The fight between Apple Music and Spotify has been a long one. But this time, it is about matching Spotify Sessions.
Basically, Apple has brought out its own version. The feature is unoriginally dubbed Apple Music Sessions. At its core, these are live performances that will be exclusively available for the subscribers.
On that note, the first performances are available right now, and it offers different sets from country music stars Tenille Townes and Carrie Underwood.
But the great news is both of them are available with Spatial Audio. That means you can not only listen to live performances of those sets with Apple Music but also get an immersive music-listening experience if you have the right hardware.
The choice for the starting genre might relate to the records that are taking place at the company’s new “state-of-the-art studios,” which are in Nashville. Apple states that other country stars, including Ingrid Andress and Ronnie Dunn, are already penciled in to do these Apple Music Sessions.
So, what about the other genres? Apple states they “plan to expand the series into other genres of music in the future.”
Apple Music has also mentioned that the other genres will be recorded “out of Apple Music’s studios around the world.” In other words, not all of the recordings will be from the studios that are in Nashville.
That said, current Apple Music Sessions do not have any long setlists. Each of them has just three songs. And both of them contain “Mama, I’m Coming Home” from Ozzy Osbourne for Underwood and “At Last” from Etta Jame for Townes.
The playlists also have one video for one of the three tracks. So, the subscribers can enjoy live music not just in audio form, but they can also see the artists perform the music on their screens.
Many might feel like this feature is nothing new for Apple. Well, they would be 100 percent right. There was something called iTunes Sessions back in 2006, which offered exclusive live performances from different artists.
Users could download those performances and watch them anytime and anywhere. Loads of famous artists recorded these performances, including Ellie Goulding, Kelly Clarkson, Gorillaz, My Morning Jacket, and Imagine Dragons. However, the sets for the iTunes Sessions tended to have eight or nine songs.
But the thing is, you can not compare Apple Music Sessions with what iTunes Sessions offers. We are residing in a different world now, and this is an all-you-can-eat streaming music world.
In comparison, iTunes was all about driving paid digital downloads. Considering that, shorter live sessions are pretty acceptable. But there is no question that Apple Music Sessions has the upper hand by offering HiFi tier music, which is something Spotify is still to catch up on.
Slava is a man of mystery and no-one seems to know exactly where he is at any point in time. When he isn't enjoying writing about all things audio and technical he can be found researching his next project of interest. The man never rests.
