Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Apple
Music
will
attempt
to
differentiate
itself
from
incumbents
by
having
playlists
chosen
by
people
rather
than
algorithms,
and
technology
that
makes
it
easier
to
search
for
songs.
It
is
marching
into
the
territory
of
SoundCloud,
a
firm
that
lets
unsigned
acts
promote
their
tunes
to
music-lovers
looking
to
discover
the
next
big
thing.
It
is
taking
on
Googles
online-video
service,
YouTube,
by
making
it
easy
to
watch
music
videos.
And
its
offering
will
include
a
new,
24-hour
radio
station,
Beats
One.
If
enough
of
Apples
existing
customers
take
to
the
new
station,
it
could
become
one
of
the
worlds
leading
influences
on
popular
music
tastes.
Apples
big
announcement
raises
two
questions.
The
first
is
whether
lumping
together
so
many
familiar
elements
of
existing
services
into
one
convenient
offering
really
adds
up
to
a
revolution.
The
second,
therefore,
is
whether
people
are
likely
to
pay
for
what
Apple
is
peddling.
Spotify
this
week
raised
more
than
$500m
to
help
it
fend
off
the
challenge.
That
is
a
useful
sum,
but
it
is
small
change
compared
with
Apples
near-$200
billion
cash
hoard.
Furthermore,
Apple
already
has
the
credit-card
details
of
around
800m
account
holders,
and
a
fan
base
whose
ardour
knows
no
bounds.
So
it
is
not
hard
to
imagine
Apple
Music
quickly
overtaking
Spotifys
20m
paid
subscribers,
once
people
have
taken
up
the
three
months
free
trial
the
firm
is
offering,
and
become
accustomed
to
using
the
service.
The
best
things
in
life
are
free
Throwing
a
possible
lifeline
to
Spotify,
the
attorneys-general
of
New
York
and
Connecticut
are
looking
into
whether
the
deals
that
Apple
has
struck
with
record
labels
amount
to
some
sort
of
arrangement
to
suppress
the
availability
of
free,
ad-supported
music
streaming.
This
provides
a
chunk
of
Spotifys
revenues.
Apple,
in
contrast,
has
chosen
not
to
offer
a
free
tier.
For
Apple
the
biggest
difference
between
now
and
2001
is
that
the
success
of
this
revolution
will
not
determine
the
firms
fate.
When
it
first
released
its
iPod,
Apple
was
a
largish
computer-maker
with
grand
ambitions.
Fast-
forward
to
2015
and
Apple
is
now
the
most
valuable
listed
company
in
the
world.
It
is
not
only
a
technology
company
but
a
luxury
brand
and
a
growing
payment-services
provider,
among
other
things.
Apple
Music,
in
other
words,
is
just
one
track
in
its
album.
As
for
pop
stars
and
their
record
labels,
they
should
not
be
celebrating
Apple
Musics
launch
by
driving
their
Rolls-Royces
into
swimming
pools.
The
fees
it
will
pay
them
for
streaming
will
be
even
more
meagre
than
those
they
get
from
downloads.
1. Headphones
2. Gathering
3. Stage
4. Streaming
5. Fade
6. on-demand
7. subscribers
8. incumbents
9. tastes
10. lumping
together
11. adds
up
to
12. likely
to
13. fend
off
14. cash
hoard
15. ardour
knows
no
bounds
16.
trial
17. lifeline
18. struck
19. chunk
20. meagre