As expected Apple have officially unveiled their exciting new music streaming service at this week’s Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco – Apple Music. Here’s all you need to know.
Launching on the 30th June, Apple Music will initially be available in 100 countries worldwide and can be streamed on any device running on iOS such as iPhones, iPads and iPods as well as Apple Macs and Windows PCs. Apple are also planning to launch it for Android and on Apple TV later on this year. You can try before you buy as there will be a three-month free trial period and then there is a US$9.99 monthly subscription fee for individuals or a Family membership only costs $14.99 per month which covers up to 6 different users per family.
Last year Apple purchased Beats Music for a whopping £1.8 billion and they have been busy recruiting music industry specialists who have helped to create Apple Music alongside the Beats founders, Dr Dre and Jimmy Iovine. Music streaming is fairly big business in the UK with 7 million people subscribing to music streaming services. Spotify is the most popular music service (at the moment) and accounts for three quarters of UK users.
So what will Apple Music Offer? Essentially it will have the biggest music catalogue with 25 million tracks available to stream – around 5 million more than rivals Spotify. Apple Music will also have their very own 24 hour non-stop digital music station called Beats 1 featuring famous DJ’s who will broadcast across the world from studios in Los Angeles, New York and London. As well as playing music, Beats 1 will feature news, interviews and of course new up and coming bands and artists.
Apple are hoping to further engage and unite their users with a new service known as ‘Connect’. Connect enables artists and fans to network and connect with artists and bands sharing their new tracks, clips from videos, behind the scenes photos and their thoughts and views. The idea is that Apple Music members can post comments on the content and interact with the artists and bands who can reply back to members and establish a relationship with their fans.
So what do you think – are you going to give Apple Music a spin?
