It’s no secret that the music industry has changed dramatically with the dawn of the internet and streaming. Streaming services have allowed the emergence of a kind of bottomless jukebox. Consumers have access to almost all music at any given moment. Now and Apple is set to change the game again.
We’ve come a long way since stealing Lil Bow Wow singles from Limewire but many artists still aren’t satisfied with their royalty rates.
Chris Carrabba (Dashboard Confessional) stated his opinion on the matter along with other artists in an interview with Newsweek. The general consensus was that Spotify devalues music but is admittedly an incredible platform for exposure. Carrabba states, “I do not think artists are compensated fairly for streaming… streaming services provide exposure to bands, and hopefully that results in a true and deep connection to a fan base. If that occurs, then the band may be able to make a living from ticket and T-shirt sales.”
Matt Whipple (Cymbals Eat Guitars) shares the same outlook. He states, “These business models do not put these companies in a position to offer most artists anything close to fair compensation”…”We really can’t afford to pass up on any amount of exposure on the scale something like Spotify offers, even if the price we pay is the devaluation of our main project.”
The current federal law is extremely complicated and has left many artists complaining about the measly compensation offered to them by most services. Spotify’s website states that the average royalty is around $0.006 – $0.0084 per stream, but that amount isn’t even paid directly to the artist. In fact, after the 70% cut given to the master and publishing owners as well as a label, some artists only collect fifteen to twenty per cent of that initial sum.
An article from New York Times states that Apple has proposed to simplify the way in which songwriting royalties are paid. Instead of the current complex process, they’ve suggested for streaming companies to pay the artist a flat rate of 9.1 cents per 100 plays. Though Apple is yet to make a formal comment, the filing has been confirmed from a Spokeswoman at Apple. The proposal has been discussed with the Copyright Board and is said to commence from 2018 to 2022.
While this is an improvement from the perspective of the artist’s wallet, it’s important to remember how this will impact Spotify (and other streaming services like Tidal, too). Assuming this proposal passes, Spotify will no longer be able to offer its services for $10 per month. Since affordability is one of Spotify’s greatest selling points, this will have a major impact on their company and consumer base.
Spotify and other cheap streaming services have changed the way we look at music. A mere ten years ago people were paying $20 for 12 songs on a shiny disc that had to be carried around wherever you went. Now a massive 45 million Spotify customers stream online – without paying $10 for an ad-free subscription.
The music industry is in a perpetual state of change and while it’s important to be compensated fairly, sometimes you need to adapt or you’ll be left behind. For instance, most artist’s touring schedules have massively increased, considering that concert tickets, merchandise and so on have dwarfed album sales in terms of profitability.
$10 a month for unlimited music? Tell him he’s streaming!
Read more: Spotify raise $1billion to fight Apple for dominance of music streaming
Read more: Streaming services case a rise in Australian music sales
Image: Business Insider
For the latest development in the ever-frustrating ‘war’ between music streaming platforms, Apple is reported to be in exploratory talks to acquire Tidal, a music streaming platform part owned and wholly championed by hip-hop legend Jay-Z.
With Apple having entered their own chip in to the streaming platform with Apple Music (officially unveiled almost exactly one year ago on June 30, 2015), the reported moves are likely an attempt by the huge technology conglomerate to further their place amongst the platforms and come out ahead of chief competitor Spotify.
Terms of the potential deal are, as of now, unclear, and likewise it is uncertain whether the rumoured talks will eventuate in a finalised deal. However, music fans will take the news as reason to rejoice, regardless, with growing frustrations at ‘platform exclusives’ shutting out fans from access to their favourite artist’s new releases. Especially given that Tidal’s ‘roster’ includes such enormous names as Jay-Z himself, Kanye West, Beyoncé, Pusha T, Big Sean and seemingly countless others, and has featured such exclusives as Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo, Beyoncé’s 2016 album Lemonade and the recently released debut mixtape from buzzing rapper Desiigner.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5ONTXHS2mM]
So tell us music fans, how psyched are you to save $10 a month and throw all of your support behind Apple Music? Or does Tidal deserve to hold a place all its own?
Image: Tidal
Apple has developed new technology that will censor swear words automatically when they appear in songs.
The material was supposedly patented back in September 2014, titled “Management, Replacement and Removal of Explicit Lyrics During Audio Playback,” and has the capability to scan your iPod and automatically edit out any swear words from songs, which could result in a heavily censored selection of tunes.
In one sense, this could fix a lot of problems.
You may find your iPod suddenly becomes an option that is readily available to others on family car trips when the debate arises as to who will provide the soundtrack for the next strip of freeway. You may also be able to finally educate your kids on the likes of Kendrick Lamar, Drake or Wu-Tang Clan on the drive to school without worrying that they will take those new and exciting four-lettered words into the year two classroom.
However, some songs may lose that edge that made them great in the first place.
Apple has revealed to Business Insider how they are planning on censoring music, with options including removing them from the tracks entirely, beeping them out or replacing them with other words.
Imagine belting out the chorus of Mumford and Sons‘ Little Lion Man, or Violent Soho‘s Covered In Chrome with mates, only to find the climax of the song replaced by an awkward pause in the lyrics.
Even worse, imagine if this happened on your own device:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PyGg8J_VSg
The censorship reportedly has the capacity to expand to audio books, which would edit out both sex scenes and curse words, proving a genuine game changer for Game of Thrones readers.
It’s possible that the software will never see the light of day, with Insider pointing out that many products drafted by the company do not make it to production stage.
One can hope.
Image: Russiaslam
When Apple created Siri, their intentions were pretty clear. The computer program in your iPhone was meant to act as a personal assistant or a ‘knowledge navigator,’ so it wasn’t immediately obvious to anyone that she would become a beat-boxing champion. As it happens, there’s a new trick that allows your phone to become the next Shlomo.
As discovered recently, if you asked Siri to beatbox it would do so in a rather simplistic, unexciting way (she repeats cats and boots, which is apparently the rhyme that beat-boxers use to practice). Now it’s been discovered that if you ask Siri ‘what is 1 trillion to the tenth power’ (why someone asked that in the first place is anyones guess), she will rip into a very long and rhythmic beat. The beat is so good, that it’s prompted people into filming their own videos with them singing over the top. The result is entertaining, to say the least.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=77&v=rSqbgLnDU6k
There have been a few discoveries in the past pertaining to Siri’s hidden sense of humour. Every once in a while her responses go viral, like her reaction to being called the wrong name or even better, her reaction to Caitlyn Jenner being called by her birth name. This is the latest one to make the internet rounds, though apparently Siri’s beat-boxing prowess has been stored in our phones since last November.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2-065iwkHk
With Apple installing new features over time, it’s safe to assume we’ll be discovering treats like this for a long time to come. In the mean time, these videos are more than enough to satiate our boredom for the time being.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAPl7e1g0gs
Reports from sources within tech giant Apple have suggested that the iPhone 7 will feature wireless headphones.
According to Apple fan forum Mac Rumours, rumours have been swirling over speculation that the newest models of the iPhone will no longer feature a headphone jack. Instead, the spot will be home to an all-in-one lightning connector for both connectivity and audio output.
Chinese websites Anzhou.cn and Wei Feng (both require translate) have claimed the rumour to be true, stating that Apple will release their own wireless Bluetooth headphones in what would be a ground-breaking move for the company.
Mac Rumours also report that Japanese website Mac Otakara have weighed into the discussion, claiming that Apple may also release Lightning-quipped EarPods, in addition to the Powerbeats2, Solo2 and Studio wireless headphones that are already offered through their own Beats brand. Considering their acquiring of Dr Dre’s Beats, it’s completely likely that they’re looking to make the relationship between the two fairly exclusive.
The rumour has also revived speculation that Apple could be on the verge of introducing wireless recharge packets, as users would not be able to charge the smartphone as well as using Lightning-equipped headphones.
Despite all the excitement, there is always the possibility that these rumours are simply that…rumours designed to hype us up for the next instalment of iPhone that really doesn’t change much at all.
Fingers crossed!
Apple has agreed to raise the prices in Germany for hand-held devices including iPhones and iPads in a landmark deal that will benefit those in the creative industry including musicians, actors – even pornographic filmmakers.
The deal comes as a result of a new copyright levy, in which Apple, Samsung and other similar tech giants agreed to pay approximately EUR 5-7 (roughly $5.50 – $7.70) for each device imported into Germany. It will allegedly apply for all devices sold after 2008 and tablets after 2012.
The levy works to subsidise the creative industry for the devices that contribute to the industry of copying material for free. Ideally, these companies want to move away from fixed surcharges as subscriptions services such as Spotify gain traction, but ultimately as long as there’s devices such as smartphones, free sharing will likely always occur.
These types of laws are not new to Germany though, with the Government tacking on an additional surcharge when you buy blank CDs to account for the private copies people will presumably making of entertainment material.
While this might not be the solution to the seemingly unending problems of streaming and piracy facing the music and film industry (and porn apparently), it provides a much needed boost, in Germany at least.
According to Wall Street Journal, Apple is set to launch its much-anticipated streaming service in the coming weeks for $10 a month. Although it is unclear how much is certain and how much is rumour, sources obtained by Wall Street Journal claim that Apple won’t offer a free catalogue of music as Spotify does, and instead only offer a handful of free content.
If proven correct, it would be a risky move from the massive company. In contrast, the majority of Spotify’s users utilise the free content, and through this it has grabbed more than an 85% market share of streaming services worldwide.
On the other hand, Apple benefits from having an absolute strange-hold on global music downloads – selling an estimated 80% to 85% of paid downloads. As a result, they also possess a massive catalogue of customers, and even more crucially – their bank details. Apple will be hoping that with one little push, iTunes customers will ferry across to streaming. Plus, the name Apple comes with a lot of clout.
Interestingly, last year the average iTunes customer spend little more than $30 over the entire year. Even if Apple wants to offer a deal of $100 per year, that’s still a lot more than customers have been paying in the past – especially with free options like Spotify available.
It isn’t clear yet whether Apple will stick with Beats Music, or launch an entirely new name with the service. Apple also plans to unveil a radio DJ service much like what is available on iTunes currently, except with human DJs.
For now, it remains speculation – but prepare yourselves for the battle of the giants of the music industry. iTunes has redefined the industry before, and even though they have turned up very late to the party this time around, don’t be surprised if they redefine it once again.
The two giants in music are about to square off in an inevitable battle for streaming dominance. Last year, Apple bought Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine’s Beats Music for $3 billion and is expected to re-release it under an Apple label in the near future. In preparation, Appple has been accused of playing dirty to make the transition a little easier. The Verge allegedly discovered that Apple has been pressuring major music labels to drop their support of the ‘freemium’ services that Spotify offers. It is a ploy that works – with over 60 million Spotify users, just 15 million are paid subscribers. While it hurts Spotify financially in the short term, Spotify has earned the lions share of streaming users. In response to Apple’s actions, Spotify has quietly reintroduced the forefront of its ‘freemium’ deals, with access to premium, ad free content for three months for just 99 cents in the US. Last time it was introduced, Spotify hauled in another 20% increase of users.
It seems a desperate struggle to grab as many customers before Apple launches. Rightly so, considering whenever Apple brands something, worldwide attention and popularity usually follows. Not to mention that Apple already has virtually everyone’s details saved somewhere in the Cloud to make it just a little easier (and terrifying).
However, Apple’s actions have not gone unnoticed, with The Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission honing in their business practises, interviewing several high industry music executives. It is unclear what action, if any is being taken. Meanwhile Apple is also taking aim at YouTube, allegedly offering to pay YouTube;s music licensing fee to Universal Music Group if they stopped allowing their songs on the service. If Apple were successful in taking away these free services, who knows how many customers Apple could haul in when they announce their new Beats service which is expected around June.