Update: Apple Music may be available in India at Rs 120/month reports TheNextWeb. Screenshots of the Apple Music app on iOS 8.4 gave the impression that Apple may launch this service in India, which will compete with Rdio, Saavn, Gaana*, Wynk, Guvera and Saregama to name a few. The screenshots also revealed a family plan which would cost Rs 180 per month for up to 6 users.
Earlier: Apple has launched Apple Music, a music streaming and download service which will combine music downloads, radio streaming and music streaming in a single app. Apple Music, with 30 million songs in its library, will be available from 30th June 2015, and cost $10 a month. The company, which announced Apple Music at its Worldwide Developer’s Conference 15 (WWDC), claims that the app will recommend songs based on your previous listening experiences.
Users who have bought music previously will see their music next to the Music library. Paid subscribers of Apple Music will be able to download albums and playlists to listen to offline and free users will only be able to listen the service’s radio stations with ‘limited skipping’. Readers would be interested to know that the Indian market currently has players like Saavn, Gaana*, Rdio and Wynk who offer offline listening to music.
Family sharing music plan for $15/month
Users will also be able to buy a family plan which will cost $15 and allow up to 6 people to connect to it (this requires iCloud Family Sharing), on the Mac, iOS and Apple TV with support for Android and PC coming later in the year. Initially, Apple users (signed in with an Apple ID) will be offered 3 months of free trial subscription to Apple Music. Apple claims that all playlists across the app (radio included) are curated by humans.
Apple Music features
iTunes on demand will let users search for and stream any song across its library, combining purchased and non purchased music. Users will have access to music videos, artist pages and recommendations and the UI will be Siri- Apple’s personal assistant- integrated. Siri, Wired reports, will be able to play music to generic queries like “best songs from 1988” or her “favourite band’s song”. Apple said that Beats Music subscribers will merge into the Apple Music ecosystem, but further details were not provided at this point.
There is also a “global” radio station called Beats 1 which will supposedly broadcast music and interviews and other stuff to over a 100 countries in the world and have DJs in New York, Los Angeles and London. Beats 1 will supposedly also get data from iTunes’ curated radio stations and subscribers will get the service ad-free.
Apple bought Beats by Dre in May last year and the deal included Beats’ headphone business as well Beats’ streaming audio service. Beats founders Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre joined Apple. After the deal, Gizmodo had reported Apple as saying that: Both Apple and Beats believe that a great music service requires a strong editorial and curation team, and we will continue to expand what we do in those areas.
The app will also have a social network-like feature called Connect where artists can share music, photos and videos and information. This seems like a (Facebook?) page for artists.
Unfortunately, Apple Music will not be available for iPod nano and shuffle.
Image Credit: Flickr user Markus Spiering
*Disclosure: Gaana’s parent company Times Internet is an advertiser with Medianama
