Apple Music is here, and according to the early reaction on social media, it’s going down rather splendidly.
Zane Lowe kicked off the highly anticipated Beats 1 worldwide live radio station an hour after Apple unleashed its iOS 8.4 update – which pushed Apple Music to iPads and iPhones around the globe.
The first track Lowe played was City by relatively unknown UK band Spring King.
He also spun tracks from Beck, Skepta, Courtney Barnett and AC/DC.
As for the non-radio aspects of Apple Music, it’s bright, breezy and straightforward.
As reported by MBW last week, the UK price of Apple Music matches the US in figures: £9.99 per month for an individual account, or £14.99 for a family of six.
Likewise, it appears that a user’s three-month free trial begins whenever they like, rather than being fixed between June and September.
But there’s something BIG missing – certainly in the UK and, we’re told, the States.
Something iconic.
There’s no Prince.
MBW can’t be the only ones to have noticed that the Purple One’s back catalogue is nowhere to be seen.
We just get a fan page with an anemic smattering from his mighty library.
[UPDATE: It’s a similar story with Metallica, whose albums aren’t listed.]
[UPDATE 2: Metallica now are listed in the UK, but London Grammar’s debut LP is missing.]
All Apple Music can offer is an edit of When Doves Cry from the compilation album ‘Chick Flicks’.
There are also a couple of videos, including 2006’s Black Sweat.
None of his classic albums are there.
Buzz kill.
Prince’s catalogue is still available in full, interestingly enough, over on Spotify.
Even more intriguing: last April, Prince effectively bought control of his catalogue from Warner Bros, before licensing it back to the major.
The deal, which covered every Prince album released from 1978 into the nineties, meant the artist now owns both master and publishing rights to his most popular material.
So this may well be Prince’s decision. Maybe he’s fallen out with Eddy Cue.
Then again, Sinead O’Connor’s cover of Prince’s Nothing Compares To You is on the service.
We’re happy to report that other traditional streaming holdouts such as Taylor Swift, Thom Yorke (including Radiohead’s In Rainbows), Peter Gabriel and AC/DC, as hoped, are also on Apple Music.
If you spot any other holes in Apple Music’s catalogue – no, not including The Beatles, we didn’t expect them to be there – drop us a line: enquiries@musicbizworldwide.comMusic Business Worldwide
