The first incarnation of Apples Music service missed some key features. After bust ups with beats staff and even criticism from Taylor Swift, can it do better?

When Apple debuted its Music subscription service at its June 2015 worldwide developers conference, it did so in grand style with appearances by music impresario Jimmy Iovine and a performance by Drake.

Apple Music was brimming with features: access to a library of 30m tunes, a 24/7 Beats One radio station, curated playlists and integration with your existing library of music downloads. With Apple Music, the company was hoping to shore up sagging iTunes revenues and drown out rival streaming services like Spotify, Pandora and Tidal.

Apple even gave subscribers three months to fall in love with the new service; within a few weeks more than 11 million users signed up for the free trial. But before it was even half over, some 48% had decided to cancel before the $10 monthly fee kicked in, according to a survey by analytics firm MusicWatch.

Music fans werent exactly holding their lighters over their heads, screaming for more. Problems ranged from a cluttered and confusing interface, a royalties program that angered popular artists (most famously Taylor Swift), and upgrades that thoroughly bollixed subscribers existing iTunes libraries. Since then, key executives with Apples Beats subsidiary have left the company. Even iTunes international VP Oliver Schusser admitted the service had a bit of homework to do.

Nearly a year after Apple Musics debut, however, the company wants to take another crack at it. According to a report by Bloomberg, the company plans to launch an improved version of the music service at its WWDC next month, along with another massive marketing push. (Apple declined to confirm the news to Bloomberg.)

The report was short on details on how Apple intends to pump up the service. But assuming its true, we have a few unsolicited suggestions.

Make it simpler, stupid. Apple Musics interface totally lacks the simplicity that has been the hallmark of great Apple products. Fewer options, especially on such a small screen, would be welcome.

More free radio stations. In January, Apple restricted access to its ad-supported iTunes radio stations to paying subscribers, leaving Beats One the sole free radio option. If Apple wants to convince skeptics its service is worth $120 a year, it needs to offer more than the limited tastes of Beats DJs.

A free ad-supported version. It works for Spotify, which has 55 million free users (and 20 million paid). Why not Apple?

A downvote option. You can heart your favorite songs, but you cant tell Apple to stop suggesting artists you dont like. Apple Music needs to make better personalized music suggestions, and adding a Pandora-like thumbs-down option (the anti-Drake button, as I call it) would help.

Lose Connect. Apple Musics Connect service was supposed to bridge the gap between artists and their fans, offering them exclusive photos, videos and music. But many artists have ignored it, and it mostly seems like another attempt to sell more stuff. I doubt anyone would even notice it was gone.

Better desktop and web clients. If you want to listen to Apple Music on your computer, you need to run the resource-hogging and overly complicated iTunes software. Would a simple web client be too much to ask? Or even just a stripped-down desktop app?

If Apple wants a whole lotta love for Apple Music 2.0, it needs to make sure the song does not remain the same.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/may/04/apple-music-wwdc-taylor-swift

If you greeted the deaths of Bowie and Prince by wishing youd seen them live while you had the chance, the people behind Coachella have come up with the ideal event at a price

The recently announced baby boomer music festival called Desert Trip set for the beginning of October at the same venue as Coachella, the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California has been billed as once in a lifetime. Thats a real cute slogan, since most of the acts involved are pushing 80, and I dont mean the miles per hour on their car either they all probably drive rather slow, if you think about it. If they drive at all. After the untimely deaths of rock icons David Bowie and Prince, it stands to reason that were going to start losing more beloved musicians. Such is the frailty of human existence.

Every time someone of that stature dies, its a loss collectively felt by fans all around the world. Inevitably, you or one of your friends will say: Golly, I wish I had just dropped a few hundred dollars to go see [Dead Musician X] when I had the chance. When the news of Princes death broke, I certainly muttered a similar refrain to myself. Id skipped his month-long residency at the Forum in Inglewood, California, because at the time I was broke and eating pasta for every meal. Its easy to take for granted that these people will always be around to entertain you, and sobering when you realize they wont be.

The subtle marketing genius of once in a lifetime is a dog-whistle reminder that Paul McCartney might keel over at any moment, and every second you are not watching him perform Blackbird is a complete and total waste. For $399, you can cross see Neil Young off your bucket list, and if you are in the target demographic for this event, you definitely have a bucket list.

As you would expect from the promoters behind Coachella, there are more expensive options than the aforementioned $399, experiences curated for the truly crazy music fan. There are three tiers of reserved floor tickets: $699, $999 and $1,599. Reserved grandstand will cost you $699 or $999. The standing pit which sounds like one of the options on the wheel from Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome costs $1,599. All these passes get you in for the entire three-day festival. Technically, its not a day so much as it is an evening, as the performances start at sunset and theres only two bands a day. So, while your Coachella pass might put a sizable dent in your wallet, at least you have the ability to see a dozen acts at a time. You might say it doesnt seem worth it at all.

A single-day pass is $199. I did a bit of research and found that I could see Paul McCartney at the Target Center in Minneapolis on 4 May for $37 if I purchased the ticket on StubHub. I could go see the Who at Staples Center in my hometown of Los Angeles for $72. I wouldnt even have to stand out in the middle of the desert to do it. I could sit in an air-conditioned facility and gently nod off during the opening act instead of having to brave the deadly standing pit. Two men enter, only one man leaves the standing pit.

The only justification I can think of for attending Desert Trip is that it allows the nostalgia-addicted baby boomer the chance to see all these bands in one shot. Adding up the cost of a single ticket for the Rolling Stones, the Who, McCartney, Neil Young and the rest would probably equal or surpass the amount of a pass to Desert Trip, depending on which tier of opulence you choose. If you look at it that way, its totally worth it. By the time the weekend is over, you wont even have a bucket list left. I just wish there were a tier even lower than the general admission price, because as someone who missed seeing one of his favorite artists perform because of lack of funds, I empathize with the struggling Bob Dylan fan who just cant get it together to go out to Indio.

Heres what I propose: for $75, you can purchase the Zootopia Package. A few hours before the real show starts, you are led through a makeshift tent area. Its pitch black as you enter, save for the recognizable guitar riff from Start Me Up. As Micks vocals kick in, the lights come on and before you stands all of your rock gods in the flesh, except theyre behind 6 inches of bulletproof glass. Snipers are positioned in a crows nest near the ceiling of the tent in case someone in the crowd gets frisky. Pre-recorded performances of everyones hit songs fill the room while you watch Roger Daltrey sip from a teacup and do vocal warm-up exercises. Sure, you never see them perform any actual music, but you can tell everyone you know that you saw all your favorite bands one last time even if it was just Keith Richards playing ping-pong in a cage.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/may/03/desert-trip-music-festival-rolling-stones-paul-mccartney-bob-dylan-who

The theater sensation of the decade scooped a record 16 Tony nominations. Here are 16 reasons Lin-Miranda Manuels hip-hop musical broke new ground

How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a Scotsman grow up to be the musical sensation of the decade? Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Mirandas Broadway dynamo, made history again on Tuesday morning, scoring 16 Tony award nominations, the most in Broadway history. (If the Tonys had not recently eliminated the sound design awards, the tally would likely have been even higher.) To celebrate this feat, here are 16 ways that the success of the musical has altered Broadway and beyond.

1. It proved that hip-hop and rap can thrive at the box office

After the failure of Holler if Ya Hear Me, there was some doubt as to whether Broadway welcomes more contemporary sounds. While Hamilton is not exclusively a hip-hop musical (it borrows from pop, rock, jazz, show tunes and the American songbook), it makes not-so-strange bedfellows of Biggie Smalls and Stephen Sondheim with aesthetically exciting and commercially triumphant results.

2. It has increased genuine diversity on Broadway

This year, 14 of the available 40 nominations for Broadway performance went to actors of color, a welcome change from #OscarsSoWhite. Of those 14 spots, seven went to Hamilton actors. Most musicals feature either a majority white cast or one that revolves around a single, particular group like this years Allegiance, On Your Feet!, Shuffle Along and The Color Purple. But Hamilton fills its stage with a panoply of races and ethnicities, many of whom have not been afforded the same opportunities as their non-white counterparts. Though the show recently ran into mild controversy for a casting notice that encouraged actors of color, anyone who has seen the musical or heard the soundtrack knows that this emphasis on diversity has created a uniquely galvanic cast.

3. It offers a sharp rebuke to Donald Trumps ugly nationalism

With its color-conscious casting and emphasis on many revolutionary war heroes as immigrants, Hamilton reminds us that many of the people who made America at all great or otherwise were not born here and that their contributions remain invaluable. Immigrants, chorus Hamilton and his friend the Marquis de Lafayette, we get the job done. Miranda has also used his platform to campaign for Puerto Rico, where both of his parents were born, amid its debt crisis.

4. With cabinet squabbling depicted as rap duels, it made political infighting seem cool

Almost. (Have Clinton and Sanders thought of re-enacting Cabinet Battle #2 to liven things up at the 10th Democratic debate?)

5. It has attracted both political figures and entertainers in droves

A mutual love of Hamilton is perhaps the only conceivable overlap among Beyonc, Bill Clinton, Amy Schumer, Dick Cheney, Michelle Obama, Paul McCartney and Busta Rhymes. Only Madonna seemed unmoved, having spent the evening during the shows off-Broadway run apparently texting.

6. It became one of the very rare musicals to win the Pulitzer prize

It also made Lin-Manuel Miranda one of the few musical theater writers to be honored with a MacArthur grant.

7. It encouraged a minor crime wave

Would-be spectators have been ripped off and arrests have been made as a consequence of various ticketing scams.

8. It has reset the metric on what people are willing to pay for Broadway tickets

While tickets through the official site run from $139 to $549 (with rumors that prices might rise to $995), prices for tickets on the secondary markets have crested at $2,000. The advance sale, which topped $57m, set another Broadway record.

9. It has also made tickets available, on a limited basis, to those who cant afford the top-dollar version, via the wildly popular lottery for $10 tickets

How popular is the lottery? So popular that when it moved online in the winter, demand immediately crashed the servers. In the warmer months, its a treat to see the crowds, which sometimes number hundreds, jostling, flirting, singing, anticipating, as they queue for those few low-cost seats. To entertain these queuers, a couple of times a week, Hamilton actors and those working on nearby shows take part in Ham4Ham brief, lighthearted sidewalk performances designed to entertain the crowd. Hamilton and the Rockefeller Foundation have also distributed 20,000 tickets to high schools where a majority of students come from low-income families.

10. It supports the ticketless, too

One of the problems of Broadway is that so few people get to see it. Even those unable to buy tickets or luckless in the lottery can watch Ham4Ham videos online or watch production numbers via the Grammys and a variety of late-night shows. The soundtrack also streams for free on Spotify.

11. It has made being caught listening to an original cast recording something not entirely humiliating

12. It has raised the bar for a Broadway shows social media presence

Hamilton is the last show in the world to need viral marketing, but those Ham4Ham videos, in addition to lively Twitter and Instagram feeds by the show and its participants, have made the show an online phenomenon, too.

13. It sparked a real estate boom

Apparently, its not so quiet uptown. Prices for homes and apartments in Hamilton Heights and Washington Heights, near Hamiltons former home, have been trending upward since the musical launched. (That home, Hamilton Grange, still exists.)

14. It caused a wild spike in sales for the book that inspired it: Ron Chernows Alexander Hamilton

As to how many people who bought that doorstopper made it through all 832 pages, statistics are unavailable.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/may/03/hamilton-tony-awards-broadway-lin-manuel-miranda