Couple of weeks back, we had reported that Apple Music is rumoured to come to Android and it finally is a reality. Apple Music is now available to download from Google Play store, although in beta version at present. This is a big step for Apple considering it is offering one of its full fledged apps on a rival’s ecosystem. Apple Music has about 6.5 Million subscribers and hopes to add huge numbers through the expansion.
Apple Music is a music streaming app that doubles up as a song library. Users can subscribe to the paid service and download any song to listen to it offline. Considering it is coming from a tech giant, the service is said to be reliable and very easy to use. You can create a playlist of your own or download curated playlists of your favourite genres through the ‘For you’ feature, all in one place. It also comes with ‘Beats 1’ radio service and a ‘Connect’ feature where in you can follow lots of artists and comment and share their music. Artists, on the other hand, can connect with their followers and help grow their fanbase. It is much like facebook for music.
Apple Music for Android is now available in all the countries. Apple has Music available in for iOS, except China where they will soon be rolling out the beta version. The app has been designed similar to Apple Music in iOS and comes with a free 3-month trial. This comes as great news since there are many competitors to Apple Music already in the industry like Beatport, Spotify and Pandora which are already available across platforms and offer similar services.
Since the applications comes in the beta, there are a few features missing from it. You will not be able to access music videos and signing up for family membership is not available yet.
This is not a major issue for most users since it is primarily a music streaming application and in subsequent updates we do hope to see all such features on Android as well. There will also be a feedback button in the app so that Apple is able to track any reviews and directly get feedback from users, since Android is a completely unchartered territory for them.
How does Apple plan to expand?
In the interview with TechCrunch, Apple’s SVP of Internet Software and Services, Eddy Cue mentioned that Apple’s philosophy is to allow as many users to listen to music through their service, without borders. This is the reason Apple Music will be available on Android and plans to garner similar responses from users. Apple disrupted the portable music market when they launched the first iPod and since then have only been increasing the traffic on their services.
Eddy confirmed that in case you have a device apart from iOS devices where you want to access your music library, you can access it through cloud. Everything has been linked through your Apple ID.
So Apple fans using a secondary Android device need not worry, their wishes have been granted. This means that there are absolutely no restrictions between platforms and users can easily access their music anywhere, irrespective of the device through the cloud.
Coming from Apple, which follows a different design philosophy, app will give a look and feel of that of an Android app. Although it will not blend in exactly with the material design, but hey! it serves its purpose really well. As the person gets the used to the application, design changes will gradually be introduced. Initially since few features will not be available, Apple hopes to increase its user base purely on music services. By next year, the Android app should work exactly like its iOS counterpart, sans the iTunes service. iTunes is available only on iOS for now, but who knows if this service cross-breeds on Android as well.
Apple Music in India
This is a good news for Android users in India, which leads the market share in smartphone. Apple Music is available in India for as cheap as Rs. 120 for individual users and Rs. 190 for family subscription. This is much less than the global price of $10, owing to competition from local players like Saavn and Gaana.
Apple is all geared up for this experiment and hopes to be successful in this expedition. There could be competition from other applications, but Apple users have used it extensively thanks to iOS integrations and iCloud services available across devices. A few months down the line, we should be clear on Apple Music penetration in the Android world. Are you looking forward to downloading Apple Music ? Write your opinions below.
Download Apple Music from Google Play store
