Dive Brief:
- Apple launched Apple Music with a 15-second video featuring Pharrell Williams on Instagram and Twitter with no branding beyond the tagging the handle @applemusic.
- For a company well known for carefully controlling its ad branding, this “quiet” campaign represents a departure.
- Apple Music is a streaming service set to rival Pandora, Spotify and Google Play.
Dive Insight:
In a move away from its usual carefully controlled and highly branded product releases, Apple launched its new streaming music service, Apple Music, with a 15-second video featuring Pharrell Williams, Justin Timberlake, and model-actress Cara Delevingne on Instagram and Twitter. The only branding on the video was the handle @applemusic.
Getting into streaming music was probably a must for Apple as downloads are falling and streaming is on the rise. Nielsen’s sales data found streamed songs rose 91% the first 25 weeks of this year compared to 2014, and downloads fell by double digits over the same period.
Apple Music will jump into a streaming music mix that includes Spotify, Pandora and Google Play, and after a free three-month trial will be a $9.99 per month subscription service. Other services, such as Spotify offer ad-supported fully free versions that make up 55 million of its 75 million total users. Right now it’s not known if Apple is planning on offering an ad supported version of Apple Music.
