The number of Apple Music paid subscribers have overtaken Spotify in the United States, with the former reaching 28 million.
streaming music
Apple Music Browse Tab Redesigned
A redesign of the Apple Music Browse section is rolling out. You’ll see more content up front so you won’t have to tap as much.
Apple Music Launches Multi-Lingual Playlist 'Suave'
Apple Music has launched a multi-lingual playlist called Suave. It’s a global R&B playlist with songs in English, Spanish, and Portuguese.
Spotify EU Complaint Says Apple Stifles Competition
A Spotify EU complaint brought against Apple says that Apple stifles competition because of Apple’s 30% App Store tax.
Musicians Are Happy With Apple Right Now
Spotify, Google, Pandora, and Amazon are joining forces to appeal a ruling by the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board that would increase payouts to songwriters by 44%. Can’t have the people producing music for your service making more money. But Apple isn’t joining the appeal, which makes musicians happy.
We thank Apple Music for accepting the CRB decision and continuing to be a friend to songwriters,” he said. “While Spotify and Amazon surely hope this will play out in a quiet appellate courtroom, every songwriter and every fan of music should stand up and take notice. We will fight with every available resource to protect the CRB’s decision.
Physical Music Purchases Surpass iTunes Downloads
Sales of physical music media, like CDs and vinyls, have surpassed the number of people downloading music from iTunes. Which makes sense because everyone else has moved on to streaming music, which accounted for 75% of revenue last year for the recording industry.
Downloads represented just 11 percent of US labels’ revenue last year, a music industry trade group said Thursday. Physical sales — the term for music formats you can actually hold, which are mostly CDs and vinyl at this point — booked 12 percent.
SoundCloud Artists Can Publish Straight to Apple Music
SoundCloud artists can publish songs directly to Apple Music and Spotify, according to an announcement today.
Apple's Classical Music Problem
Last year Apple Music got its very own classical music section, but it seems as if it has languished ever since.
Frustrations with classical music streaming are nothing new, but as Charles tells us, this is a problem that affects nearly every streaming music service, including Apple Music rival Spotify. In an effort to find out exactly what’s wrong with classical music on Apple Music — and what steps could be taken to address these problems — we asked Charles and Rumiz to detail the biggest issues with classical music on Apple Music.
Subscribers Can Stream Apple Music on American Airlines
You can listen to your own library of music as well as the Beats 1 livestream and curated playlists.
Apple Music Subscribers Hit 50M Over the Holidays
We’ve heard the 50 million figure before but that included both paid users and people using the Apple Music trial.
Verizon Unlimited Customers Get Free Apple Music
Customers of Verizon Unlimited plans will get free, full Apple Music as a perk. This is for the Beyond Unlimited and Above Unlimited plans.
The bonus Apple Music should be launched in the next couple of days, according to the information that we received. Verizon is yet to make the announcement publicly, but the information comes from a source that has proved reliable in the past.
Spotify Apple Watch App Debuts Today
The new integration with Apple Watch makes accessing your recently played songs simple, even with your phone in your pocket.
Spotify Subscriber Numbers Beating Apple Music
Spotify increased its number of paying users in the last quarter, keeping it ahead of Apple Music.
Genius Lyrics Have Arrived in Apple Music
Genius has partnered with Apple Music to introduce Genius lyrics into the app. Apple Music is also the official music player on its website.
Spotify Student Bundle Expands to Include Showtime
The company announced today that students on this plan get Showtime, and the cost is still US$4.99/month.
Apple, Verizon Team Up For an Apple Music Offer
Starting Thursday, August 16 both new and existing customers on a Verizon Unlimited plan can take advantage of this offer.
Apple Music Rolling Out New Social Feature 'Friends Mix'
You’ll find Friends Mix in the For You tab in the Music app. Some people are seeing it in the iOS 12 public beta.
Doppler Music Player Updated With New Features
Doppler, an app I reviewed a while back, just got a big update today. It’s a music player app that lets you play music offline, import MP3s, FLAC files, and more. Version 1.2 dropped today, and it brings features like:
Added support for importing music from Safari
Added support for scrobbling to Last.fm
Added support for sending now playing updates to Last.fm when connected to Wi-Fi
Added support for saving Last.fm scrobbles while listening offline
Added support for editing album information
Added support for editing album artwork
Added support for searching and downloading album artwork
Added support for setting album artwork from Photo library and clipboard
Added indicator for changed metadata fields
Added confirmation alert before deleting albums and songs
Doppler music player is available on the App Store for US$3.99.
Sonos Speakers Get AirPlay 2 Support
Sonos just added AirPlay 2 support to its speakers, making them the first third-party offering that can take advantage of Apple’s streaming audio platform.
Here's Why Apple Music Beats Spotify at its own Game
Last Thursday, Digital Music News reported that Apple Music beats Spotify in terms of subscribers. And there might be a reason why.
Apple Music Paid Subscribers Top Spotify in US
Apple Music has more paying subscribers in the United States than Spotify, according to data from a major music distributor.
iOS: How to Add Music to Instagram Stories
Want a soundtrack that expresses what you’re recording? Here’s how to do it.
SongShift Lets You Transfer Apple Music Playlists to Other Services
There’s an app called SongShift that lets you transfer Apple Music playlists to other services. Supported services include Apple Music, Deezer, Discogs, HypeMachine, LastFM, Napster, Pandora, Spotify, Tidal, and YouTube. You can “shift” complete playlists from one streaming service to another, and automatically keep all of your playlists synced with each other. I’ve heard some Apple customers say that when they unsubscribe from Apple Music, then re-subscribe later on, none of their playlists and content is saved. I’ve never unsubscribed yet so I haven’t run into this issue, but it sounds like SongShift can help in these cases. App Store: SongShift – Free
Want an Apple Music Web Player? Try This
Ever since Apple Music first came out, people have been clamoring for an Apple Music web player. Recently, Apple has opened an Apple Music API for developers. Although Apple hasn’t created an official Apple Music web player, Redditor u/zseguin has come to the rescue. It’s still in early development, but the code is available on GitHub. All you have to do to get started is sign in with your Apple ID, and allow the app to connect to your account. Everything is available. Not only can you find your own music, but even Apple Music recommendations in the For You section. However, note that the player is built on an API that is currently in beta. The application may stop working at any time.