Apple Music & Beats 1 Live Radio Station.

Apple Music is here! Well, not yet, but all the information about it is!

Come June 30 users will be able to use it to  stream songs, access curated playlists, and tune in to a 24-hour, live worldwide radio station called Beats 1.

Apple Music can be split up into 3 different facets that Apple hopes everyone will use and enjoy (D’uh), as well as making the music world a fairer and more creative place to be.

First, there’s the streaming service. Your own collection of music, as well as tens of millions of tracks in the Apple Music library. Handpicked by a ‘dedicated team of experts’ just for you, (not too sure yet on the logistics of this) and a bona fide way to discover new music.

Unlike some of their biggest competitors like Pandora and Spotify who use Algorithms to select songs in their product, Apple Music will have human curation, which, in Jimmy Iovine’s words,

“Algorithms alone can’t do that emotional task,” argued Iovine. “You need a human touch.”

Next, there’s the radio station – Beats 1.  24/7 radio broadcast to over 10 countries, and headlined by former BBC radio DJ Zane Lowe alongside other famous DJs from Los Angeles, New York and London such as Ebro Darden and Julie Adenuga. Beats 1 will offer exclusive interviews, guest hosts and other music world gossip and goings-on.

Third, we have Apple Music Connect, a social platform for Artists ( both known and as-yet-unknown) to interact with listeners and fans, with extra multimedia offerings such as lyrics, videos, photos etc.

So what do we think? Looks like a pretty solid service with a likely very big boost from grandfathered in Apple customers and the offer of a 3 month free trial. It will work, and it will be a strong and exciting competitor. It will add to the way that we listen to music. Even so, Pandora already has 80 million users, Spotify 60 million – so even with the boost, Apple might have a fight to the top.

Apple Music will be available for iPhone, iPad, Mac and PC on June 30, with support for Apple TV and Android coming in the fall. For full membership, you’re looking at a monthly fee of $9.99 or $14.99 for a family plan for up to 6 family members, although there will be a 3 month free trial available for all.

If you’re not down for commitment, you can still listen to Beats 1 radio, see what artists are posting on Connect, and hear ad‑supported stations on Apple Music (with limited skips) without a membership.

Check out the Ad for Apple Music here for the ‘feel good about the world with Apple’ feeling!

iTunes Radio release another thing to get excited about this September!

September is IT guys.

Not only do we have the HUGE Apple September 10th announcement believed to be announcing the new iPhones ( 5S and 5C ), there is also the unveiling of Samsung’s smart watch Galaxy Gear, IFA – the huge techie consumer electronics trade show in Berlin 6th – 11th September, the Apple iTunes free concert series, the final Breaking Bad ever on Sept 9th (gulp), the return of Sons Of Anarchy and Southpark, America’s cup, TechCrunch Disrupt, and just, just so much more.

So much more like what iPhone Antidote?

Well, for one thing, the release of Apple’s iTunes Radio! Yay!

Apple has managed to get a bunch of brand partners including McDonald’s, Nissan, Pepsi, and Procter & Gamble, who will all get exclusive ads on the Radio product through the end of 2013.

The internet radio service, similar to Spotify and Pandora, will offer a way to listen to the radio which intuitively personalizes the tracks and artists you listen to, introduced you to new artists based on the style of music you listen to, as well as giving you the ability to create your own playlists from their selection and your own music from iTunes.

The system is free with ads, but has a super competitive premium ad-free option, if you subscribe to iTunes Match, at just $24.99 a year.

For the free service, listeners can look forward to walking out of the room grumpily every 15 minutes for an audio ad, and once an hour if you’re listening on a platform where you can exposed you to video ads. You will also get an ad if you skip songs six times in a row, if this stays the same as it currently is in the iOS 7 Beta testing.

The iTunes Radio service is part of iOS 7 and will be released with it. We don’t know the exact date… but we’re thinking it’s pretty likely that it will be released on or very close to September 10th!

We think we might rename September YAYtember!

Image courtesy of iTunes.