Indeed lots of changes ahead with the charts as well. Gonna be strange when downloads are overtaken by cds and vinyl again soon lol.

 

Zane Lowe is also covering Apple radio!

By the way the general consensus according to 9to5mac.com is that Taylor Swift is available on Apple Music (:cheer:), but there are a few omissions from the iTunes library though such as The Beatles.

To answer my own question it seems you are allowed to "download" 3,333 songs per device from Spotify. That seems pretty generous I think as I download maybe 150 singles per year, so that'd last a very long time!

 

EDIT: Haha, thanks April! I'd looked before but didn't find a straight answer, but I did straight away this time so I must have put in the wrong search terms before. :lol:

 

There's nothing to stop you downloading Audacity or other recording software and record what is playing. You can have everything you want on Spotify with no limit (apart from the time needed to listen to them all) and it doesn't cost a penny using this method. I use to do that with these streaming sites. But I found it quicker to download and of course it does pay the people who make the music a decent amount. Which is more than can be said about the streaming sites.

 

it's been confirmed to launch at the end of the month then, and you get a FREE 3 month trial!!!

 

I would expect download sales to drop a lot in this period as all apple users are basically getting free music for 3 months

 

I rarely use iTunes, but I always prefer to own a copy of a song I like, rather than simply streaming it.

I'm a bit surprised that it's taken Apple this long to come up with an answer to Spotify. Then again, given it's eaten away at a large fraction of its core customer base this is perhaps understandable - blind panic maybe. The three month free trial is alluring but it does of course raise the question how many will sustain use of it after that time.

I'm a bit surprised that it's taken Apple this long to come up with an answer to Spotify. Then again, given it's eaten away at a large fraction of its core customer base this is perhaps understandable - blind panic maybe. The three month free trial is alluring but it does of course raise the question how many will sustain use of it after that time.

With 3 months you can quite easily get comfortable using it regularly compared to the standard free month you get with competitors like Spotify. I think the family packages could be quite popular especially for parents with teenagers and kids getting into music. I guess a lot of it does depend on just how much they charge. The US costs don't sound too bad for what is provided, we will just see if it seems like a fair amount over here in the UK too.

 

I will always prefer owning a copy of a track/album rather than streaming. If I do streaming it will usually be a whole album or a specific playlist, rather than play a specific track repeatedly so free spotify still suits me just fine alongside purchasing the odd track.

With 3 months you can quite easily get comfortable using it regularly compared to the standard free month you get with competitors like Spotify. I think the family packages could be quite popular especially for parents with teenagers and kids getting into music. I guess a lot of it does depend on just how much they charge. The US costs don't sound too bad for what is provided, we will just see if it seems like a fair amount over here in the UK too.

 

I will always prefer owning a copy of a track/album rather than streaming. If I do streaming it will usually be a whole album or a specific playlist, rather than play a specific track repeatedly so free spotify still suits me just fine alongside purchasing the odd track.

 

Good point. I didn't realise that family packages were being offered - and if that's the case it sounds like it has a lot more of an appeal than the one-size-fits-all £10 a month Spotify and Deezer currently charge for their premium services. I'd be interested to hear what price brackets are being discussed because if they get it right I think Apple could be onto a winner business wise.

 

And I'm pretty much the same when it comes to streaming. As far as I'm aware streams from Blinkbox Music are chart ineligible at the moment but for less than a fiver a month I get 100 tracks to stream offline to my heart's content. Admittedly it's older stuff (this week for example, I've had a playlist of Blue's back catalogue in my offline quota) but for newer stuff and if I like the artist I'll download it - the Charlie Puth & Meghan Trainor record for instance.

Edited June 10, 201510 yr by ThePensmith

Price-wise, Apple Music will cost $9.99 per month (and barring a massive shock £9.99 in the UK too) so it'll be the same as Spotify. However Apple are offering a family plan for $14.99 per month which allows up to 6 people to have their own libraries and stream all the music they want, which massively undercuts Spotify's family plan of $29.99 per month for up to 5 people - although rumours are Spotify are going to try and match Apple shortly.

Price-wise, Apple Music will cost $9.99 per month (and barring a massive shock £9.99 in the UK too) so it'll be the same as Spotify. However Apple are offering a family plan for $14.99 per month which allows up to 6 people to have their own libraries and stream all the music they want, which massively undercuts Spotify's family plan of $29.99 per month for up to 5 people - although rumours are Spotify are going to try and match Apple shortly.

 

Given that's only 66p more than what Spotify charge re: family plan, I know obviously it'd be retailed to a price relative in UK terms but I think I know who I'd go for in that position.

 

Will be interesting to see if Taylor Swift kicks up a hissy fit about the pricing on this one though :D

I just touched on this in the iTunes thread, but I'm just wondering whether the streams during the "3 month free trial" that we get when the service launches will count towards the chart. I am assuming they won't as I think there has to be some sort of money attached whether it be from a paid subscription or an advert, and the free trial won't have either of these providing income. So if this was the case, I could see sales being very low (aside from the new releases from established acts with fanbases who will download anyway) over the next three months as everyone will be able to stream their favourite songs for free. Streams that actually count (from Spotify) may also decrease too as everyone goes to Apple for a free 3 months?

 

If they were counted though, that'd send sales through the roof as streams will be miles higher than ever before with everyone trying out the new service for free.

 

We're in for some very low sales or some very high sales, I just wonder which it'll be!

Why wouldn't they?

 

You can use Spotify and never pay a single penny. The artists still get paid per stream and that is the point with regard to 'chart sales'.

It will be interesting to see the streaming % of sales in the next few months when apple becomes established up to 80% soon i would say!

Why wouldn't they?

 

You can use Spotify and never pay a single penny. The artists still get paid per stream and that is the point with regard to 'chart sales'.

 

I suppose so, but when you use Spotify the service is ad-supported - Apple Music won't be even during its "free phase". I'm sure I read Apple, during their negotiations with labels, were trying to get away with not paying labels during the free trial. I guess we'll have to wait and see if they pulled that off, I'd be surprised if they did!

 

But if you're right, we're going to be in for some very interesting charts - I wonder if a song could even pass over a million streams in a week.

Do loadsa songs not break a million streams a week nowadays?

You're right sorry, I was thinking about the Spotify charts in my head which of course show daily plays not weekly plays. So change that to a million streams a day!

I think you are overestimating Apple's impact - Spotify pretty much dominate the (already crowded) market and Apple are coming into this about 6 years after them. Why would someone happily using Spotify want to suddenly try out Apple's free service? Ok, maybe more choice perhaps - but I just don't see it. Even so, any lost streams from Spotify will likely cancel-out those made on Apple during its 3-month trial.

I suppose so, but when you use Spotify the service is ad-supported - Apple Music won't be even during its "free phase". I'm sure I read Apple, during their negotiations with labels, were trying to get away with not paying labels during the free trial. I guess we'll have to wait and see if they pulled that off, I'd be surprised if they did!

You can get a month's free trial of the premium version of Spotify and I assume streams from that still count towards the chart, though.

I possibly am, it's just Apple are a completely different beast compared to Spotify due to all the iOS devices they have around the world. Considering there are around 10 million iPhone users in the UK (I found a statistic saying there were 8 million in 2012 so I'm assuming it's over 10 by now), when the iOS update happens a significant proportion of these users will suddenly open their Music Apps to find Apple Music all over the place with the offer of a free trial. I believe many many people will use this free trial; of course streams could significantly drop off in 3 months time when everyone's trial ends but I'm just looking at the short term impact.

 

I don't think Spotify is as popular in the US as it is in Europe, in particular UK and Scandinavia, I think Apple will definitely be able to become the market leader over there. It will be more difficult here, but I'm sure the free trial will be popular here!

You can get a month's free trial of the premium version of Spotify and I assume streams from that still count towards the chart, though.

 

That's a good point, I guess they will all count then! Going to be interesting how it affects the charts :o

It has been officially confirmed by Taylor and Apple Music that Taylor Swift's back catalogue will be available on here, however '1989' won't be as it isn't on any streaming services at the moment. If I remember rightly with 'Red', that appeared on streaming services a year or so after release so it isn't like this is out of character.

 

There's no confirmation if the '1989' singles will be available, I think that may be a possibility considering 'Shake It Off' was on Spotify prior to their falling out then again none of her '1989' singles are on Tidal at the moment so maybe not.