Apple Watch Series 3 cellular Apple Music streaming coming in October at the earliest

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in Apple Watch
Apple Watch Series 3 owners opting for LTE may be sold on Apple Music streaming straight to the device -- but the feature won't arrive until a software patch arrives "soon."




Apple notes that the redesigned Music app will automatically sync playlists, along with the user's most listened-to music -- the same way that the Apple Watch has played and stored music for some time. However, Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams noted during the release event that cellular Apple Watch connectivity to Apple Music was "coming next month" -- meaning October and not when the device ships to customers.

Apple's materials about the Apple Watch are consistent with that timeframe, but less precise. The release with details about the Apple Watch says that the update will arrive "later in the fall."

With the update, the new Radio app will allow listeners to access Beats 1 live or any Apple Music radio station on the device and away from the connected iPhone.

Apple also confirmed to AppleInsider at Tuesday's release event that an Apple Music subscription is not required to stream music to the device using LTE. Users with iTunes Match subscriptions can stream owned music as well.

As before, iTunes Match is limited to 100,000 songs. Purchases from the iTunes store made with the same Apple ID being used for iTunes Match don't count towards the 100,000 song limit.

Apple's iTunes Match service costs $24.99 per year. Apple Music costs $9.99 for a single user per month, or $14.99 per month for a family plan allowing for multiple users.

Preorders for the Apple Watch Series 3 begin on Friday, Sept. 15. Shipment is expected to commence on Sept. 22.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 16
    robjnrobjn Posts: 283member
    A software "patch"?
  • Reply 2 of 16
    forget about Apple Music streaming, I want Podcasts. What's the deal, Apple?
    StrangeDays
  • Reply 3 of 16
    Mike...can you shed some light on this...i've yet to see anyone address this in any other articles.
    How many GB of music storage can the new watch store locally? Series 2 had a max of 2GB

    "Apple notes that the redesigned Music app will automatically sync playlists, along with the user's most listened-to music -- the same way that the Apple Watch has played and stored music for some time".....going by this, has it remained at 2GB?

    Approx 8 hours of streaming Apple Music is equal to 1GB of data...for those of us without unlimited data plans, this may be a hindrance 
    edited September 2017
  • Reply 4 of 16
    fallenjtfallenjt Posts: 4,054member
    NY1822 said:
    Mike...can you shed some light on this...i've yet to see anyone address this in any other articles.
    How many GB of music storage can the new watch store locally? Series 2 had a max of 2GB

    "Apple notes that the redesigned Music app will automatically sync playlists, along with the user's most listened-to music -- the same way that the Apple Watch has played and stored music for some time".....going by this, has it remained at 2GB?

    Approx 8 hours of streaming Apple Music is equal to 1GB of data...for those of us without unlimited data plans, this may be a hindrance 
    How many songs can fit in 2GB? I concern more about battery, not number of songs.
  • Reply 5 of 16
    fallenjtfallenjt Posts: 4,054member
    Somehow, I'm interested in AW3. $10 service a month is not that bad. However, I'm with Xfinity while the service is only offered for ATT&Verizon customers. It only works with the same carrier, doesn't it?
    edited September 2017
  • Reply 6 of 16
    SoliSoli Posts: 10,035member
    fallenjt said:
    NY1822 said:
    Mike...can you shed some light on this...i've yet to see anyone address this in any other articles.
    How many GB of music storage can the new watch store locally? Series 2 had a max of 2GB

    "Apple notes that the redesigned Music app will automatically sync playlists, along with the user's most listened-to music -- the same way that the Apple Watch has played and stored music for some time".....going by this, has it remained at 2GB?

    Approx 8 hours of streaming Apple Music is equal to 1GB of data...for those of us without unlimited data plans, this may be a hindrance 
    How many songs can fit in 2GB? I concern more about battery, not number of songs.
    Depends on their size, but note that instead of doing songs by capacity they offer options like 250 songs. I think that's the max so I'd assume that on average there's about 125 songs per 1GB.
  • Reply 7 of 16
    fallenjt said:
    Somehow, I'm interested in AW3. $10 service a month is not that bad. However, I'm with Xfinity while the service is only offered for ATT&Verizon customers. It only works with the same carrier, doesn't it?
    Pre-Apple Watch 3, wearables were only $5 a month, so $10 seems ridiculous.

    Xfinity LTE would have to support it. TMobile and Sprint have already announced they will.
  • Reply 8 of 16
    mac_128mac_128 Posts: 3,454member
    NY1822 said:
    Mike...can you shed some light on this...i've yet to see anyone address this in any other articles.
    How many GB of music storage can the new watch store locally? Series 2 had a max of 2GB

    "Apple notes that the redesigned Music app will automatically sync playlists, along with the user's most listened-to music -- the same way that the Apple Watch has played and stored music for some time".....going by this, has it remained at 2GB?

    Approx 8 hours of streaming Apple Music is equal to 1GB of data...for those of us without unlimited data plans, this may be a hindrance 
    Yeah I've been asking this since they released it. The new watch has 16GB, so one would think they'd give the customer more space for music, unless there's a specific performance reason not to. The question is whether that's 4GB or 500 songs, or 8GB or 1000 songs, or all the way up to 12GB leaving the original 6GB for system use as previously? It's really hard to imagine they'd keep it at 2GB or 250 songs.
    edited September 2017
  • Reply 9 of 16
    SoliSoli Posts: 10,035member
    sandor said:
    fallenjt said:
    Somehow, I'm interested in AW3. $10 service a month is not that bad. However, I'm with Xfinity while the service is only offered for ATT&Verizon customers. It only works with the same carrier, doesn't it?
    Pre-Apple Watch 3, wearables were only $5 a month, so $10 seems ridiculous.
    1) And have you seen those shitty devices? This fucking article is talking about an always connected device that can take calls, reroute and mirror your phone number, and has Apple heavily advertising Apple Music that they state is 1GiB per hour, not including any other data. Have you never tried BT before or are you unaware how the W1 chip makes connecting headphones to the Apple Watch amazingly simple. You're going to see the use case increase for Watch because of this.

    2) I wonder if you ever said it was ridiculous that it costs $10 to add a dumb phone to an account.
    lolliver
  • Reply 10 of 16
    Mike WuertheleMike Wuerthele Posts: 6,861administrator
    NY1822 said:
    Mike...can you shed some light on this...i've yet to see anyone address this in any other articles.
    How many GB of music storage can the new watch store locally? Series 2 had a max of 2GB

    "Apple notes that the redesigned Music app will automatically sync playlists, along with the user's most listened-to music -- the same way that the Apple Watch has played and stored music for some time".....going by this, has it remained at 2GB?

    Approx 8 hours of streaming Apple Music is equal to 1GB of data...for those of us without unlimited data plans, this may be a hindrance 
    Don't know yet. The watchOS 4 betas were still limited to 2GB, but we don't have a Series 3 at the moment.
    lolliver
  • Reply 11 of 16
    Soli said:
    sandor said:
    fallenjt said:
    Somehow, I'm interested in AW3. $10 service a month is not that bad. However, I'm with Xfinity while the service is only offered for ATT&Verizon customers. It only works with the same carrier, doesn't it?
    Pre-Apple Watch 3, wearables were only $5 a month, so $10 seems ridiculous.
    1) And have you seen those shitty devices? This fucking article is talking about an always connected device that can take calls, reroute and mirror your phone number, and has Apple heavily advertising Apple Music that they state is 1GiB per hour, not including any other data. Have you never tried BT before or are you unaware how the W1 chip makes connecting headphones to the Apple Watch amazingly simple. You're going to see the use case increase for Watch because of this.

    2) I wonder if you ever said it was ridiculous that it costs $10 to add a dumb phone to an account.

    Wow. you have some pent up aggression or something.

    I am simply point out how the telecoms continually attempt to gouge consumers (phone "subsidies" that never end - thanks for bringing that to light TMobile) and it is typically with Apple products (how many years has it been since the first Apple cellular device premium?)  The Samsung Gear S3 (whether you like it or not, whether it sucks or not) cost $5 a month for LTE connectivity on TMobile. And same as the Apple Watch 3, you could use it for calling & music & intercepting without a phone.


    As many other have said, this is simply a money grab if the Watch is serving as a replacement for the phone in certain use instances, and your phone already has an unlimited data plan...


    edited September 2017 StrangeDays
  • Reply 12 of 16
    Yeah I agree with Sandor, past behavior indicates future behavior -- the carriers are likely trying to soak us wherever they can now that nobody buys SMS packages anymore. I find $120/year pretty hard to swallow as a reasonable cost for access to the network (and then pay for my data usage on top of that).
  • Reply 13 of 16
     I'm confused.  Why wouldn't Apple Music work on series 1 or series 2 watches using wifi?  

    Is Apple Music only available on series 3 watches? 
  • Reply 14 of 16
    SoliSoli Posts: 10,035member
    robertsm said:
     I'm confused.  Why wouldn't Apple Music work on series 1 or series 2 watches using wifi?  

    Is Apple Music only available on series 3 watches? 
    Maybe this will clear things up.

  • Reply 15 of 16
    Soli said:
    robertsm said:
     I'm confused.  Why wouldn't Apple Music work on series 1 or series 2 watches using wifi?  

    Is Apple Music only available on series 3 watches? 
    Maybe this will clear things up.

    Thanks.  I forgot all about that. 
    Soli
  • Reply 16 of 16
    robertsm said:
     I'm confused.  Why wouldn't Apple Music work on series 1 or series 2 watches using wifi?  

    Is Apple Music only available on series 3 watches? 
    Good question:   Apple?
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