Apple Music and Taylor Swift
A piece entitled ‘To Apple, love Taylor’ seems an innocent enough title for a blog post amongst the many angry blog posts on the internet. However this is possibly one of the most revolutionary blog posts on the internet. The Taylor in question is that of Taylor Swift, one of the largest country and pop stars the world has seen. And the blog post in question calls Apple out on one of the most important, and potential career threatening changes that they attempted to make regarding song writers and rights holders. During Apple Music’s three month free trial Apple were planning on paying on absolutely 0 £/$ to rights holders. None at all. This is not a good way to start up a PR campaign for what the industry reckons could be the make or break streaming service. That if Apple Music can’t make it work, no one can. Taylor Swift’s blog post calling Apple out changes the entire situation, Apple went on a complete U-turn, and thankfully the rights holders on the service will get paid. The complete blog post addressing Apple can be seen below:
http://taylorswift.tumblr.com/post/122071902085/to-apple-love-taylor
Next time – Apple and Digital Currency
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Apple Music: The Personnel
With it’s release imminent, Apple Music is set to become the music streaming service that will place itself firmly in the spotlight of the music industry. With the unbelievable power behind it Apple Music should pretty much sell itself, however within such a high profile service to succeed there must also be high profile personnel to run it, luckily for Apple Music it has some of the biggest around. I’ll be taking a look at the two men who I believe will be key within Apple Music’s success.
Jimmy Iovine
Starting as a record producer and sound engineer Jimmy Iovine has now gone on to become one of the most entrepreneurial people that the music industry has ever seen. A self made man that has worked with John Lennon, Nine Inch Nails, Bruce Springsteen, Lady Gaga, and Eminem to name but a few, he’s also the founder of legendary label Interscope. His constant drive for new projects, and his desire to make them succeed has allowed his name to become revered within the industry, and will certainly be the key driving force behind Apple Music.
As one of the founders of the Beats brand, when Apple came to make the purchase it was obvious that Iovine would be going with the company, it later transpired that he was the man that made the sale happen. He’s now in charge of imagining the future, trying to work out where Apple sits in the world of music as both a company, and what devices and services they need to be offering to stay at the cutting edge of the music industry. Apple Music is very much Iovine’s baby, and as time goes on I expect that we’ll be seeing a lot more of his famed innovations right at the forefront of Apple’s services. Just what they’ll be will have to be seen at a later date.
Trent Reznor
Trent Reznor has already had a stunning career as a musician pushing the boundaries of what can be done within rock music through the use of instruments such as synthesisers and other electronics within Nine Inch Nails. He’s also pushed the boundaries when it comes to the delivery of music with events such as his innovative distribution on NIN’s Ghosts I-IV, as well as releasing it under a CC license. These creative decisions are precisely why I believe that he’ll be a key part within Apple’s future plans.
Although it’s not quite confirmed what Trent Reznor’s role at Apple is, the unofficial word is that his new roles focus on his previous beats position of chief creative officer. The actual roles associated with this position can obviously be wide ranging, however it seems as though Reznor will continue to be a key design in the actual delivery of content within Apple Music. Bringing a world class musician on board seemed to be a key factor for Apple within their overall plan for Apple Music, and by gaining the powerhouse that is Trent Reznor they have one of the smartest of the lot.
Next Time – Apple Music & Taylor Swift
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Announcement Of Apple Music.
As the debut post on this blog it only makes sense that it contains details regarding one of the biggest announcements within the music industry of the past 10 years. Earlier in the week at their annual WWDC Apple announced that they will be laying their hands on conquering the streaming market in the form of their service ‘Apple Music’.
Long touted as being the main competitor that Spotify should fear (but until this moment had never had details on), Apple music is set to help truly kick off what I believe will be the streaming revolution. A point in the history of the music industry where everyone reassesses how they consume music, and just what music means to them. Listeners on Spotify at the moment will already have ideas on both of these topics, therefore Apple’s best option may well be to go after the currently unsubscribed listeners for their streaming service.
An Apple Music rivalry with a company such as Spotify could be just what the streaming industry needs to consistently innovate and stay ahead of the curve. After pioneering the digital music market through their products and services such as the iPod and iTunes sale structure, Apple are one of the biggest companies that helped bring illegal downloading to the point of virtual un-existence. The power that they managed to wield over this sector of the music industry, and the ultimate destruction that it bought should not be underestimated. If Apple choose to wield this power over what they will see as their main rival in Spotify then we could quickly see the streaming industry becoming a one horse race.
Next time – Apple Music, The Personnel.
Disruption Digest 