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Eddy Cue and Jimmy Iovine are excited about Apple Music. The competition is quiet

Ondrej Holzman
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Monday's presentation of the new music streaming service from Apple was impatiently watched not only by fans of the Californian brand, but also by the biggest competitors of the newly created Apple Music. It will launch on June 30, but at least for now, the rival service at the forefront of Spotify is not too scared.

Apple Music is Apple's answer to Spotify, Tidal, Rdio, YouTube, but also Tumblr, SoundCloud or Facebook. The new music service will offer streaming practically the entire iTunes catalog, a 1/XNUMX Beats XNUMX radio station whose content will be created by people, and finally a social part to connect the artist with the fan.

At WWDC, Apple paid a lot of attention to its new music service. Eddy Cue, Jimmy Iovine and also rapper Drake appeared on stage. The first two appointees who are in charge of Apple Music then shared other details in several interviews that did not fit into the keynote.

Streaming is in its infancy

"We're trying to create something bigger than streaming here, bigger than radio," he said pros The Wall Street Journal immodestly Eddy Cue, who says that music streaming is still in its infancy because "there are billions of people in the world and only 15 million [streaming music] subscribers". At the same time, Apple did not come with any revolution. Most of what he showed on Monday is already here in some form.

The very fact that Apple didn't come up with anything that would make everyone switch to it immediately seems to have left the managers of competing companies relatively calm. "I don't think I've ever been more confident. We've all been waiting impatiently, but now we feel really good," said an unnamed executive from a music streaming company.

After Monday's keynote, Apple interviewed the server The Verge quite a few people in the music industry, and they all agreed on one thing: they don't believe that Apple Music can affect the world of music in the same way that iTunes did more than a decade ago.

A place for everyone

An important part of Apple Music will be the previously mentioned Beats 1 station, which should stand out above all because the broadcast content will not be compiled by computers, but by a trio of experienced DJs. They are supposed to present content to listeners that they can't get anywhere else.

“I saw that the record industry was becoming more and more limited. Everyone's just trying to figure out what type of song to make to get it on radio, which is machine radio and advertisers tell you what to play." he explained pros The Guardian Jimmy Iovine, whom Apple acquired in the acquisition of Beats. “From my point of view, a lot of great musicians hit a wall they can't get over, and that turns a lot of them off. We hope this new ecosystem will help change that.”

For Beats 1, Apple has roped in acclaimed BBC DJ Zane Lowe, who is known for discovering new talent, and believes the exclusive streaming station could attract customers. However, the competition does not think that Apple Music should threaten them in any way. “I honestly don't think they're trying to convince anyone to switch to them. I think they're trying to get people who haven't used streaming before," said the unnamed music executive, who says there's room for everyone in the market.

Even before Apple unveiled its service, there were rumors that it wanted to negotiate cheaper subscription prices than the competition. It is entering the fray late and could attract customers at a lower price. But Eddy Cue said that he didn't think too much about the $10 that Apple Music costs per month. Much more important, he said, was the price for a family subscription - up to six family members can use Apple Music for $15 a month, which is less than Spotify. Although a quick reaction is expected from the Swedes.

“I think the price for a monthly subscription like a single album is fair. You could suggest $8 or $9, but nobody cares.” he said Cue for Billboard. Much more important to him was the family plan. "You've got a wife, a boyfriend, kids... it wouldn't work for each of them to pay their own subscriptions, so we spent a lot of time negotiating with the record companies and convincing them that this was a real opportunity to get the whole family involved," explained Cue.

Apple will drive the entire segment forward

At the same time, according to the head of Apple's internet services, there is no danger that streaming should destroy Apple's existing, albeit recently stagnant, business - the iTunes Store. "There are a lot of people who are very happy with downloading, and I think they will continue to do so," Cue said when asked what will happen to music downloads if they don't actually need to download at all with the streaming trend.

“We shouldn't be trying to kill the iTunes Store or kill people who buy music. If you're happy with buying a couple of albums a year, then go ahead… But if we can help you discover new artists or a new album through Connect or by listening to Beats 1 radio, great,” he explained Apple's Cue philosophy.

The mood in the world of streaming music is quite positive after the introduction of Apple Music. Apple certainly hasn't created a service that should drive other competitors to extinction. For example, Spotify rushed to announce shortly after Monday's keynote that it had already reached 75 million users, including 20 million paying users, to show how much of a lead it currently has on Apple Music.

In the end, however, only Rdio responded directly to the new player in the industry. That is, if you don't count the soon-to-be-deleted tweet from Spotify CEO Daniel Ek, who only wrote "Oh ok". Rdio did not delete his post from Twitter. It says “Welcome, Apple. Seriously. #applemusic”, it is accompanied by a short message and is an obvious allusion to 1981.

Then Apple exactly in this way he "welcomed" in its industry IBM when it introduced its own personal computer. It seems that Rdio, but also Spotify and other competitors believe in each other so far. How for The Verge stated an unnamed executive from the record company, "when Apple is in the game, everyone brings out their best, and I think that's exactly what we're going to see". So we can only look forward to what the future of music streaming will be like.

Source: The Verge, The Guardian, WSJ, Billboard, Apple Insider
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