Michal Marek On the last evening of September, Katy Perry appeared on the London stage and ended the thirty-day iTunes Festival, a music event that has no parallels. Also this year, Apple broadcast all the concerts live to the whole world via iTunes, so practically everyone could enjoy a good portion of music. Individual performances can also be viewed retrospectively for a limited time.
One of Apple's top executives, Eddy Cue, took part in an interview with Entertainment Weekly and explained why people, performers and Apple love the festival. He also added a few words about how Apple is making connections in the music industry to get its new iTunes Radio service up and running.
Tickets to the iTunes Festival have always been free, and Apple gives them out on a lottery basis because there are always far more applicants than tickets. London's Roundhouse, in which the icons of contemporary music performed, can only fit about 2 people. Over 500 million people applied for tickets to see one of the big stars, including Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake, Kings of Leon, Vampire Weekend, Elton John or Icelandic stars Sigur Rós. Of course, it did not reach everyone. However, everyone had the opportunity to watch all the performances online, and that's what the iTunes Festival is.
The fact that the audience does not pay for the concert has already been mentioned. However, it is interesting that even the musical performers are not paid. Eddy Cue explains why:
Artists come and get no reward. They are at the Festival purely because of their fans and also because it is a kind of return to their roots. After a long time, they can try playing in front of a small audience again and be much closer to them. They will play in a small hall with a rich history and try to reach a narrow audience of 2 people. It's interesting to see musicians who otherwise only play in big stadiums play like this. The musical diversity at the iTunes Festival is also beautiful. This year, the pop star Lady Gaga and the Italian pianist Ludovico Einaudi performed on the same stage.
However, apart from the opportunity to get closer to their fans, world-famous singers also have one reason to play at the iTunes Festival for free. Justin Timberlake, Katy Perry or Kings of Leon, who played at the Festival, quickly made their way to the top of the iTunes charts after their performance, and their new albums are selling very well thanks to this Apple music store.
When talking about the iTunes Radio service that came with the new iOS 7, Cue said that Apple wanted to bring a radio that was tailored to everyone and everyone could love it. The service will also be a great opportunity for artists to present their new album to a wide audience. According to Cuo, iTunes Radio is the best way to discover music. It's different than the iTunes Store. You simply listen to iTunes Radio and casually discover new things. You don't have to go to the store and think about it.
I hope that Apple steps on the gas with iTunes radio here and launches it soon... before Google steals this market completely for itself, which does not ignore small markets
iTunes radio will be personal radio only. It will actually only have one third of what Google Play has, i.e. cloud, radio and a catalog where you can play albums as you like. But Google Play is not free - CZK 129. Otherwise, I apologize for sounding enthusiastic, as I subscribed to it a few days ago. Fascinated, I go through the albums like a small child in a candy store for the first time.. A paradise for music lovers. For those who have ever shelled out some money for a CD in their life, CZK 129 is a bargain.
Of course, as an Apple player, I'm annoyed that Apple didn't come up with something like that, but you can see that progress ended with Jobs. Ugly ios7 with the impossibility of uninstallation, expensive iPhones and now this. I can't imagine how much this service would cost at Apple. And we would pay hard dollar-euro, not like here where they took into account the income possibilities of that country. Even a person who has an Android can listen to this service for a few crowns, while this service would suit Apple more than the Android community. Running it on ios will paint it. I will then read the article and the amount of cash on Apple accounts with great interest..
You are speaking from my heart - because of his "obsession with money - APPLE stopped being obsessed with beauty and functionality" - everything that is happening around APPLE now, JOBS would not allow - we are convinced of that! And I'm starting to worry that with the constantly washed ATV it will be a bitter pill too - when they release it to the world... But I'd like to be wrong!
The question is how big the market really is in our country. Rdio has been working for some time now, and it cannot be said that a dizzying number of people use it. And their apps are top notch.
Then there is Deezer, which in my opinion, at least as far as I have tried, is further in terms of sound quality than, for example, the Google play I mentioned. But it is not yet localized on cs. I'll keep one of them. It's just not clear to me why such a strong player as Apple doesn't offer this service. The development is so rapid that it will only be laughable with some radio.
iTunes radio is probably really only about what you write, and it's free for a reason (that is, for Match without advertising, which I pay for anyway). I used to use Spotify via proxy, now I've been using Deezer since it's been with us, and that's how I deal with music on both Mac and iOS. Play has a campaign in Britain probably because Google just started it now, more than 5 years after others already have it, it didn't invent anything, it just took a known concept and mainly targeted "neglected" markets. The question is whether it would make sense for Apple to come up with this service as well, since there are a lot of established players here, they've had regular iOS apps for a long time, and it obviously hasn't killed off iTunes purchases. Apple simply needs to direct people to its store via radio, which it probably wouldn't be able to do with services like Deezer. Personally, I have never bought anything on Deezra, I calculated that the flat rate is better for me than if I bought everything on iTunes, moreover, it is easy to discover new music and I don't listen to the same thing over and over again. Today, I only buy on iTunes what I really want to have physically on the disc. I just keep thinking that if we already have these services running, when will we finally get Netflix...
I'm also slowly switching to Deezer.. Google Play is tearing my eyes out, so the graphics are terrible, empty bright surfaces.. It's also better sonically, there's more air in the recordings and I have a cheap camera, it's very clear on headphones. Uneven volume. I won't even wait for the 1 month free. You can see that they are just getting started. There is nothing yet on iOS either. You're right about the discovery, that's the best part :) Otherwise, the website should be localized.
For those purchases on Deezer. It refers me to iTunes, they probably don't sell anything. Maybe on the Premium+ version, I have the version without a card for a month. That's where iTunes shows me. Anyway, if I like something, I'll buy the CD. Although buying CDs.. There were times when I bought them for 500 CZK clouds.. And how many times I played them..
It's also rumored that we'll finally have Spotify by the end of the year (it gives OGG 320 kbps, Google and Deezer have MP3 320), so I'll see if I stay with Deezer or go back to Spotify. You're right about the purchases, Deezer links to iTunes, I haven't really looked into that much. I agree that Google play is worse in terms of quality, but it doesn't have it on Grooveshark, which anyone here started with, what kind of crappy recordings were there, it was an experience :)
Please, I don't know if you will appear here again, but I have a question for you. Deezer has themed radio channels. Now I'm having a debate with their support about missing a lot of radios there. For example, World, Jazz, Blues, Folk, etc. I only have 7 of them there. I can only put an artist and his radio. Please, how are you there? Isn't it just a case of the Discovery version and the free month? If you could take a look at it and write, I would be happy. Thanks.