Tag: Apple Music

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Mobile Syrup

Apple Music drops free trial period to 1 month in Canada

After several years of offering a three-month Apple Music free trial program for new subscribers, Apple has dropped the offer to a single month.

This puts the music streaming service more in line with YouTube Music. Spotify often offers a one-month trial as well, but it appears that the music streaming giant currently has a 90-day trial period available. However, I found other signup incentives that only offer two months of free listening, so I suspect Spotify’s free trial offers change frequently. 

This Apple Music free trial reduction is a bit of a bummer, but I don’t expect it to deter many new signups to the streaming service. Apple Music’s main draw is that music curation, Spatial Audio with head tracking and lossless audio are included in the base $10 per month price.

It’s worth noting that AirPods, the HomePod mini and some Beats headphones/earbuds include with six month trial Apple Music vouchers.

If you’re just looking to switch music streaming platforms, check out our full guide for each service.

Source: Apple Music

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Mobile Syrup

Apple Music prominently features Neil Young’s music in apparent dig to Spotify

Apple Music is taking advantage of rockstar Neil Young’s rift with Spotify by promoting his songs on its app.

Spotify confirmed it was removing Young’s songs from the streaming service earlier this week after the rockstar shared an open letter stating he doesn’t want his music shared on the same platform as Joe Rogan’s podcast.

The Rogan Experience is the most popular podcast on the platform, but it also boasts misinformation on a number of important issues, including the COVID vaccine.

“Spotify has a responsibility to mitigate the spread of misinformation on its platform, though the company presently has no misinformation policy,” Young wrote in his original letter.

In a recent tweet, Apple Music says it’s now the “home of Neil Young.”

On January 27th, just one day after Spotify pulled the songs, Apple Music highlighted the musician’s catalogue with the header “We Love Neil.” It was prominently placed under the apps “browse” section.

Apple isn’t the only one to take advantage.

On the same day Apple Music showed its love, SiriusXM Canada released a press release stating the return of Neil Young Radio. The channel featured the show on a limited basis back in December, focusing on Young’s music and stories. The now renewed show will feature rare insights from Young himself and every song from his latest album.

60 percent of Young’s music was listened to on Spotify and in his letter, he acknowledged the impact of his actions. But it seems like Spotify’s loss is to Young’s benefit as other platforms are more than willing to feature his work.

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Mobile Syrup

Streaming music report shows Spotify in the top spot, YouTube Music growing fast

A new report has dropped regarding the streaming music landscape worldwide, showing off its winners and losers.

As expected, Spotify is in the top slot with a 31 percent market share. Apple Music sits in second with 15 percent, and Amazon Music is at 13 percent. YouTube Music is at eight percent. Deezer holds onto two percent of the market.

One thing worth noting is that this data represents the streaming market in the middle of 2021. It also uses data from 2019 and 2020 for Apple and Amazon since those streamers don’t share subscriber counts as often as Spotify.

These are still likely as accurate as the numbers are going to get for the time being since Apple and some of the other streamers don’t share subscriber info often.

Notably, the data claims that YouTube Music was able to grow 50 percent over the last year. The Google-owned service is still at the bottom of the pile of the big players, but the fast growth actually lines up with what I’ve seen in the real world. Since YouTube Music offers people a wider pool of tracks to pick from, I’ve seen a few friends trend that way this year.

However, in 2021 we also saw Amazon and Apple Music both expand their offerings with more Dolby Atmos-equipped music and lossless quality for no extra cost — two very appealing technology improvements for audiophiles.

While Spotify is still holding the lead, it has lost two percent of its market share since 2020. This is unlikely to make a massive difference in the grand scheme of things, but it definitely showcases that Spotify might have some real competition in a few years.

If you want to see what makes each of these services stand out, you can check out our breakdown and video for it here.

Source: Mida Research Via: The Verge

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Mobile Syrup

Apple AirPods Pro 2 believed to feature lossless audio support and a trackable charging case

Apple is reportedly well into development on its AirPods Pro 2 and a new report shines a light on what features to expect. According to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the AirPods Pro 2 will support Apple Lossless Audio Codec(ALAC) audio as well as a trackable charging case.

In Kuo’s latest note to investors, seen by MacRumors, it’s believed ALAC will make its way to the new AirPods Pro model. ALAC is a feature that has been sorely missing from the standard AirPods Pros.

Additionally, Kuo claims the AirPods Pro 2 would feature a trackable charging case. In the event that the device is lost, the user is said to be able to trigger a sound to emit from the device to help locate the case. It’s likely that this feature will work in tandem with Apple’s Find My app. A similar feature exists now, but the sound only emits from the individual AirPods.

ALAC supports up to eight channels of audio and uses half the storage space that uncompressed data would require. It also provides a listening experience that’s comparable to the original studio recording. For many audiophiles, lossless is preferred.

Currently, ALAC is supported on a multitude of Apple devices through Apple Music. These include Mac, HomePod, and Apple TV 4K. ALAC is also available on Android devices. However, Apple’s suite of AirPods, including the AirPods Max and Beats, all use Apple’s AAC Bluetooth Codec. Thus, AALC support on AirPods Pro 2 would be a major improvement over the Bluetooth connections. The current audio support provides excellent audio quality already. Though, those with a keen ear point out the difference and improvements ALAC brings.

AirPods Pro 2 is expected to launch sometime during the fourth quarter of 2022 and will feature a new design.

Source: MacRumors

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Mobile Syrup

Apple Music on Mac to get smoother in future update

Ever since Apple Music usurped the iTunes app on macOS, it’s still used the legacy code and web asset base that build the now retro music app. This has led to the app looking nicer than it functions, but it appears Apple has a plan to solve this issue.

A recent leak uncovered by 9to5Mac discovered that in the code for the recent macOS 12.2 beta, it looks like Apple is rebuilding the desktop version of Apple Music using AppKit, the app-building framework the company uses for many of its other Mac apps. 9to5Mac has also discovered that the company is using JET to help turn the web content into a native app.

The update shouldn’t change how Apple Music looks in a drastic way, but rather how quickly it functions. This means that search results should appear more quickly and scrolling should be smoother.

The publication also notes that Apple recently retooled the Apple TV Mac app with JET and AppKit in macOS 12.1.

Source: 9to5Mac

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Mobile Syrup

Apple Music on Mac to get smoother in future update

Ever since Apple Music usurped the iTunes app on macOS, it’s still used the legacy code and web asset base that build the now retro music app. This has led to the app looking nicer than it functions, but it appears Apple has a plan to solve this issue.

A recent leak uncovered by 9to5Mac discovered that in the code for the recent macOS 12.2 beta, it looks like Apple is rebuilding the desktop version of Apple Music using AppKit, the app-building framework the company uses for many of its other Mac apps. 9to5Mac has also discovered that the company is using JET to help turn the web content into a native app.

The update shouldn’t change how Apple Music looks in a drastic way, but rather how quickly it functions. This means that search results should appear more quickly and scrolling should be smoother.

The publication also notes that Apple recently retooled the Apple TV Mac app with JET and AppKit in macOS 12.1.

Source: 9to5Mac

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Mobile Syrup

Apple Music on Mac to get smoother in future update

Ever since Apple Music usurped the iTunes app on macOS, it’s still used the legacy code and web asset base that build the now retro music app. This has led to the app looking nicer than it functions, but it appears Apple has a plan to solve this issue.

A recent leak uncovered by 9to5Mac discovered that in the code for the recent macOS 12.2 beta, it looks like Apple is rebuilding the desktop version of Apple Music using AppKit, the app-building framework the company uses for many of its other Mac apps. 9to5Mac has also discovered that the company is using JET to help turn the web content into a native app.

The update shouldn’t change how Apple Music looks in a drastic way, but rather how quickly it functions. This means that search results should appear more quickly and scrolling should be smoother.

The publication also notes that Apple recently retooled the Apple TV Mac app with JET and AppKit in macOS 12.1.

Source: 9to5Mac

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Mobile Syrup

Apple Music’s $4.99 Voice Plan is almost here

Apple Music’s $4.99 Voice Plan, which was unveiled by the Cupertino, California-based company during its fall Unleashed event, is reportedly ready to be rolled out, according to The Verge.

The affordable plan, which lets you access Apple Music using your voice and Siri, has been spotted in iOS 15.2 beta release notes by MacStories editor-in-chief Federico Viticci, who shared a screenshot of the notes on Twitter.

At the time of unveiling, Apple said the plan would roll out “this fall,” however, it was delayed and is now being released with a software update, similar to how Apple rolled out SharePlay with iOS 15.1 after the feature failed to launch with iOS 15.

This new subscription works with all Apple devices that can use Siri, making it especially beneficial for people who just have a HomePod or HomePod mini.

The release notes also suggest that “new safety features for children and parents in Messages” would also soon see the light of day. The feature will most likely build on existing parental controls.

Image credit: Apple

Via: The Verge

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Mobile Syrup

Apple Music names Toronto’s The Weeknd ‘Global Artist of the Year’

Apple has published its annual music awards, and the Toronto-born The Weeknd has taken home the top prize for ‘Global Artist of the Year.’

Beyond that, Olivia Rodrigo won the award for ‘Album of the Year,’ ‘Breakthrough Artist of the Year’ and ‘Song of the Year,’ which is a considerable feat, putting her on track to reach the upper echelon of Disney stars that break out of their children’s channel past to hit mainstream music stardom.

The third artist to win one of these prestigious awards was H.E.R for ‘Songwriter of the Year’ for her powerful year carried by the release of the album ‘Back of My Mind.’

Apple also added awards this year for the Artists of the Year for different regions: Africa, France, Germany, Japan and Russia. The winners are as follows:

  • Africa — WizKid
  • France — Aya Nakamura
  • Germany — RIN
  • Japan — Official Hige Dandism
  • Russia — Scriptonite

If you subscribe to Apple Music, the streaming music service has put together a great roundup of all of these artists in the ‘Browse’ section of the app. Apple has also released Apple Music’s top streamed songs of 2021.

Source: Apple 

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Mobile Syrup

BTS’ Dynamite claims the top streamed 2021 song spot on Apple Music

It’s that time of the year again when Apple announces the top streamed songs on its Apple Music platform, and we have two Canadian artists in the top 10 list.

Apple Music’s Top 10 most streamed songs were Dynamic (BTS), drivers license (Olivia Rodrigo), For The Night (Pop Smoke), Blinding Lights (The Weeknd), Peaches (Justin Bieber), good 4 u (Olivia Rodrigo), STAY (The Kid LAROI), Dakiti (Jhay Cortez & Bad Bunny), and Levitating (Dua Lipa).

A third fellow Canadian, Drake, missed out on making the top 10 list. His song Wants and Needs, featuring Lil Baby from the album Scary Hours 2 came in on the 11th spot.

Apple also revealed the Top 100 charts for most-read lyrics and most Shazamed music. Check out the winners from these categories below:

A third list with the most streamed workout songs saw ‘Head and Heart (Tiesto Remix)’ by Joel Corry take the number one spot, followed by Sam Feldt’s song ‘Post Malone’ and Dua Lipa’s ‘Levitating’ coming in the second and third spot, respectively.

All the Top 100 playlists are available to stream on Apple Music.

New Apple Music subscribers can get the first three months of service free, after which you pay $9.99/month. Find all Apple Music plans here.

Earlier this summer, Spotify revealed summer 2021’s most streamed songs and podcasts on its platform. In other Apple Music-related news, Toronto-born The Weeknd took home the top prize for ‘Global Artist of the Year’ in the tech giant’s annual music awards.

Source: Apple