Jimmy Iovine and Eddy Cue discuss Apple Music, including pricing, radio, and more in new interview.
Apple's Jimmy Iovine and Eddy Cue recently sat down with Billboard for an interview in which they discuss aspects of Apple Music, including the service's pricing, the reasoning behind creating a radio station, and much more. One of the more interesting bits from the interview involved Apple Music's radio station, Beats1. Internet radio is certainly nothing new, but Iovine explained that Apple wanted come at it from the angle of exposing great artists without the pressure that traditional radio stations face to play artists or songs based on research:
What's gone on in the last 15 years in radio is that it's really become manufactured. It's either genre-based or beat-driven or research-driven. So I said, let's build something that's got none of that that just plays music because it's great. So we got Zane, someone who's very progressive about young, upcoming artists who want to push it by establishing great records. But don't play it just because it's a [particular] artist. Like The War on Drugs -- they should be gigantic. I think they're fantastic. This is the kind of place where a band like that can really thrive.
On the price of the service, Cue said that Apple's main focus was on securing a reasonable family pricing more than anything:
A lot on the $14.99 -- not so much the $9.99. I think the cost of an album for a month of subscription is fair. Could you argue, $7.99 or $8.99? Who cares. I think where subscription is missing the boat is on the family -- you have a spouse, boyfriend, girlfriend kids … the concept of signing up for these individual subscription plans multiple times is just not going to happen so we spent a lot of time with the labels to convince them that the real opportunity here is to get the whole family. With that, all boats rise.
The whole interview is an interesting read. Iovine and Cue talk about streaming rival Tidal, dealing with labels, and the fate of downloads in the streaming age. Apple Music is set to debut on June 30 at $9.99 for individuals and $14.99 for families (up to 6 users).
Source: Billboard
Reader comments
Apple's Eddy Cue and Jimmy Iovine discuss Apple Music in new interview
Sadly Apple Music will not work because the Music Industry as a whole has failed. The bigger picture is that Apple Music is all about getting Music Exec's fat with money again. Only problem is, there is no music, no genre and no artist. We live in an age where American Idol is where we look too for our next star. Apple sadly created the "buy only 1 song for 99 cents instead of the whole album" thing. Streaming companies created the "why even buy". Now were back to paying a monthly fee for music we never paid for. If you have music you really enjoy and appreciate. You already own it.
Did you never buy a 45? Or a Cas-single? Or the short lived cd singles? Apple did not invent the purchase of singles at about a buck. It has been that way my entire life.
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45's are past my time. But the ones my parents had were from artist like Marvin Gaye And I can't remember who else. I think I remember cas-singles. It was harder and harder to get in the CD era. Record execs master plan was to force consumers to buy whole albums. Until iTunes Store. Honestly what music in the last 10 years has stood the test of time. Music that's popular today. Is gone tomorrow. And yes there are many great underground groups. But if Apple wanted that they would have bought KCRW in Los Angeles. Iovine is a record exec.
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Not. There is great music being created out there. A lot of it is underground, some of it is through independent labels, some of these artists have been discovered… And there is a lot of genre based music that is still very alive and well. This is why Apple bought Beats. Not sure how the moneys going to work out, but a lot of good things will be happening for young artists getting more easily discovered and good music rising to the surface above the crap on terrestrial radio. That's for sure.
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I'm surprised the author didn't ask Iovine on how he felt on Apple removing everything that was good about Beats music.
Such as? What has been removed? PERHAPS the sentence. Everything else seems in tact. And then added to.
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The Sentence and the personalized curation when you first launch the app. Here's a good overview of Beats music so you can see for yourself:
http://www.imore.com/beats-music-iphone-review
The bubbles of genres selection when you first open the app which is the basis of how Beats suggests music is still present in the Apple Music App. Practically lifted exactly from the Beats app.
The only thing I was hoping for in the Music app updates was a que button or something of that caliber. This isn't looking any where near as attractive.
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I'm sorry Mr. Lovine but your example of a good undiscovered artist have me perplexed. Just my opinion but to me The War on Drugs sounds mediocre at best. I'm starting to lose faith in you, Jimmy.
Why didn't they call the new service Apple Beats?