Apple Music incorporated Genius lyrics this week as Genius added an Apple Music player for Apple Music subscribers. That's the lyrics encyclopedia website Genius, previously known as Rap Genius, now rolling with Apple. Users who visit Genius whilst logged in to Apple Music (with an Apple Music subscription) will be able to play any track for which they're reading lyrics. Just so long as that track is available on Apple Music.
Spotify and Apple Music are easily the number one and two players in the streaming music market, respectively, and while Amazon offers plenty of quick and easy access to music, the company is looking to be taken as a more serious rival to the streaming giants. A new report details Amazon's plans for making its Music Unlimited service more recognized among consumers, including its first national TV campaign in the US, and using its lead in the smart speaker market.
The competition in the music streaming industry has practically been whittled down to two major players: Spotify and Apple Music. And any advantage one can get over the other is, of course, a huge point in its favor. For this round, Apple Music may have gotten the upper hand with an exclusive partnership with Verizon that practically bundles the carrier’s Unlimited (for various meanings of the word) data plans with free Apple Music. At least for six months.
Tim cook mentioned earlier this year that Apple Music wasn't "in it for the money." Since then, Apple Music paid subscriber numbers grew from somewhere below 38-million to around 50-million. It would appear that not being in the streaming music business for the money is working out OK for Apple over the last few months.
Apple Music may have arrived a little late to the party when it launched back in 2015, but it seems to be giving Spotify, the reigning king of music streaming, a run for its money nonetheless. A new report is claiming that for the first time, the number of Apple Music subscribers has surpassed Spotify Premium subscribers in the US. That's no small task, though Apple Music still has a long way to go if it wants to catch up globally.
Though Apple Music had something of a late start, that doesn't seem to be having a negative impact on its growth. Tim Cook is talking subscriber numbers today, and it turns out that Apple Music has added millions more users since the last time we checked in. That's particularly impressive, because the last time we were updated on total Apple Music users was only in April.
Apple Music now has over 40m paid subscribers and up to 8m more in the pipeline, though that growth may well be despite, not because, of the HomePod smart speaker. The Cupertino company's streaming music service is playing catch-up to Spotify, having launched several years later.
Apple Music's Jimmy Iovine will reportedly step back from the company and take on a less hands-on "consulting role," new reports suggest. The leak resurrects rumors from earlier this year that Iovine - who joined Apple Music when Apple acquired Beats Electronics and Beats Music in 2014 - plans to leave the Cupertino firm, which at the time were strongly denied by executives.
Apple Music has 38 million paid subscribers, it's been confirmed today, as it continues to close the gap with arch rival Spotify. The number was shared by Apple's Eddy Cue, senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, at SXSW today.
Music streaming no longer seems to be the prized cow it once was but that doesn’t mean the battle has let up in the slightest. It has just changed arenas. While mobile users are still a top priority, service providers, like much of the tech market, have shifted their eyes towards the unstoppable onslaught of smart speakers. And the way things in that market are going, it’s going to be a battle of which music streaming service has a smart speaker or can be on one, leaving the smaller players out in the cold to wither and die.
Is Siri better than the Google Assistant, or worse than Alexa, or the downfall of Apple's HomePod, or the reason it's so good? The questions around the Cupertino company's first connected speaker are numerous and fairly predictable, just like the tests pitting one virtual assistant against another in fact. From the start I'd figured Siri makes an excellent guide through Apple Music - you can credit Apple's otherwise frustratingly tight integration between streaming service and speaker for that - but what I didn't expect was how much she would change how I listen to music.
Apple's HomePod has arrived, and while the super-simple setup process may make a great first impression, there are a few other settings and menus it's worth getting to grips with. The smart speaker offers voice-controlled access to not only your Apple Music account but potentially to messages and more on your iPhone, too. Some users are going to love that, but others may want to know the three key settings and menus they need to get master control over HomePod. Happily, we've got you covered.