Apple’s upcoming music streaming service – built in collaboration with the Beats team it acquired last year – will forgo any Beats branding to simply be called ‘Apple Music’, and include artist-driven social media content in addition to songs.
According to a report from “industry sources”, Apple are planing to resurrect some features from their ill-fated Ping network for use in Apple Music. The streaming service – set to compete with rivals such as Spotify, Pandora and Jay-Z’s Tidal – will allow artists full control over their own profile pages, with the ability to deliver rich media content to fans through the network.
The service would fall short of acting as a fully-fledged social network, but still allow everyday users to follow their favorite artists and post comments on updates using their existing iTunes accounts. Artists meanwhile would be able to cross-promote by sharing each others’ posts, as well as delivering new content themselves.
Specifically, it looks like we can expect “track samples, photos, videos and concert updates” from musicians. Apple will be relying on popular artists to get heavily involved for this to take off, but the ability to stay up to date with the bands and singers you love while streaming their music could be the unique selling point that sets the service apart from its competitors.
It’s expected that Apple will unveil the network officially at this year’s WWDC in June.
Read more: music streaming on the rise as Apple prepare to relaunch Beats Music
Apple’s upcoming music streaming service will apparently feature social media channels run exclusively by artists: http://t.co/rfTtdfveYk
— TapSmart (@TapSmart) May 14, 2015