Real Rad Magazine : Summer Quarterly 2015

From merch to music videos, tickets to
tantalizing events, and even exclusive
experiences, this service is striving to make a
bold mark in what it means to provide for your
listeners. Exclusive interviews are available,
alongside tailored stations with fascinating
people that look into the current musical
gambit and give their perspectives on it. A
new and bold social platform to connect the
artists and their audiences as well as private
invitations based on the premise of music
of a whole, which includes the relationship
between the mind of the artist and the heart of
the audience is the vision here. As the general
trend of the workforce, of education, and of
personal entertainment, shifts to a more
“jack-of-all-trades” approach (as well as more
independent), streaming services like TIDAL
have an absolute lockdown of what the next
few years will turn towards.
Alongside TIDAL, Apple Radio and, particularly,
Apple Beats 1 must make a way into the
conversation. With the more international
viewpoints we find in almost every aspect of
everyday life, it’s no surprise that our concept
of where one station should reach out to has
expanded. With the advent of web radio and
TuneIn-like sites, it seems that any station that
can broadcast in its home country should be
able to be heard across the globe. Apple has
taken that idea to heart, and has essentially
begun taking their giant library and marketing
it as such. However, this isn’t an expansion of
being able to listen to radio stations - TuneIn
is your app for that. Apple Beats 1 is, instead,
Apple’s take on a global library.
It looks like a way to share through the picks
presented to you - much like going to a
museum and enjoying the sight of a beautiful
painting alongside 30 others. Your enjoyment
of the resource doesn’t hinder anyone else’s,
and as long as you paid the entrance fee,
you’re in to view as many of these themed
and curate paintings as you’d like. Apple goes
a step further, integrating the popularity factor
of music into their smart searches (no doubt
influenced by the thought behind Pandora). To
go back to the museum analogy, now as soon
as you say “I really liked the blue one - where
was it?” your tour guide will say “The blue
one that everyone likes is right here.” But, on
the other side of this - the advertised search
features like “Play the top songs from 1982”
may turn out to be a fantastic tool. To cover
Apple Radio in contrast - it’s simply Pandora
on Apple devices.
It’s clear to see that music services have
come a long way since Napster, but the
question remains, where it will head from
here? While many listeners will still end up on
Pandora and Spotify simply because of their
social notoriety, streaming will arguably head
toward that jack-of-all-trades direction. The
comprehensive experience of listening and
loving, meeting and greeting, and actually
being able to interact with the artist and their
social personas is far too compelling. The way
will clear, and while another service might
be the go-to in an immediate dance party
emergency, in my opinion, the strongest bet
for the future of streaming is a TIDAL wave.