Apple announced its streaming music service at WWDC this week after months of much anticipation. The service includes many of the features that our own Mark Gurman reported on months in advance. Earlier this year, I broke down my own thoughts on what features the service needed to have in order to convince me to switch from Spotify. Those requested features included excellent support for my previously acquired music; well-designed, cross-platform apps; exclusive content; competitive pricing; and a killer radio functionality.
No competitor to Apple Music has anything that even remotely resembles Beats 1.
Spotify has playlists curated by artists and DJs, but not a 24/7 hand-picked radio show hosted by three of the most respected DJs. Tidal claims to have exclusive content from many artists, but again, no live radio. Rdio and Google Play Music are in the same boat, as well.
With the addition of Zane Lowe, Apple has opened its Music service up to a whole slew of artists. While at BBC Radio 1, Lowe established connections with some of the most popular and influential artists in the world. Apple obviously realized that when it hired him, but up until yesterday, we did not know that Lowe would be hosting a radio show for Apple. With Lowe’s new position, he can continue doing what made BBC Radio 1 so successful and offer his help in curating content for Apple Music.
While a DJ in London, Lowe hosted a variety of interviews that went on to go viral with artists. Zane has interviewed artists such as Kanye West, Jay-Z, Chris Martin, Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran, Eminem, and producer Rick Rubin. With Apple’s new Beats 1 station, Lowe can continue hosting these revealing and often controversial interviews. Lowe was also respected for discovering up and coming artists before they made it big.
As I mentioned earlier this year, Apple Music needs truly exclusive content to be successful and Zane Lowe coupled Beats 1 provides that. Beats 1 is something that can’t be replicated by any other streaming music services. More than likely, no other streaming service could even afford to higher a trio like Lowe, Darden, and Adenuga.
One thing many people seem to forget is that artists love to develop relationships with DJs and radio stations. Lowe, Darden, and Adenuga have all developed relationships with artists that will greatly benefit Apple Music. When an artist develops a relationship with a DJ, they are more likely to give interviews and be more revealing in those interviews. Legendary producer Rick Rubin doesn’t give many interviews, nor does he let many people tour his Shangri La studios, but he let Zane Lowe do both. Another example is Coldplay singer Chris Martin giving Lowe an exclusive interview and play-through of his band’s newest record before it was released last year.
There are still some questions remaining about Beats 1 and how it will function. Will there be a schedule of content? Will there even be specific ‘shows’? Can users receive push notifications for the shows in which they are interested? Right now, Beats 1 only plays a prerecorded clip of Zane Lowe introducing the service, so perhaps even Apple doesn’t have all of those answers yet.
There’s another aspect to this, however, If Beats 1 does not live up to the hype, then what else sets Apple Music apart? If you take away the live radio station functionality, Apple Music is a lot like all of the other services with which users already have accounts and libraries. Beats 1 is the feature that could make it worth it for users to drop their current subscriptions and libraries with services like Spotify and Rdio. That’s why Apple needs to work to ensure that what is broadcast on Beats 1 is liked by listeners, and also interesting and relevant enough to keep them listening.
Regarding my other wishes for Apple Music, Apple also announced that Apple Music would be directly integrated into the new Music app on iOS, which I went hands-on with earlier this year. This means that Apple Music content is directly intermingled with the content that you have already purhcased via iTunes and have stored in iTunes Match. With the integration of Apple Music, the new Music app will only get better.
Apple also announced revealed that Apple Music will be priced at $9.99 for a single user, which is inline with what competitors charge. The service, however, will cost just $14.99 for a family plan with up to six different users, which is a considerably better deal than any other streaming service.
Beats 1 is more important to the success of Apple Music than any number of millions of songs Apple could brag about having because it is something, again, that is not easily replicated by any competitors. There is only one Zane Lowe, one Ebro Darden, and one Julie Adenuga. Offering a 24/7 live radio station is what sets Apple Music apart from the competition and what will ultimately lend most to its success or failure.
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Wouldn’t really say the zane Lowe made Radio One successful. Considering Radio started before he was even born it seems like you might have it the wrong way around
i could not care less about Beats1 TBH…
does anyone know if you can create radios based on 1 specific song like on Google Play Music? that’s such a deal-breaker for me, cuz i’ve found a lot of cool songs with it
Yes you can even on the free add suported subscription and you can make as many as you want but you limited to 6 skips per hour
Per radio station
oh cool, then i will definitely try it when it launches
your saying that you CAN create your own radio stations like pandora/spotify? I never saw that in the presentation. Only that you can ask siri to create a playlist.
What I want is complete access to the entire catalog and just click on what artists, albums, songs I want and either create my own playlists or just click on whatever song/album I want to listen to. As far as a “radio station” is concerned, I don’t have any need for that since they aren’t creating a radio station around the music I listen to. I don’t really listen to much “current pop songs” and I listen to a lot of different genres of music and I don’t want someone else telling me what is hip and cool to listen to, especially Zane & Co.
“i could not care less about Beats1 TBH”
I don’t get how someone makes this statement before minute one of something’s existence. Why not give a listen first and then make a judgement?
“I don’t get how someone makes this statement before minute one of something’s existence. ”
Because of self-important doucheyness?
I don’t know man this is something we really need to try, but for now most radio stations have pretty cool sound effects that sounds exactly like what apple played for us, I think they will make it some sort of platform where they will launch music for some of their like drake and pharrel, just a marketing for their big artists live shows like bbc 1 and we can not even call our djs and sound stupid like on local radios, not that we ever call anyways.
Couldn’t care less about a radio station with someone else deciding what I listen to.
Radio is dead, and on demand music killed it.
Nothing about Apple music makes any sense to me, and I do not see it doing very well. Connect is a pathetic attempt to bring back Ping.
Wait what doesn’t make sense. It is a streaming service + live radio station + non-live radio stations + personalised playlists+ your own itunes music. I dont get why everyone is confused. A gander to the Apple website explains everything
What doesn’t make sense? Why anyone would pay $10 a month for that.
U have clearly zero idea about how much radio is used and how Popular pandora is to say radio is dead
Pandora is for lazy people who want Free background music. People forking over $10/mon to stream the iTunes catalog don’t care about radio.
There’s a great article about how to understand Connect by Michael Vakulenko: http://www.visionmobile.com/blog/2014/05/understand-beats-need-understand-lady-gaga/ .
Artists, since music sales can no longer guarantee their living, have come to rely on the relationship that they maintain with their fans to sell lots of other stuff, and to know what interests their listeners. So, here’s a quote from an interview with Jimmy Iovine, back when Beats was independent, that gives some idea of the original idea for Beats Music.
“But there something else going on our service that doesn’t go on anywhere. We have to make it user-friendly to the artist. They have to be able to build businesses on it. They have to be able to have the information who is using their music, where they are… That has to become a business for the artist as much as communicating with their fans. Right now, they (music services) have all the information and the artist have no information. No one knows… I don’t know. I own a record company. I would die to know who bought my records on iTunes or bought my tickets on TicketMaster.”
There is nothing like a “dead media”. All the media that have been created since antiquity are still here: theater and opera, books, newspapers and magazines, radio, records (whatever form they took), movies, television… Not one “killed” the other, even though it has often been said that they would. They just are many more of them and though some are less important than they use to be, they are still there and even reviving. Nothing beats a live performance, whatever it is and how good the media is retransmitting it. So, no radio isn’t dead, so much as theater, cinema, television and print isn’t dead. It’s evolving, and Beats1 seems to be an indication to where it is evolving, but dead it isn’t.
I agree in principle that the consumer should *always* have the option of choosing one’s own music, but isn’t it nice to let someone else do the driving once in a while?
As good as it is, it’s still going to be only certain music, when these people say “good music”, the intention is good yet I know right off there’s dozens, if not hundreds of genres which will never be looked at and I would bet money on that. Only 3 DJ’s? You know it’s gonna be diverse……
I like Apple Music a lot overall but PMZ is on the money with his comment regarding on-demand. I’m much more interested in seeing how music and music appreciation may grow overall with the network and accessibility that the new app will help afford.
Really excited to use Apple Music. It is not mentioned much by journalists, but the biggest thing that I want is the ability to play almost any song on demand. Apple and the media haven’t made that very clear in my opinion. That catalog, which is just like spotify, is what I really want in a music streaming service. That is why I use spotify often. Rather than having to buy a song that I like, I buy access to all songs that I want for $10 a month. Really hoping this replaces spotify for me.
I can’t remember the last time I listened to a radio broadcast. Beats 1 (or is it Beats One?) really interests me. I like the idea mentioned about push notifications for specific shows, or interviews. Considering it runs 24/7 that type if information is very useful.
The other benefit for Apple is since it’s a radio show, they can track how often and when people tune in and improve the service. If it’s not a hit at first, then it can be tuned until it is. I don’t see Apple letting this service rot away if it’s not a hit. I see them perfecting it until it is.
Although the ipod and music is essentially what kicked start Apple again, that then pushed on the the iphone with a built in ipod music app — i think this is a wrong move for them.
Beats does not really match the same image as Apple — watching the WWDC it was cringe worthy when they did the “one more thing…” and out popped the guys to talk about the music thingy…
I listen to music, but care very little for the artist (i listen to music based on how i feel, not who is singing or making the song) — so forgive me for not know the names of these people.. quite frankly i was shocked to see what seemed to be either a drunk or drug abuser guy bounce around on stage trying to introduce this new Apple music – it was almost like Apple wanted him in the back ground but he demanded to be on stage, so they gave him that segment, only for Apple to then re-explain what the ‘crazy’ dude had just said…
Then the beats guy came out — another cringe moment for apple — this guy looked way out of place for a software development conference… it was strangely comical…
I like the idea that Apple is trying to get more music to us, stuff that maybe we wouldn’t listen too or even come across…
sharing with friends, making new friends to share with etc is great — i think apple should have done something similar to the amazon unlimited lending library for ebooks… they should have an apple music unlimited lending library for music… they should make it sociable…
I don’t care much for radio — it only serves it’s purpose for emergency broadcast — i don’t want people, who i care very little about, to be doing interviews and telling me what music i should like… i’d much prefer to select someones play list etc and listen to that, and save interviews for youtube…
One of the main reason people turned away from radio is because people wanted to cut out the talking man that kept interrupting the music or cutting it off too soon…
For me the system is flawed — and over priced — i’d much prefer $3.99 without the radio DJ people…
Also, i don’t rate beats as a good brand… they are cheaply made, overly priced, and poor quality — even apple has had to recall devices due to fire hazards…
I just hope they dont do what HP did and try to integrate it too much into the Apple devices…hopefully apple just bought them for a long term investment for patents and artists — hopefully in a few years they will force out the other guys and rebrand the image of beats to suit apple
Beats 1 is a free service (commercial free) that anyone can use without subscribing to Apple Music. I guess if you loved it, you would stick around in the app?
I think its an interesting idea and could compliment on-demand streaming. I have not listened to fm radio in 6 years. Ideally, spending 85% of my time listening to on demand and 15% on beats 1 would be terrific.
There is something interesting to be said if they do not stick to only top 40 stuff and give the general public a variety of up and coming artist. I hate how mainstream music takes forever for artist like the weeknd and disclosure to make it big. Maybe this can finally bury the crap they put on the current radio? Kind of like “all songs considered” type of show.
I think this has real potential… many artists have loyalty to certain DJs and premiere new songs on their radio show. One of those people is Zane and by having a global platform that will reach everyone with an Apple product/iTunes is MASSIVE. Look at the possible headlines:
“World Premiere of New Single from (Insert any artist) Exclusively on Beats1 Radio Tonight!”
Add Ryan Seacrest to the mix and that will also be a big addition!
Meh I’ll just pull up BBC Radio One from the TuneIn app.
And who decides what good music is? I think it’s pretty arrogant for Jimmy Iovine to think he and his pals are the only arbiters of good taste when it comes to music.
What I like about radio is the local content like my favorite soccer team and the news. So in the morning and while I am driving I have no need for a world wide radio show.
It might be different in the evening when I am visiting friends and pure background music is wanted.
From a financial point of view it might make sense since Beats1 could be attractive for kids world wide. Actually it is a sad thing that something like a world wide radio show will make kids dummer and less informed about local politics. I guess the information age has to make way for a radio show where kids listen to a non news radio DJ who sits in another time zone and to get real important news like the breakfast of their stars on connect instead of politics…
Overall I agree. I don’t know if Beats One WILL make a difference, but conceptually its the right idea. We’re obviously in a phase were unique content is king (Netflix, Yahoo, Amazon, Hulu all making shows & movies to set themselves apart. Sirius spends big money for their unique DJs and radio shows)
Spotify and Apple Music are going to be extremely similar when it comes to music selection and features, so offering content no one else can offer will be key. This also gives Apple the ability to leverage their deep connections in the music industry to get live performances and interviews with artists that no one else will have. Will Beats One get enough attention from listeners to make a difference? I have no idea, but its the right strategy.
I agree. This is what I am looking forward to. Hoping for interviews and performances from artists as well as new music.
Streaming,..there are plenty of decent options and I am already enjoying Spotify and have no complaints.
What’s the name of the song playing in the background in The History of Sound from 1888 to 2015 Apple ad http://www.apple.com/music/films/#film-history-of-sound
“World renowned DJ.” Must be old because that’s a phrase I thought I would never see.
Apple is bringing something to the table that no one else is doing. Not only are they in a position to afford the risk, but hey obviously recognize the value in it.
The only person to decide what they’ve brought forth is useful is the consumer. What Apple is doing is providing a means for the consumer to decide for themselves what they like from s number of different option which are unavailable anywhere else.
People don’t appreciate change despite change being an inevitability. What Apple is doing is providing an opportunity for listeners to determine what they like best from an unprecedented selection. After that, Apple will adjust to consumer preferences. But in the meantime, this is about as good as it gets from a music streaming service. Enjoy it while it lasts!
My question is can I leave everything the way it is now? I am not interested in Beats 1…I have my own library of over 750 Albums…I use iTunes Match and have some iTunes Radio stations created…it works for me. Can I leave things the way they are and pay the same? That is unclear…
If radio stations are so awesome, how about activating the FM chips in our phones.