Eddy Cue and Jimmy Iovine Talk Apple Music in Series of Interviews

Following yesterday’s debut of Apple Music, Jimmy Iovine and iTunes Chief Eddy Cue sat down with Billboard to discuss the new service and app, which combine on-demand streaming music with 24/7 radio and a social networking platform where artists can interact with fans.

According to Cue, the $9.99 individual price point for Apple Music wasn’t a sticking point for the company as some earlier reports suggested, but the company was invested in negotiating a reasonable family subscription price. Apple Music lets up to 6 family members share an account for $14.99, a price point that Cue says will get entire families on board with the service.

I think the cost of an album for a month of subscription is fair. Could you argue, $7.99 or $8.99? Who cares. I think where subscription is missing the boat is on the family — you have a spouse, boyfriend, girlfriend kids … the concept of signing up for these individual subscription plans multiple times is just not going to happen so we spent a lot of time with the labels to convince them that the real opportunity here is to get the whole family. With that, all boats rise.

On the subject of streaming music cannibalizing iTunes downloads, Cue says he expects some of the customer base to subscribe instead of buying music, but he believes downloads will “go on for a long, long time.” “There are lots of people who are very happy downloading,” he said. “And I think they’ll continue to.”

Explaining the reasoning behind a 24-hour human-curated radio station, Iovine explained that over the past 15 years, radio’s become manufactured, something he’d like to change. “It’s either genre-based or beat-driven or research-driven,” he said. “So I said, let’s build something that’s got none of that that just plays music because it’s great.”

Cue and Iovine also did interviews with The Wall Street Journal and The Guardian, sharing much of the same information, but in the latter interview, the duo also spoke on Apple Connect, the social networking component of Apple Music. The point of Apple Connect and Apple Music in general, said Cue, was to give artists and labels control over content sharing.

“Our viewpoint was very simple: let the artist and label control it. They can put it up on Connect for free if they want to, or they can put it up behind the [subscription] paywall, or they can make it available on the iTunes Store for sale. They’re in control of their music and how they want to distribute it,” says Cue.

Iovine added commentary suggesting a music service needs to be “a win for everybody.” “We wanted to give artists a place where there’s a rhyme and a reason,” he said. “Where there’s a payoff! And not just a financial payoff, but an emotional payoff. A creative payoff.”

Apple Music, with its on-demand streaming service, Beats 1 radio station, and Apple Connect platform, will officially launch on June 30, as part of the iOS 8.4 update. As previously mentioned, it will be priced at $9.99 for individuals and $14.99 for families. Existing Beats subscribers will be able to transition their subscriptions to Apple Music.

Apple Seeds Fourth iOS 8.4 Beta With Revamped Music App to Developers and Public Beta Testers

Apple today seeded the fourth beta of iOS 8.4 to registered developers for testing purposes, nearly a month after seeding the third iOS 8.4 beta and almost two months after launching the first iOS 8.4 beta. iOS 8.4 has been in testing since mid-April, following the early April release of iOS 8.3. Today’s beta is the third that public beta testers have received.

Today’s beta update, build 12H4125a, is available as an over-the-air download and through the iOS Developer Center.

iOS 8.4 beta 4’s release notes still include a number of lingering issues with the new Music app that will need to be resolved before the software can be released to the public. Problems include an inability to use Siri with iTunes Radio, issues with AirPlay streaming, a lack of station sharing, and more.

iOS 8.4’s major feature is an all-new Music app that includes a revamped look, as seen in the walkthrough video below. The Music app’s new design shows pictures of artists in the Artists view and it offers a new MiniPlayer with a redesigned look for “Now Playing.” There are personalized playlists, global search capabilities that make it easier to search within the Music app, and a streamlined design for the radio feature to bolster music discovery.

iOS 8.4’s redesigned Music app comes ahead of the debut of Apple Music, which was introduced at the Worldwide Developers Conference yesterday. The upcoming streaming music service is similar to Apple’s existing Beats music service, but it’s been renamed and deeply integrated into the Music app.

We will see the public release of both the new music service and iOS 8.4 on June 30.

Apple Seeds Fifth OS X 10.10.4 Yosemite Beta to Developers and Public Beta Testers

Apple today seeded the fifth beta of OS X 10.10.4 to developers and public beta testers, approximately two weeks after releasing the fourth OS X 10.10.4 beta and two months after releasing the first OS X 10.10.4 beta. OS X 10.10.4 has been in testing since mid-April, following the early April release of OS X 10.10.3, which included the new Photos for OS X app.

The new beta, build 14E33b, can downloaded through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store or through the Mac Developer Center.

OS X 10.10.3 brought several consumer-facing changes including the new Photos for OS X app, a redesigned emoji picker, and diversified emoji, but OS X 10.10.4 appears to be an under-the-hood update that brings performance enhancements and bug fixes.

Thus far, OS X 10.10.4 betas have not included outward facing design changes or feature additions, but the last beta introduced a significant behind-the-scenes update that may improve networking performance for users who have experienced issues with OS X Yosemite.

Discoveryd, a somewhat problematic networking process that has been linked to multiple bugs in OS X 10.10, was removed in favor of the older bug-free mDNSresponder.

It is not clear when Apple plans to release OS X 10.10.4 to the public, but the fact that we’ve now received five betas suggests we may be nearing the end of the beta testing period.

Hands-On Look at iOS 9 and OS X 10.11 El Capitan

At yesterday’s WWDC keynote, Apple unveiled its next generation operating systems for Mac and iOS, introducing both OS X 10.11 El Capitan and iOS 9. We’ve done a hands-on overview of the two new operating systems, to give you a look at some of the changes that Apple has implemented.

With iOS 9, there are several underlying improvements that improve battery life and reduce the amount of storage space the operating system takes up, a huge benefit for users with 16GB devices. Siri’s become more intelligent, and the whole OS has been updated with “Proactive” features that help you better manage your life.

A revamped search screen on the left of the home screen offers up a list of commonly used apps, favorite contacts, restaurant and venue recommendations, and important news, all available at a glance. Maps gained Transit directions, Notes has new features, there’s a new News app, and we’re finally getting a much-desired split-screen multitasking feature for the iPad.

And those are just the big changes — check out our roundup of hidden features, too, and visit our iOS 9 forum to learn even more about the new version of iOS.

OS X 10.11 El Capitan is named for a notable mountain within Yosemite, signifying its position as an update that builds on and refines the features introduced with OS X Yosemite. El Capitan includes improved window management features with a new Split view for displaying two full screen windows at once, plus it has an improved Spotlight search with natural language support, and updates to apps like Notes and Maps.

Safari has gained features like Pinned Sites and a mute button that can silence audio from any tab, while Mail supports new gestures and Smart Suggestions. Most importantly, El Capitan improves system performance, making many tasks on the Mac faster than before. It also includes Metal for much improved graphics performance.

Want to know more about El Capitan? Make sure to visit our OS X 10.11 forum, where members are discussing the new update and sharing many smaller changes that went under the radar.

El Capitan and iOS 9 are both available to registered developers, and Apple plans to provide them to public beta testers in July. A public release of both software updates will come in the fall.