Apple Music is here finally!
Apple has finally launched 'Apple Music', the much anticipated revolutionary app along with the release of iOS 8.4. Access to 30 million songs of the service is free for the first 90 days. After that, customers will have to pay $9.9 (Rs.120 in India) every month as the monthly subscription fee. Family membership for 6 people will also be available at $14.99.
Apple, at the Worldwide Developers Conference, announced that their company would be launching a music application called Apple Music on 30 June 2015. The application was supposed to combine music downloads, streaming radio and a streaming music service. The first station of radio was to be called BeatsOne. The app was designed to learn the user's music tastes gradually and recommend new songs accordingly.
The best part of the service which has been explored till now is the streaming radio, Beats One. This Trent Reznor-conceived radio station will be free for everyone. It will feature programs by many renowned artists like Elton John, St. Vincent, Zane Lowe and others. The 'My Music' section has all the iTunes songs and preferred songs according to a user's taste.
After Taylor Swift had lashed out against Apple for not paying artists and record labels for streaming their songs, the company agreed to pay royalties to music labels during their 3 month trial. Taylor had threatened to withdraw her album '1989' from the application if artists weren't paid during the trial period. The company decided to pay a "per-stream" royalty during the trial period.
According to Apple, iTunes will not be replaced by Apple Music and will continue for those who wish to purchase music and not stream it in Apple Music. iTunes radio will also continue its service with ads in between, unlike Apple Music which does not have any ads. iTunes match will also continue syncing users' music.
Apple announced that Apple Music for Android will be available around September this year but the users won't get any 3-month free trial like iOS users.
Apple may have jumped into the music streaming market with its powerful app-Apple music, but it will face some serious competition from established competitors like Spotify, Pandora, Tidal and Rhapsody. Despite the plethora of features it claims to provide, Apple Music's real test will be after three months when free trial of users will end and they will have to subscribe for the service.
