Music

Huge Beats 1 billboard takes over Times Square

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 24, 2015

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.

Pharrell William’s new single ‘Freedom’ will be an Apple Music exclusive

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 3, 2016

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.

Thousands of indie labels get on board with Apple Music ahead of June 30 launch

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 24, 2015

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.

Google launches free ad-supported Internet radio just ahead of Apple Music launch

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 23, 2015

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 lays out why it relented to compensate artists during free Apple Music trial

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 22, 2015

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 will pay artists for streaming their songs during Apple Music free trial after all

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated September 6, 2017

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 that it’s threatening artists to force Apple Music deals

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

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 Music will not feature Taylor Swift’s hit album ‘1989’

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

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.

Apple Music to cost €9.99 per month in Europe, but many indie acts could be absent from launch

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 17, 2015

Apple Music launches June 30 and while the company has said that unlimited streaming will set US-based music lovers back $9.99 per month, the iPhone maker has yet to reveal pricing for other markets in which the service will sell.

A recent sighting in the latest iOS 8.4 beta shared with iDownloadBlog indicates Apple Music will be priced the same dollar for dollar across Europe, with UK customers paying £9.99 per month and the rest of the continent €9.99 per month, or £14.99/€14.99 for family plans.

These prices have yet to be confirmed on Apple’s official website. It's important to note that UK prices include tax while US ones don't include sales tax, which varies by state. As a result, Brits will be paying a bit of a premium compared to US users.

Meanwhile, many independent labels in the UK may refuse to sign Apple Music contract, meaning the service could launch without such big-name artists as Adele and the Arctic Monkeys.

Spotify launches fun new feature called Rewind that turns your music back in time

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 14, 2018

If you ever wondered which artists you would be listening to if you were born in another time, now you can thanks to Rewind, a new feature by Spotify that helps you turn your music back in time.

By doing so, Rewind makes it easy and supposedly fun to know what you'd be listening to in another decade, based on what you listen to today and thanks in no small part to Spotify's rich knowledge graph about its user base.

djay 2 introduces Force Touch trackpad support, automatic transitions on Apple Watch and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 28, 2019

German developer Algoriddim has refreshed its award-winning mixing and scratching application for DJs with support for force-sensing technology on Mac notebooks outfitted with Force Touch trackpad, tighter Apple Watch integration and many other perks mentioned below. In addition, djay 2 for iPhone and djay 2 for Mac both received support for the Reloop Beatpad 2 MIDI controller.

Spotify grows to 75 million active users and 20 million paid subscribers globally

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 14, 2018

Spotify has a lot to lose should Apple Music catch on with music lovers. Following Monday's WWDC 2015 keynote which saw, amongst other things, the announcement of Apple's ten bucks per month on-demand music subscription service, Spotify has felt compelled to share the latest stats to reinforce its position as the world's leading streaming music provider.

As of May of this year, the Swedish startup had more than 75 million active users, of which more than 20 million are on one Spotify's paid Premium tiers.