BETA
This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here

More From Forbes

Edit Story

Just One Year In, Apple Music Is Already Getting A Big Reboot

Following
This article is more than 7 years old.

As Apple prepares to celebrate its namesake streaming service’s first birthday this summer, it is also gearing up to change things around and refresh the still-young platform. According to sources at the company that spoke to Bloomberg, executives at Apple have taken the criticisms spewed from the public and the media to heart, and significant resources are being invested to clean up and revamp Apple Music.

The service has received somewhat middling reviews in its first year on the market, with some aspects of it being heralded as the best in the industry, while others are widely considered to be a mess. The company has chosen to work with some of the smartest people in music with the best ears for talent, and that has helped the tech giant become a leader in curation. The Beats 1 radio service featured on Apple Music is particularly popular, and every DJ involved has their own dedicated following. The playlists are also worthy of checking out, as they are better than anything the company’s competitors have been able to curate.

On the other hand, the layout of the platform is...not ideal. Finding all of the features provided is difficult, and navigating the site is notoriously difficult. It isn’t intuitive, and it is extremely unfriendly to those that are already not familiar with streaming services or the digital music world in general.

The relaunch is set to take place during Apple’s annual Worldwide Developer’s Conference this coming June, and then the company is reportedly planning another marketing push once the new look is made public.

One of the challenges unique to Apple is that the company is simultaneously trying to make money from two sides of the industry which are essentially competing with one another. Streaming is the future of the business, but most consumers that spend $9.99 per month for all-they-can-stream don’t also buy singles and albums. That’s not an issue for sites like Spotify, but Apple is still bringing in quite a bit of money from iTunes, which completely upended the entire music industry over a decade ago. It is tough to promote the idea of paying for unlimited streaming, while not completely cannibalizing sales, but Apple hopes to find a way for them to fit together.

Less than one year old, Apple Music certainly isn’t the top player in the industry, but it is outpacing fellow streaming services like Rhapsody and Tidal. The company recently revealed it had surpassed 13 million subscribers, which puts it somewhere right between the aforementioned platforms, which both have around three million, and Spotify, which can now see 30 million in its rearview mirror. 13 million is a fair figure, but when it first launched, the company made it clear that it wanted to hit 100 million subscribers, so there’s still a ways to go.