Tag: music

YouTube Music will soon officially support podcasts but not replace the Google Podcasts app

As part of a larger push for podcasting across the platform as a whole, YouTube has today made the official announcement that podcasts will soon be distributed through YouTube Music. This comes after several months of buildup and speculation on whether podcasts would become part of the YouTube experience as a whole, or just the Music app.

The official announcement took place today at the “Hot Pod Summit” in Brooklyn as part of On Air Fest, and it was made by YouTube’s Podcast Lead, Kai Chuk. However, no specific date was given as to when this was taken place, and was announced as coming “in the near future.”

The news reached the masses via a tweet by Arielle Nissenblatt of SquadCast.fm, and included some preliminary information as to how the feature would work, including that YouTube Music would stream podcasts even when the user’s screen is locked. Additionally, Alban Brooke of Buzzsprout tweeted additional information regarding the announcement, which included the fact that the podcast experience on YouTube Music will be audio-first and will aim for “unifying the audio and video experience,” allowing users to begin listening to a podcast on one device before continuing it on another.

Google confirmed all the above and clarified that YouTube Music will only support podcasts in the United States for the time being. Furthermore, Google added that creators will be able to upload their audio podcasts via RSS “later this year.”

We will soon start to bring both audio and video-first podcasts to YouTube Music for users in the US, making podcasts more discoverable and accessible, with more regions to come. This will help make the podcasts that users already love on YouTube, available in all the places they want to listen.

We’re also rolling out podcast creation in YouTube Studio, making it easier for Creators to set their videos as podcasts. Podcast playlists will be eligible for current and upcoming podcast features on YouTube, such as eligibility for youtube.com/podcasts, podcast badging, and inclusion in the YouTube Music app.

The announcement went on to state that YouTube will make suggestions for podcasts to users based on the types of content that user typically listens to and that YouTube Channels may in the future have a tab specifically designated for podcasts. Additionally, YouTube clarified that the music rights for podcasts will be the same as those for videos.

For now it appears that the standalone Google Podcasts app will not be immediately discontinued as a direct result of YouTube Music’s decision to include podcasts, which is good news considering that we don’t have an exact date of when the service will launch on YouTube Music. Furthermore, it would probably best for there to be a transition period to move users over and a tool to ensure that their existing subscriptions are migrated.

February 24, 2023

Spotify has officially crossed 200 million premium subscribers

The recently concluded holiday shopping season may not have been as auspicious for the global smartphone market as we’ve expected over the years, but for some reason, the music streaming industry doesn’t appear to be suffering any consequences of a tough economic climate around the world.

Not yet, at least, and not as far as said industry’s heavyweight champion is concerned, with some of Spotify’s key success indicators surging higher than initially anticipated during the final quarter of 2022 compared to the same period of 2021 and last year’s third calendar quarter.

There are now 205 million people worldwide paying for Spotify’s “Premium” service tier, up no less than 10 million from Q3 2022 and a cool 25 million versus Q4 2021. How does the new milestone compare to the competition? Unfortunately, there’s no way to know… for sure.

That’s because Apple effectively stopped making those kinds of figures public back in 2019, when around 60 million people were subscribed to the company’s paid Music platform. Of course, many unofficial guesses and estimates followed, with one from 2021 boosting that number to 78 million and one from last year circling 88 million.

What’s crystal clear is that Apple Music still has a long way to go before hoping to catch up to Spotify’s usage digits, which also include 295 million ad-supported monthly active users (up from 273 million in Q3 2022) and a grand total of 489 (!!!) million Q4 2022 MAUs, representing a massive increase from 456 million the previous quarter and 406 million in Q4 2021.

It’s equally true that Apple is very clearly prioritizing the profitability of its “Services” division as a whole over the subscriber growth of each individual platform, while Spotify continues to bleed money as it brings in more and more listeners.

We’re talking a €231 million ($250 million) operating loss for the Sweden-based company behind the world’s most popular audio streaming product between October and December 2022 alone, and although things like “higher personnel costs” and “higher advertising costs” are blamed for this latest financial deficit, the truth is Spotify last posted a quarterly profit all the way back in 2019.

Looking ahead to the near future, Spotify doesn’t expect its financials to bounce back all of a sudden despite predicting another boost to 207 million premium subscribers and, yes, half a billion total monthly active users. Now that’s a number for the ages!

February 1, 2023

Apple Music Rewind 2023 is available for those subs who can’t help but track everything

Apple Rewind. Like Spotify Wrapped, right? No, not really. Spotify keeps things under wraps and surprises you with stats at the end of the year, while Apple Rewind is a feature that lets you check what you are listening to most at all times.

Redundant, since you’d be doing it in real time, but hey — remember that you can do it for the entire year! As in, if you feel like checking your playlist history from months ago, through this feature you can do that, so it’s not that surface level.

And if that got you interested in checking it out, you can do that right now. Apple Rewind for 2023 is live now, and it allows you to check what you expect: top songs, albums, artists and so forth. But it also starts automatically drafting you a playlist with your most played songs of the year, which is always neat.

If you want to check out your own playlist, you can open your Apple Music app under the Listen Now tab. At the very bottom, you should be able to see all of the yearly playlist that the service has drafted for you, ever since you were a subscriber and as far back as 2015, when Apple Music initially launched.

At the end of the year, however, Apple will give you a quick hit of dopamine and release a more in-depth overview of your musical journey. If you’d like to follow how the entire process is going, you can check back with the website every Monday, as usually the data is refreshed every Sunday.

You’ve had to have reached a certain threshold of listening activity in order for the feature to kick in for your account. In other words: If you aren’t seeing anything by next Monday, you might want to add “Listen to more music” to your list of goals to achieve in 2023.

February 1, 2023

YouTube Music partially down on the web and all mobile devices

YouTube Music is experiencing a partial outage affecting the home page and loading many listeners’ playlists and library. The issue was discovered around 1:50PM PST today and is happening across all devices, including the web.

The official Team YouTube account tweeted the issue after reports of the outage started flooding in. When opening the app, the Library and Explore tabs appear empty, as if nothing was ever added to them.

Additionally, artists pages and albums fail to load and cover art appears to be missing. The issue was also reported and is being documented via the YouTube Music Help page where Team YouTube has confirmed that the Music team is actively working to resolve the issue.

One workaround that the team has offered is to access your playlists from youtube.com, which is working at the moment without issues.

January 25, 2023

Spotify introduces new billing choice for Android users

Spotify and Google announced over the weekend they have partnered to offer customers using Android devices a new purchase experience. The new feature was unveiled in March but wasn’t released immediately. After months of working to build the so-called User Choice Billing (UCB), the feature is now rolling out to Android users.

With the new User Choice Billing feature, Spotify users will be able to subscribe and make purchases using the payment option they want. Starting this week, UCB is making its way to Spotify subscribers in select markets around the world. Although Spotify did not mention where exactly the feature should be available in the next few days, it did confirm that it will expand the test to more markets in the coming weeks.

Spotify is one of the first companies to implement UCB with Google. First tested with Google Play, the new feature is meant to provide users and developers more flexibility and choice when it comes to purchasing and selling products.

Google Play’s user choice billing was initially introduced in Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, and the European Economic Area, and later on expanded to the United States, Brazil, and South Africa. We can’t confirm if Spotify targets the same regions, but at least some of these countries should have the new user billing choice available.

Bumble and Spotify are the first companies to partner with Google to provide their customers with new user choice billing, but more names might pop up in the coming months if the new feature proves successful.

That said, if you’re living in one of the select markets where Spotify introduced the new feature, and you’re using an Android device, you should soon be able to choose how to pay for your Spotify subscription. If you’re using an iOS device, you’ll probably never benefit from this option, or at least not anytime soon.

November 15, 2022

Mercedes Enables Apple Music Spatial Audio On Its Cars

Mercedes has always made a big deal about its Burmester Audio system on its luxury vehicles which promise 3D and 4D sound, but now it has upped the ante by collaborating with Apple. Apple’s music streaming service, Apple Music, launched spatial audio support last year and now it is deeply integrated into the latest Mercedes Benz EQE SUV which launched on Sunday.

Spatial audio will be enabled at the heart of the MBUX infotainment system which will first come to the Mercedes Maybach S-Class, S-Class, EQS, and EQS SUV via a software update and it will be launched as well on the EQE and the newly launched EQE SUV. This feature is available for cars that have the Bumester 3D or 4D sound system which costs an additional $4,550 to $6,730.

Mercedes and Apple believe that it will offer a more realistic audio experience and give the vibe of a concert hall.

“Sound quality is incredibly important to Apple Music which is why we are so excited to be working with Mercedes to make Spatial Audio on Apple Music available natively in the car for the first time. Spatial Audio is revolutionising the way artists create and fans listen to music and it’s an experience that is impossible to explain in words; you have to hear it for yourself to appreciate it. Together with Mercedes, we now have even more opportunities to bring wholly immersive music to our subscribers all over the world,“ said Apple’s VP for Apple Music and Beats Oliver Schusser.

While Apple has an arrangement with Audi and Porsche for the integration of Apple Music in their cars, this is the first time the Cupertino-based company has extended spatial audio capabilities beyond iPhone, iPad, Mac, AirPods and HomePods. Recently, Apple revealed that Apple Music had over 100 million songs and a substantial chunk of the portfolio includes songs tuned for spatial audio and lossless high-resolution audio formats.

Most premium car owners tend to iPhone users as it is the best-selling smartphone in the world and via its vertical integration Apple is now capturing a lot of customers that would’ve traditionally gravitated towards Spotify by virtue of deals like the one it has now cracked with Mercedes.

October 18, 2022

Spotify debuts a three-month free trial period

Do you recall the days when you had to manually download each song / album you like before transferring it to a media player? Neither do we. Spotify has revolutionized the way we listen to music by making it more convenient (and much cheaper) than ever before.

It is easy to get hooked on Spotify and it seems the streaming giant knows this fact very well. This is why now the platform is extending its free trial period to 3 months. For reference, previously the free trial period was just 1 month long. Spotify shared this information in an official blog post.

So how exactly will this 3-month trial period work? Put simply, first-time users, after creating an account, will not be billed during the first three months of their new subscription. The first payment will take place at the end of the third month.

Additionally, if for whatever reason they are not thrilled with the streaming service within the trial period, users will be able to cancel their subscription without incurring any fees in the process. In essence, if a user opts out before the three-month mark has passed, the time spent streaming will be virtually free.

The longer trial period also extends (pun intended) to past users who no longer use Spotify. For a measly $9.99, ex-subscribers will be able to get three full months of streaming (i.e. less than $4 a month). There is one catch, however. This offer only applies to users who made the decision to cancel their subscription before July 15th 2022.

The new extended trial period will be available across 135 markets and the offer will come into effect after September 11th. If this does not convince you to give Spotify a chance, nothing will.

August 17, 2022

Spotify launches new Home experience for Android users, iOS gets it too

Another week, another Spotify update. The music streaming giant has just announced plans to launch a brand-new Home experience for Android users. The new experience will feature feeds for both Music and Podcast & Shows, and will be coming to iOS at a later date.

The main hub for recommendations, Spotify’s Home is meant to help users easily scroll through the type of content they’re looking for. The updated version will make the experience more personalized while allowing Spotify users to dive even deeper into their recommendations.

Starting with the Music feed, Spotify listeners will be provided with quick access to suggestions, which will be based on their music taste. Additionally, album and playlist recommendations along with buttons to make it easy to share, like, and instantly play music will be available too.

On the other hand, in the Podcast & Shows feed, Spotify users will be able to quickly access new episodes of their favorite shows. Also, personalized podcast recommendations will be an important part of the new Home experience. Finally, the new hub will allow listeners to read episode descriptions, save to Your Episodes and start playing podcasts without leaving the page.

August 10, 2022

YouTube Music app adds useful new feature for Android

If you like music, you probably use the YouTube Music app often. You can go to the app and find the song you want using the app’s search tool, or you can ask your digital assistant to play a specific song by a specific artist (for example, “play Revolution Number 9 by the Beatles on YouTube Music”). You might be asked to unlock your phone first. Besides its vast library of original performances, YouTube Music has a wide selection of covers which allows the app to recommend a selection of them along with alternative takes, live versions, and more.

Depending on the song, while you are playing the tune, directly from the Now Playing screen you can find a list of covers for the song you are currently streaming. Again, let’s use the Fab Four for this example. So you’re listening to Come Together and you are curious to listen to alternative versions of the song. From the Now Playing screen, tap the Related tab on the bottom right of the screen.

Scroll down to Other performances and you’ll see cover versions of Come Together from the likes of Ike and Tina Turner (!) and Jennel Garcia. There is also a live version sung by the late John Lennon (who of course wrote the tune and recorded it with the rest of the Beatles). Speaking of the latter, there is also an alternative take recorded by the Liverpudlians included in this list.

YouTube Music now makes it easier to find covers and alternative versions of the song you’re listening to

The covers, live performances, and alternative takes listed under Other performances will change each time you look it up as you can see from the embedded screenshot included in this story. That list of covers for Come Together includes one performed by the unlikely trio of Steven Tyler, Alice Cooper, and Marilyn Manson

Scrolling down past the Other performances reveals a carousel titled Similar artists. Below that, the More From carousel lists additional songs available from the same artist or group. That is followed by a biography of the artist or group listed under About the artist. Some YouTube Music users spotted the new features as early as a month ago while other iOS and Android users are just getting them now.

You can load the YouTube Music app on your phone from the Google Play Store for Android handsets, and the Apple App Store for iOS.

August 1, 2022

Discovered code reveals that YouTube Music could soon add a much wanted feature

The original goal for YouTube Music was for the app to offer the same exact features as Google Play Music before migrating users from the latter to the former. But before that could happen, Google shut down Google Play Music. But one particularly well-received feature from the now defunct Play Music app is apparently going to make its way to YouTube Music.

After looking through the latest version of the YouTube Music app, which supports the media player that will be found in the upcoming Android 13 update, 9to5Google came across the following code: “res/layout/timer_status_bottom_sheet.xml” which hints that a sleep timer is coming to the YouTube Music app.

In Google Play Music, setting the sleep timer meant going into the main settings list to set the feature. Hopefully, the sleep timer will be quicker to enable/disable in YouTube Music. The strings of code found do reveal that a countdown timer will be visible to the user who will also have an option to add five additional minutes to the timer or cancel. The report says that the timer could be similar to the sleep timer found on the Android version of the Apple Music app (seen in the screenshot embedded in this article).

The sleep timer on the YouTube Music app could look like the feature on the Android version of Apple Music

A sleep timer is useful if you don’t want your phone or tablet to run all night after you fall asleep. At the most, if you’re running your device using its battery, you can prevent the battery from draining while you are sleeping. You also might not awaken in the middle of the night because a particular song interrupted your dreams.

When YouTube Music might add a sleep timer is anyone’s guess and there is always the possibility that Google doesn’t add one at all despite the discovery of the code.

July 22, 2022

Apple Music introduces new, exclusive live features

Music streaming services like Spotify, YouTube Music, Deezer, TIDAL are often adding new features to try to improve their offering further. Apple Music is no exception, so if you’re considering the service, you’ll be happy to know that it’s getting new, exclusive live features.

Called Apple Music Sessions, these exclusive live releases will feature some of the world’s most famous artists, as well as emerging artists. More importantly, Apple Music users will be able to listen to these exclusive live releases in Spatial Audio.

All Apple Music Sessions are recorded out of Apple Music’s studios around the world. Interesting enough, these are also filmed, which makes the combination of Spatial Audio tracks and companion live performance music videos more appealing.

If you’re already paying for Apple Music, then you’ll want to know that Apple Music Sessions is already available with releases from Carrie Underwood and Tenille Townes, recorded out of Apple Music’s new studios in Nashville, Tennessee.

July 18, 2022

Spotify working on a Community page that shows what your friends are listening to in real-time

Spotify has been steadily evolving in the past few months, from testing more podcast features to aiming to conquer the audiobook market. It appears the music-streaming platform has another area in which it sees more possibilities for growth – the social aspect. Spotify is working on adding a new Community tab, which will allow you to check out what your Facebook friends are listening to.

Then, what is this feature all about (at least for now)? The Community page looks similar to the Friend Activity sidebar in the desktop version of Spotify. The page lets you keep track of what your friends are listening to in real-time.Well, it basically pulls the list of songs from your friends’ Facebook accounts – if these are connected to the app.

You can get a preview of the tab if you have an iPhone: open Safari, go to “spotify:community” via the address bar, and then tap the button to open the Spotify app. This shortcut doesn’t work on Chrome on Android so far, so only iPhone users can get a glimpse of the new page for now (it is still unfinished by the way, as it is in early development).

Given the fact that this feature is still in early development, it is unknown how much time it will take for Spotify to refine it and release it as a part of an official update. So, it might take a while before you’ll be able to check out your friends’ music preferences from the app.

June 24, 2022

Spotify rolls out new feed to its mobile app to help users find live shows

Spotify has just announced a new feature aimed at users who typically search for their favorite creators’ live events within the app. Previously known as Concert Hub, the feature has been renamed to Live Events Feed and received a handful of improvements.

First off, you’ll be able to find the new feed by search Live Events in the Spotify app. This is the service’s new place where users can find live events in their local area, personalized for them. Spotify revealed that it’s been supported by various ticketing partners who helped make the new feature more useful.

Ticketmaster, AXS, DICE, Eventbrite, and See Tickets are just some of Spotify’s ticketing partners that are sourcing the listings in the Live Events Feed. It’s an interesting feature if you’re interested in live events, but it’s more helpful for artists as live shows were terribly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition to being able to find live events of their favorite artists, Live Events Feed also includes a new messaging tool to offer fans personalized recommendations for upcoming live events based on their listening habits. On top of that, users can choose to be notified about potential live events in their local area.

Finally, Spotify says that it has also embedded show discovery into their app. So, if an artist that you’re listening to has an upcoming tour date, Spotify will show that live event to you in the app, while you’re listening.

June 24, 2022

Apple Music about to live stream concerts starting May 20th with Harry Styles

Apple Music is about to start live streaming certain concerts starting this Friday with Harry Styles’ show at UBS Arena in New York City. The concert starring the former One Direction star will start at 9 pm EDT. If you miss the live performance, you’ll be able to listen to it when Apple Music replays the shows on Sunday, May 22nd, at noon EDT and again at 5 am EDT on Thursday, May 26th.

At this point, it isn’t known whether Apple will make Styles’ concert available for on-demand streaming later. Apple has promoted the live streaming events as a way to “give the biggest stars in music the biggest possible platform to flaunt how they connect with audiences and how their songs translate to live performance.” Styles’ One Night Only in New York concert will be available around the world to anyone subscribed to Apple Music.

Apple Music’s live streaming events will feature extra content to promote the artist and the concert being streamed live. In Styles’ case, an extra track will play from the singer’s third solo album Harry’s House, which will be released on the day of the concert. In addition, the 28-year-old will answer questions during an interview session which will touch on several subjects including his new album and his therapy sessions.

If you’re not an Apple Music subscriber, you can get one month free (if you’ve never had a free trial before) followed by a $9.99 per month individual subscription rate. For $14.99 monthly, up to six members of a family can share an Apple Music Family Plan. And if you’re a student, you can join Apple Music for only $4.99 per month. A free six-month subscription is available with the purchase of eligible AirPods, Beats, or the purchase of a HomePod mini.

There is also a new Voice Plan for Apple Music that is priced at a discount of $4.99 per month. With the Voice Plan, subscribers navigate the app using Siri instead of tapping buttons on the touch screen. Tell Siri what to play and she will cue it up for you. And you’ll have access to the same 90 million tunes that are available to all Apple Music subscribers.

If you’re a Verizon subscriber, you can get six free months of Apple Music on the carrier’s Play More, Do More, and Start plans. From the Verizon app (iOS, Android), go to Account > Manage Plan and tap on your account. From, there, you should be able to take advantage of the six free months of Apple Music. With the Get More plan, you can get Apple Music for free as part of your Verizon subscription.

Apple Music launched on June 30, 2015. A little more than a year earlier, Apple had purchased Beats Audio for $3 billion, a transaction that remains the largest in Apple history. Just a couple of months before the purchase, Beats Audio had only 111,000 paying customers. Today, it is estimated that Apple Music has more than 78 million subscribers.

For those of you who are not familiar with Harry Styles, he was a solo contestant on the U.K. version of The X Factor musical talent show. After being eliminated from the show, he joined group act One Direction on the show at the direction of Judge and musical impresario Simon Cowell. One Direction went on to become one of the largest selling boy bands of all time.

Styles eventually went solo and has also made a name for himself in motion pictures. With his popularity, Styles seems like a good choice to kick off Apple Music’s live streaming service.

May 19, 2022

Spotify announces gains in both paid subscribers and free users in 2022

Despite the difficult circumstances, Spotify has managed to expand its user base in 2022. Paid subscribers rose by 2 million, while monthly active users – by 18 million.

On Wednesday, Spotify released its financial results for the first quarter of 2022. While many streaming services are facing financial hardship, Spotify has defied the gloomy predictions and announced a nearly 24% increase in gross revenue on a yearly basis.

The company reported growth across all key metrics, with increases in both monthly active users and paid subscribers. Based on the statistics, Spotify Premium subscribers now add up to 182 million, 2 million more than the figure for the same period in 2021. It should be noted that this increase was sustained despite the withdrawal of the streaming platform from the Russian market, which directly lead to the estimated loss of 1.5 million subscribers.

The growth exceeded the company’s initial expectations and is largely attributed to outperformance in other key markets (notably Europe and Latin America). All in all, premium revenue rose by 23%, on a year-to-year basis.

For the number of active monthly listeners, a little bit of guesswork was undertaken. Because of a system outrage a couple of months ago, many non-premium users were forcibly logged out from the platform. As a result, some simply ended up creating new accounts instead of logging back to their old ones. Nevertheless, even when accounting for this accident, Spotify is confident that the number of active monthly listeners has still risen, albeit not to the levels previously anticipated.

Spotify also announced its forecasts for the next financial quarter and the end of the year. By 2023, the streaming platform is projected to have up to 187 million paid subscribers and a grand total of 428 million active monthly users.

These figures are impressive and showcase Spotify’s continuous dominance of the music streaming market. Spotify’s biggest direct competitor, Apple Music, does not routinely report the size of its user base. The last time it did, it had an estimated 60 million subscribers – a sizeable number no doubt, but quite a bit off of what Spotify has.

April 28, 2022