Iovine: Human curation will set Apple Music apart from its streaming music rivals

Apple has hired hundreds of people to help put together curated lists of music for subscribers to the Apple Music streaming music service. Jimmy Iovine, who now is now an executive working on Apple Music, says that the human touch is what will set Apple apart from its rivals in the business, like Spotify. Iovine calls the other streamers "utilities," saying that they are "sterile, programmed by algorithms and numbing."

Along the same lines, Iovine says that other forms of entertainment are Apple Music's main competition, not other music streamers. Earlier today, we told you that Apple's Eddy Cue revealed that the company has signed up 11 million members for the 3 month free trial in the first five weeks. He also mentioned that Apple had sold 2 million family plan subscriptions at $14.99 monthly. Each family plan covers up to six related members. Individual plans cost $9.99 per month.


Talking to the London Evening Standard, Iovine revealed the back and forth communications between him, Apple SVP Eddy Cue, and Scott Borchetta (the head of Taylor Swift's record label) that finally led to Swift's decision to allow Apple Music to stream her highly successful 1989 album. In return, Apple agreed to pay artists, labels and producers for songs streamed during consumers' three month free trial to Apple Music. According to Iovine, boh Apple CEO Tim Cook and Cue told him, "Hey, you know what, we want this system to be right and we want artists to be comfortable, let’s do it’."

Iovine joined Apple when the tech titan purchased Beats Audio for $3 billion last year. Iovine and his partner Dr. Dre, both ended up joining Apple.

source: EveningStandard via AppleInsider