Items tagged with apple music
After weeks of rumors and leaks, Apple today announced that some significant updates are coming to its popular Apple Music subscription service. Apple is adding multiple lossless audio options for starters, using the proprietary Apple Lossless Audio Code (ALAC). The lossless audio option is available for the entire Apple Music catalog, which is currently in excess of 75 million songs. Users will be able to enable this feature by navigating to Settings --> Music --> Audio Quality. From there, you’ll be able to opt for CD-quality (16-bit at 44.1 kHz or 24-bit at 48 kHz) natively on Apple devices. However, Apple Music also offers a 24-bit at 192 kHz Hi-Resolution Lossless option...
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Rumors have insisted since last year that Apple was working on negotiating deals with publishers and music producers to bundle content together in a single subscription offering for customers. The rumor has gained steam as indications in iOS 13.5.5 beta hint that Apple is again working on a services bundle. That bundle is rumored to feature Apple Music, Apple TV+, and more offered under a single subscription. The assumption is that Apple would offer all of its available services in a single bundle at a lower price than buying them individually. Currently, Apple users could purchase a Family Sharing subscription to Apple Music, News+, and TV+ that would add up to around $30 per month. The new...
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Porsche and Apple have announced a team-up that will bring integrated Apple Music streaming to the fast and cool Porsche Taycan EV sports car. The Taycan is the first fully electric Porsche and is set to launch in September, and it will have a touchscreen display in its dash as part of the Porsche Advanced Cockpit. From that touchscreen, Apple Music subscribers will be able to stream over 50 million songs with no ads and have access to thousands of curated playlists and the Beats 1 global livestream. The music will stream using the Taycan's integrated internet data connectivity that is complimentary for the first three years of ownership. While Apple Music is available on most new vehicles today...
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Apple has had a big week, most notably its famed designer Jony Ive has left the company to join his own design firm. Apple has also announced that its Apple Music service has now passed 60 million subscribers. That number come from Eddy Cue in an interview given this week with a French news site. It appears that Apple is set on giving updates about Apple Music each time the service adds another 10 million users; the last update was given in April when Apple music hit the 50 million subscriber mark. The latest numbers put Apple past the halfway mark in matching its main rival, Spotify, for global paid subscribers. Spotify currently has about 100 million paid subscribers. Spotify reached the 100...
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Following an antitrust complaint filed by Spotify with the European Commission, Apple has issued a lengthy statement defending its App Store policies, and refuting Spotify's claims that it is being treated unfairly. The statement also insinuates that Spotify has become a leech, saying the App Store helped the streaming music service "dramatically grow" its business and now it wants to "keep all of the benefits of the App Store ... without making any contributions." Spotify filed its complaint earlier this week, accusing Apple of not playing fair by charging a 30 percent "tax" on purchases made in the App Store, including when customers upgrade from its free, ad-supported tier to one of its paid...
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The Indian market is one of the fastest growing markets for smartphones, internet users, and other electronic devices. The challenge for device makers and services is that the country is extremely price conscious as many in the nation have lower incomes. A low cost strategy is in part why budget smartphone maker OnePlus was able to beat out smartphone juggernauts Apple and Samsung in the Indian market. Music streaming service Spotify has now launched in India, and the launch brings with it the cheapest pricing for the premium tier that Spotify has ever offered. Spotify's monthly premium tier starts at Rs 119, which works out to about $1.67. To compare the U.S. price for the premium tier is $9.99...
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The battle for dominance in the streaming audio segment is heating up with Apple Music and Spotify fighting to be tops in the industry. Last summer reports indicated that Apple Music had passed Spotify in subscriber numbers for the first time. Spotify tried to get some of those subscribers back by trialing a new unlimited ad-skipping feature for its free subscribers. Spotify is now reportedly gearing up to shell out huge money for a podcasting startup called Gimlet Media. Reports indicate that the deal will cost Spotify over $200 million to close. If Spotify can add premium content from Gimlet Media to its offerings, the deal could undoubtedly lure in more subscribers in the fight against Apple....
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Airplane flights can be a bit of a drag. The aisles are cramped, the food tastes strange, and the Wi-Fi and entertainment offerings are often unreliable. Apple is trying to curb flight boredom with their latest offering. Apple Music subscribers will soon be able to access their music on any domestic American Airlines flight with Viasat satellite Wi-Fi. Oliver Schusser, vice president of Apple Music, remarked, “Subscribers can stream all their favorite songs and artists in the air, and continue to listen to their personal library offline, giving them everything they need to truly sit back, relax and enjoy their flight.” Apple Music subscribers will simply need to connect to the Viasat...
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Verizon is making it easy to rock out with your iPhone out, or with your Android device if that is how you roll. How so? Verizon has reached a deal with Apple to include an Apple Music subscription with its Beyond Unlimited and Above Unlimited Plans at no extra charge, starting tomorrow, January 17. That's a pretty nice perk, and it expands on Verizon's previous offer of six months of Apple Music included with its Unlimited plans. And while Go Unlimited customers are excluded from the expanded offer, they are still eligible to receive six months of Apple Music for free. "When we introduced six months free of Apple Music to Verizon Unlimited subscribers, we said it was just the beginning of a...
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Apple and Amazon sure seem to be getting cozy with one another these days. Earlier this month, Amazon started allowing sales of iPhones, iPads, and other Apple products directly and via authorized sellers in the Amazon Marketplace, ending a long-standing feud between the two. In true 'scratch my back and I'll scratch yours' fashion, Apple now plans to bring its streaming music service to Amazon's Echo smart speakers. It's a logical match, given the popularity of Apple Music and Amazon's line of Alexa-enabled Echo products. Despite what should have always been a logical pairing, Apple and Amazon had not worked together previously to make the collaboration happen—sure, a user could always...
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Verizon is partnering with Apple to offer customers six free months of Apple Music when they sign up for the wireless carrier's Unlimited service tier. The special offer is available to both new and current Unlimited customers. Those who want to take advantage of it just need to register to unlocked full access to Apple Music. While not a ground shaking promotion, it is certainly an interesting one that could bolster the subscriber counts of both the largest wireless carrier in the United States (Verizon) and the first trillion-dollar company (Apple). The special promotion might also be a precursor of things to come—Verizon hinted that this partnership could have legs. (Image Source: Tools...
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AAPL is heading towards new highs after Apple posted strong earnings for fiscal Q3 2018. Revenue jumped 17 percent year-over-year to $53.3 billion while earnings per diluted share increased 40 percent to $2.34. The company's net income for the quarter came in at $11.5 billion. During the quarter, Apple shipped 41.3 million iPhones, which was a slight increase over the 41 million it shipped during the same quarter last year. However, it should be noted that iPhone revenue increased a staggering 20 percent year-over-year from $24.8 billion to $29.9 billion. This can be directly attributed to the iPhone X, which Apple still says is currently its best-selling iPhone model. To give you an idea of...
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When it comes to digital music, streaming is king. Just a few years ago, it seemed as though we were all resigned to paying 99 cents per song or $10 for individual albums (thanks to Apple's iTunes push). However, the all-you-can-eat streaming music buffet is hard to ignore. We're now learning that Apple Music has surpassed reigning streaming music champ Spotify in U.S. subscriber numbers, which is a huge achievement for the service that launched nearly three years ago. The latest figures come courtesy of Digital Music News, which says that both Apple Music and Spotify have over 20 million paid subscribers in the United States alone. In the case of Apple Music, it is a "hair ahead" of Spotify. ...
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Apple has been aggressively focused on improving its Apple Music service to compete mainly with Spotify, currently the top dog in steaming music. As part of that, it looks like Apple is going to roll out browser-based streaming of songs and playlists, and not short preview clips, but full songs. The ability has been added to the Apple Music tools website with an updated interface that allows users to log in and play songs, albums, and playlists from an embeddable widget. Being able to create widgets for Apple Music is not new in and of itself. This is something that Apple has provided web developers all along, allowing artists to promote their music on their websites. However, previously Apple...
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Apple has Spotify in its sights as the company to beat in the streaming music industry. Spotify currently has the most subscribers out there (75 million paying subscribers), but Apple is catching up. Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed that Apple Music now has 50 million subscribers on the Bloomberg Television program “The David Rubenstein Show: Peer-to-Peer Conversations.” Cook says that the service has over 50 million users between paid members and trial users. That it’s a marked gain in subscribers compared to the 38 million in March and 40 million in April. Apple is gaining about 4 million conversions to paid subscribers per month and that amount has reportedly been consistent...
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Apple Music and Spotify are in the middle of a battle for paid music subscribers and right now Apple Music is losing. Spotify boasts 70 million paid subscribers to Apple’s 38 million subscribers. Apple Music is growing faster though, and predictions are that Apple could overtake Spotify by the end of 2018. To hold Apple off, Spotify has decided to leverage something Apple can’t -- the free tier of its music service. Spotify currently boasts 90 million free subscribers and that service is essentially a loss leader meant to get users liking the music and then buy a [commercial free] subscription. Spotify is improving that free offering to help lure in more users, and hopes it will eventually...
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Apple Music wants to beat Spotify in the streaming music game. Apple's streaming music service has been growing at about 5% per month compared to Spotify's 2% growth per month. At that pace, some in the industry think that Apple could have more subscribers than Spotify by the end of 2018. Spotify currently has around 76 million paid subscribers. Apple's latest Apple Music subscriber count puts the tech giant's service at 40 million users. That is up 2 million since last month when the service reported 38 million subscribers. That gain in such a short time signals that Apple's growth is accelerating. Apple has also given up details on the number of subscribers currently on a free trial. This rare...
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It's been a while since we heard much out of the RIAA after the organization was frequently in the news during its hunt to force anyone who even thought about illegally downloading music to pay damages. At times, the RIAA filed suits against deceased people essentially making it look like the bad guy to many music fans. The RIAA has now released information that looks at revenue statistics from 2017 and the music industry saw some growth last year. According to the statistics, revenue from recorded music in the U.S. increased 16.5% to an estimated retail value of $8.7 billion. Wholesale revenues grew 12.6% to $5.9 billion. RIAA attributes most of the growth in the industry to paid music subscription...
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It appears that Apple Music has gained 2 million subscribers over the past four weeks, representing a 5 percent jump in a relatively short period of time. At the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, Apple's senior vice president of internet Software and Services, Eddy Cue, disclosed the number of subscribers Apple Music now has, pegging the number at 38 million. That is up from 36 million in February, and puts Apple Music in the neighborhood of half as many subscribers as Spotify, which is still the king of the hill in the streaming music space. We don't have updated numbers for Spofity, but as of the end of 2017, the company announced it was sitting at 71 million paid subscribers globally....
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The top dog in the streaming music business in the United States is Spotify, which boasts more paid subscribers than any of its rivals. However, that could change by the end of the year. Apple Music is on pace to overtake Spotify in paid subscriber numbers in the US by the end of the year, as Apple has been able to generate a higher subscriber rate for its streaming music service than Spotify since launching in June 2015. Citing "people in the record business familiar with figures reported by two service," The Wall Street Journal says Apple's streaming music service is growing at a 5 percent clip each month, versus Spotify's 2 percent growth rate. If those figures stayed the same over the next...
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Music fans might recognize the name Jimmy lovine, as he was formerly the CEO at Interscope records. He came to be part of Apple after he and rapper Dr. Dre sold the incredibly popular Beats electronics business and the less popular music streaming service to Apple. Dre and lovine were paid out $3 billion by Apple for the company. While lovine has been working at Apple since that buyout in 2014, he never took a title with the company and reports now indicate he is set to leave the company. Sources claim that lovine will leave Apple in August 2018, which is said to coincide with when his Apple shares fully vest. While lovine became an official Apple employee in 2014, he had ties with Cupertino...
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It's looking more and more likely that the next flagship iPhone will have a price tag that starts at around $1,000. This shouldn't come as a surprise given the rising costs of flagship smartphones, and expensive components (like the OLED display panel) that Apple has to factor in and still enjoy its enviable profit margins. Now, some analysts are suggesting that Apple might go the bundle route to make those who might otherwise be averse to spending $1,000 on a smartphone more receptive. Analysts for Barclays claim that Apple might include a one-year subscription to Apple Music and 200GB of iCloud storage bundled in with the iPhone 8. One-year of Apple Music costs $120, while 200GB of iCloud storage...
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