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‘Card-carrying Apple fanboy’ rips Apple Music launch, compares it to Tidal

Published Jun 9th, 2015 10:45PM EDT
Apple Music Vs. Tidal Vs. Spotify

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It looks like there’s an insult even worse than “Apple Maps bad,” and that’s “Tidal launch bad.” Mashable’s Chris Taylor is a self-described “card-carrying Apple fanboy” who found himself completely appalled by Apple’s big Apple Music reveal on Monday. In fact, he thought it was so bad that it warranted a dreaded comparison to the launch of Jay-Z’s Tidal.

RELATED: The biggest reason I’m skeptical of Apple Music

“Apple Music seems like the company has doubled down on all the worst features of iTunes — including one that was dead and should have stayed that way, a musician-based social network,” he writes. “It added more features no one asked for (who was clamoring for a 24-hour radio station?), and tried to dazzle us with star power (Drake’s baffling content-free appearance, which was reminiscent of the disastrous Tidal launch).”

We think Taylor is overstating things a bit — nothing Apple did warrants a comparison to Tidal, for instance — but he does make some solid points. After all, it’s not as though the world has been clamoring for a 24-hour radio station and the return of Ping, which both comprise two-thirds of what Apple Music is offering. What’s more, he’s right that it doesn’t seem to be offering music lovers anything better in terms of song discovery that they get now on Spotify, which has set the standard for what a great music app should offer.

Check out Taylor’s whole argument by clicking here.

Brad Reed
Brad Reed Staff Writer

Brad Reed has written about technology for over eight years at BGR.com and Network World. Prior to that, he wrote freelance stories for political publications such as AlterNet and the American Prospect. He has a Master's Degree in Business and Economics Journalism from Boston University.