Reports are claiming that Apple is thinking about revamping its relatively young Apple Music streaming service, with the coming changes to be showcased at the upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference from June 13 to June 17.
The goal of Apple is to make Apple Music "more native and easy for users to master," with planned changes including a design overhaul to change its colorful look into a simple black and white one, supersized album art, bigger and bolder text and 3D Touch support. Apple Music will also be undergoing changes in its "For You" feature and "New" tab, with support to be added for lyrics.
On the surface, the planned changes for Apple Music look very extensive. According to Jessica Lessin, founder of The Information, and Mike Isaac, tech reporter for the New York Times, the changes are very much needed for the music streaming service to thrive.
In an interview with CNBC, Lessin noted how much Apple has invested into the platform in terms of marketing and star power, among other things. However, one thing that can be added to Apple Music is better integration with Apple's iTunes store, though Lessin added that such integration may not happen, given how sacred iTunes is to Apple.
Isaac, meanwhile, thinks that Apple should focus on building up Apple Music as a platform that would entice users of rival music streaming services such as Spotify to make the switch. Spotify has the "amazing" Discover feature, Isaac noted, which is something that Apple Music is lacking.
"Apple needs some sort of killer feature that differentiates them, or else they're just another Rdio or Grooveshark, or something that doesn't really change from Spotify."
It can be argued that Apple Music has shown considerable success, as in its quarterly earnings call, Apple revealed that there are already 13 million paying subscribers to the service. The figure represents a 2 million increase from February, when executives said that the number of Apple Music subscribers surpassed 11 million.
Apple Music reached 10 million paying subscribers in just six months after its launch, a feat that Spotify needed eight years to achieve. However, Spotify earlier in the year claimed that its total paying subscribers was nearing 30 million, and if Apple Music is looking to catch up, perhaps an overhaul is what the platform needs.
