Apple Music (On Trial & Onward)

Interesting comparison of Apple + Amazon subs vs Spotify. Requires large grains of salt, lol. Not sure why Amazon is so tight-lipped about their subs.

https://www.musicbusinessworldwide....-spotifys-subscriber-base-by-the-end-of-2018/
Isn't Amazon tight lipped on everything? The only thing out there for Echos is estimates. You would think they would be touting market share, at least.

It is interesting that all of them are growing, if at different rates. Seems more and more people are paying for streaming. Apple is tying Apple Music to more hardware, so I am sure hardware is helping them sell the service.
 
Just some more AM news:

"In May of 2018 we also saw a Tim Cook quote which suggested Apple was up to 50 million subscribers. In a sort of anonymously-sourced report from an insider music industry person in early July it was suggested that Apple had 25-million paid subscribers in North America alone, which would, if true, top that of Spotify’s North American paid subscriber userbase. "

An interesting comment from Tim Cook:

"Music is a service that we think our users want us to provide. It’s a service that we worry about the humanity being drained out of. We worry about it a bits-and-bytes kind of world, instead of the art and craft.” said Cook.

https://www.slashgear.com/apple-music-subscribers-users-numbers-usa-global-2018-08540533/

Personally, I have been enjoying AM a lot more at home lately thanks to the HomePod. It sounds great and puts music in the background for most everything we do in the kitchen. We spend a lot of time in that area, so it helps to have great sounding music whenever we are chatting or prepping food. The HomePod has also been great for playing music from my main system, too. I just tell it to play on Den (AppleTV) and thanks to Airplay 2 music comes from my speakers. I love it and how it works with Airplay 2.
 
Thanks for the info.

I like my two Homepods and they sound great in Stereo with Airplay two. I am a bit disappointed that Apple's new Airplay 2 does not allow stereo/multi-room streaming to devices other than Airplay 2 certified devices, because that limits your Airplay control of Stereo/multi-room streaming to only the Homepods and Apple TV at present.

I have both of my homes filled now with Varo Wifi Speakers because they were on super blowout Fire Sale prices at Staple.com. They still may be. These are similar to Sonos except much less expensive, yet, they really work well and sound great. But I have to use the Varo App to set them up because they are not Airplay TWO compliant. Luckily the Varo App allows you to set them up in stereo mode, and has a provision for zone or total home streaming (up to 8 speakers). The Varo also have a Subwoofer that snaps on the bottom of their cube speaker and sounds amazing. At the blowout prices that Staples was offering, I set up every room in both of my homes for around $300. That would have cost 3 grand for Sonos or similar for Homepods.

Once they are set up to stereo pair, then Airplay works with them just fine, but I can't use airplay to do whole-house as they are not Airplay TWO compliant, so I have to go back and forth from the Varo App to Airplay. Oh well, better than nothing. I don't blame Apple for tightening the grip on Airplay so that Airplay Two only works with DEVICES set up or Airplay TWO.

Net-net, I'm deep in the Apple WiFi Airplay streaming architecture. Every room in both of my homes is now set up to stream from Airplay, so Apple Music is not a luxury for me, it's a NECESSITY, as are iOS devices. I can WiFi stream to my Varo Speakers from a Droid using the Varo App (DLNA WiFi streaming architecture for Droid), but then you are LIMITED to iHeart Radio, TuneIn, Spotify Premium, and Tidal. That's all the APP allows via Android WiFi streaming. Via Airplay, you can obviously stream ANYTHING from your iOS device to the Varo or any other WiFi Speakers.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the info.

I like my two Homepods and they sound great in Stereo with Airplay two. I am a bit disappointed that Apple's new Airplay 2 does not allow stereo/multi-room streaming to devices other than Airplay 2 certified devices, because that limits your Airplay control of Stereo/multi-room streaming to only the Homepods and Apple TV at present.

I have both of my homes filled now with Varo Wifi Speakers because they were on super blowout Fire Sale prices at Staple.com. They still may be. These are similar to Sonos except much less expensive, yet, they really work well and sound great. But I have to use the Varo App to set them up because they are not Airplay TWO compliant. Luckily the Varo App allows you to set them up in stereo mode, and has a provision for zone or total home streaming (up to 8 speakers). The Varo also have a Subwoofer that snaps on the bottom of their cube speaker and sounds amazing. At the blowout prices that Staples was offering, I set up every room in both of my homes for around $300. That would have cost 3 grand for Sonos or similar for Homepods.

Once they are set up to stereo pair, then Airplay works with them just fine, but I can't use airplay to do whole-house as they are not Airplay TWO compliant, so I have to go back and forth from the Varo App to Airplay. Oh well, better than nothing. I don't blame Apple for tightening the grip on Airplay so that Airplay Two only works with DEVICES set up or Airplay TWO.

Net-net, I'm deep in the Apple WiFi Airplay streaming architecture. Every room in both of my homes is now set up to stream from Airplay, so Apple Music is not a luxury for me, it's a NECESSITY, as are iOS devices. I can WiFi stream to my Varo Speakers from a Droid using the Varo App (DLNA WiFi streaming architecture for Droid), but then you are LIMITED to iHeart Radio, TuneIn, Spotify Premium, and Tidal. That's all the APP allows via Android WiFi streaming. Via Airplay, you can obviously stream ANYTHING from your iOS device to the Varo or any other WiFi Speakers.
I have a lot of Airplay 1 only devices, as well. None of them (other than my AppleTVs) will see an update. Many companies have already announced future support, so that is good news.
 
Looks like VZ is offering free 6-months of AM with unlimited plans. Too bad it’s limited term, since their rivals offer free Tidal, etc, for as long as you’re on their plan, though I think bandwidth limited.

I use VZ, can’t beat their coverage.
 
Looks like VZ is offering free 6-months of AM with unlimited plans. Too bad it’s limited term, since their rivals offer free Tidal, etc, for as long as you’re on their plan, though I think bandwidth limited.

I use VZ, can’t beat their coverage.
I saw that. Very nice deal.

Sprint made a major investment in Tidal, so that doesn't surprise me. However, I wonder what happens if Tidal goes under? I am not saying they will but Tidal isn't in the news unless there is more bad news.
 
I have a lot of Airplay 1 only devices, as well. None of them (other than my AppleTVs) will see an update. Many companies have already announced future support, so that is good news.

It is possible my Varo WiFi speakers (powered by Samsung) will see an Airplay II update. They just did a big firmware update about a month before Airplay II came out, so my HOPE is that they will eventually support Airplay II.

I am half tempted to get an Apple TV as long as I'm hip deep in the iOS architecture now. Buying rooms full of WiFi Speakers for Airplay shortly after I got a new iPhone 8 and a backup iPhone SE for my 2nd line really pushed me down the iOS yellow brick road. I have Google Chromecast and Amazon Fire Stick on all of my HDTVs, so I really need to try Apple TV.
 
Interesting comparison of Apple + Amazon subs vs Spotify. Requires large grains of salt, lol. Not sure why Amazon is so tight-lipped about their subs.

https://www.musicbusinessworldwide....-spotifys-subscriber-base-by-the-end-of-2018/

Oddly, I never ran with the Lemmings to the sea of Spotify. I dabbled with it on trial, but never took the plunge. For some strange reason, I'm not a fan of Amazon Prime Music Unlimited, even though I have been a subscriber to that for a few years. I need to end that. I don't know why I am so fond of Apple Music, but I just am. I was even when I was still on an old iPhone 4s and an iPad 2 (last year).
 
Looks like VZ is offering free 6-months of AM with unlimited plans. Too bad it’s limited term, since their rivals offer free Tidal, etc, for as long as you’re on their plan, though I think bandwidth limited.

I use VZ, can’t beat their coverage.

My Droid (Samsung Galaxy) is on VZ. Their coverage is excellent, that's for sure. I think that ATT (my iPhone 8 is on ATT) is very close and in some areas covers me better. Between ATT and VZ, I can travel all of North America and not be out of cell range. Certainly when roaming in Europe on GSM, I like my ATT phone, although I know that VZ phones can do SIM cards now.
 
Sprint made a major investment in Tidal, so that doesn't surprise me. However, I wonder what happens if Tidal goes under? I am not saying they will but Tidal isn't in the news unless there is more bad news.

Sprint is toast if the TMUS deal falls through. They can’t afford to update to 5G alone, so would quickly lose customers once 5G starts to get traction (a year or two from now).
 
Sprint is toast if the TMUS deal falls through. They can’t afford to update to 5G alone, so would quickly lose customers once 5G starts to get traction (a year or two from now).
It will definitely be interesting to see how that turns out. Still can't believe they dumped $200 million into Tidal.

It is possible my Varo WiFi speakers (powered by Samsung) will see an Airplay II update. They just did a big firmware update about a month before Airplay II came out, so my HOPE is that they will eventually support Airplay II.

I am half tempted to get an Apple TV as long as I'm hip deep in the iOS architecture now. Buying rooms full of WiFi Speakers for Airplay shortly after I got a new iPhone 8 and a backup iPhone SE for my 2nd line really pushed me down the iOS yellow brick road. I have Google Chromecast and Amazon Fire Stick on all of my HDTVs, so I really need to try Apple TV.
At this point, Samsung has not made any announcements for support Airplay 2 (click on the speaker at the top of the page and it will put you in the section with announced and supported third party products):

https://www.apple.com/ios/home/accessories/

I have a lot of stuff that supports Casting, as well. I rarely use it. I prefer my AppleTV for that kind of stuff, though I do watch Youtube quite a bit on the app built into my Samsung TV.

Oddly, I never ran with the Lemmings to the sea of Spotify. I dabbled with it on trial, but never took the plunge. For some strange reason, I'm not a fan of Amazon Prime Music Unlimited, even though I have been a subscriber to that for a few years. I need to end that. I don't know why I am so fond of Apple Music, but I just am. I was even when I was still on an old iPhone 4s and an iPad 2 (last year).
I never liked Spotify, either. I didnt like that dark interface and it did not work properly in the car I had at the time...when somehow Rdio did. I subbed a couple times, but it was always the worst streaming service in my car. Also, I mainly liked their add ons in the desktop version of the app (jazz-fy, Blue Note, etc.) and the fact that they weren't on iOS was a painful sticking point.

I only have a lot of my own music on Amazon and use their free version of Amazon Prime Music. Only use them occasionally with the Dot, so that works fine for my use.
 
It will definitely be interesting to see how that turns out. Still can't believe they dumped $200 million into Tidal.


At this point, Samsung has not made any announcements for support Airplay 2 (click on the speaker at the top of the page and it will put you in the section with announced and supported third party products):

https://www.apple.com/ios/home/accessories/

I have a lot of stuff that supports Casting, as well. I rarely use it. I prefer my AppleTV for that kind of stuff, though I do watch Youtube quite a bit on the app built into my Samsung TV.


I never liked Spotify, either. I didnt like that dark interface and it did not work properly in the car I had at the time...when somehow Rdio did. I subbed a couple times, but it was always the worst streaming service in my car. Also, I mainly liked their add ons in the desktop version of the app (jazz-fy, Blue Note, etc.) and the fact that they weren't on iOS was a painful sticking point.

I only have a lot of my own music on Amazon and use their free version of Amazon Prime Music. Only use them occasionally with the Dot, so that works fine for my use.

Finally ordered an Apple TV this afternoon. It was overdue for me to act on this. Been thinking about it for years. I'll be interested to compare it to Fire TV. Comparing it to Chromecast is not really a comparison. Chromecast, IMO, is just a casting port for your laptop/computer. I suppose if you are a bare-bones kind of a person, that works. I prefer a remote and a platform.
 
Finally ordered an Apple TV this afternoon. It was overdue for me to act on this. Been thinking about it for years. I'll be interested to compare it to Fire TV. Comparing it to Chromecast is not really a comparison. Chromecast, IMO, is just a casting port for your laptop/computer. I suppose if you are a bare-bones kind of a person, that works. I prefer a remote and a platform.
Yeah, me too. The Nvidia Shield has some casting features and some Airplay features. However, I like AppleTV’s podcast app, it’s access to the Photos app on my iOS devices, etc.. Now I like its ability to receive music commands from my HomePod.
 
Back
Top Bottom