Apple Music is amusic streaming service launched byApple in June 2015. The service is available in 167 countries and currently has over 100 million songs.[5] Apple Music runs the freeinternet radio stationsApple Music 1, Apple Music Hits, Apple Music Country, Apple Música Uno, Apple Music Club, and Apple Music Chill which arebroadcast live 24 hours a day.[6][7]
Originally strictly a music service, Apple Music began expanding into video in 2016. Then-executiveJimmy Iovine stated that the intention for the service is to become a "cultural platform", and Apple reportedly wants the service to be a "one-stop shop for pop culture". The company is actively investing heavily in the production and purchasing of video content, both in terms of music videos and concert footage that support music releases, as well as web series and feature films.[citation needed]
Apple Music gained popularity rapidly after its launch, reaching 10 million subscribers in six months.[citation needed]
As of May 2023[update], the most streamed song of all time on Apple Music is "Shape of You" byEd Sheeran with more than 930 million plays worldwide.[8]
Apple Music subscribers can create a profile to share their music with friends and follow other users to view the music they are listening to on a regular basis.[9][10] Apple Music's use ofiCloud, which matches a users' songs to those found on the service, allows users to combine their iTunes music library with their Apple Music library and listen to their music all in one place.
In 2018, with the release of iOS 12, Apple Music added the ability to search for a song by its lyrics.[11]
Users also have the ability to view their most played songs, artists, and albums of the entire year through a feature called Apple Music replay.[12][13] This feature tracks listening times down to the minute giving users accurate information on how much they may have listened to a specific song, artist, or album. The feature also tells the user specific genres that they listened to throughout the year, placing them in order from most listened-to to least listened-to. Apple Music Replay also provides an interactive system where it plays a generated animation that recaps what the user's activity was like over the past year, along with a milestone section that shows specific goals they reached.[12]
Before Apple Music, the company'siPod andiTunes were known for having "revolutionized digital music."[14] Former Apple CEOSteve Jobs was known to be opposed to the idea of music subscription services.[15] When Apple bought audio equipment makerBeats Electronics in 2014, Apple gained ownership of Beats' own serviceBeats Music,[16] and made Beats Music CEO Ian Rogers responsible for theiTunes Radio service.[17]Business Insider later reported that Apple was planning to merge the two services. Apple also hired notedNew Zealand born British radio DJZane Lowe to serve as a music curator.[18]
Shortly before Apple Music was released, singer-songwriterTaylor Swift wrote an open letter publicly criticizing Apple's decision to not reimburse artists during a user's free trial period and announced that she would be holding back her album1989 from the service. She said the policy was "unfair" as "Apple Music will not be paying writers, producers, or artists for those months".[19][20] UK independent record labelBeggars Group also criticized the trial period, saying it struggled "to see why rights owners and artists should bear this aspect of Apple's customer acquisition costs".[21][22]
The day after Swift's letter, Apple Senior Vice President of Internet Software and ServicesEddy Cue announced onTwitter that Apple had changed its policy, and that Apple Music "will pay artists for streaming, even during customers' free trial period".[23][24][25] On Twitter, Swift wrote "After the events of this week, I've decided to put1989 on Apple Music... And happily so". She concluded saying it was "the first time it's felt right in my gut to stream my album".[26]
In negotiations with record labels for the new service, Apple allegedly attempted to encourage record labels to pull their content from the free, ad-supported tiers of competing services such asSpotify andAmazon Music in order to drive adoption of Apple Music and offered an incentive toUniversal Music Group to pull its content from YouTube. TheUnited States Department of Justice andFederal Trade Commission launched an investigation into this allegedcartel in May 2015.[27][28]
After rumors and anticipation,Sony Music CEODoug Morris confirmed on June 7, 2015, that Apple had plans to announce a music streaming service, saying "It's happening tomorrow,"[29][30] with the launch later in the month.[1] Morris emphasized several times that he prefers paid streaming as opposed to ad-supported, from a financial perspective. Furthermore, Morris said he expects the service to be the "tipping point" to accelerate the growth of streaming, along with arguing that Apple has "$178 billion dollars in the bank. And they have 800 million credit cards in iTunes." as opposed toSpotify, which "never really advertised because it's never been profitable". Morris further argued that "Apple will promote this like crazy and I think that will have a halo effect on the streaming business. A rising tide will lift all boats. It's the beginning of an amazing moment for our industry."[29][30]
The announcement happened as the signature "one more thing..." reveal at Apple's conference.[31] Hip hop artistDrake appeared onstage at the announcement event to elaborate on how he used the Connect platform, and Apple subsequently emphasized how "Independent music can share their music on Connect, too", in contrast to theiTunes Store, where small, independent artists were finding it difficult to participate.[31]
Countries where Apple Music is available (as of April 2020[update])
Apple Music launched on June 30, 2015, in 100 countries.[32] Earlier, new users used to receive a three-month free trial subscription, which changed to a monthly fee after three months. The trial lasts for a month now.[33] A family plan allows six users to share a subscription at a reduced rate.[1] Apple originally sought to enter the market at a lower price point for the service, but the music industry rejected the plan.[14] The service debuted as an updated Music app on theiOS 8.4 update.Apple TV andAndroid device support was planned for a "fall" 2015 launch.[31] A previously unreleased song byPharrell Williams, entitled "Freedom", was used in promotional material and announced as an exclusive release on the launch of the service.[34] The "History of Sound" advert for the launch of the Apple Music service was soundtracked by the tuneThere Is No Light byWildbirds & Peacedrums, from their 2009 albumThe Snake.[35] Upon its launch,Beats Music subscriptions and playlists were migrated to Apple Music, and the service was discontinued.[36]
In October 2015,Drake and Apple signed a deal to release the music video for "Hotline Bling" exclusively on Apple Music.[37] In December, Apple released an exclusiveTaylor Swift tour documentary, calledThe 1989 World Tour, on Apple Music.[38] In February 2016,The Hollywood Reporter reported thatDr. Dre would be starring in and executive producing a "dark semi-autobiographical drama" calledVital Signs. The production was described as "Apple's first scripted television series".[39]Recode subsequently reported a few days later that the announcement of Dr. Dre's production was an effort to "extend Apple Music" in promotional ways rather than Apple actively exploring original television content. Citing Apple's deals with Drake and Swift in October and December 2015, respectively, the report referenced aTwitter user describing Apple's efforts as "content marketing".[40]
In November 2015, Apple launched theAndroid version of Apple Music, touted by reporters as Apple's first "real" or "user-centric" Android app.[41][42] The app was updated in April 2017 to match the service's iOS 10 design.[43][44]
In January 2016,Fortune reported that, six months after launching, Apple Music had reached 10 million paying subscribers, having spent six months reaching the same customer base that took competing music streaming service Spotify six years.[45] This customer base increased to 11 million subscribers in February,[46] 13 million in April,[47] 15 million in June,[48] 17 million in September,[49] 20 million in December,[50][51] 27 million in June 2017,[52] 36 million in February 2018,[53] 38 million in March 2018 (just five weeks after the previous milestone[54]), 40 million in April 2018,[55] 50 million as of May 2018,[56] 56 million as of December 2018,[57] and 60 million as of June 2019.[58][59]
In February 2016,Music Business Worldwide reported that, with Apple Music having launched in Turkey and Taiwan in the previous week, the service was available in 113 countries. The publication further wrote that those countries accounted for 59 regions that competing serviceSpotify did not.[60] In August 2016, Apple Music was launched in Israel[61] and South Korea.[62]
In May 2016, a student membership was announced, that discounted the regular price of a subscription by 50%. The student plan was initially only available for eligible students in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand,[63] but was expanded to an additional 25 countries in November 2016.[64]
In July 2016, Apple boughtCarpool Karaoke fromThe Late Late Show with James Corden, withVariety writing that Apple was planning to distribute the series through Apple Music.[65] Apple's adaptation of the series was originally supposed to premiere in April 2017, but was delayed without explanation.[66][67] The series instead premiered on August 8, 2017.[68][69]
Apple added personalized music playlists to the service, with the September 2016 launch of "My New Music Mix",[70] and the June 2017 launch of "My Chill Mix".[71][72]
In January 2017,The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple was exploring original video content, including its own television series and movies.[73] A few days later, Apple Music executiveJimmy Iovine confirmed the reports about the move towards video,[74] and in February, he announced that Apple Music would launch its first two television-style series in 2017, with the aim to turn Apple Music into a "cultural platform".[75]
In March 2017,The Information reported that Apple had recently hired several people to help evolve its video platform, includingYouTube product manager Shiva Rajaraman.[76]
In April 2017, it was announced that Apple Music would be the exclusive home toSean Combs's documentary "Can't Stop, Won't Stop: A Bad Boy Story", which premiered June 25.[77][78] On the same day,Bloomberg Businessweek reported that artistWill.i.am would make a reality show for Apple Music, in an effort to turn the service into a "one-stop shop for pop culture".[79] The reality show was later revealed to be calledPlanet of the Apps, and will focus on the "app economy".[80][81] The series has cast 100 developers,[82] and premiered on June 6, 2017.[83][84]
In June 2017, Apple hired two television executives fromSony, Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg. The two have jointly held the title of "President" at Sony, and have helped develop shows includingBreaking Bad andShark Tank. The hiring was noted by the media as another significant effort by Apple to expand into original video productions.[85][86][87]
In early December 2017, Apple hired Michelle Lee, a programming veteran, as a creative executive of Apple's original video team,[88][89] and a few days later, also hired Philip Matthys and Jennifer Wang Grazier fromHulu andLegendary Entertainment, respectively.[90][91]
On November 30, 2018, Apple added support for Apple Music on Amazon Echo speakers, after previously only being accessible on Apple's own HomePod speakers.[92]
On December 13, 2018, Apple discontinued Apple Music's "Connect" feature in favor for their redesigned approach to artist profiles and the ability for users to share their music and playlists with friends and followers introduced in iOS 11.[93]
On September 5, 2019, Apple released the first version of an Apple Music web player in beta. The web player gives users full access to their music libraries along with similar features from the Apple Music app, while it is missing key features that are expected to be added later.[4] AWindows 11 app was released in beta in January 2023, to replace the aging iTunes for Windows.[94]
On November 15, 2019, Apple released a new Apple Music feature called Apple Music Replay, which is a year-end playlist showing users their favorite tracks of the entire year, a feature similar toSpotify Wrapped.[12] On November 20, 2019, Apple introduced Apple Music for Business, offering customized playlists for partnered retailers,[95] while also revealing that the platform's catalog now hosted over 60 million songs.[96]
On April 21, 2020, Apple announced that Apple Music would be expanding to an additional 52 countries around the world bringing the total to 167 worldwide.[99]
On October 19, 2020, Apple launched Apple Music TV via Apple Music and theApple TV app in the United States. Apple Music TV is a free, continuous 24/7 livestream focused on music videos, akin to the early days ofMTV. Apple Music TV plans on having premieres of new music videos occur every Friday at 12PM ET, as well as occasional artist and themed takeovers, airings of Apple Music original documentaries and films, live events and shows, and chart countdowns. The service launched with a countdown of the 100 most streamed songs in the US of all time on Apple Music.[100]
From October 30, 2020, Apple Music was included in theApple One bundle along with several other Apple services such as News, iCloud, Arcade, and TV Plus.[101]
On May 17, 2021, Apple announced that Apple Music would begin offering lossless audio via theALAC codec in June 2021, along with music mixed inDolby Atmos, all at no additional cost to Apple Music subscribers.[102] In July 2021, the Android version of the app also received support for lossless and spatial audio withDolby Atmos, though the features were not mentioned in the update release notes.[103] By December 28, 2021, Apple Music had upgraded its entire catalogue of 90 million tracks to have lossless audio.[104]
On October 19, 2021, Apple introduced the discounted Apple Music Voice plan at $4.99/month, which limits subscribers to only accessing the service's music library and playback features throughSiri.[105] The plan was later discontinued on November 1, 2023, with no explanation.[106]
On October 27, 2021, Sony announced that Apple Music would become available on thePlayStation 5.[107]
On May 17, 2022, Apple Music announced Apple Music Live, a new concert series that kicks off withHarry Styles live from New York on May 20.[108]
On June 24, 2022, Apple Music increased the price of its student plan, available for eligible college students, from $4.99 to $5.99 per month in the U.S. It represented the first price increase for any plan since Apple Music's launch in the country. Similar price increases also occurred to student plans in the U.K. and Canada at the same time.[109]
On September 22, 2022, Apple announced that it has signed a multi-year deal with theNFL to have Apple Music become the main sponsor of theSuper Bowlhalftime show beginning withSuper Bowl LVII.[110]
On October 24, 2022, Apple announced it was to increase pricing of standard Apple Music subscriptions (along withApple TV+ andApple One) in many regions. The Individual plan increased $1 to $10.99/month, the Family plan increased $2 to $16.99/month, and the Annual plan for individuals increased $10 to $109/year.[112]
With the release of iOS 16.2 on December 13, 2022, Apple introduced the "Apple Music Sing"karaoke feature, which introduces real-time lyrics and on supported devices a new slider which allows for the volume of vocals to be adjusted independently from a track's instrumentals on supported songs.[113]
Apple partnered withBharti Airtel to provide its music andvideo streaming services to the telecom company's premium clients in India from 2024 at no cost.[114]
In February 2024,Djay added support forDJing with tracks from Apple Music on MacOS, Windows, Android, iPad, iPhone, and Vision Pro.[115] In March 2025, Apple announced "DJ with Apple Music", expanding compatibility with DJ software toRekordbox,Serato, and Engine DJ and adding support for some stand-alone DJ hardware from AlphaTheta (OMNIS-DUO and XDJ-AZ),[116]Denon, and Numark.[117][118] However,stem mixing functionality is disabled with streaming music.[119][118]
On August 13, 2021, Apple acquired classical music streaming servicePrimephonic, and announced that it would become the basis for a new Apple Music app dedicated to classical music, planned to launch in 2022.[122]
In March 2023 Apple released Apple Music Classical on iOS, after announcing the service in 2021.[123] Apple Music Classical is included with an Apple Music subscription. It focuses on Classical music; whereas Apple Music has wide genres of music.[124] The Android app was released on May 30, 2023;[125] and the iPad app was released on November 16, 2023.[126]
On September 5, 2023, Apple acquired the classical music labelBIS Records.[127]
We the Best TV premiered on February 5, 2016, featuring DJ Khaled and artists signed to his label. Positioned as a reality show, it also included personal footage, as well as interviews with Khaled's industry friends and collaborators. A companion radio station on Beats 1 calledWe the Best Radio aired simultaneously.[135]
The Score was a six-episode series dedicated to exploring local music scenes and cultures around the world. It premiered on March 22, 2016. Each episode comes with a curated playlist related to the artists featured in the show.[136]
Planet of the Apps is a reality television show where software developers are tasked to pitch their ideas in front of judges on a slow-moving escalator. Winners will get funding directly from LSVP. The show premiered on June 6, 2017, to mixed reviews.[138][139][140] The series was cancelled after one season.[141]
Up Next premiered on August 16, 2017. The series focuses on new and upcoming artists, chronicling their journey, inspiration and influences. Each season of the mini-documentary ends with interviews and live performances calledUp Next Sessions.[142]
Carpool Karaoke: The Series is a reality television show that originated from thesegment of the same name onThe Late Late Show with James Corden. Apple bought the worldwide rights to it fromCBS in 2016 and adapted it exclusively for Apple Music subscribers. The series premiered on August 9, 2017.[144]
Apple Music received mixed reviews at launch. Among the criticism, reviewers wrote that the user interface was "not intuitive",[159] and an "embarrassing and confusing mess".[160] They also wrote about battery life problems.[161] However, the service was praised for its smart functions. Christina Warren ofMashable noted the emphasis on human curation in Apple Music, pointing out the various human-curated radio stations and the accuracy of the curated playlists recommended to users in the "For Me" section. The author concluded saying "[The] For Me section alone has made me excited about music for the first time in a long time."[162] Sam Machkovech ofArs Technica wrote that Apple's emphasis on unsigned artist participation in the Connect feature could be an effort to restore the company's former reputation as a "tastemaker" in the mid-2000s.[31]
Apple Music's major redesign iniOS 10 received more positive reviews. Caitlin McGarry ofMacworld praised Apple for having "cleaned up the clutter, reconsidered the navigation tools, put your library front and center, and added algorithmically created playlists to rivalSpotify's." She noted bigger fonts, large amounts of white space, and she welcomed changes to various functionalities, concluding with the statement that "Apple Music's redesign is a huge improvement over its previous incarnation, and a clear sign that Apple is listening to its customers".[163] However, anotherMacworld editor, Oscar Raymundo, criticized the new design, writing that "Apple Music in iOS 10 is not as elegant or intuitive as Apple promised. The music service added more needless options, key actions like repeat got buried, and the For You section leaves a lot to be desired".[164] Jordan Novet ofVentureBeat wrote positively about the changes, stating "Apple has improved the overall design, as well as the experience".[165]
In December 2017, singer-songwriterNeil Young released a new archive as part of hisNeil Young Archives project and criticized Apple for the audio quality offered by its Apple Music streaming service, stating: "Apple Music controls the audio quality that is served to the masses and chooses to not make high quality available, reducing audio quality to between 5 percent and 20 percent of the master I made in the studio in all cases. So, the people hear 5 percent to 20 percent of what I created. ... Apple not offering a top-quality tier has led labels to stop making quality products available to the masses".[166] Young's claim, however, did not stand up to technical scrutiny, with Apple delivering an industry-standard high-quality bitrate of 256 kbit/s AAC, slightly edging out Spotify in quality, which uses a 320 kbit/s Ogg Vorbis bitrate.[167]
The implementation ofiCloud Music Library caused significant issues for users. There were reports about music libraries being impacted by issues such as tracks moved to other albums, album art not matching the music, duplicate artists[168] and songs, missing tracks, and synchronization problems.[169][170]Mashable wrote that "Apple has not yet publicly acknowledged the problem or responded to our request for comment".[169]
iCloud Music Library has also been reported to delete music from users' local storage,[171] though this has been disputed by other publications as caused by user error or another application.[172] Additionally, the feature was reported to have replaced uploaded content with a version locked withdigital rights management.[171] In July 2016, Apple switched the matching technology to incorporate features identical toiTunes Match, specifically the use of "audio fingerprints" to scan sound data. The new technology also removed DRM from downloaded matched songs.[173][174]
In August 2016,Frank Ocean releasedBlonde exclusively on Apple Music. The decision was made by Ocean independently, withoutDef Jam Recordings, his former label, being a part of the deal. The exclusive deal reportedly "ignited a music streaming war".[175] The move followed in the footsteps of other artists, includingAdele,Coldplay,Future,Drake,Beyoncé,Rihanna, andKanye West, who released albums on exclusive terms with music streaming competitors of leading serviceSpotify. Jonathan Prince, Spotify's head of communications, toldThe Verge that "We're not really in the business of paying for exclusives, because we think they're bad for artists and they're bad for fans. Artists want as many fans as possible to hear their music, and fans want to be able to hear whatever they're excited about or interested in — exclusives get in the way of that for both sides. Of course, we understand that short promotional exclusives are common and we don't have an absolute policy against them, but we definitely think the best practice for everybody is wide release".[176] After a 2 week period,Blonde was released on Spotify.[177]
Ocean's independent move to Apple Music exclusivity caused "a major fight in themusic industry",[178] andUniversal Music Group reportedly banned the practice of exclusive releases for its signed artists.[179] Soon after, several major record labels followed Universal, marking a significant change in the industry.[180] According to unnamed label executives, Spotify had also introduced a new policy that said that the service would not give the same level of promotion once an album arrives on Spotify after other services, including not being prominently featured in playlists.[181]Rolling Stone wrote in October 2016 that "if you wanted to keep up with new albums by Beyoncé, Drake, Frank Ocean, and Kanye West, among many others, you would have had to subscribe to not one but two streaming services", adding, "But over the past few months, a backlash has developed against this new reality".[182]Lady Gaga told Apple Music's Beats 1 radio, "I told my label that if they signed those contracts with Apple Music andTidal, I'd leak all my own new music".[182]
In May 2017, Apple Music executive Jimmy Iovine toldMusic Business Worldwide, "We tried it. We'll still do some stuff with the occasional artist. The labels don't seem to like it and ultimately it's their content."[183][184]
