Latest in Apple Music

As we head into the Thanksgiving break, it’s time for some special treats from the recording industry, including new music from Paul McCartney, who was in some band whose name escapes me, and a juicy and provocative list of fresh Grammy nominations spotlighting bright new artists. Big corporations are also hard at…

Gary Stewart, whose love of the music industry’s hidden gems saw him successfully curate TV’s The Gilmore Girls soundtrack and the tunes for the period pieces of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, has died. He was 62 and was widely known in the music industry for his passion for catalog. Stewart began his career at the Rhino…

Apple has issued a lengthy response to Spotify’s complaint before European Commission regulators, which was issued earlier this week. The iPhone maker dismisses it as “misleading rhetoric” that conceals its streaming competitor’s financial motives. Spotify told the EC that Apple’s 30% “tax” on Spotify streams…

Spotify has filed a complaint against Apple with European Commission regulators, alleging the so-called “Apple tax” gives Apple an “unfair advantage” over rival companies. Apple launched Apple Music in 2015 in a bid to compete with Spotify in the burgeoning streaming music space. Spotify said it had chosen Europe…

Apple Music is coming to Amazon’s Echo smart speakers. The streaming music service will be available to Apple Music subscribers, starting the week of Dec. 17. Customers will be able to ask Alexa to play any track from Apple’s catalog of 50 million songs — or any of the playlists made by Apple Music's editors from…

Qobuz, a music tech company founded in France in 2007 that bills itself as “the world’s first and only certified hi-res streaming and download service,” is planning to launch in the U.S. in 2019. The company, which already operates in 11 European countries, has not yet revealed the launch date but it has opened a U.S…

Apple Music has taken the wraps off a trailer for Season 2 of Carpool Karaoke, the spinoff of James Corden’s Late Late Show franchise that won Apple an Emmy Award this year for Outstanding Short Form Variety Series — giving the tech giant its first nod for original programming. The trailer for Season 2 of Carpool Karao…

UPDATED with closing stock prices. SiriusXM, the satellite radio company controlled by John Malone’s Liberty Media, is buying Pandora Media in a $3.5 billion aimed at creating a larger rival to Apple Music and Spotify in the intensifying streaming music battle. The all-stock deal imputes a market valuation for the…

Ed Sheeran's documentary Songwriter, which Apple Music acquired in a seven-figure deal before the film’s Tribeca Film Festival deal this spring, is getting ready to hit the stage. The film from Sheeran’s filmmaker cousin Murry Cummings that chronicles the making of his 2017 album Divide will hit theaters via Abramorama…

Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook says the Apple Music streaming service has reached a milestone: 50 million users. That represents both subscribers and those dabbing in a free trial, Cook told Bloomberg TV. But still, the music service appears to be logging steady growth. Just last month, Apple said it had passed 40…

UPDATED at 9:30 a.m. Monday: Apple issued a statement confirming earlier reports that it’s acquiring the name-that-tune app Shazam to bulk up its music offering. We are thrilled that Shazam and its talented team will be joining Apple. Since the launch of the App Store, Shazam has consistently ranked as one of the most…

The episode of Apple Music’s Carpool Karaoke series that Linkin Park taped less than a week before singer Chester Bennington’s death has hit the web, and let’s just say Ken Jeong is stoked to be a part of it. The former Dr. Ken star joins the group’s Bennington — who’s at the wheel — Mike Shinoda and Joe Hahn for a…