Affiliate Disclosure
If you buy through our links, we may get a commission. Read our ethics policy.

Apple's 'iOS 11' Music app to put more focus on Apple Music video content

Last updated

When Apple releases "iOS 11" later this year, one of its features will allegedly be a new Music app that "better showcases video" — specifically, video hosted on Apple Music.

The change is meant to direct people to the original programming Apple is developing, Bloomberg indicated on Thursday. While video isn't particularly difficult to discover in iOS 10, much of it is hidden behind a "Music Videos" section under the Browse tab — despite it including high-profile interviews and concert footage.

Apple could debut as many as 10 original shows and documentaries by the end of the year, Bloomberg said. While at least four of these are already known — "Carpool Karaoke," "Planet of the Apps," and documentaries about Clive Davis and Cash Money Records — sources claimed that another is a documentary about Bad Boy Records, the home of Puff Daddy and Notorious B.I.G., which became embroiled in a notorious fight with Death Row Records.

Apple Music executive Jimmy Iovine is meanwhile said to be fomenting a possible sequel to R. Kelly's R&B opera "Trapped in the Closet," and talking broad, non-music concepts with "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" director J.J. Abrams and "Empire" producer Brian Grazer.

Iovine told Bloomberg that "Apple Music is nowhere near complete in my head," while suggesting that any growth will be slow but deliberate.

"iOS 11" will likely be shown off at June's Worldwide Developers Conference, then enter a beta phase before launching alongside new iPhones in the fall. Few other features have been rumored so far, among them deeper Siri integration into Messages and iCloud, group video calls in FaceTime, and the elimination of any 32-bit app support.



9 Comments

mattgodfrey 8 Years · 27 comments

I hope they actually unbundle video completely from the music app. You would have assumed they would avoid making the same mistake twice, the way they bundled all media on the Mac into an app called iTUNES

noelos 17 Years · 127 comments

I hope they actually unbundle video completely from the music app. You would have assumed they would avoid making the same mistake twice, the way they bundled all media on the Mac into an app called iTUNES

If they limited it to only playing the music-video corresponding to each song in Music I think it would make some sense.

This might make it viable for publishers to start removing video content from YouTube - or at least create a competitive tension where they could threaten to do so and demand a reasonable click-rate for YouTube music videos. 

netmage 14 Years · 314 comments

I think they should focus on the actual purpose of playing music a lot more. The USB iPod interface is a joke (alphabetical song order for albums?), the inability to find features like shuffle requiring Web tutorials to use, the inability to play all by an artist,etc. 

ireland 18 Years · 17436 comments

No teens around my family have AM and they all seems to want Spotify and they aren't interested in video. They already watch YouTube, which is free.