Beats 1

Apple Music was a service that I was incredibly excited about when Apple announced it last month at WWDC. I’ve written a lot about music here at 9to5Mac and every time I explain how big of a music fan I am. When I’m in my office, I always have music playing, whether it be radio or a specific artist or album. For the past two years, I’ve been using Spotify for all of my streaming music needs. I never had a problem with the service, especially recently as it has upped the quality of both its iOS and Mac apps to be both more stable and feature-rich. A combination that is hard to come by nowadays.

Being the Apple fanboy that I am, however, I obviously had to give Apple Music a try. For the past week, I’ve been using the service as my exclusive source for music. How does it compare to Spotify? Is it enough to make me permanently switch? Read on…

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Apple’s Beats 1 global radio station went online this week, and its programming is already grabbing plenty of headlines. The challenge: just like conventional radio, the station doesn’t (yet) offer on-demand recordings of complete past shows. If there’s a DJ, specific artist, new show, or interview you’re really interested in hearing, you’ll need to tune in live… or, if you have a spare iOS 8.4 (or soon, iOS 9) device, you can use this handy guide to record Beats 1 shows using OS X’s free built-in app QuickTime Player. Read on for the details…

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Many have praised Apple Music’s launch this week, although the focus has largely been on the free component of the service, a 24/7 streaming radio station called Beats 1. But how are users reacting to the rest of the Apple Music service? It received a lot of positive reviews in the media, but users have noticed some user experience issues and technical hiccups with Apple Music that might keep them from making a switch from the competition when the service’s free three month trial is up. Since the issues aren’t getting a lot of attention from the main stream media, I wanted to share everything we hate about Apple Music so far and what Apple needs to fix before converting potential switchers:
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Eddy Cue confirmed late last night that a new iOS 9 seed is coming to developers next week with support for Apple Music, but since the service launched yesterday, users have discovered that there are a few ways to use certain aspects of it while on iOS 9.

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I’m not expecting here to replicate my rather extensive Apple Watch diary series – I doubt this one will run to four pieces. I’m also not starting out here as an Apple Music skeptic. I’ve been using Spotify for years, and – from a brief trial of Beats Music – started out pretty confident I would be jumping ship once Apple Music launched.

But I do think Apple Music has one thing in common with the Watch: I don’t think it’s possible to judge it without a reasonable amount of usage. So I thought I’d begin with my first impressions and then follow up once I’ve used it long enough to have more to say.

I’m not going to dwell on the launch-day glitches, like the welcome screen (above) left over from the beta, the rather belated iTunes update, Beats 1 outage, frequent spinning beachballs in iTunes and the tracks that either refused to play at all or took an age to do so. Half the planet was simultaneously using the service yesterday, so these things will only become issues if they persist. So leaving those aside, what were my first impressions … ? 
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If you’ve been more impressed by Beats 1 radio than I have, and want to invite your Android-owning friends to check it out, there are a number of unofficial web streams for that.

Developer Benjamin Rumble found an unencrypted HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) URL for the service and embedded it in a webpage on his personal site. You can also access the URL directly. Since then, others have found additional URLs … 
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[Update: iMessage requests supported as well.]

Apple Music and its accompanying 24/7 always on radio station Beats 1 launched earlier today with Zane Lowe hosting. Alongside Apple Music, the company launched a refreshed Tumblr blog with Beats 1’s schedule. The company has also launched a webpage inviting users to request content to be played.

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Apple’s Beats 1 internet radio service has just gone live following the release of the iOS 8.4 software update earlier today. Host Zane Lowe introduced the station, saying, “We spent the last three months trying to build this radio station. Now we can build no more.”

The first song to play on the service was City by Spring King. Lowe said the song had been used for a variety of purposes at the station, including sound checks and demos to get other artists on board with Beats 1.

Beats 1 is part of Apple Music, the new on-demand streaming service first debuted at WWDC last month. Users running the latest iOS software can listen to the free Beats 1 stream, which will feature a variety of shows from hosts like Dr. Dre and Drake.

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As promised, Apple has just released the iOS 8.4 software update featuring an all-new Music app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch to the public after testing with developers since mid-April. While it includes smaller changes throughout, the update primarily delivers an overhauled Music app with Apple Music (notice the new icon), its brand new subscription music streaming service, and Beats 1, its 24/7 live radio station that launches today.
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Speaking to Rolling Stone about creating Beats 1 radio, Trent Reznor said he wanted to recreate the feeling you got when walking into a really good independent record store.

I want that feeling of walking into an independent record shop, if there are still any that exist, like Amoeba [Records], and being delighted by the choices and the way music is presented to you with love and care. It’s exciting. And you leave with stuff you wouldn’t have dreamed you wanted and you’re excited to listen and share it and experience it.

Reznor, who was previously Chief Creative Officer at Beats Music, said that listening to Zane Lowe’s BBC radio show totally inspired him … 
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Dr. Dre with Apple’s Eddy Cue

[Update: Apple tells us that The Chronic will definitely be available tomorrow on Apple Music.]

[Update #2: The Chornic is available on Apple Music and available to purchase digitally for the first time on the iTunes Store.]

Taylor Swift’s 1989 album isn’t the only high profile record exclusive coming to Apple’s new streaming music service when it launches tomorrow. Apple Music is said to include Dr. Dre’s classic album The Chronic for streaming, Rolling Stone reports, which will be a digital first for the hip-hop album.
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Apple directors have been somewhat talkative over the weekend about the imminent release of Apple Music. Former Beats Music CEO Ian Rogers, who now works as a Senior Director of Apple Music, blogged about the product’s launch. He reminisces on the history of digital music and radio saying that seeing Apple Music on stage at WWDC ‘it was hard not to feel like the last 20+ years was leading to this day’.

Interestingly, Apple will be releasing iOS 8.4 at 8 AM on June 30th which includes the newly revamped Music app to support Apple Music. This is slightly earlier than the usual 10 AM release window. The change in scheduling seems to be in service of Beats 1, Apple’s worldwide radio station, which will start streaming from 9 AM on the same day.

Meanwhile, Eddy Cue has also been leaking some tidbits about Apple Music on Twitter …

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Along with today’s announcement that Zane Lowe’s first Beats 1 interview will be with Eminem, a New York Times profile on the DJ revealed the titles and hosts for other shows on Apple’s upcoming music streaming service.

As you might expect, Apple’s own Dr. Dre will be hosting a show of his own called “The Pharmacy.” Rapper Drake, who appeared on stage at the Apple Music announcement, will also have a show on the streaming radio service.

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Ahead of its launch next week, Apple today has launched a new ad for Beats 1 in Times Square in New York City. Zane Lowe, who will be one of three hosts on Apple’s 24/7 streaming station Beats 1, tweeted the above image of the advertisement.

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The Beats 1 radio station that forms part of Apple Music has put in its first appearance for iPhone and iPad users running the beta version of iOS 8.4 and iOS 9. Users are seeing the station logo and hearing pre-roll audio from Zane Lowe when it is clicked.

It’s just a demo at this stage, with pre-recorded audio, but is one step closer to the launch of the streaming music service which launches on June 30 via an all-new Music app … 
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