ple Music, Apple’s long–touted streaming service, is finally official. The Cupertino company pulled the wrappers off of the service at its Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) last night, alongside a new global radio station, called Beats 1.
The Apple Music streaming service is much as expected after a series of leaks. With a design similar to iTunes and using your already existing catalogue of downloads as a starting point, Apple Music has access to over 30 million songs which can be streamed immediately.
Apple is also playing up its curated playlists. These human created lists will improve their accuracy the more you listen, with new recommendations coming via a “For You” section. This is an area Apple will be keen to capitalise on with rivals such as Spotify doing an average job of recommending decent tracks to music buffs.The service will cost $9.99 a month in the U.S. with UK pricing to be confirmed just ahead of the June 30th launch date. Expect to pay £9.99. Apple is offering the service free of charge for the first three months, which will be a huge blow to existing services.
There is no freemium tier. However, there is a family package for six listeners which will cost $14.99.
Additionally, the Apple Music app will have access to the rebranded Apple Music Radio. This will feature a new global station, Beats 1, with hosts including Zane Lowe, Ebro Darden and Julie Adenuga. There are also genre–based separate stations which have been curated by humans rather than an algorithm and will be constantly updated.
Siri is also being brought into the fold, with the ability to answer music trivia questions and play tracks and albums that you request, no matter how obscure.
Users will also be able to leave comments and interact with artists via Apple Music Connect, which looks suspiciously like a rebrand of the failed Ping social network.
Apple Music will form part of the iOS 8.4 update, due later this month.
