Tag: Apple Music

Top 5 Music Streaming Apps In India

If there is one unchangeable fact about Indians, it is their unconditional love for music. From Bollywood music to hip hop, Indian audience has a varied taste when it comes to music. With the launch of multiple music streaming platforms in the country, it’s tough to select one app which can fit all your music needs. The music streaming battle in India heated up when Apple Music, Google Play Music, and Amazon Prime Music stepped into the scene.

Potential users have recurring thoughts regarding the purchase of a dedicated music streaming service. Some users still prefer YouTube to listen to music, but that’s not very convenient as many of them will agree. For instance, you cannot minimize the YouTube app while playing a song. Doing so cuts off the music, so you have to keep the app awake at all times. This means that your battery drain is significant. Also, music applications don’t go very hard on your data plan, whereas 720p YouTube streaming consumes almost 1 GB per hour. Using YouTube for your music needs may be more hassle-free, but certainly not the best possible solution

We have compiled a list of the best music streaming applications available in India as of now. Audiophiles can pick a specific subscription as per their needs and taste. Read on to find what each of these applications has to offer.

1. Apple Music

Let’s not forget that Apple brought iPods into the market, changing the way music was played everywhere. Apple music is built on top of a similar infrastructure that focuses more on the ‘ease-of-use’ aspect than anything else. Agreed, it’s not the cheapest music streaming subscription out there, but it offers much more for the price what people pay.
If you have an Apple ID, you can stream unlimited songs on all your devices. Furthermore, five people can use the Apple Music service at the same time. With one of the most sorted UIs, Apple Music is highly optimized for Android and iOS.

Apple Music has a massive library with over 45 million songs, and hundreds of songs are added every day. The library is especially tailored for Indian audiences, with the inclusion of songs from almost all Indian Languages. High quality music, Apple’s 24-hour radio and the social ‘Connect’ feature are useful features integrated into the app.

Platforms Supported : Android, iOS, Web, MacOS etc.
Price :

Student: Rs. 60 per month
Single Person: Rs. 120 per month
Family: Rs. 190 per month

2. Amazon Prime Music

Amazon Prime Music was primarily launched in India with the motive of an Amazon Alexa integration. Eventually, Prime Music made its way on to newer platforms like iOS, Web, and Android. Amazon Prime also provides services for streaming movies and online shopping worldwide. The music streaming service has a huge music library with over 30 million tracks. Amazon Prime Music is also known for its seamless music playback over its popular voice assistant, Alexa. A person can easily manage playlists, queue songs and play/pause music using just voice commands. Prime music has full Chromecast support, unlike Prime Video.
Also, the web app for Prime music is neatly designed to provide users with a good experience.

Platforms Supported : Android, iOS, Web, Amazon Alexa, Fire TV, etc.
Price: Rs. 999 per year

3. Google Play Music

From a long time, the search giant has been trying to strengthen its foothold in the Indian Music Streaming service. The Google Play Music App is preinstalled on every Android phone, so almost every user notices the app one way or another. With competitive pricing, Google Play Music offers the solution of a single app for both online and offline music. It comes with both free and premium subscriptions, but the free version is limited to only Indian songs and radio stations. Once you start paying for a subscription, you’ll have access to a complete music catalog with a whole lot of international music and content.

The UI of the app follows the same design as the rest of the Google entertainment apps. On the first look, the application seems to focus more on radio station playback rather than music tracks. You can sync your music and playlists over multiple Google devices, which is quite convenient. On top of that, you get a free 14 day trial to experience the premium functions of the app.

Platforms Supported: Android, iOS, Web, Google Home etc.
Price: Rs. 99 per month?

4. JioSaavn Music

Two popular music apps, JioMusic & Saavn Music integrated to launch the JioSaavn app on December 4. The app brought a host of features like interactive lyrics and live events to the user’s device. A lot of people confuse Saavn with an Indian app, but it was actually designed by two Indians in the US.

The music streaming service has a ad-based revenue model, but if you’re interested in downloading songs and getting rid of the advertisements at the same time, you can opt for the premium subscription. It offers an interactive UI with a Facebook integration, allowing you and your friends to see what you are listening to. You can adjust the music streaming quality as per your data connection. The application has a nice language filter which you can use to receive recommendations depending upon your selected region.

Platforms Supported: Android, iOS, Web, Google Home etc.
Price: Rs. 99 per month

5. Gaana

Gaana was one of the earliest music streaming apps in India. Launched in 2010, the app had one of the largest music databases at that time. Over time, the minimal interface of Gaana was taken over by new features like on-screen lyrics and social media integration. Still, to this day, Gaana Music has one of the largest Indian Regional Music databases when compared to similar apps. Sure, it does have a wide selection of International music too, but it isn’t as extensive as its competitors.

Also Read: This Is What The Samsung Foldable Smartphone With Dual Display Will Look Like

The Gaana app has an option to turn off your profile activity if you like your music to be more personal. It also has a load of other features like a night mode, sleep timer, and gapless playback. If you’re a fan of Indian Music, Gaana could be your go-to app.

Platforms Supported : Android, iOS, Web, UWP etc.
Price: Rs. 99 per month, Rs. 999 per year.

February 16, 2019
Spotify To Soon Launch In India

Up until a few years ago, music streaming services in India were almost non-existent. However, with the internet becoming cheaper and more accessible thanks to Jio, music streaming has come to the fore. While Apple Music, Gaana, Saavn and now Amazon Prime Music have a great deal of customer base, Spotify has been missing from the Indian market. That is about to change soon, as the CEO of Spotify has conceded that the company will soon launch its music streaming services in India.

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek, during the Investor’s Day in New York, said:

We are working on launching in some of the biggest markets in the world, including India, Russia, and Africa which has a very rich musical culture.

Signs were already there, that Spotify was planning something for India. It hired a former Google Business Manager to head its Marketing in India and even leased an office space in Mumbai. The company already has 308 employees in Australia, Brazil, Singapore, and others markets, including India.

AmazonPrime Music

Spotify, despite its huge success internationally, will have a hard time in India. It will be a late-entrant and have a hard time trying to make people shift from a service like Saavn that offers a great experience for its free customers. Although the free service has ads, the local music library it possesses is a great advantage.

Spotify And Its Competition

Internationally, Spotify’s only real competition is Apple Music. In India as well, Apple Music has a great customer base. Apart from Apple Music, Saavn, Gaana, Wynk and others have a great foothold in the music streaming service as well. For Spotify to compete, it will have to get its pricing spot on. Apple Music is priced at Rs 120 per month but, it also has a student subscription plan that is priced at Rs 60 per month.

Apple Music

While people have been exposed to Spotify due to the internet, it will have to bring in something extra to sway customers. Thanks to India’s diverse culture, local music is an important feature. If Spotify provides local language music, then the company will have an advantage. Another interesting feature that Spotify possesses its desktop mode. Only Apple Music and Amazon Prime Music have a desktop version right now.

March 19, 2018
Apple Music For Android Gets A UI Update
Apple Music is the second most popular music streaming service in the world after Spotify. The subscription plan is priced at Rs 120 per month or Rs 1,200 per year in India. The music streaming service has about 45 million songs in its library. The company also offers free three months trial, by accepting debit/credit card details. One has to sign up using Apple ID, which can then be used on multiple Android or iOS devices. However, one can stream only on one device at a time.

Apple Music is free to download from Google Play Store. However, it needs an Apple ID and subscription to access the content. However, it is worth noting that Apple Music is only compatible with Android devices running Android 4.3 or newer version.

Now, Apple has silently updated the Apple Music for Android OS. After the latest update, the Apple Music on Android looks much cleaner and similar to the iOS counterpart. Similarly, the update also fixes some of the stability issues, which now offers a more fluid music playback experience.

The music video feature was available on the Android OS from 2016. However, the UI experience was not at par with its iOS counterpart. With this update, Apple has unified the UI of Apple Music on Android and iOS devices. This gives Apple an edge over YouTube which still lacks background playback capability. However, with Android 8 Oreo’s Picture-In-Picture mode, YouTube videos can be played while performing other functions. This, however, is still not possible on iOS.

New features on Apple Music for Android version 2.4
- Option to watch music videos in full screen or now playing window
- Watching music video while browsing the library
- Listening to a music video in the background, while surfing third-party application
- Adding your favourite music video to a playlist and watch them subsequently
March 7, 2018
Apple’s Original TV Show to Star Dr. Dre

Apple is going the Netflix way and is making an original TV series that will star popular rapper and Apple-owned Beats co-founder Dr. Dre. The show is called Vital Signs and is a dark drama which will have six 30-minute episodes showing Dr. Dre responding to different emotions. It is semi-autobiographical in nature and will also start Sam Rockwell and Mo McCrae.

This will be Apple’s debut venture in original content and, like Netflix, the episodes will release all at once for viewers to binge on. The series will debut on Apple Music, according to reports. It is still not clear when and how big the launch of the show will be. One of the reasons behind going with Dr. Dre for its first TV series is due to Dre’s ties with Apple on Beats.

Another reason could be Apple trying to get a piece of the success that followed Straight Outta Compton, which was a story about Dre’s life as a rapper during his time with the N.W.A. According to reports, Dre has already begun filming for the show.

Early in January, we had reported that Apple was working on a project called “Apple Video” and has partnered with ABC, CBS, and Fox. Apple has also worked out details with Sony Pictures, Universal and Disney and may be negotiation with some other studios.

Apple has been working on a video streaming service, according to the rumour mill, for the past six years. It seems 2016 will be the year of release. With the recent news of Netflix going global and launching in 190 countries worldwide, Apple may have to move fast if it wants to get on with the competition.

February 13, 2016
Apple Music Now Has Over 11 Million Subscribers

It’s only been a little over six months since Apple started operations at Apple Music, and in that short span of time, this promising service has outdone expectations, as well as the previous market leader, Spotify. Apple Music now has over 11 million subscribers, along with 782 million iCloud users.

The new 11 million figure was mentioned by Craig Federighi and Eddy Cue, Apple’s Senior Vice Presidents, on John Gruber’s podcast, The Talk Show, published today. It should be noted at this point that it took Spotify, its main rival, 6 long years to reach its first 10 million milestone.

This is an interesting piece of information because Apple’s streaming service had faced a lot of flak at its launch owing to its bug ridden, and clustered interface. It was only after iOS 9 came in that many of these issues were cleared.

However, Apple Music is not where it ends for the Cupertino tech-giant. “Apple Video” is something else the company has up its sleeve. It’s the next big Apple project with many partners involved, such as ABC, CBS, and Fox. Apple already has a large library of movies and video on its iTunes Store, which can currently be only bought or rented.

Streaming is slowly becoming the preferred form of consumption of music, and is growing rapidly as people give up on downloads. In the US, demand for streaming has increased more than 50 per cent, with 317 billion songs being streamed last year.

Apple despite all of this has a long way to go before it comes close to overtaking Spotify. Spotify last reported its number of subscribers in June, and it is expected to have grown substantially since then. Back then it had 20 million paid members, and in total it reported 75 million users.

Source

February 13, 2016
Apple’s iTunes Radio Will No Longer be a Free Service

Apple’s iTunes Radio will no longer be a free streaming service. The company will add the ad-supported streaming service to Apple Music beginning January 29. Apple Music is a paid music streaming service that began last year. After the date, Beats 1, which launched alongside Apple Music, will be the only free music streaming service offered by the Cupertino company.

Apple launched iTunes Radio in 2013 in the United States and Australia. The streaming service lets you create custom stations based on genres or specific songs, much like Pandora and other internet radio services. The service is ad-supported and does not allow on-demand access to music.

Apple sent out emails to customers regarding its new change and also confirmed the same to BuzzFeed. iTunes Radio has already been a part of Apple Music since the latter’s inception, but users were still able to access iTunes Radio streams for free. After the 29th, Beats 1, Apple’s curated live 24/7 radio station, will be the only free music streaming option available.

The news follows and confirms Apple’s decision to discontinue its iAD App Network, the company’s mobile ads product.

January 16, 2016
Apple Music Reaches 10 Million Users in 6 Months, Spotify took 6 years

It’s only been six months since Apple started operations at Apple Music, and in that short span of time, this promising service has outdone market expectations, and already managed to reach half the number of paid subscribers that the market leader, Spotify has. Noteworthy is the fact, that it took Spotify, its main rival, 6 long years to reach this milestone of 10 million subscribers.

What makes this feat even more impressive, is the fact that Apple’s streaming service which because of it’s bug ridden, and clustered interface met with a lot of criticism at its launch. It was only after iOS 9 came in that many of these issues were cleared.

This growth of Apple’s premium music streaming service, which launched in more than 100 countries, not only raises the competition in the music streaming service space, but more importantly raises hopes for the future of the music Industry itself, which has been fighting a losing battle against Piracy for the last decade or so.

Deciphering this music industry analyst, Mark Mulligan had this to say,“It’s good news that Apple is making streaming work but it is also going to accelerate the decline of downloads.” Apple is rapidly gaining on Spotify and at its current growth rate has “the potential to be the leading music subscription service sometime in 2017.”

Streaming is slowly becoming the preferred form of consumption of music, and is growing rapidly as people give up on downloads. In the US, demand for streaming increased more than 50 per cent, with 164bn songs streamed in total.

Apple despite all of this has a long way to go before it comes close to overtaking Spotify. Spotify last reported its number of subscribers in June, and it is expected to have grown substantially since then. Back then it had 20 million paid members, and in total it reported 75 million users.

January 11, 2016
Apple Music to Have 8M Paid Subscribers This Year, 20M in 2016

Music analyst Mark Mulligan has estimated that Apple Music will have more than 8 million paid subscribers before the closing of 2015. The number will be more than double in 2016 as it is expected to hit 20 million.

If these numbers indeed turn out to be correct then Apple Music would have gained twice the number of subscribers within 6 months of what Spotify did in the first 4 years of its launch. Apple Music had become the number two music service by mid-2015 in a very brief period post its launch.

“Apple might not have found the subscription market quite the plain sailing it had anticipated but it has still managed to establish itself as the second player with astounding pace,” says Mulligan.

Come 2016, if Apple does indeed manage to get 20 million paid subscribers, it will be very close to catching up with Spotify, albeit still being on the no.2 spot.

December 18, 2015
Apple To Discontinue Beats Music By the End Of November

Recent reports suggest that Apple will shut down Beats Music on the 30th of November 2015. Even though all the Beats subscriptions will end on that day, Apple is still encouraging subscribers to migrate their user profiles to Apple Music by saying that:

“…on Apple Music, you’ll get even better recommendations based on music you already listen to and love, 24/7 global radio with Beats 1, exciting material from your favorite artist, and more.”

This decision to shut Beats Music down has come less than six months after the company unveiled Apple Music. The appearance of Apple Music is said to have marked a departure from Apple’s stance on resisting the adoption of any music subscription model for its users. This service offers users recommendations based on purchases made over Apple’s iTunes Store or chosen on-demand from an online catalog. Apple Music also includes Beats 1, which is a 24X7 radio station. Apart from this the service also offers something called ‘Connect’ where artists can interact with their well-wisher or fans to share songs directly to their iPhones.

Since its launch, Apple Music has gathered 6.5 million subscribers, however this number still does not beat Spotify’s 25 million paid members and 50 million unpaid members. Furthermore, Apple has even released the service for Android users. Therefore, with the reach of Apple Music extending to more than just its customers, the discontinuation of Beats Music should not make much of a difference to the tech mogul.

November 14, 2015
Apple Music has Come to Android But With Glitches

Apple Music has finally arrived on Android. The newest music streaming app is the third Apple app to make its way to Android – the first to being Move to iOS and BeatPill+. Apple Music is something many Android users have been waiting for. It is one of Apple’s better launches this year and one that has pleased music lovers all over.

The Android app looks similar to Apple Music on iOS with only some differences that are particular to Android. The design is pretty much the same and all the Apple Music options are there including Beats Radio. True to Android the app has a left slide-out menu that features the For You, New, Radio, Connect, Playlists and My Music tabs. The For You section is packed with albums and curated playlists based on your taste. The suggestions look just like the iOS.

But those are just the pros to the story. The Android beta version of the Apple Music comes with a host of bugs and glitches that are quite putting off.

The app is far from working smoothly at the moment. Saved playlists and album artworks take a long time to load properly even with fast network connectivity, and you’re left with black spaces and a white background that makes the overall app a dull affair.

Downloading multiple songs or a playlist seem to fail occasionally while single downloads work fine. Since it’s still in beta stage one expects the app to come with some issues. The updated version will look to smooth things out.

Furthermore, the app does not sync with your music folder, which one would have preferred since Android users tend to use their phones like an MP3 player, storing music files for years. Thus, the My Music page will only show songs purchased from iTunes and songs saved from Apple Music. Google Play Music allows streaming as well as downloaded music files so Android users may just stick with that.

Apple Music has a massive library of music and one can pretty much find anything in there. For users in India, this means that there is now a great alternative for popular music streaming apps like Saavn, Wynk and Gaana. To download the Apple Music for Android, head on over to the Google Play Store and try it out. As mentioned above, the app has a 3-month free trial after which you’ll have to pay to stay on.

November 12, 2015
China to Target Online Music Platforms in 2016, Apple Music Likely to Suffer

Aren’t we all aware of China’s internet policing? So, nothing it does can further surprise us. Now they are going to tighten their policing on online music services including Apple, in order to filter out “harmful” content before streaming.

The self-censorship program states that companies offering streaming services will need to start filtering out content from the 1st of January 2016. As of now, Chinese customers rely on local firms such as Ali Baba, Baidu etc for streaming music.

However, Apple had just launched a special Chinese version of Apple Music alongside an access to iTunes Movies and iBooks. So, customers who signed up then, are halfway through their three-month free trial period, soon after which China will enact the above mentioned regulations.

As of now, nobody knows how much these regulations will affect Apple Music. Although if Apple Music chooses to give China a miss, which is most likely what will happen because Apple has usually always been against censorship, then it might mean a whole lot of profit for other music platforms such as Spotify and Pandora. But what good is a platform without the global musicians, who might also back out with all the censorship issues? Let us know what you think about this.

November 10, 2015
Facebook Launches ‘Music Stories’: A New Way to Discover and Share Music

Facebook has been quite busy this year. The social media site is doing everything possible to make Facebook more attractive for users. After the auto-play video feature, and the news of an imminent ‘Notify’ launch, Facebook is now focusing on music. The company posted in a blog about their new feature called ‘Music Stories’ that enable better music discovery and sharing on Facebook. The new post format allows people to listen to previews on Facebook from Apple Music and Spotify.

https://www.facebook.com/Musicians/videos/vb.10435416547/10153038619321548/?type=2&theater

Michael Cerda, Director of Product wrote in a blog post that the Facebook app will have a “new post format which allows people to listen to a 30-second preview of the shared song (or album) while on Facebook. The preview is streamed from either Apple Music or Spotify (depending on the source of the link shared), and can be purchased from or saved to the respective music streaming service.”

There are few things people love more than music. People find out about it from artists and friends alike, and they love to share their discoveries. Today we are enabling better music discovery and sharing on Facebook.

What “Music Stories” does is it lets users upload previews of the song via Apple Music or Spotify. Facebook users can listen to the preview and choose to add the full song to their library in a single click or purchase them via iTunes store. The process for Spotify is similar. “If you want more, click through to stream full tracks on Spotify or add to your library without leaving Facebook.”

As of now it seems only iPhone users will have this feature on their Facebook app. Facebook usually rolls out new updates and features for iPhone first. “Music Stories” should be available for Android and others soon after.

November 6, 2015
Tips and Tricks to Survive With a 16 GB iPhone

So you have a 16 GB iPhone and you don’t really know why. You just do. Or you might be planning to go for the new iPhone 6s series, but you’re not sure whether a 16 GB storage is worth it. Well, even we don’t know why Apple hasn’t already killed off the 16 GB variant. But the fact is that they haven’t and there are people around the world who have to deal with living with a 16 GB iPhone.

Moreover, it’s not really 16 GB, is it? It’s actually about 10 GB as Apple’s OS and pre-loaded apps like iBooks, Photo Booth and others eat up about one-third of your storage. So, considering all that, close to 10 GB is what you’re left with that you can actually call your own.

With new technology comes new, faster ways to fill up your limited storage. A single graphic-intense game like GTA can take up 1-2 GB of storage. An HD movie can take up to 5 GB. So 16 GB users feel the storage blues at least once a month. But don’t worry, we’re here to give you some tips and tricks on how you can easily manage with your 16 GB device.

1. HDR Comes With a Price

If you have an iPhone 4 or higher, you have the ability to take amazing High Dynamic Range (HDR) images. Yes, the images are crisp and spectacular, but heavy on your storage. What HDR does is that it combines multiple pictures at different exposures and then combines them to give you one great shot. This is what makes the camera in your iPhone one to beat.

But what HDR also does is that it saves the original picture as well, so that you can see and compare the detailing. Depending on whether the HDR has come out better or not, you can choose to keep the former and delete the latter, or vice versa. Either way, double photos take up double space, which is not good if you’re a 16 GB iPhone user. You can choose not to save your original photo if you know HDR images is what you want by going to Settings > Photos & Camera > Keep Normal Photo and unselecting it.

2. Thank God for Apple Music

Say what you may about Apple Music, but it is definitely a godsend for 16 GB iPhone users. One of the major storage eaters is music. We tend to store a lot of music because we need it for our morning office trips, exercising, studying, everything. And we tend not to realise that in our excitement to store every new song that takes our fancy, we eat up that precious storage space.

Along came Apple Music to save the day. The music streaming service that began three months ago lets you stream unlimited music and lets you add as many songs and albums to your library without taking a single megabyte.

To delete your stored music, head on over to Settings > General > Storage & iCloud Usage > Manage Storage > Music and left slide on artists you want to delete or delete them all together via All Songs. Once you’ve deleted all your songs, you can go nuts and start loading up your library with music from Apple Music that won’t leave a mark in your storage.

3. Get Religious

iPhone users have to practice a specific religion. This religion requires you to check in on your storage every once in a while, see the apps that are consuming a lot of storage, delete them, and download the app(s) again.

With a 16 GB storage, you can download any app you want. Go crazy with it as long as you remember to check back on them every once or twice a month. Apps like WhatsApp and Instagram take up a lot of space over time because of all media files that you end up downloading, or the hundreds of pictures you scroll through. When you find yourself approaching the 16 GB limit, head over to Settings > General > Usage > Manage Storage, find out whats bulking up and delete that app. You can always download the app again.

4. Don’t Let Your iPhone Download Without Your Permission

Apple tends to choose certain settings on your behalf. You may not even be aware of it until much later. One such setting is the Media Auto Download on WhatsApp, which is set on both Wi-Fi and Cellular by default. This means that any media file sent your way, be it in a group or individual, will automatically be downloaded to your media folder, whether you like it or not.

So, if you want to control the media you download, open WhatsApp and go to Setting > Chats and Calls > Media Auto-Download where you’ll find three separate options: Images, Audio and Video. You can then make the changes to each option accordingly.

5. iCloud’s the Limit

The best way to beat storage woes is to pay for it. Along with the launch of iOS 9, Apple also bumped up the storage offered on iCloud as well as cut the prices of its plans. You can now get 50 GB of cloud storage at Rs. 65 ($0.99) per month, 200 GB at Rs 190 ($2.99) and 1 TB at Rs. 650 ($9.99). That comes to around Rs. 650 a year for a the base tier, which is not bad considering a 64 GB iPhone would cost around Rs. 10,000 more. You can purchase more storage by going to Setting > iCloud > Storage and click on ‘Buy More Storage’.

To activate iCloud, all you have to do is go to Settings > iCloud and log in using your Apple ID. Once your Cloud is set up, you can choose the options like Photos, Mail, Contacts and Calendars that you want stored in the Cloud. Next thing you’ll want to do is go to Photos via settings and turn on the ‘iCloud Photo Library’ option so that your entire library gets uploaded in iCloud.

6. Stay Up-to-Date

By this we mean always be on the latest update. iOS 9 has made some neat changes and the company has tried to focus on storage solutions more than ever before. Apple also introduced “app thinning”, which is a combination of enhancements that result in apps taking only as much space as they need in the moment. With this feature, developers are working on improving their apps so that it doesn’t take up unnecessary space.

Apple has also reduced the amount of storage space required by the iOS 9 OTA update from 4.6 GB to 1.3 GB. The difference won’t show in your storage, however. iOS 9 doesn’t free up storage for users, but it does make updating your iPhone easier with lighter files over the air.

October 27, 2015
This is What Apple Music Could Look Like on Android

Apple haters may hate a lot of things about Apple’s products, but there is one thing that moves beyond hate. Music. And Apple haters and loyalists alike love music. There was a time when Apple revolutionized the way we listen to music with the iPod. But early this year saw the end to the classic iPod. To continue its goal to redefine music, Apple launched the Apple Music.

Apple Music is currently an iOS-only music streaming platform that gives you access to millions of songs from the company’s iTunes library. And for a basic monthly subscription, you can listen to unlimited music. This was Apple’s promise, and this is what they have delivered.

The Apple Music is actually quite brilliant. It gives the most popular music streaming platform today (Spotify) a run for its money. The reason being is that Apple Music is personal. Apple has put a lot of thought in the way the music service works for you. From curated playlists that have about 12-15 songs, which is just right, to Beats Radio, and Connect that lets you see what your favorite artist is up to. There is everything a music lover could ask for. But iOS users already know this. So why are we saying it now? It’s because Apple had promised that its music streaming service will come to Android soon as well.

The company said that Apple Music will be available for Android users this fall, which is any time now. Some screenshots published by Mobile Geeks show what Apple Music could look like for Android, and it’s pretty much what you’d expect. All the main features of Apple Music is present. Users will navigate Apple Music by using a slide-out menu accessible through the hamburger icon or via a swipe from the left side.

The For You section that shows curated playlists and artists based on your choice of music and genre, along with New, Beats 1 radio. Connect and My Music are all there. Presumably the My Music will link your phone’s music folder so all your songs are in one place. For iOS users the Apple Music was a natural extension to the Music app.

So, Android users in India will soon have the option to jump on to the Apple Music service. There are already a few music streaming platforms in India like Wynk, Saavn, Gaana and Hungama, that are pretty good. It is likely that Apple will provide a 3-months free trial of Apple Music for Android users as well. So once the app is out, give it a whirl and see if this is the service for you. The monthly subscription for iOS users is Rs. 120 for individuals and Rs. 180 for families. For Android users, the cost is likely to be around the same.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1zs0uHHoSw

October 24, 2015
Apple Music Has Over 15 Million Users Now

Apple Music has been growing since its inception back in June. Apple CEO Tim Cook recently gave an update on how people are taking to the new music streaming service, and he feels delighted, to say the least. “It’s going really well,” he told Wall Street Journal editor-in-chief Gerard Baker on stage at WSJD Live. “Fortunately, lots of people are liking it.”

There are over 15 million users right now with 6.5 million users already paying for the service and the rest still enjoying the 3-months free trial period. After the trial period users have to pay $9.99 for individual subscriptions or $14.99 for families. In India, it costs Rs. 120 per month for individual subscription and Rs. 180 for families after trial period ends.

Given the number of users – both paying and non-paying – on Apple Music right now, the service is getting closer and closer to Spotify, which has over 20 million paying users.

The free-trial for June users ends this month. So October is the first month Apple has started collecting payments. There are people still joining the service for the first time this month. Apple Music has seen mixed opinions from people. There are those who especially love the curated playlists offered in Apple Music, while others are happy staying with Spotify.

October 20, 2015