Apple’s New Streaming Music Service Unveiled
Apple often plays the tortoise in the race — slow to start, but come the end of the race, might be the one ahead.
On Monday, at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Fran, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced the new software they’re launching for streaming music. The service, simply named Apple Music, combines a couple of music-focused features (including Beats One and Connect) and will debut on June 30th. Beats One, also unveiled at WWDC, is a 24-hour streaming station curated by popular DJs in NYC, LA and London. (Apple purchased the Beats Music subscription service last year for $3 billion.) And Connect is Apple Music’s built-in social network, which is designed to enable musicians to connect with fans.
Apple Music will be free for the first 3 months, and then cost $9.99 per month or $14.99 for families of up to six. Upon its launch, executives said, it’ll be available in more than 100 countries.
The company revolutionized the music industry with the introduction of the iPod in 2001, followed shortly after by the iTunes Music Store (now the largest music retailer in the world) in 2003. Apple is hoping their announcement will create another milestone, this time in music streaming. Though, eMarketer senior analyst Paul Verna says, “Apple faces strong headwinds in this space, with Pandora and Spotify well entrenched, and other powerful players, such as Google, making a serious play for the music consumer.”
Nonetheless, this may be Spotify’s undoing. For hundreds of millions of loyal users, this company is the Apple of their eye.
