Drake

As part of a charity music event raising money for children affected by Hurricane Katrina, Apple Music rival TIDAL streamed the event live on its website. However, when Drake took the stage to perform his set, the stream was abruptly paused. A message from TIDAL said that Apple had banned Drake from allowing his performance to be broadcast online, with TIDAL saying that Apple is “interfering with artistry” and apologizing for the “big brother” influence.

TIDAL made similar claims on its Twitter feed but it turns out these claims are simply untrue. Although it is true that Apple has an exclusivity deal with Drake for his new album, the contract does not stop Drake from streaming live performances. Buzzfeed confirmed that Apple had nothing to do with the censoring of the stream.

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When Beats 1 launched earlier this summer, two of the things Apple and its hosts were adamant about were that the station had no specific genre and that it was meant to be a global representation of music. Looking to investigate Apple’s success at following through with those goals, Quartz has analyzed all of the songs played on Beats 1 during a one month period from early July to early August…

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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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Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference is about to kick off. On Monday, June 8th, company executives will take the stage at San Francisco’s Moscone Center to provide their annual roadmap for Apple’s software, services, and devices.

Traditionally, Apple has used the conference to introduce major upgrades to the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch operating system iOS, as well as the Mac operating system OS X, along with new services. Of course, 2015 will be no different. Apple has been preparing a new version of iOS 9 codenamed “Monarch,” a release of OS X 10.11 codenamed “Gala,” a new streaming Apple Music service based on Beats Music, and updates for the Apple Watch.

Over the last several years, we have provided advance reports on the lion’s share of announcements that will be made at WWDC, as well as a comprehensive roundup ahead of the event. Read on for our roundup of what’s coming, along with fresh new details not found in our earlier reports.

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Apple is ready to show the first fruits of its Beats acquisition next week. As we first reported in early March, Apple is planning to introduce its long-awaited Beats-based streaming music service at its Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday, June 8th. Blending Apple interface design and features from the Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine-created Beats Music app, Apple’s service, known internally as “Apple Music,” is built to take on Spotify and Pandora with several new features and a subscription model. Additionally, Apple is working on overhauling its widely panned iTunes Radio service by striking deals with popular artists and DJs. Below, we detail Apple’s plans for both Apple Music and the new iTunes Radio in an extensive roundup.

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[tweet https://twitter.com/Drake/status/566085353400852480/]

Canadian rapper Drake has released an unexpected new mixtape album on iTunes, announcing it on Twitter as it went live. The album, entitled If you’re reading this it’s too late, was added to iTunes shortly before midnight ET … 
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