Apple Music offers a lot of cool features from streaming music to an online radio station. But it also seems to be creating some headaches for loyal iTunes users.
On Tuesday, Apple launched iOS 8.4, which turned on Apple Music, a new service that offers streaming music with playlists curated by "music experts," a 24/7 radio station called Beats 1 and a social feature called Connect that puts together musicians and their fans. Free for the first three months, the service costs $9.99 per month for an individual plan and $14.99 for a shared family plan.
Apple Music is the company's latest strategy for bringing in more users to the Apple ecosystem. By offering its own music streaming service for iOS devices, Apple hopes to sell more iPhones and iPads. Selling more iOS devices means more users who will buy items from iTunes and potentially other Apple products and services. Apple already had around 800 million iTunes subscribers, all of which are keyed into that huge ecosystem. Also, other music streaming services, such as Spotify and Rdio, have proven a popular way for users to satisfy their music cravings, and Apple doesn't want to get left behind in that market. But Apple Music and iOS 8.4 have introduced a couple of obstacles for iTunes users that may sour people on the new service.