Apple Music loses hip-hop and R&B curator to Spotify
The curator responsible for Apple Music's hip-hop and R&B programming is departing for the service's chief rival, Spotify, a report indicated on Monday.
Carl Chery, formerly of Apple Music.
Carl Chery is credited with securing two critical Chance the Rapper exclusives for Apple, among them the album "Coloring Book," Variety said. "Coloring Book" is now available elsewhere, but for two weeks could only be streamed through Apple Music. Chance would later reveal that he was given $500,000 and a commercial in exchange for the "Coloring Book" deal.
Other achievements credited to Chery include building Apple Music's "A-List: Hip-Hop" and "A-List: R&B" playlists, and helping to break artists like Cardi B, Post Malone, and H.E.R. At Spotify it's likely that he will be curating the service's popular "RapCaviar" playlist, since the previous curator left for YouTube in March.
Chery first joined Apple in 2014 during its $3 billion Beats takeover. Prior to that he worked as a music journalist for outlets like XXL and BET.
Apple Music leadership appears to be in the middle of a shakeup, with Beats co-founder Jimmy Iovine withdrawing to a consulting role and Oliver Schusser taking the reins -- though not from Iovine, even if his role has never been firmly defined for the public.
The current look of Spotify on the iPhone.
In a bid to retain its dominance over Apple Music, Spotify is preparing to announce a major update to its mobile app at a press event next week, according to The Verge. It's unclear what changes the company might be making, but rumors have hinted at a better experience for free listeners and/or the company's planned voice control features.
Carl Chery, formerly of Apple Music.
Carl Chery is credited with securing two critical Chance the Rapper exclusives for Apple, among them the album "Coloring Book," Variety said. "Coloring Book" is now available elsewhere, but for two weeks could only be streamed through Apple Music. Chance would later reveal that he was given $500,000 and a commercial in exchange for the "Coloring Book" deal.
Other achievements credited to Chery include building Apple Music's "A-List: Hip-Hop" and "A-List: R&B" playlists, and helping to break artists like Cardi B, Post Malone, and H.E.R. At Spotify it's likely that he will be curating the service's popular "RapCaviar" playlist, since the previous curator left for YouTube in March.
Chery first joined Apple in 2014 during its $3 billion Beats takeover. Prior to that he worked as a music journalist for outlets like XXL and BET.
Apple Music leadership appears to be in the middle of a shakeup, with Beats co-founder Jimmy Iovine withdrawing to a consulting role and Oliver Schusser taking the reins -- though not from Iovine, even if his role has never been firmly defined for the public.
The current look of Spotify on the iPhone.
In a bid to retain its dominance over Apple Music, Spotify is preparing to announce a major update to its mobile app at a press event next week, according to The Verge. It's unclear what changes the company might be making, but rumors have hinted at a better experience for free listeners and/or the company's planned voice control features.
Comments
Hip Hip Hooray!
(BTW, $500,000 doesn't seem like all that much. A friend recently booked a private concert by The Chainsmokers (at a corporate event) for well north of that, for one night and a to a relatively low number of attendees)
- Tidal's curation always ends with R&B - regardless of what genre you pick. Want classical Spanish guitar for sleeping... 5 songs in... here is some rapper screaming about his pubes.
- Apple's curation always ends with top 40 *yawn* boring as **** corporate spoon fed RIAA sanctioned puke. Elevator music is more interesting. It's the streaming service for mind-controlled prozac junkies.
- Spotify's curation always ends with never before heard bliss that reaches into your very soul to find the essence of your existence - sending you on a journey of discovery, an epoch to musical nirvana.
If Spotify ever goes CD or MQA quality - it's game over for Tidal.
AM will always have its niche of serving bland porridge to the drones - on their Homepods with just-good-enough fidelity that it doesn't reveal what lousy compressed sound quality 256 AAC is compared to 320 mp3 (which also isn't great).
*mic drop...
Most things I have read put Apple's musical library between 40-45M and Spotify at about 30-35M ?
https://www.techradar.com/news/audio/apple-music-vs-spotify-vs-play-music-vs-tidal-vs-deezer-1296240
https://www.tomsguide.com/us/apple-music-vs-spotify,news-21069.html
https://www.consumerreports.org/audio-video/best-music-streaming-service-for-you/
Oh and nice ending shot at the HomePod .. now I see why you got all defensive when I called one for you HomePod bashing 1 post friend a troll..makes prefect sense now. Hahaha what a joke..
For the record you can play ALAC files via airplay from your IOS device to HomePod, or use "FLAC Player+" if you want to Play FLAC files the same way, if you don't have your hi res files converted to ALAC. I played Meshuggah's "Nothing" original mastering (ALAC) from my phone on HomePod just this past weekend. I personally prefer the real drums on the original release. So no not all of the people using and enjoying Apple Music are mind controlled prozac junkies as you so succinctly put it. We all enjoy music in our own ways curation aside..
Oh and if you are going to try and say that you can tell the difference between a 256 AAC recording and a 320 MP3 which are both Lossy as you kind of state ( lousy compressed sound quality 256 AAC is compared to 320 mp3 (which also isn't great) you are completely full of sh**.
Everyone agrees the Spotify 320 soundsbetter. This is in blind testing.
Mind you, my system costs more than your car. Thus why I said - if you have the fidelity...
You obviously don’t have the fidelity.
Happy you enjoy AM. It’s a great time to be alive. But my comment was a generalization of the differences between the services. I obviously don’t think that every AM subscriber is on Prozac... they don’t have to be, they have A.M. o.O
You should try Spotify if you haven’t. There is a reason they are the industry leaders.
Peace
Is Rock truly dead? All new music seems to be RnB, Hip Hop, Rap or Pop. The so-called Nu-Metal sounds as corporate as the rest.
I'm probably not looking deep enough and recommended playlists really aren't that great. I dig in looking for my own music. I tend to gravitate towards older acts.
It's pretty rare to come across a band like First Aid Kit on the "For You" section of Apple Music. You need to know what to look for.