Apple Introduces Apple Music: Streaming Service, 24/7 Radio

After months of speculation, Apple officially announced their long-in-the-works subscription streaming music service Monday at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco. Dubbed “Apple Music,” the service is both an update to the company’s iTunes Store as well as Apple’s response to Spotify’s industry-leading streaming service and Jay Z’s fledgling, all-star Tidal. Apple Music’s plan includes a “revolutionary music service curated by the leading music experts we helped handpick,” a 24/7 worldwide radio station and “Connect,” an “ecosystem” that allows for artists to communicate directly with fans.

“History has had a very rich history of change, some of which we have a part in,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said before introducing a video touching on the history of music distribution from 1888 to Apple Music, “the next chapter in music.” Beats founder Jimmy Iovine then detailed the service and how “it’s all the ways you love music, all in one place.”

Iovine called the current state of music a multi-medium “fragmented mess.” “For fans, we’ve tried to create a complete experience,” Iovine said. In addition to boasting every track in the iTunes Music Store, Apple Music also allows users to watch “tens of thousands of music videos with no ads” and promised to deliver playlists tailored to fans’ taste curated by humans and not algorithms. “There needs to be a place where music can be treated less like digital bits but more like the art it is, with a sense of respect and discovery,” Beats’ Chief Creative Officer Trent Reznor said in the Apple Music video.

Apple also introduced their 24/7 worldwide radio station, Apple Music Beats 1, compiled by former BBC tastemaker Zane Lowe, Hot 97 DJ Ebro Darden and London DJ Julie Adenuga. “We have real music fans running this place, incredible DJs,” Lowe said in a video introducing the service. “The only place that could pull off an imaginative idea like this: Apple.”