Apple Announces All-Inclusive Music Service

Apple announced today at their worldwide developer’s conference at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA that on June 30th, 2015 their all inclusive music service, Apple Music, will be live. This service will include several unique features, such as connect, the Beats 1 world wide radio station,  and a music streaming and suggestion service to help you discover things that you should try based on your musical tastes. Apple Music will launch in over 100 countries. After a free 3 month trial, you may choose a single account for $9.99 a month or $14.99 for up to 6 different accounts under the same family. They also plan on releasing an Android version of this service in the Fall.  Here is a summary of these new features.

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The Connect feature mentioned in the announcement offers a way to follow your favorite artists by seeing up to minute posts, new song lyrics, as well as other things the artist decides to post. Connect gives you the ability to comment and or like the posts the artists make to provide instant feedback to the artist. No matter where they post it, you will see it in one location via Connect.

Beats 1 is a worldwide radio station that streams out of three major cities, each with it’s own DJ, that includes exclusive interviews and guest hosts. The three broadcast cities are Los Angeles, New York City, and London and these stations will keep tabs on the hottest music in those areas. So if you wish to know the latest, be sure to check out one of them.

Apple Music’s streaming and suggestion service is designed to rival other products like Spotify and Pandora,  and offers customized playlists from music experts instead of using an automated algorithm. These playlists will suggest music you should hear and new and old artists you may like based on your musical tastes as well as from music purchased from itunes.  If you like the playlist, simply save it to your favorites for later listening.

In conclusion, despite being late to the game to compete in music streaming, Apple intends to revolutionize the market by having an all-inclusive way to experience music. If they succeed in obtaining their stated goal of 100 million +  users,  the way we listen to music and discover new artists could be changed forever. This is a lofty goal, but if any company can do it, it is Apple.