Right now I am using Spotify and I am one of those 15 million paid subscriber. I became a subscriber right after iPhone 6 event. Because Apple did not talk about Beats at all. I was expecting Beats headphones and its music service in iPhone 6 package. Unfortunately I am disappointed on this issue.
I still wanted to use Beats service but it is not available in Germany. I found a way to try Beats but I really did not like the interface and also did not like discovering music with sentences. I find Spotify's interface much better and user-friendly. I wish Apple bought Spotify and integrate in its ecosystem. Spotify has done an excellent job on streaming service. I am using iTunes Match as well but after Spotify I think I really don't need it anymore.
I will continue to use Spotify until Apple integrates Beats and makes it accessible internationally. If Apple can offer 5$ monthly subscription, many Apple users will switch to Beats from Spotify, including me:)
You thought Apple was going to include headphones that typically retail for $149 or higher as a freebie with their flagship phone?
Quote:
Originally Posted by bighype
Beats is garbage. Worst buy ever by Apple.
Yeah...no.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mac-Daddy
I signed up for a month to month subscription of Beats...wow what a train wreck. When I would download songs to Offline mode, I would go to play them and it would just randomly stop in the middle of a song and go to the next one. It's like it wouldn't download the whole song for some reason. Also the music discovery feature is absolutely awful. There is absolutely no difference or point in selecting that you're either chilling at home by yourself, or in the car with your friends on the way to a party. Such a pointless marketing grab that ultimately uses the same algorithm for helping you discovery content.
On the contrary, I've switched to Spotify and I can literally say it's amazing. If you asked me to offer a complaint I couldn't do it. Beats Music has a lot of work to do.
Nope, the algorerhythms are different, I got different music based on my selections.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jeff-hackintosh
i just don't identify with the Beats brand and so i would never even consider purchasing their products. Everything they do is so urban and hip-hop oriented and their headphones are so bass heavy that at any price point i would buy something else.
Yeah, thanks for repeating 2013's talking points. Glad to see you're informed and up to date. Please go buy some BOSE product.
You thought Apple was going to include headphones that typically retail for $149 or higher as a freebie with their flagship phone?
Yeah...no.
Nope, the algorerhythms are different, I got different music based on my selections.
Yeah, thanks for repeating 2013's talking points. Glad to see you're informed and up to date. Please go buy some BOSE product.
So what has changed in the amazing sounds quality and marketing image of Beats headphones since 2013? Please enlighten me as i am clearly not hip enough or "informed" of the great strides in design and engineering that Beats have clearly gone through in the last year.
While mostly sarcastic, if something has changed please let me know.
So what has changed in the amazing sounds quality and marketing image of Beats headphones since 2013? Please enlighten me as i am clearly not hip enough or "informed" of the great strides in design and engineering that Beats have clearly gone through in the last year.
While mostly sarcastic, if something has changed please let me know.
One, the majority of people I have seen with Beats are not "thugs", nor "urban" or "hip-hoppy". Two, the Solo2's were finally rebalanced to deliver a better sound. I'm not saying they're the best ever, but they're better than the majority of headphones people would be using were it not for the aesthetics and perception of Beats in the market.
The only service I've even considered subscribing to is Beats Music, and not because Apple owns it. It was genuinely a good product.
Ultimately, I prefer to own the music, but BM is top notch.
What made you think that it's 'top notch'? I don't believe that it's available where I live.
Spotify is the Netflix of music. Its great strength is its ubiquity. It works everywhere I want to play music - on my desktop, on my home cinema system, on my phone and on my Sonos system. Happy to pay £10 for the Premium subscription but also mindful to buy music when I find something I love.
Disagree. Apple has the prowess to make great Beats hardware while Beats had the sense and taste to design great looking fashionable over-ear Headphones that have great branding and a great brand name "BEATS". And Iovine is a super dealmaker and charismatic personality having already proved himself important in Apple's iTunes deals with the labels way back when. And if anyone can work with Hollywood to get a compelling TV Show subscription deal inked perhaps it'll be Iovine? These deals are absolutely crucial to selling a subsidised AIO fully integrated Apple Television product. A wet dream of mine. If he got these deals inked that'd be worth the $3B alone in my book.
Lest we forget Beats Headphones is a very profitable business. It's making a lot of money and Apple has the skill to make those products technically good too.
Not to mention that there are many talented people working in Beats Music with many industry connections who understand music and music history.
The hardware purchase alone will prove like genius in hindsight a few years down the line will be my guess. Just think of what Johnny and his team can do coupled with Apple engineers when they take on their first Beats Headphones project. Huge things are coming here going forward.
TL;DR
Talent, a great name and brand, future deals likely, new hardware opportunities open up, fresh ideas from outside, a profitable hardware business, a growing focus on audio quality in Apple's products and the groundwork laid for a good Apple music streaming service.
What made you think that it's 'top notch'? I don't believe that it's available where I live.
Spotify is the Netflix of music. Its great strength is its ubiquity. It works everywhere I want to play music - on my desktop, on my home cinema system, on my phone and on my Sonos system. Happy to pay £10 for the Premium subscription but also mindful to buy music when I find something I love.
The first thing I noticed was the interface. It's fun, yet functional. I really don't care for the iOS Music apps anymore, especially the iPad one. The Sentence is a fun function as well, you complete several words to make one, i.e. "Escaping from Aliens on Monday to Rock", or "Relaxing in my Bedroom on a Friday Night to Jazz". I usually felt like the settings matched pretty well.
The initial setup is fairly involved to tune things to you.
I also liked just being able to search, find an album, and then listen to the album in order.
Outside of the US, there is no Beats Music or Apple Radio. Spotify rules.
Yup. How is it Spotify with 0.1% of the resources of Apple can be in "most" (according to a Q&A session with them) countries and Apple can't with neither Beats music or iTunes Radio?
It's nearly been a year since it was supposed to have been available. I'm frustrated too as I'd like to cancel my Sirius radio subscription. I can only assume it has to do with licensing agreements, government policy, and/or other.
Spotify have got past those restrictions, maybe the labels are anti-Apple...
Yup. How is it Spotify with 0.1% of the resources of Apple can be in "most" (according to a Q&A session with them) countries and Apple can't with neither Beats music or iTunes Radio?
Spotify is backed by the major record labels. They might not have the resources of Apple but they have the right partners to get music licensed quickly and cheaply.
It's nearly been a year since it was supposed to have been available. I'm frustrated too as I'd like to cancel my Sirius radio subscription. I can only assume it has to do with licensing agreements, government policy, and/or other. Whatever the case I've been using Songza and really liked it. However, since Google bought it, it has become less stable and requires me to close the app a couple of times to get it going somewhat problem free. Really hoping this gets moving, it is becoming an annoying first world problem for me.
Also living in Canada, I have to use Songza for streaming. It's all right, but I prefer owning my music anyway.
So is AI telling us that it’s all over for Apple? Finis? End of story? Should I sell the stock? I mean Android “outsells” iOS by a wide margin worldwide too. Poor Apple is “losing” the streaming music battle and there’s no fix. C’est La goddamn Vie I guess.
What made you think that it's 'top notch'? I don't believe that it's available where I live.
Spotify is the Netflix of music. Its great strength is its ubiquity. It works everywhere I want to play music - on my desktop, on my home cinema system, on my phone and on my Sonos system. Happy to pay £10 for the Premium subscription but also mindful to buy music when I find something I love.
Sounds like you should be an Android user then. Are you?
I agree. Although I prefer to own my music, I did give Beats and Spotify a try. I overwhelmingly preferred Beats. I think Apple needs to push Beats more.
Agreed. I tried both, and prefer beats. Spotify however does offer student pricing, which cuts the price to half of Beats. I can't see paying any streaming music service the same amount or higher than I pay Netflix. Movies and TV shows cost more to produce.
I can't see paying any streaming music service the same amount or higher than I pay Netflix. Movies and TV shows cost more to produce.
That is true, but that's not the whole picture. I would assume there are lot more tracks than there are movies and TV show episodes. There could even be more minutes of entertainment with Spotify. Then you have overall licensing costs. Finally, you have competition that could affect this. How do free radio stations compare to OTA television or free movie streaming sites, like Crackle, in terms of variety? From my experience Netflix is usually lacking and doesn't have the latest content unless it was made my Netflix, whilst a service like Spotify will have the latest music streaming as soon as it's in stores.
That is true, but that's not the whole picture. I would assume there are lot more tracks than there are movies and TV show episodes. There could even be more minutes of entertainment with Spotify. Then you have overall licensing costs. Finally, you have competition that could affect this. How do free radio stations compare to OTA television or free movie streaming sites, like Crackle, in terms of variety? From my experience Netflix is usually lacking and doesn't have the latest content unless it was made my Netflix, whilst a service like Spotify will have the latest music streaming as soon as it's in stores.
Plus, Netflix cycles content in and out based on a number of factors, leading to oddities (like when I wanted to watch the Hunger Games movies, only the second was streamable). I don't believe that's the case with Beats or other music services.
Very satisfied Spotify Premium user for past 3+ years. Also Apple user since way back, so decided to give Beats a try. Went through the signup process which included establishing my musical tastes profile. Once completed it pitched Christian Rock to me as my primary preference. I was very surprised. This genre is probably the least likely I would ever choose to listen to. Not knocking it, just not my taste, at all. I lost interest in Beats at that point - how could they have gotten my tastes so wrong? - and have been happily back in Spotify World ever since. As another said, the bar is indeed very high with Spotify & Pandora, they each do a phenomenal job in their own way. With Spotify I'm often amazed at the musical "sets" the Radio feature strings together for me. Hours of listening where every piece is a pure joy, and much new music is discovered that leads to deeper dives in new directions. Simply amazing. Not sure what Beats could do to win me back at this point...
Very satisfied Spotify Premium user for past 3+ years. Also Apple user since way back, so decided to give Beats a try. Went through the signup process which included establishing my musical tastes profile. Once completed it pitched Christian Rock to me as my primary preference. I was very surprised. This genre is probably the least likely I would ever choose to listen to. Not knocking it, just not my taste, at all. I lost interest in Beats at that point - how could they have gotten my tastes so wrong? - and have been happily back in Spotify World ever since. As another said, the bar is indeed very high with Spotify & Pandora, they each do a phenomenal job in their own way. With Spotify I'm often amazed at the musical "sets" the Radio feature strings together for me. Hours of listening where every piece is a pure joy, and much new music is discovered that leads to deeper dives in new directions. Simply amazing. Not sure what Beats could do to win me back at this point...
Tells me you didn't do a good job responding to your preferred music. And it's not like it's supposed to magically guess everything from a few introductory questions. You're supposed to continue liking things you find, so it keeps building a database.
Honestly, this reads like someone who really didn't want to change, they just subbed briefly so they could post anecdotes like this and claim they'd tried other things.
Plus, Netflix cycles content in and out based on a number of factors, leading to oddities (like when I wanted to watch the Hunger Games movies, only the second was streamable). I don't believe that's the case with Beats or other music services.
Years ago I tried watching a TV series on Netflix but wasn't able to watch it in the correct order because it was missing multiple episodes per season. I'm not sure why but it was annoyingto say the least.
Tells me you didn't do a good job responding to your preferred music. And it's not like it's supposed to magically guess everything from a few introductory questions. You're supposed to continue liking things you find, so it keeps building a database.
Honestly, this reads like someone who really didn't want to change, they just subbed briefly so they could post anecdotes like this and claim they'd tried other things.
Thanks for knowing me better than meself, Oh Great White Falcon! Not to boast, but I'm a fairly bright guy and feel comfortable that I knew what was going on during the profiling process. It still blew it. And contrary to what often seems to be your innately irascible views here on AI, I in fact didn't put myself through the experience simply to have a contrary anecdote to post to AI. Sheesh.
Years ago I tried watching a TV series on Netflix but wasn't able to watch it in the correct order because it was missing multiple episodes per season. I'm not sure why but it was annoyingto say the least.
I think Top Gear is like that too, the first two seasons are missing entirely.
The Star Trek movies are funny, they have II, III, IV, IX, and X. It's like...you're missing the other half there...
Comments
Right now I am using Spotify and I am one of those 15 million paid subscriber. I became a subscriber right after iPhone 6 event. Because Apple did not talk about Beats at all. I was expecting Beats headphones and its music service in iPhone 6 package. Unfortunately I am disappointed on this issue.
I still wanted to use Beats service but it is not available in Germany. I found a way to try Beats but I really did not like the interface and also did not like discovering music with sentences. I find Spotify's interface much better and user-friendly. I wish Apple bought Spotify and integrate in its ecosystem. Spotify has done an excellent job on streaming service. I am using iTunes Match as well but after Spotify I think I really don't need it anymore.
I will continue to use Spotify until Apple integrates Beats and makes it accessible internationally. If Apple can offer 5$ monthly subscription, many Apple users will switch to Beats from Spotify, including me:)
You thought Apple was going to include headphones that typically retail for $149 or higher as a freebie with their flagship phone?
Beats is garbage. Worst buy ever by Apple.
Yeah...no.
I signed up for a month to month subscription of Beats...wow what a train wreck. When I would download songs to Offline mode, I would go to play them and it would just randomly stop in the middle of a song and go to the next one. It's like it wouldn't download the whole song for some reason. Also the music discovery feature is absolutely awful. There is absolutely no difference or point in selecting that you're either chilling at home by yourself, or in the car with your friends on the way to a party. Such a pointless marketing grab that ultimately uses the same algorithm for helping you discovery content.
On the contrary, I've switched to Spotify and I can literally say it's amazing. If you asked me to offer a complaint I couldn't do it. Beats Music has a lot of work to do.
Nope, the algorerhythms are different, I got different music based on my selections.
i just don't identify with the Beats brand and so i would never even consider purchasing their products. Everything they do is so urban and hip-hop oriented and their headphones are so bass heavy that at any price point i would buy something else.
Yeah, thanks for repeating 2013's talking points. Glad to see you're informed and up to date. Please go buy some BOSE product.
You thought Apple was going to include headphones that typically retail for $149 or higher as a freebie with their flagship phone?
Yeah...no.
Nope, the algorerhythms are different, I got different music based on my selections.
Yeah, thanks for repeating 2013's talking points. Glad to see you're informed and up to date. Please go buy some BOSE product.
So what has changed in the amazing sounds quality and marketing image of Beats headphones since 2013? Please enlighten me as i am clearly not hip enough or "informed" of the great strides in design and engineering that Beats have clearly gone through in the last year.
While mostly sarcastic, if something has changed please let me know.
So what has changed in the amazing sounds quality and marketing image of Beats headphones since 2013? Please enlighten me as i am clearly not hip enough or "informed" of the great strides in design and engineering that Beats have clearly gone through in the last year.
While mostly sarcastic, if something has changed please let me know.
One, the majority of people I have seen with Beats are not "thugs", nor "urban" or "hip-hoppy". Two, the Solo2's were finally rebalanced to deliver a better sound. I'm not saying they're the best ever, but they're better than the majority of headphones people would be using were it not for the aesthetics and perception of Beats in the market.
The only service I've even considered subscribing to is Beats Music, and not because Apple owns it. It was genuinely a good product.
Ultimately, I prefer to own the music, but BM is top notch.
What made you think that it's 'top notch'? I don't believe that it's available where I live.
Spotify is the Netflix of music. Its great strength is its ubiquity. It works everywhere I want to play music - on my desktop, on my home cinema system, on my phone and on my Sonos system. Happy to pay £10 for the Premium subscription but also mindful to buy music when I find something I love.
Beats is garbage. Worst buy ever by Apple.
Disagree. Apple has the prowess to make great Beats hardware while Beats had the sense and taste to design great looking fashionable over-ear Headphones that have great branding and a great brand name "BEATS". And Iovine is a super dealmaker and charismatic personality having already proved himself important in Apple's iTunes deals with the labels way back when. And if anyone can work with Hollywood to get a compelling TV Show subscription deal inked perhaps it'll be Iovine? These deals are absolutely crucial to selling a subsidised AIO fully integrated Apple Television product. A wet dream of mine. If he got these deals inked that'd be worth the $3B alone in my book.
Lest we forget Beats Headphones is a very profitable business. It's making a lot of money and Apple has the skill to make those products technically good too.
Not to mention that there are many talented people working in Beats Music with many industry connections who understand music and music history.
The hardware purchase alone will prove like genius in hindsight a few years down the line will be my guess. Just think of what Johnny and his team can do coupled with Apple engineers when they take on their first Beats Headphones project. Huge things are coming here going forward.
TL;DR
Talent, a great name and brand, future deals likely, new hardware opportunities open up, fresh ideas from outside, a profitable hardware business, a growing focus on audio quality in Apple's products and the groundwork laid for a good Apple music streaming service.
$3B very well spent.
What made you think that it's 'top notch'? I don't believe that it's available where I live.
Spotify is the Netflix of music. Its great strength is its ubiquity. It works everywhere I want to play music - on my desktop, on my home cinema system, on my phone and on my Sonos system. Happy to pay £10 for the Premium subscription but also mindful to buy music when I find something I love.
The first thing I noticed was the interface. It's fun, yet functional. I really don't care for the iOS Music apps anymore, especially the iPad one. The Sentence is a fun function as well, you complete several words to make one, i.e. "Escaping from Aliens on Monday to Rock", or "Relaxing in my Bedroom on a Friday Night to Jazz". I usually felt like the settings matched pretty well.
The initial setup is fairly involved to tune things to you.
I also liked just being able to search, find an album, and then listen to the album in order.
Yup. How is it Spotify with 0.1% of the resources of Apple can be in "most" (according to a Q&A session with them) countries and Apple can't with neither Beats music or iTunes Radio?
Spotify have got past those restrictions, maybe the labels are anti-Apple...
Yup. How is it Spotify with 0.1% of the resources of Apple can be in "most" (according to a Q&A session with them) countries and Apple can't with neither Beats music or iTunes Radio?
Spotify is backed by the major record labels. They might not have the resources of Apple but they have the right partners to get music licensed quickly and cheaply.
Also living in Canada, I have to use Songza for streaming. It's all right, but I prefer owning my music anyway.
So is AI telling us that it’s all over for Apple? Finis? End of story? Should I sell the stock? I mean Android “outsells” iOS by a wide margin worldwide too. Poor Apple is “losing” the streaming music battle and there’s no fix. C’est La goddamn Vie I guess.
What made you think that it's 'top notch'? I don't believe that it's available where I live.
Spotify is the Netflix of music. Its great strength is its ubiquity. It works everywhere I want to play music - on my desktop, on my home cinema system, on my phone and on my Sonos system. Happy to pay £10 for the Premium subscription but also mindful to buy music when I find something I love.
Sounds like you should be an Android user then. Are you?
Agreed. I tried both, and prefer beats. Spotify however does offer student pricing, which cuts the price to half of Beats. I can't see paying any streaming music service the same amount or higher than I pay Netflix. Movies and TV shows cost more to produce.
That is true, but that's not the whole picture. I would assume there are lot more tracks than there are movies and TV show episodes. There could even be more minutes of entertainment with Spotify. Then you have overall licensing costs. Finally, you have competition that could affect this. How do free radio stations compare to OTA television or free movie streaming sites, like Crackle, in terms of variety? From my experience Netflix is usually lacking and doesn't have the latest content unless it was made my Netflix, whilst a service like Spotify will have the latest music streaming as soon as it's in stores.
That is true, but that's not the whole picture. I would assume there are lot more tracks than there are movies and TV show episodes. There could even be more minutes of entertainment with Spotify. Then you have overall licensing costs. Finally, you have competition that could affect this. How do free radio stations compare to OTA television or free movie streaming sites, like Crackle, in terms of variety? From my experience Netflix is usually lacking and doesn't have the latest content unless it was made my Netflix, whilst a service like Spotify will have the latest music streaming as soon as it's in stores.
Plus, Netflix cycles content in and out based on a number of factors, leading to oddities (like when I wanted to watch the Hunger Games movies, only the second was streamable). I don't believe that's the case with Beats or other music services.
Very satisfied Spotify Premium user for past 3+ years. Also Apple user since way back, so decided to give Beats a try. Went through the signup process which included establishing my musical tastes profile. Once completed it pitched Christian Rock to me as my primary preference. I was very surprised. This genre is probably the least likely I would ever choose to listen to. Not knocking it, just not my taste, at all. I lost interest in Beats at that point - how could they have gotten my tastes so wrong? - and have been happily back in Spotify World ever since. As another said, the bar is indeed very high with Spotify & Pandora, they each do a phenomenal job in their own way. With Spotify I'm often amazed at the musical "sets" the Radio feature strings together for me. Hours of listening where every piece is a pure joy, and much new music is discovered that leads to deeper dives in new directions. Simply amazing. Not sure what Beats could do to win me back at this point...
Very satisfied Spotify Premium user for past 3+ years. Also Apple user since way back, so decided to give Beats a try. Went through the signup process which included establishing my musical tastes profile. Once completed it pitched Christian Rock to me as my primary preference. I was very surprised. This genre is probably the least likely I would ever choose to listen to. Not knocking it, just not my taste, at all. I lost interest in Beats at that point - how could they have gotten my tastes so wrong? - and have been happily back in Spotify World ever since. As another said, the bar is indeed very high with Spotify & Pandora, they each do a phenomenal job in their own way. With Spotify I'm often amazed at the musical "sets" the Radio feature strings together for me. Hours of listening where every piece is a pure joy, and much new music is discovered that leads to deeper dives in new directions. Simply amazing. Not sure what Beats could do to win me back at this point...
Tells me you didn't do a good job responding to your preferred music. And it's not like it's supposed to magically guess everything from a few introductory questions. You're supposed to continue liking things you find, so it keeps building a database.
Honestly, this reads like someone who really didn't want to change, they just subbed briefly so they could post anecdotes like this and claim they'd tried other things.
Years ago I tried watching a TV series on Netflix but wasn't able to watch it in the correct order because it was missing multiple episodes per season. I'm not sure why but it was annoyingto say the least.
Tells me you didn't do a good job responding to your preferred music. And it's not like it's supposed to magically guess everything from a few introductory questions. You're supposed to continue liking things you find, so it keeps building a database.
Honestly, this reads like someone who really didn't want to change, they just subbed briefly so they could post anecdotes like this and claim they'd tried other things.
Thanks for knowing me better than meself, Oh Great White Falcon! Not to boast, but I'm a fairly bright guy and feel comfortable that I knew what was going on during the profiling process. It still blew it. And contrary to what often seems to be your innately irascible views here on AI, I in fact didn't put myself through the experience simply to have a contrary anecdote to post to AI. Sheesh.
Years ago I tried watching a TV series on Netflix but wasn't able to watch it in the correct order because it was missing multiple episodes per season. I'm not sure why but it was annoyingto say the least.
I think Top Gear is like that too, the first two seasons are missing entirely.
The Star Trek movies are funny, they have II, III, IV, IX, and X. It's like...you're missing the other half there...