Apple’s upcoming Beats-based streaming music service will likely be named “Apple Music” and will have deep social networking integration for artists, according to industry sources briefed on the plans for the new service.
Taking a page out of the discontinued iTunes Ping feature from earlier this decade, the service will allow artists to have their own pages within the streaming music service that they can use to post track samples, photos, videos, and concert updates.
Artists will also be able to share the content of other artists in an effort of cross-promotion. For example, all-gold Apple Watch wearer Kanye West could promote a new album from Taylor Swift on his “Apple Music” artist page, if he so chooses…
Using iTunes accounts, all users of the streaming music service will be able to comment on and like these posts from big name artists, but users won’t have their own social network profiles like with Ping.
Artists Activity will be a core feature of the “Apple Music” streaming service, but users will actually be able to disable it in the Restrictions Settings panel in iOS 8.4. Accidentally leaked in the latest iOS 8.4 beta for developers, the Restrictions menu has an “Artist Activity” switch, which sources say corresponds directly to the aforementioned Ping-like functionality. The network will be available across the iOS, Android, and Mac versions of “Apple Music.”
Sources have said that the service will be integrated deeply into the redesigned iOS 8.4 Music application, and that users will be able to port over existing Beats Music cloud libraries. Even with overlapping functionality, iTunes Match and iTunes Radio will be retained, with Radio receiving an overhaul for improved mixes and an international rollout to mirror the streaming service.
In February, we reported extensively on the feature set of the new streaming music service, noting that it will feature many of the playlist, curation, and organization features of the existing Beats Music app, but with a new Apple design. The current Beats Music app has basic functionality for artists, such as a biography and playlist pages, as shown in the screenshots above.
Alongside iOS 8.4, iOS 9, OS X 10.11, and the new Apple TV features, Apple Music will be introduced at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference Kickoff keynote on Monday, June 8th. While Apple had originally planned to release the service on that date, we recently reported that the company now currently plans to release the paid service, which sources confirm will have a free trial option, toward the end of June.
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Grumpy cat says “No.”
Jesus, I swear they are taking every idea I’ve had for making iTunes/Music better and are running with it. I’m starting to feel like my apartment is bugged.
I’m still up in the air about a streaming service since all of the others have the problem called buffering. I hate to listen to music where it starts and stops to buffer, that’s annoying and I don’t know if any of these streaming services is going to solve that problem since the problem is rooted with whatever WiFi or ISP service we have and whether or not it’s a good/fast enough connection.
The second issue is with Lossy streaming, it just doesn’t sound that great on a nice stereo. I use one of my Macs as a music server connected to a nice stereo, which is where I do most of my listening and sound quality is a priority on that system and Lossy simply doesn’t sound that great. it’s OK, but not $10 a month OK. I hate to say it, but Tidal seems very promising since it’s Lossless, however I just don’t want to give LayZ any of my money because I simply can’t stand that idiot.
I think Apple should offer a Lossless service, even at a higher monthly rate.
On another note:
I wish Apple would get iTunes revamped it’s in need of a total make over, and much added features.
Spotify has no hearable buffering times, never had.
Not sure what kind of service you have, but everywhere I go I get absolutely zero buffering on almost anything. Nowadays I can play an HD movie on Netflix on LTE and it never buffers.
You need to get rid of your dial-up AOL account
Buffering? Are you still on dialup? I’ve not experienced 5 seconds of bufferings on Spotify or Rdio or Beats.
I haven’t had any buffering issues but I do notice a difference in quality and volume between beats and iTunes Match. I honestly don’t know if rdio and spotify have the same issue though. I would imagine this gets taken care of when everything merges.
Apple should have just bought Last.fm since they aren’t very good at social networking. Maybe they will turn it around with this attempt but I have serious doubts judging by the last outing.
I actually really like this idea. I loved being able to connect Rdio to last.fm and see what I’ve played recently.
WTF? Kanye West promote a new Taylor Swift album on his page? First off, Kanye is part of Tidal, so I don’t know if he’s going to get involved with trying to promote the use of anything else. Secondly, Kayne trying to promote Taylor Swift? Huh? That loser only wants to promote himself and why on earth do I even care what Kanye West wants to promote? I have ZERO interest in that.
Is this feature only for those that own a Gold Edition Apple Watch that can promote other’s music?
Aren’t you aware of the little problems between the two singers?
Sounds like they don’t want to throw Facebook or Twitter any bones. I don’t blame them.
It really sounds like they are finally hitting all the check boxes for a streaming service. The reason Spotify is so big is that they have great Facebook and social integration. What are my friends listening to right now? Rio definitely is the most complete streaming service out there, but they don’t have as many people because they aren’t the best at social and they were a little later to the game.
Hopefully Apple will hit this out of the park. I can’t wait for DubDub.
iTunes Radio is great I listen to it everyday just add a paid part
off topic but i think the name “Apple Beats” is better…
What is most interesting to me is that everything new is “Apple”XXXX, not “i”XXXX.
AppleWatch, ApplePay, AppleMusic. People will always be able to tell were Steve ended and Tim began.
I think Apple was running into many trademark issues with i in front of the names. Having Apple in front of anything eliminates that .
I mean Ping was such a joy why wouldnt Apple choose to ignore facebook and twitter for their own social network once again!
I think the social aspect of the service that is focused on artists rather than on users like with Spotify makes more practical sense. I have never found that knowing what my friends are listening to is particularly useful as I have my own distinct tastes in music. I have set of musicians I would like to follow more closely. The only real way to do that is their Twitter for news, and for new music Soundcloud. It looks like Apple Music service will integrate these two “feeds” into one coherent experience. One concern is that its is one more thing for musicians to maintain. I am not sure what kind of incentives Apple is luring the musicians with, but the Ping service, which was supposed to connect musicians with listeners turned out to be a dud. To be fair, Ping was not a part of overall listening experience, so if this idea is baked into music app we use daily it may be a different story. For newer and up-and-coming musicians this may help foster their development.
Yeah, this could be pretty sweet. Imagine a SoundCloud like aspect where anyone can upload their content from their Mac, iPad or iPhone to be streamed the world over and get rated by the global listening audience. Good music gets floated to the top. Almost like an app store for musicians. Could be pretty brilliant.
Sort of breezed over your post, you made a similar point – didn’t mean to repeat what you said.