NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Apple on Monday (Tuesday, June 9, PHT) unveiled Apple Music, a new streaming music service, live radio station, and social network.
Apple Music costs $9.99 a month, similar to several rival streaming music services.
Among its standout features is a “For You” tab that creates playlists and suggests songs that cater to your music palate by learning your interests as you go. It also has a music discovery engine called “New,” which includes the latest popular tracks.
“It will change the way you experience music forever,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook at the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco on Monday.
The Apple Music service also features Beats 1, a worldwide radio station, broadcasting 24/7 from New York, Los Angeles and London.
“Algorithms alone can’t do that emotional task,” said Jimmy Iovine, Apple’s music chief.
The new service also features “Connect,” a social network that allows music listeners to connect with their favorite artists.
Apple Music is entering an increasingly competitive space of more than a dozen streaming rivals, including Spotify, Tidal, Pandora, iHeartRadio and many, many others.
Apple revolutionized digital music in 2003 with its creation of the iTunes music store. But a growing number of music lovers are migrating to streaming music alternatives, threatening Apple’s music business model.
The company bought Beats last year for $3 billion, a move that was widely believed to help Apple launch a better streaming music option than its poorly received Pandora-like iTunes Radio service.
Apple also tried to create a music social network with iTunes Ping in 2010. But the social media platform failed, and Apple killed it off two years later.
This story was first published on CNN.com, “Apple unveils Apple Music streaming service”
