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.

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Festify lets your friends help curate your Spotify playlist

Holding a party with your closest buds? You can have them help you out pick the tunes with Festify. The Windows and Mac app lets you build a Spotify playlist on the app. And then you can invite friends to vote on tracks using their mobile devices. Those that get the most votes will be played next. You will, however, need a Spotify Premium account to make use of this app.

Source: Lifehacker | Download: Festify (Free)

Starbucks and Spotify tie up for a massive multi-year collaboration

Spotify is set to invade Starbucks cafes in big way. The two big companies have inked a multi-year deal. Spotify and its premium service will be playing a key role in the in-store music experience at Starbucks and help customers earn free drinks. The 7,000 Starbucks locations in the United States will be link to Spotify’s 60 million users to develop a “first-of-its-kind music ecosystem.” Starbucks employees a.k.a. partners will gain complimentary access to Spotify Premium and will be able to influence the in-store playlists. And customers will be able to access these playlists through a dedicated Starbucks section in the app.

This partnership is also the first time Starbucks is opening its loyalty program to a third-party company. According to the announcement, Spotify Premium subscribers will earn “Stars as Currency” but there aren’t any specifics how they’ll be able to earn those and how long they have to be subscribers to get Starbucks freebies. The partnership will be rolled out in phases starting this fall in the US and it’ll be expanding to Canada and the United Kingdom.

Source: The Verge

Adidas Go app for iOS matches the pace of your workout with a Spotify playlist

Love working out while listening to some heart-pumping music? Adidas and Spotify want to help you out with that through the Adidas Go app on iOS. You won’t just be able to listen to your favorite songs but it’ll match the tunes to the pace of your workout. The Adidas Go app looks through your Spotify listening habits and learns what kind of music you listen to when you exercise and then it’ll match that to the pace of your activity. For example, you’ll get slower songs if you’re running slowly as opposed to faster ones when you’re running at full speed. It also tracks your steps and shows you and related stats after your run. You can also save the songs you’ve liked to Spotify for listening at another time.

If you don’t have a Spotify Premium account, the feature will still work. But it will make use of your local music library instead of the online service.

Source: Engadget | Via: SlashGear | Download: Apple App Store (Free)