Apple Challenges Spotify – Apple finally unveiled its plans to compete with the music streaming service Spotify today. The plans have been in the pipeline for some time so it was not a great surprise to the attendees of the World Wide Developers Conference. There we 6,000 people at the event, but even for Apple it was an odd choice of venue. Maybe Apple’s Chief Executive, Tim Cook, opted for a more low key announcement in the full knowledge Apple is a bit behind the curve on this one.
Spotify has been the dominant player in this market space offering both free and paid subscriptions for their service. Having being in place for nine years the platform has the advantage of a huge amount of user feedback and has developed into a very robust offering. Apple is going to have to go a long way to attract some of the 60 million people happy with Spotify today.
“We love music, and the new Apple Music service puts an incredible experience at every fan’s fingertips,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “All the ways people love enjoying music come together in one app — a revolutionary streaming service, live worldwide radio and an exciting way for fans to connect with artists.”
It remains to be seen if this really is a revolutionary streaming service or just another take on iTunes to catch up with the existing music streaming services. Nevertheless, Apple does have a massive back catalogue, that cannot be denied. Apple seem to be placing a great emphasis on the ‘curation’ service that uses ‘the most talented music experts from around the world’ to help you put together your playlists. This is not Apples first foray into suggestion services, let’s hope they have hired real experts this time.
The offering also includes a live streaming radio service, it will be interesting to see how this works out. On the face of it, a global radio station does not seem to be very appealing. They might get it right though, if they can attract world wide personalities, it could give the station an edge. Finally, no new internet based service would be complete without a social network so Apple has included ‘Connect’ an integrated app that allow artists to upload lyrics, backstage photos, videos or even release their latest songs. Then fans can comment on or like anything an artist has posted, and share it via Messages, Facebook, Twitter and email.
The service goes live on 30th June with a 3-month free membership, after which a $9.99/month subscription fee will apply.
