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It's a music streaming service that integrates downloaded songs into my iTunes library. That's all I needed to move away from Spotify. It'll be very difficult f

by bepotts 11y ago

It's a music streaming service that integrates downloaded songs into my iTunes library. That's all I needed to move away from Spotify. It'll be very difficult for Spotify to compete. All the other features are nice add-ons.

dkrich 11y ago
I've heard this refrain a lot, and honestly, I don't understand it. Spotify is the incumbent. They built an awesome product before on-demand music streaming was widely available. It will be very difficult for Spotify to compete? Spotify/Google Play/Rhapsody have a multi-year advantage in user acquisition and product development. Apple may be Apple, but if their biggest differentiator is that downloaded songs integrate into my iTunes library, that's not enough for me to switch over. I'm on Google Play and have no plans to leave. Not because I love the service, but because my music is already there and I don't see anything about this service that's new or different enough to pull me away.
- Falcon9 11y ago
  It makes sense to those of us who are using iTunes (especially iTunes Match). There are many of us. There are also many people who aren't using iTunes and they probably will stick with whatever is working for them now.
- bepotts 11y ago
  Apple's biggest advantage isn't that Apple is "Apple"; their biggest advantage is that if you own an Apple device, you already have Apple Music. You can't uninstall it or run away from it. Using every other service requires downloading that service's app and while that isn't a huge barrier for those of us in tech, that is a HUGE barrier for everybody else. Plus think about all the grandparents, soccer moms, and teenage girls that use iPhones and don't really consider any other phone. Those people probably aren't the people that are using Google Play or Spotify, but now they have Apple Music on their phone and ready to go. With all the attention Apple Music has been getting from that whole Taylor Swift Fiasco, there's no doubt that almost everyone has heard of it already and eagerly awaiting its arrival. If you're a techie and you own an Apple device, then why partition your music selection with Spotify? Apple Music has almost every song Spotify does plus Apple has a better relationship with the record companies, so you know you're money isn't going to a company that's under some serious pressure to change their business model. Plus Apple Music has music videos and a social component for artists to reach out to their fans - which is kinda slick in my opinion. If none of that moves you then okay, try it for free for 3 months. Three months!! No matter what you think about Apple Music's competitors, why not stop paying them for a month and try out Apple Music? I'd wager many people aren't going to move after that. Apple Music's future success won't depend on the service it's self, but on fitting into Apple's ecosystem and Apple's ability to reach the general public in ways that other streaming services can't. Plus, iPhones are the best selling phones in the United States so a lot of people will have this service already. I wouldn't be surprised if by the end of the week, more people have Apple Music on their phones than Spotify. Spotify is in serious trouble. That's BEFORE we start discussing how record labels want Spotify to kill its free tier and how many users will flee the service when that happens.
  - ghshephard 11y ago
    Put more concisely - Apple maps is used 3.5 times more often than Google maps on iPhones.
    - eridius 11y ago
      Well, it helps that Apple maps is in many ways a better experience than using Google maps. And I don't just mean the OS-level integration (e.g. showing directions on the lock screen). I mean the Google maps aesthetic is very inconsistent with the platform conventions (even more-so since they went all heavy on material design). It just feels annoying to use, which is why I don't bother with it anymore. Especially since Apple maps seems to have caught up on the quality (at least here in the bay area).
      - johnatwork 11y ago
        Here in some parts of Canada, unfortunately, Google Maps app is still superior in finding locations. Also there's a nice feature where if you have a Google Calendar event coming up with the location specified, when you do a search, it will try to match with that first, which was a nice surprise for me.
        eridius 11y ago
        Apple Maps actually does that too. If you have an upcoming event with a location in your iOS calendar, when you tap the search field in Maps, it suggests the location of the upcoming event right at the top of the list, before you've even typed anything. I'm not sure the exact rules it uses for this. An event of mine at 2pm tomorrow wasn't sufficient to show it, but I added a test event in 1.5 hours and it showed that one. It might be the same criteria that Notification Center uses to determine when to show an upcoming event. I don't know if it prioritizes explicit searches in any way, but automatically suggesting my upcoming event's location without having to type anything at all is pretty good. (Note: I tested this on the iOS 9 beta, but I know I've seen this behavior in iOS 8.3 in the past)
  - dkrich 11y ago
infinitone 11y ago
Yes... because everyone uses the terrible piece of software that is iTunes. Even me as an iPhone user, I won't be switching anytime soon- Spotify has a sense of community and music discovery.
- sehugg 11y ago
  Unfortunately Spotify seems to be downplaying the social discovery aspect in recent builds in favor of experiments like time-based playlists and video.
- vhost- 11y ago
  Exactly. I haven't used iTunes in at least 5 years.
- ghshephard 11y ago
  As someone who hate(d/s) iTunes, The new Apple Music app is pretty sweet. Though I'm still trying to figure out what the difference is between "New" and "For You."
  - 7Z7 11y ago
    New is new tunes (or new to the service, presumably), For You is things picked for you from your loved genres.
    - ghshephard 11y ago
      Yup - I eventually figured it out. Mostly because I really enjoyed almost everything in "For You", and it seemed oddly aligned with the musicians I was following, and was a small set, whereas "New" is a vast collection of tracks/playlists/music. New is really poorly named - 99% of the stuff there isn't new at all - some of it from the 70s/80s. I don't know what better name could have been used that wouldn't have been confused with the selection curated specifically for me. Overall - loving Apple Music, I'm 90% likely to subscribe for $120/year, coming from someone who spends about $20-$30 a year on a few select tracks and the rare album.
munificent 11y ago
> It's a music streaming service that integrates downloaded songs into my iTunes library. That's all I needed to move away from Spotify. Google Play Music also lets you incorporate your own local files into your song library, as well as making them them available on all of your other devices.

by bepotts 11y ago

dkrich 11y ago

I've heard this refrain a lot, and honestly, I don't understand it. Spotify is the incumbent. They built an awesome product before on-demand music streaming was widely available. It will be very difficult for Spotify to compete? Spotify/Google Play/Rhapsody have a multi-year advantage in user acquisition and product development. Apple may be Apple, but if their biggest differentiator is that downloaded songs integrate into my iTunes library, that's not enough for me to switch over. I'm on Google Play and have no plans to leave. Not because I love the service, but because my music is already there and I don't see anything about this service that's new or different enough to pull me away.

Falcon9 11y ago
It makes sense to those of us who are using iTunes (especially iTunes Match). There are many of us. There are also many people who aren't using iTunes and they probably will stick with whatever is working for them now.
bepotts 11y ago
Apple's biggest advantage isn't that Apple is "Apple"; their biggest advantage is that if you own an Apple device, you already have Apple Music. You can't uninstall it or run away from it. Using every other service requires downloading that service's app and while that isn't a huge barrier for those of us in tech, that is a HUGE barrier for everybody else. Plus think about all the grandparents, soccer moms, and teenage girls that use iPhones and don't really consider any other phone. Those people probably aren't the people that are using Google Play or Spotify, but now they have Apple Music on their phone and ready to go. With all the attention Apple Music has been getting from that whole Taylor Swift Fiasco, there's no doubt that almost everyone has heard of it already and eagerly awaiting its arrival. If you're a techie and you own an Apple device, then why partition your music selection with Spotify? Apple Music has almost every song Spotify does plus Apple has a better relationship with the record companies, so you know you're money isn't going to a company that's under some serious pressure to change their business model. Plus Apple Music has music videos and a social component for artists to reach out to their fans - which is kinda slick in my opinion. If none of that moves you then okay, try it for free for 3 months. Three months!! No matter what you think about Apple Music's competitors, why not stop paying them for a month and try out Apple Music? I'd wager many people aren't going to move after that. Apple Music's future success won't depend on the service it's self, but on fitting into Apple's ecosystem and Apple's ability to reach the general public in ways that other streaming services can't. Plus, iPhones are the best selling phones in the United States so a lot of people will have this service already. I wouldn't be surprised if by the end of the week, more people have Apple Music on their phones than Spotify. Spotify is in serious trouble. That's BEFORE we start discussing how record labels want Spotify to kill its free tier and how many users will flee the service when that happens.
- ghshephard 11y ago
  Put more concisely - Apple maps is used 3.5 times more often than Google maps on iPhones.
  - eridius 11y ago
    Well, it helps that Apple maps is in many ways a better experience than using Google maps. And I don't just mean the OS-level integration (e.g. showing directions on the lock screen). I mean the Google maps aesthetic is very inconsistent with the platform conventions (even more-so since they went all heavy on material design). It just feels annoying to use, which is why I don't bother with it anymore. Especially since Apple maps seems to have caught up on the quality (at least here in the bay area).
    - johnatwork 11y ago
      Here in some parts of Canada, unfortunately, Google Maps app is still superior in finding locations. Also there's a nice feature where if you have a Google Calendar event coming up with the location specified, when you do a search, it will try to match with that first, which was a nice surprise for me.
      - eridius 11y ago
        Apple Maps actually does that too. If you have an upcoming event with a location in your iOS calendar, when you tap the search field in Maps, it suggests the location of the upcoming event right at the top of the list, before you've even typed anything. I'm not sure the exact rules it uses for this. An event of mine at 2pm tomorrow wasn't sufficient to show it, but I added a test event in 1.5 hours and it showed that one. It might be the same criteria that Notification Center uses to determine when to show an upcoming event. I don't know if it prioritizes explicit searches in any way, but automatically suggesting my upcoming event's location without having to type anything at all is pretty good. (Note: I tested this on the iOS 9 beta, but I know I've seen this behavior in iOS 8.3 in the past)
- dkrich 11y ago

infinitone 11y ago

Yes... because everyone uses the terrible piece of software that is iTunes. Even me as an iPhone user, I won't be switching anytime soon- Spotify has a sense of community and music discovery.

sehugg 11y ago
Unfortunately Spotify seems to be downplaying the social discovery aspect in recent builds in favor of experiments like time-based playlists and video.
vhost- 11y ago
Exactly. I haven't used iTunes in at least 5 years.
ghshephard 11y ago
As someone who hate(d/s) iTunes, The new Apple Music app is pretty sweet. Though I'm still trying to figure out what the difference is between "New" and "For You."
- 7Z7 11y ago
  New is new tunes (or new to the service, presumably), For You is things picked for you from your loved genres.
  - ghshephard 11y ago
    Yup - I eventually figured it out. Mostly because I really enjoyed almost everything in "For You", and it seemed oddly aligned with the musicians I was following, and was a small set, whereas "New" is a vast collection of tracks/playlists/music. New is really poorly named - 99% of the stuff there isn't new at all - some of it from the 70s/80s. I don't know what better name could have been used that wouldn't have been confused with the selection curated specifically for me. Overall - loving Apple Music, I'm 90% likely to subscribe for $120/year, coming from someone who spends about $20-$30 a year on a few select tracks and the rare album.

munificent 11y ago

> It's a music streaming service that integrates downloaded songs into my iTunes library. That's all I needed to move away from Spotify. Google Play Music also lets you incorporate your own local files into your song library, as well as making them them available on all of your other devices.