple platinum. He announced the record on his Beats 1 show "The Pharmacy" late last week, saying that the music was inspired by the new movie Straight Outta Compton.
Apple on Wednesday launched an official AppleMusic Snapchat account. The company is promoting the venture on Instagram and other social networks, indicating that its first story offers an exclusive look at Beats 1 Radio.
You can find the story on Snapchat under the user name AppleMusic. The video is just over 200 seconds long, and it takes you on a quick tour of the three studios in Los Angeles, New York and London that keep Beats 1 going.