Roger Fingas
Apple on Friday took the unusual step of reissuing Tuesday's iTunes 12.6 update, stripping out a "Show on Profile Page" toggle that may have accidentally hinted at plans for Apple Music.
The new software is available through the Mac App Store, as well as the Apple Software Update tool on Windows systems. Apple's own release notes don't make mention of changes other than those previously included in 12.6, primarily multiscreen movie rentals.
The "Show on Profile Page" option, found in playlist editing tools, was earlier highlighted on Reddit. It's non-functional, and may point to Apple Music subscribers getting their own Spotify-style profiles in the near future.
If so profiles would presumably let people connect with each other and/or create public playlists that other subscribers can discover. That could help keep listening fresh, since Apple Music's existing playlists are curated by staff — which may not provide enough new music for some people, especially fans of less popular genres.
It's not clear when Apple would turn on profiles, but they could be announced at this year's Worldwide Developers Conference in June. WWDC is where Apple Music was first introduced, and the company regularly uses the event to showcase future versions of its apps and operating systems.
Spotify remains the industry leader in on-demand music, with approximately 50 million paid subscribers versus Apple's 20 million. The company is working on its own ways of keeping ahead, such as a possible lossless audio tier.
Malcolm Owen
William Gallagher
Charles Martin
Christine McKee
Wesley Hilliard
Andrew Orr
5 Comments
Ah, had this update yesterday:
http://www.flintconsultancy.eu/iTunes%2012.6.png
Didn't understand, no new release note...
People on the Apple Discussion forums were trashing Apple over what they thought was a double download of iTunes, calling the App Store a debacle. And so it always goes.
It's quite possible that this was deliberate and intended as a teaser.
As it stands the playlisted are biased towards American music if the system is as describe it would help address that.
Please let this be evidence that Apple will finally allow Apple Music to be a functional social app by allowing users to create profiles that are viewable by others. This will really be the key to Apple Music becoming the cultural phenomenon that they have been planning it to be in the first place.