The Apple Beat: An Overview of Apple Music

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

What a lot of people tend to overlook is that because of iTunes, Apple is actually the number one music retailer in the world. The service celebrated selling 25 billion songs back in 2013, and it took over a decade to build that business which now is expanding to Apple Music.

Apple’s big announcement at this year’s World Wide Developer’s Conference was its new music service aptly titled Apple Music. 

The company that invented iTunes as well as revolutionized buying songs and albums digitally and which really started the iPod revolution a decade ago, had to react to the sudden shift of users buying music to using streaming services like Pandora (not in Canada), Spotify, RDIO, Google Play Music and various others. Here's what you need to know about Apple Music.

In order to get a foot in the door, Apple acquired music and lifestyle brand Beats Audio. While Beats is well known for their headphones and speakers, the crown jewel for Apple after the acquisition was the Beats Music service which boasts high-quality DJ-curated playlists as well as musical exclusives from artists.

What is Apple Music?

Apple Music is a trifecta of services which includes Music, Radio and Connect components. Music is the central repository of all the music you already own. This includes iTunes purchases, ripped CDs, downloads from other services. As long as you own it, it can be accessed from Music. You can create playlists, save them for offline listening and post these to Facebook, Twitter or Messages for other people to share.

The search functionality of Music is the killer app, since it learns and tries to approximate the music you’re looking for as well as builds a library of knowledge based on your preferences. Siri, Apple’s personal assistant, lives at core of Music and you can ask Siri to play or find any song, band or album.

Discovery is a big feature of Beats Music and this has been maintained for Apple’s version. There’s a clever interface made up of bubbles with musician’s names on them, pick your favourite ones and Music will determine other artists that may have similar sound, influences or genre. This opens up a whole world of new music beyond what you already know and love.

By rating songs and telling the system what you like (securely and privately, of course) Music gets smarter and builds more knowledge on your tastes, moods and musical inclinations to generate suggestions. Various popular genres have curated playlists as well and Apple is calling in a number of favours from big names in the music industry to ensure that various musical tastemakers are onboard to lend their expertise.

Radio is the second component of Apple Music and one that fits into how today’s consumers are enjoying their music from services like Spotify, Google Play Music, RDIO and others. 

For this, Apple has created a 24-hour Internet Radio Station called Beats 1 and it is using global DJs to run various programs and shows. There are shows, exclusive interviews and even performances from actual stations in LA, NYC and the UK.

The Connect feature, which integrates some social media aspects, gives subscribers access to their favourite musicians who can share behind the scenes videos, music, and various other exclusives. As Apple explains it; 

“Candid shots from backstage. In-progress lyrics. A rough cut of a new video. Here, artists can share just about anything they want. Because when musicians are free to express themselves directly to their fans, it’s a powerful thing.” 

Things to know about Apple Music

Apple Music comes to the US on June 20, 2015 and will cost US $9.99 a month for a single membership (which is what you pay for Spotify and similar services). This gets subscribers ( full Apple Music library, expert recommendations, our take on the best new music, and unlimited skips on our radio stations.) This doesn’t mean access to the entire iTunes library, some artists like the Beatles don’t have their music available for streaming yet.

Audio quality is said to be 256kbps, which is common although Spotify, Google Play Music and RDIO all stream at “up to” 320kbps. 

Apple Music in the US will also be available for a Family Membership of US $14.99 for up to six people to “enjoy unlimited access to Apple Music on their devices.”

Apple Music is coming to Canada and while the date and pricing haven’t yet been finalized, we should expect most of the features to be available. 

Apple Music will be made available for free on a three-month trial membership which should work on iOS devices as well as Mac or PCs. Apple Music will eventually be made available for Android.

The competition

Apple is entering into an already crowded space. There's already various apps and services for Internet radio like RDIO, TuneIn radio and even satellite radio services like SiriusXM can be seen as potential competitors to what Apple is trying to achieve and that's just in the Internet radio part.

As for the music service part, Spotify and Google Play Music are two existing services in Canada that are quite popular with many users. The advantage of Apple Music is that it will be preinstalled on all iOS and Mac devices, so users comfortable with the Apple ecosystem (or who want to enjoy the free three-month tryout) might gravitate towards a solution that's native to their devices.

Apple's other advantage is that it has some clout within the music industry. They can make deals with labels and musicians to create compelling content that isn't available anywhere else. Just look at the yearly iTunes Music Festival, which brings a gamut of top tier musicians to play specific venues. 

What a lot of people tend to overlook is that because of iTunes, Apple is actually the number one music retailer in the world. The service celebrated selling 25 billion songs back in 2013, and it took over a decade to build that business which now is expanding to Apple Music.

Apple's entry into the streaming services and Internet radio space brings a lot of possibilities. It certainly shakes up the current status quo, but it will take at least a year to see if it will have the global impact that Apple hopes it can bring.