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Apple Music – the end of an era?

Apple Music – the end of an era?

This week, Apple announced its most audacious reworking of its music services, called, appropriately enough, Music. It’s no exaggeration to say Apple’s iTunes radically changed the way most people acquire and store music, and there is a generation of listeners now in their teenage years who cannot relate to digital audio as anything apart from an online resource, in part as a result of iTunes. However, by the start of the second decade of the 21st Century, alternatives to the iTunes model began appearing, with the likes of Mog and Spotify. In the same way that iTunes stopped many people buying music on CD, these streaming services stopped many people from buying music altogether. Why ‘own’ one album when you can ‘lease’ an entire music library for a similar monthly fee? It’s a compelling argument, and one that Apple bought into several years ago in the purchase of Beats Electronics (which purchased, and subsequently closed, Mog in favour of its own Beats Music service). Apple Music is the company’s first music streaming service.

Like most of its rivals, Apple Music is presenting a lossy compressed service for 9.99 (pounds, euros, dollars) per month, with a three-month free trial, or a 14.99 (pounds, euros, dollars) per month ‘family’ service for six users. Users can use this Music service on their desktop, laptop, or iThing with alacrity. This rolled out to 100 countries around the world on June 30.

, Apple Music – the end of an era?

Apple is running iTunes and Music concurrently, and it’s way too early to say whether Music will prove a success, and whether it will sabotage its own iTunes download sales, but the likelihood is probably ‘yes’ to both. Apple’s iTunes Store worked as a destination for music purchase because it was the lazy way to get music into your iPod, then iPhone, and iPad. Other avenues are open to users, but iTunes represented the path of least resistance for Apple and iDevice users, and Music continues in that vein. With more than 37million tracks in the iTunes library to hand, Music begins with a good selection for the user. Whether Music will pull listeners away from existing services like Spotify is another matter though, and I suspect the number of crossover listeners and long-term converts will be considerably smaller.

 

This is potentially a first for Apple and (lower case) music. For the last decade or more, Apple was king of all it surveyed: in the pay download market, iTunes was both first and predominant. But, it joins the streaming party late. Rumour has it that the late Steve Jobs was opposed to music subscription services and this held the company back. There are already established players in the field, such as Amazon Prime, Deezer, Grooveshark, Google Play Music, Rdio, Rhapsody, Spotify, and others, all of which offer a similar service to Apple Music. And there’s also Tidal and Qobuz, which offer higher resolution services (at a premium) at CD quality and beyond. I don’t think Music is too little, too late, but it joins a keenly contested and mature market with little materially unique to offer, except maybe Zane Lowe’s and Elton John’s own shows (and, of course, the Apple logo)!

I tested this service twice over, by joining it (with my own 15,000-track iTunes Match account) and by talking my wife into doing the same (using her own iTunes account, which has a few audio books on it, because when she listens to music, there’s someone else in the house with a 15,000-track iTunes account). The set-up is the same, regardless: Download the latest iTunes 12.2 (or latest iOS), navigate to the Apple Music page and join up. You are presented with two screens of red bubbles. The first is genre; press the ones you like, pop the bubbles you dislike, then repeat the process for the next screen (of targeted artists). If you have an iTunes Match account, it will scan your music library to analyse your tastes in music. You will then be presented with a list of curated music, artists, and radio shows optimised for your tastes.

, Apple Music – the end of an era?

In testing, the more Apple has to go on, the more refined the curated music. In my case, it was as if Apple had been following me to the record store for years, and pulled out things I knew well (The Smiths), things I’d forgotten (The Jesus and Mary Chain) and things I’d never really got but always knew I’d like (Guided by Voices). Aside from a few too many fey jangly indie-pop bands, and a strong propensity to stuff me back into my 1986 ‘uniform’ of an old overcoat, baggy Paisley shirt with too-tight black canvas jeans, and Dr Martens boots, the curated music was an accurate reflection of much of my listening tastes.

Sound quality was pretty much as you might expect from iTunes, although I can detect a very slight ‘vagueness’ to temporal and timbral accuracy on streamed music when compared to the like-for-like stored equivalent. Curiously, it’s most noticeable on jangly guitars and fey, breathy, off-key singers (Belle and Sebastian is a perfect example). It’s a shame that Apple didn’t take this opportunity to unlock its treasure trove of high-resolution original masters, which it gets for every recording on the iTunes store. I would have thought that listening to Music at 256kbps AAC for 9.99 per month and having the option to download the 24/192 master file from the iTunes store might just reinvigorate some of the iTunes download model for audio enthusiasts, but we are a minority interest to a company like Apple. Even providing a premium Music service, with high resolution streaming for 19.99 as Tidal does, would strengthen the audiophile cause. I’m not holding out for that one.
 

 

So, why is this the beginning of the end of an era? Because I can’t help feeling Music and iTunes are ultimately incompatible, Music will ultimately come to dominate Apple’s musical doctrine, and purchasing music through iTunes will gradually fade away. This may seem of little interest and even less impact to those who purchase CDs or SACDs or even download high-resolution files, but iTunes came to represent music sales to the music industry, and if it goes to streaming, owning music through download or physical purchase might get harder to justify to a business desperately seeking new models.
 

, Apple Music – the end of an era?

It’s impossible to second-guess the music-buying public in the long term. In 2005, no one would have guessed LP would be back in the stores, and maybe in 10 years time, owning CDs and downloading music will be the in thing and streaming will seem very passé. But I can’t help thinking some of us will be asking ourselves, ‘why do I still buy music?’ sooner than we might expect.

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