Apple
AAPL
has announced the launch of Apple Music TV, a 24-hour live stream of popular music videos, according to a
report
by The Verge.
Apart from exclusive new music videos and premiers, Music TV will include special curated music video blocks, live shows, fan events, chart countdowns and guest appearances.
Apple Music TV is currently available only to users in the United States and can be accessed through the Apple Music and Apple TV apps only.
Music TV Boasts Strong Content Lineup
Launched on Oct 19, Apple Music TV kicked off with a countdown of the top 100 all-time most streamed songs on Apple Music in the United States. On Oct 22, it will play host to veteran rocker Bruce Springsteen to celebrate the release of his upcoming album,
Letter to You
(releasing Oct 23).
Apart from an interview with Zane Lowe, anchor of Apple Music’s radio station, the channel will stream some of Springsteen’s most popular music videos and a special livestream fan event.
Moreover, Apple Music TV will also host video premieres every Friday at noon (12pm ET). On Oct 23, it reportedly plans to debut 777 by Japanese artist Joji and Gorgrous by American hip-hop star Saint Jhn.
Music Streaming Growth Prospects Aplenty
In August, Apple relaunched its Apple Music beta website to add a Listen Now feature that replaces the For You tab from the standard Apple Music website. The interface allows subscribers to stream their favorite music from their Internet browser rather than installing iTunes or the separate Apple Music app.
Moreover, this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company has expanded the reach of its Apple Music platform to additional 52 countries in 2020. The expansion ramps up the global presence of Apple Music, which has 60 million subscribers, against market leader
Spotify
SPOT
, which has more than 120 million paid users but is available in fewer markets around the world. You can see
the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here
.
Apple Music offers about 50 million songs on-demand, as well as live radio stations. The streaming service costs $10 per month. In comparison, Spotify has 60 million songs in its library and offers subscriptions for $10 a month, ad-free.
Spotify is benefiting from premium subscriber growth. Robust playlists are helping the company rapidly convert free listeners to paid subscribers. In second-quarter 2020, the audio streaming company reported 138 million premium subscribers globally, up 27% year over year.
While Spotify and Apple Music dominate the music streaming industry, the presence of other players like
Amazon
’s
AMZN
Music services,
Alphabet
’s
GOOGL
YouTube Music, ByteDance, Deezer, iHeartMedia, and SiriusXM has intensified competition in the rapidly growing music streaming space (subscription as well as ad-based).
In September, Amazon incorporated Twitch’s live streaming feature into its Amazon Music app. The latest move will enable the company in helping artists to expand their fan base by connecting with above 55 million customers of Amazon Music through Twitch.
Per a Statista
report
, the music streaming market is expected to generate revenues of $12.4 billion in 2020. The figure is expected to rise to $15.5 billion at a CAGR of 5.7% between 2020 and 2024. Further, user penetration in 2020 is expected to be 14.6% and increase up to 6.5% by 2024.
Apple is focusing on services such as Apple Music, which debuted in 2015 at $9.99/month to bolster its sales with paid monthly and/or yearly subscriptions. Notably, Services (22% of sales) revenues grew 14.8% from the year-ago quarter to $13.16 billion in third-quarter fiscal 2020.
In fall 2019, Apple Music rolled out New Music Daily to keep subscribers updated with new songs released by popular artists around the world. Additionally, Apple also bought the Shazam app, which can identify any song that’s being played by name and artist.
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