The new service combines a number of options, including streaming, downloads, and internet radio.
The iPhone maker has now launched a new service called Apple Music that has been designed to place them in direct competition with Spotify. The launch took place in San Francisco at its annual developers conference.
This new music streaming service is the result of partnerships with rap super-celebrities Pharrell and Drake.
The new Apple Music service represents the company’s first steps into streaming music, despite the fact that it was essentially the creator of the downloadable music marketplace when it first opened up its iTunes store more than a decade ago (in 2003). At the conference, the company explained that it was making the service available to iOS based device users for a monthly $9.99 following a free trial period of three months.
Apple Music is also the result of the company’s acquisition of Beats, which it purchased a year ago in May.
Beats is a company that was co-founded by Jimmi Iovine, music mogul, and Dr. Dre, the rapper. It was mean to be a music service that would revolutionize the industry and that would be operated by its experts in order to ensure that the hottest incoming artists would be able to experience the same level of benefit as artists who had already solidly established themselves.
Tim Cook, Apple CEO, explained that “Music is such an important part of our lives, and our culture,” and that “Apple Music will change the way you experience music forever.” The service will be available later in June to the users of Apple devices.
DJ Zane Lowe, formerly of Radio One, will be one of a number of different presenters who will be controlling and presenting the Beats 1 digital live radio station, which will be broadcasted from Los Angeles, London, and New York, to be heard around the world.
The U.K. has already been identified as an important market for streaming subscriptions, as there are currently an estimated 7 million people in that country who are paying for those services. That said, the digital download customer base in that country has dropped by 2 million over the last year. This helps to demonstrate the difference that Apple Music will be making within that shifting market.
