Apple Music Now Available For Android, But Will Anyone Care?

Apple is finally letting the other half of the world in on Apple Music. A few days ago the company announced that the streaming service is now available to Android smartphone users. This now puts the service within reach of about 52 percent of the market  (that's about 1.2 billion users, according to Google) that couldn’t previously experience the streaming music app when it was relegated only to the iOS platform. The real question is, how many of those Android users are really interested in trying Apple Music?

Actually Apple Music Android can still be considered in beta, with two of its features, the family membership plan and Apple Connect videos, currently not available. Other than that, the app is same as what’s found in the iOS version. It’s currently available in over 100 countries, except for China, where the largest group of Android users happen to live.

A Look Inside The Numbers
On the surface, this looks to be a good move for increasing user numbers for the streaming service. Apple Music currently has 6.5 million paying subscribers a little more than 4 months after its launch. That’s good enough for second place behind Spotify’s 20 million paying customers, and that’s with being available to less than half of the available audience.

That said, the 6.5 million number may be deceiving, since many of those may have forgotten to turn off their subscriptions at the end of the three month trial period. This means that we won’t know the true number of iOS subscribers for some time yet.

The user number still may not get a huge bounce even with the release of the Android version though, since the new version won’t have the marketing momentum of the original launch. This may result in far fewer opt-ins to the 90 day trial period than might have otherwise been possible with a day and date launch on both platforms. Read more on Forbes.

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Could This App Be The Instagram Of Music?

Three undergrads from Tufts University have launched a new app that's catching on like wildfire. It's called Cymbal, and many have called it the "Instagram of Music" because of its less-is-more user interface.

Cymbal describes itself as "music powered by friends, not algorithms." That's because users are allowed to share just one song at a time along with album art.

The whole idea is that the user gets to post that one song that's most important in their life at that moment.

Like Instagram, Cymbal uses a home feed, personal profile, followers, likes, comments, hashtags and tags.

You can share tracks from Soundcloud or Spotify, and since it was created from the ground up as an iOS app (an Android version is coming), it's perfectly at home where more and more do their listening - via the phone.

There's less than a million users at the moment, but the app seems to be coming on strong, so look out for more about Cymbal in the future.

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Spotify Unveils Touch Preview

When looking for new music, we're not always sure about what we like, but we always know what we don't. Most music services give you a 30 second preview of a song, but these days we want to be able to immediately move on if there's something that doesn't immediately tickle our fancy.

That's why the new Spotify Touch Preview feature is so cool. It's a change in the user interface on an iPhone or iPad (Android to come soon) that allows you to touch and hold to activate the preview of the song. Don't like it? Just touch something else. It's designed to make music discovery as quick and easy as possible, and I think it succeeds. Check out the video to see how it works.

How Apple’s CarPlay Can Tip The Balance In Music And Radio

Apple’s new CarPlay iOS-in-the-car program looks to be coming to a new auto near you soon. In a much anticipated announcement, the company has partnered with Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo to head up the new joint initiative, with support from vehicles from BMW, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Jaguar Land Rover, Kia, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Peugeot Citroën, Subaru, Suzuki and Toyota in the future.

CarPlay allows one to access the features of a current iPhone with a Lightning connector from a touch screen display in the center of the dashboard of the vehicle, or by using voice commands through Siri. This will allow drivers to make calls, use Maps (at last, a navigation system that works), access voicemail, and many of the other features that a driver can’t normally access.

Of interest to the music industry is that not only is iTunes now just a touch or voice command away, but third party apps like Spotify and iHeartRadio as well. This takes us one step closer to the always-connected car, which in turn, can tip the balance of the music industry in many ways.

First of all, remember that radio is still widely listened to in all age groups, but most adults listen heavily on their commutes to and from work. Add to that the fact that radio is still the number one place where music consumers discover new music and you see that despite the inroads from the many forms of online delivery, the relationship of radio to the listener hasn’t changed all that much over time. It may be old technology, but it’s one that we gladly live with. Read more on Forbes.

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