Apple is giving artists some control of their content with the new Apple Music feature, Apple Music for Artists.
The new feature is ideal for artists and bands with insight into the streaming and download habits. The feature gives artist a fight-hand insight into what their fans like and what they are buying.
The new feature for Apple Music will see a homepage that gives artists a look at what songs users are playing, the number of times songs are played, song purchases, album purchases, and more. The artists will be able to see data from Apple Music’s launch back in June 2015.
The dashboard feature is currently available for select beta users ahead of a broader launch planned later this spring.
According to reports, this move from Apple is a way to compete with Spotify, who has ramped up their products for artist in the past year.
Unfortunately, Apple has been behind on this front, as Spotify and Pandora have given artists different analytic tools. In April 2017, Spotify launched its own artist dashboard that lets musicians see streaming analytics. Then in October, the company debuted an app for artists with access to similar data. That same month, Spotify launched its own RISE program, which puts new and noteworthy artist in the spotlight.
Pandora also released a dashboard for artists that offers similar analytic tools and allows them to interact with fans. By doing this, artists can send short messages using audio clips to talk about coming releases, concerts, events, signing, and more.
What Can Artists Do With The New Apple Music Feature?
The artists who use Apple Music for Artists will see an Insights Panel that shows different aspects of their work. This will include songs and albums and will let users view the number of plays and number of purchases, and it’ll go further in detail to show what songs people are buying or playing within an album.
They will also be able to see a global map that allows the artist to see any of the 115 countries where Apple Music is available to see what those users are purchasing.
Furthermore, data for individual cities will be included, and artist will see top songs in each city. They’ll also see another feature called the Apple-curated playlists, where their songs appear.
The beta is still small, but the feature is aimed more at independent artist who would like to know what their fans are listening to.
As of now, only a handful of artists have been chosen to try out the new feature. The app will eventually expand to all artist and will be available through iTunes and Apple Music.
