Tag Archives: apple music

Genius and Apple Music Team Up to Add Lyrics

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As of yesterday, Apple Music became the official streaming platform on the Genius website. This means Apple Music subscribers who visit Genius will be able to play any song in full right from the song page, simply by signing into their Apple Music account.

Genius’s Chief Strategy Officer, Ben Gross, said: “Being able to read lyrics and annotations on Genius while you listen along on Apple Music is a dream Genius experience. We’re proud to make Apple Music our official music player, and we’re doubly excited to bring Genius lyrics to their amazing program.

To me, this seems like an excellent idea. When I listen to music, and can’t figure out what the lyrics are, it makes me want to do a search. That can be time consuming, and might be too difficult to do while listening to music during a walk or commute.

People who subscribe to Apple Music will now have a much easier time finding the lyrics of their favorite songs. Sign into your Apple Music account. Look up a song’s lyrics on Genius, and listen to the song right from the Genius page.

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Noted Adds Support For SongSync, Spotify, Apple Music

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Noted SongSyncNoted, the music-centric social sharing service that lets users receive a “news feed” style stream of songs selected by friends, has added support for SongSync, Spotify, and Apple Music. From a recent Noted e-mail announcement:

 

SongSync lets you integrate with your Spotify/Apple Music account to share songs and build playlists across services.

Here’s an example: Now friends can share a music video from YouTube and you’ll be able to add it to your Spotify playlists through Noted.

In order to use SongSync with Noted, users should follow these steps:

  1. If using Noted on a mobile device, update to the latest version.
  2. Sync with your favorite library (if you aren’t a paid subscriber, choose YouTube for full tracks).
  3. Noted automatically converts every available post to your synced services and your posts to your friends’ services.

Once the process is completed, Noted users will have automatically synced playlists on connected services based on their own Noted activity, as well as the activity of friends. This is a pretty handy feature, as it can be difficult to follow everything happening on Noted, especially if a user has a lot of friends.

Noted has stated that this is only the beginning of its SongSync integration and that it will be sending more information and tips about how to best utilize the service.

11 Million Users Try Apple Music

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Apple Music logoApple Music launched a little over a month ago, on June 30, 2015. Since then, it has obtained 11 million users. That’s a pretty remarkable number for a service that hasn’t been around very long.

The thing to keep in mind is that this number is counting trial memberships. Apple has been offering a free three-month trial to everyone who signs up. The earliest users, who signed up on June 30, can listen for free up through September 30. After that, the free trial will end. Those who signed up later might have their free trial end in October.

Individual membership plans for Apple Music are $9.99 a month. Family plans are $14.99 a month. Those without a membership will be able to listen to Beats 1 radio, Connect, and to hear Apple Music’s ad-supported stations.

The free three-month membership gives people the full Apple Music experience on their iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, or PC. The Apple Music website describes it as “an all-access pass”. I think people are going to notice a difference when their free trial ends – unless they pay for a membership.

Billboard reports that if the numbers hold, Apple Music will already boast half the number of paid subscriptions as Spotify has. USA Today reports that Apple’s Senior Vice President of internet software, Eddy Cue, said that two million of the trial users chose the pricer family plan. It will be interesting to see what the numbers of subscribers look like after the initial wave of free trial memberships end.

Apple Announces Apple Music at WWDC 2015

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After months of speculation following their acquisition of Beats, Apple has announced its own streaming music service.

1433792824-apple-musicAt yesterday’s WWDC keynote, Eddy Cue (Apple’s VP of Internet Software and Services) introduced Apple Music, “a revolutionary streaming service” that gives users access to a collection of over 30 million songs right from their iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, or Android phone. Users can also access their ripped CDs and previous iTunes purchases.

In addition to creating their own playlists, users have access to a variety of curated playlists from noted entertainment personalities. Apple has hired an impressive team of DJs, musicians, and other experts in the field to curate exclusive playlists to fit any mood, genre, or situation. In addition to human curation, you can explore Apple Music using Siri. Ask anything, from “play me songs by The Cure” to “play the greatest hits of 1993”.

Apple also launched Beats 1, a 24/7 live music radio station broadcast to over 100 countries, with programming by DJ Zane Lowe in Los Angeles, Ebro Darden in New York, and Julie Adenuga in London. In addition to a curated selection of songs, Beats 1 will offer exclusive interviews, guest stars, and news on the latest and greatest in music and music culture.

Apple Music Radio, a new and improved version of iTunes Radio, allows users to create custom stations based on their favorite songs or artists to discover other tunes that fit their taste. And in other news that’s sure to delight music lovers, with membership there is no limit to how many songs you can skip– yay!

In a move that’s somewhat surprising given the failure of 2010’s iTunes Ping, Apple is launching a new social network feature called iTunes Connect. With Connect, artists can share lyrics, photos, videos, and exclusive sneak peaks with their fans. Fans can follow their favorite artists, comment and like posts, and share content with friends via iMessage, Facebook, Twitter, and email.

Apple Music launches on June 30 in over 100 countries. Users can try it out with a free 3-month trial, after which the service is $9.99/month, making it an attractive competitor to the equally-priced Spotify. Users can also opt for a family plan, which gives access to up to 6 family members (iCloud Family Sharing required) for $14.99/month.