Apple Music Launches Exciting New Tool for Business Owners

Apple Music Credit: Konstantin Savusia / Shutterstock
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The next time you walk into a store, the music playing over the loudspeakers may actually be an Apple Music playlist. That’s because Apple has partnered with in-store entertainment firm PlayNetwork to launch a new Apple Music for Business service, Billboard reported.

Apple Music for Business will provide retail stores, restaurants, commercial outlets and other businesses with fully licensed and fully customizable soundtracks. But, as you might expect, there’s more to it than that.

Why Is It Special?

In a joint press release, Apple and PlayNetwork said that Apple Music for Business will focus on “human curation that requires attention and skill to make (the music) a seamless part of the experience.”

To put it another way, Apple Music for Business will analyze a brand’s or store’s identity or image and will custom create a playlist specifically for them.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Apple has already been pilot testing its Business service at retailers like Levi Strauss & Co and Harrods.

Apple Music, currently the second most popular streaming platform, isn’t the only service that provides retail or commercial soundtracks. In fact, Pandora, Sirius and Spotify already do.

But Apple Music for Business is aiming to break “new ground” by providing expert curation “to develop the music identity” of brands. It also includes business-focused features for varying levels of both in-store and corporate control.

So, in one aspect, Apple is only just catching up to its competitors in this respect. But for business owners and retailers, Apple Music for Business may offer additional features and capabilities that other platforms don’t.

This is, of course, all related to Apple’s larger Services business, which will only become increasingly important as the influence of the company’s hardware sectors wanes.

According to one analyst, for example, Apple’s Services business is largely expected to overtake the iPhone as the company’s primary revenue growth driver. That will likely be fostered by smaller initiatives like Apple Music for Business, as well as larger ones like Apple TV+ and Apple Music itself.

And while Apple Music for Business may not provide anything substantial to consumers, Apple has taken steps to provide services directly to businesses in the past — like its iMessage Business Chat feature in iOS 11.3.

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