AppleInsider Staff
Apple expanded international availability of its Apple Music streaming service on Wednesday with a rollout in Israel, allowing customers in the region to sign up for a three-month free trial via iTunes on Mac and the dedicated Music app on iOS.
While Apple's regional website has not yet been updated to reflect current availability, users in Israel reported a start to Apple Music services early this morning. Like past rollouts, customers are met with an Apple Music advertisement landing page in the Music app on iOS and in iTunes for Mac, both of which contain links to an account creation form.
In Israel, Apple Music is priced at 19.90 Israel Shekels (about $5.20) per month for an individual plan or 29.90 ISL for a family plan of up to six users. The cost is well below U.S. price tiers, likely due to content licensing negotiations, but roughly equivalent to other international markets. As with previous Apple Music launches, users in Israel can test drive the service for three months before committing to the monthly fee.
Apple Music was announced more than one year ago at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in June of 2015, and launched later than month in more than 100 markets. In light of stiff competition, Apple's fledgling streaming service has since accumulated over 15 million subscribers, putting it ahead of smaller companies like Tidal, but behind industry leader Spotify's 30 paying customers.
Looking ahead, Apple Music is said to be nearing release in South Korea. Reports from the country claim Apple recently inked a deal with a local music federation to pay out royalties to artists, though the company still needs to secure agreements with distributors and national copyright organizations.
For existing users, Apple most recently announced an upcoming app redesign set to roll out this fall for iOS, Mac, Windows and Apple TV. The streamlined interface will be easier to use, with quick access to frequently used features and a focus on content discovery, Apple says.
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1 Comment
Seems ridiculous that Apple Music is chasing exclusives, considering buying out the (actually) doomed to failure Tidal, and doing ineffective promotions to get customers.
Apple music should already be a booming success.. with a huge iOS audience, substantial library, siri integration, and Beats 1, which is great. But it's clearly nowhere near its potential.
If you build a compelling service, you don't need exclusives and gimmicks.
But.. Apple Music suffered from:
-A confusing initial app/rollout (we now will have the app we should have started with)
-Lack of basic music functionality like sub genre categories and support (confusingly haphazard playlists, as great as some are, do not make up for lack of basic functionality)
-Absurd lack of social integration and abilities.
These deficits are really inexcusable. It's BASIC functionality that is lacking. To me Apple is lucky to have the relative success they are having so far; although I highly suspect that they're counting every family plan as 5 members to bolster the numbers (I've met ONE person that was already a subscriber before I met them, and there is pretty much 0 social media presence for Apple Music that I can tell).
If Apple built a compelling product **with proper social tools/integration** the users would market it for them; that's how pretty much every popular social service has spread.
These problems and solutions seem so basic. I'm really confused at the strange way that Apple Music is being run/managed.