Apple Music Launched At The WWDC 2015

The WWDC 2015 finally allowed Apple to reveal the product of its acquisition of the music subscription from Beats last year for $3 billion. The Cupertino-based tech giant unveiled Apple Music, its first music streaming service.

While users have to pay $10 a month to take advantage of the new music service, the company revealed it was planning to offer a family plan allowing up to six people to use one subscription for $15 each month. The service will be available with a three-month free trial when it will be launched in over 100 countries on June 30.

However, some elements of the service will not be available during the trial period, including viewing artists’ content. Listening to the radio will also have some limitations. Aside from the iPhone , iPod Touch , iPad, Apple TV and Mac computers, the service can also be used on Android devices.

Apple chief executive Tim Cook said Apple Music will change the way users experience music. Cook made the announcement during his keynote at the WWDC conference of the company in San Francisco.

The company revealed the service will “bring together all the ways people love music.” Recommendations will include songs coming from the iTunes Store, ripped CDs or on-demand content from an online catalog containing over thirty million titles. The service will also offer a 24/7 radio station dubbed as Beats 1 along with a service allowing artists to present themselves to fans and share songs directly into their iPhones.

Apple Music Unveiled At WWDC - image credit: techtimes.com

The acquisition of Beats by Apple last year included the Beats Music, a startup music service that offers an all-access pass to songs with a monthly fee of $10. The service remained silent after its acquisition before it was resurrected as Apple Music.

Apple has been resisting the subscription streaming service model for years after the late Steve Jobs called subscriptions “bankrupt.” The absence of the company in the market allowed Pandora and Spotify to flourish. Streamed music revenue has overtaken the sales of physical records and is gaining ground on digital downloads.

The co-founder of Beats, Jimmy Iovine, revealed today that he talked with Cook and Eddy Cue, iTunes head, about the possibility of creating an ecosystem with the simplicity and elegance only Apple can offer a couple of years ago. James McQuivey, an analyst at Forrester Research, said the late entry of Apple into the music streaming market was mainly due to the refusal of Steve Jobs in looking into the potential of music subscription services.

Cue gave a demonstration of the front page of Apple Music, “My Music,” which shows purchased music, playlists created by the user and recently added songs and albums. The “For You” section is a personalized section aimed at showing the preferred music of the user, which is based on information on the past purchases and listening habits of the user. Songs will be pulled up by Siri whenever the user makes certain queries.

As for Beats 1, it will be a live radio broadcast in over 100 countries by Julie Adenuga in London, Ebro Darden in New York, and DJs Zane Lowe in Los Angeles. The station will also broadcast exclusive interviews along with guest hosts. A custom-created radio experience will continue to be offered by Apple and stations will be play songs programmed by music professionals. Beats 1 will be available to users with an Apple ID and not limited to subscribers. While the radio stations of Apple Music will be available outside the subscription service, unlimited song skipping will only be available to subscribers.

Posted by George Daniels on Tuesday June 09 2015, 10:38 AM EST. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Technology. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0