After Monday’s presentation of the Apple Music has revealed many more details about Apple’s new streaming music service launched June 30 in 100 countries. 99mac compile what we know so far, and compare with competing music services.
Earlier this year tested 99mac several streaming music services, and then appointed Spotify to the winner over competitors such as tidal, Google Play and Deezer. One of the things that gave Spotify medal was the many social functions that make it easy to share songs and albums, and follow friends’ playlists. The green giant also received praise for innovative features such as pre-listening by keeping your finger across an album or playlist.
We also noted that most existing services had a good range of music from 25 and 35 million songs. In practice, no noticeable difference right away, and all services were annoying gaps where some artists and songs were missing.
There is still much we do not know about the # Apple Music, which probably will not be completely clear until June 30th. Naturally focusing Apple’s public relations machine in areas where Apple Music shines, and talking quietly about the possible disadvantages with respect to other services.
How does Apple Music against the established competition?
Prices
Apple has just revealed the prices for its new service in the US, where it costs $ 9.99 per month for a standard account and $ 14.99 for a family of up to six people. Apple’s websites in other countries are expected to get the service are not the prices specified.
Competitors like Spotify also takes $ 9.99 per month in the US, which in Sweden corresponds to 99 crowns a month and in the UK of 9.99 pounds. The question is whether Apple will follow this example. The strong dollar during the year led to Swedish price increases on several of Apple’s products, but in this case there are strong reasons to believe that the company wants to match competitors’ prices.
The possibility exists therefore that Apple puts a higher Swedish price per month over 99 crowns. It would then not be the first time Apple takes few dollars more than the competition and expect that the service still getting popular. Exact Swedish prices we do not learn to see until closer to June 30th.
Something properly free line rental is not available in the Apple Music, but by being logged in with an Apple ID, you can access the social functions as well as listen to radio stations including Beats 1. Just as it works in iTunes Radio, you can only switch to another song a limited number of times without being a paying subscriber.
There Apple so far seems to be substantially more affordable is a family subscription, at least for families who are more than two. In the current situation offers Spotify only family subscription for up to five people, then it costs 299 kronor a month. The company has, however, indicated that they are betting that price matching Apple.
| Apple Music | Spotify | |
|---|---|---|
| One person | $ 9.99 (99 kr) | 99 SEK |
| Two people | – | $ 14.99 (149 kr) |
| Three people | – | 199 kr |
| Four people | – | 249 SEK |
| Five people | – | 299 kr |
| Six people | 149 SEK | – |
Range
At first glance, Apple Music have a big advantage over the competition thanks to the massive supply in the music store iTunes Store on more than 43 million songs. As 99mac reported, however, not all the music which will be available to stream. Some artists such as The Beatles will be missing, and requires that music purchased separately from the iTunes or imported from CD. Then it can be uploaded to the cloud and be available for listening on all devices.
If we only consider the basic offer of streaming music says Apple has a collection of over 30 million tracks, which is equivalent to what competing services offer. Some, like Deezer, indicating specifically 35 million while others enter only “over 30 million”. On the whole, we can consider Apple’s basic range comparable with other players. In addition, of course, certain exclusive artists and albums to come.
Apple Music offers contrast in addition the ability to upload music from their local library to supplement with any gaps in the flowing supply. This particular feature, we wanted when we tested other streaming services, and most lack it altogether. Spotify, for example, can vissarligen read the local iTunes library, but not synchronize files over the cloud. It can Google Play, but as we discovered, the service has an unpleasant peculiarity to automatically convert the music to MP3 format.
Exactly how Apple Music will handle cloud synchronization we do not know, but a reasonable assumption is that it will act as iTunes Match does today, which means that music not available on the iTunes Store are uploaded in their original format. ITunes Match supports AAC, MP3, WAV, AIFF, and Apple Lossless.
The basic supply among services is about the same.
Photo: Deezer
Quality
Apple Music will stream music in AAC format, encoded at 256 kilobits per second (kbps). This is hardly surprising since it is exactly the same format as the songs sold at the iTunes Store. Audiophiles who had been looking forward to the music in formats such as Apple Lossless or FLAC are however disappointed.
In comparison Spotify streams music in Ogg Vorbis format, which is most at 320 kbps. Rdio run the same format as Apple, namely AAC, and Google Play and Deezer are using the standard MP3 format. All of these streams maximum of 320 kbps.
However, it is not as simple as higher bit rate equals better sound quality. AAC format is considered to be more efficient at compressing sound than MP3 and as a rule of thumb, 320 kbps mp3 regarded as comparable to 256 kbps AAC as regards technical quality.
Tidal stands out by offering music in lossless format, which promises compression without information loss. This subscription costs 199 crowns, however, which is considerably more expensive than the competition. Apple has shown no sign of offering the Apple Music in lossless, even if previously been rumors that they are preparing the iTunes materials of higher quality. At the moment, Apple seems to consider that 256 kbps AAC is good enough, and in most situations, I am inclined to agree.
In addition to technical quality is of course important how the individual song is mastered . Apple operates long project Mastered for iTunes that promises more sonorous digital files thanks to the music mastered according to specific guidelines to adapt the song specifically for iTunes format. The site Ars Technica did a thorough review of the process in 2012, and which notes sound technician Jason Ward to special mastering can get audio files sound better:
” It was a real eye opener. It’s similar to how we work when we presses vinyl records. We make small adjustments to compensate for the fact that the frequency range is not completely linear. I have a feeling that it may become a new standard that do this – the next step in the evolution to offer different formats for our clients. “
Playlists and social functions
One question that Apple so far has not provided much detail about is how easy it will be in the Apple Music to share playlists and tracks with each other. On its website, Apple writes that the custom playlists will be shared via Facebook, Twitter and Messages. This is of course good, but what we really want is a convenient way to follow their friends and follow their playlists, similarly to Spotify today do.
Some Apple Music contrast appears bet big on the social functions where the artists themselves are central. In addition to a special radio station that broadcast around the clock and a lot of handpicked playlists, artists also share material from their profile pages. Here, Apple seems to be far ahead of the competition, which in many cases completely lacking similar functionality. Most recently Tidal who publish a lot of behind the scenes material even if it is not on the same scale as the Apple music seems to bet on by Connect.
A more apt comparison seems rather to be artists’ Facebook pages or Soundcloud, but only after June 30 we learn to notice how well this works in practice. Apple has previously tried on the social features of iTunes with the failed venture Ping. The fact that ordinary users do not need to have their own pages can be a big plus, but hopefully the social functions of the Apple Music to be closely linked with the platforms of people already use, which means Facebook and partly Twitter.
Other
Besides this, Apple has music some special ace up its sleeve that can provide advantages over the competition. Perhaps the most important is the digital assistant Siri, which is deeply integrated in the Apple Music. Siri can respond to voice commands, and pick up the most popular songs from a certain year, and even find specific songs and albums. It is still unknown hurpass talented Siri will be, but it looks like she will be able to help with almost everything that you can do in the Apple music.
Not least, Apple is also the advantage to send his post in every new iPhone, iPad and Mac sold, as well as through system updates for older devices. In this sense, Apple is already a foot in the door to every potential listeners, and the generous three-month test period means that many probably will be attracted to at least put their existing account at the break to try the Apple Music.
Undeniably, Apple seems therefore have great potential to build even its own music empire, especially in the US where streaming services are still in their infancy or in fast-growing markets like China, where many buy their first smart phone. How serious Apple is with its music initiative shown not least by Apple also will offer an app for Android phones and PC users reach the service through iTunes for Windows.
Although Apple Music at the launch lack some special features that the more established services can offer, there are strong reasons for Spotify, Deezer, Rdio and others to worry about. The next few years has great potential to be really interesting, and hopefully the competition between the players to benefit consumers in the form of innovative features and a favorable price trend.
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