In 2016, the streaming service wars are as hot as ever. Platforms like Spotify, Apple Music and Tidal are constantly in competition with each other to see who can get the most exclusive releases, and find the best way to entice listeners to choose their services. Now, Apple Music is introducing a new feature that appears to be a not-so-subtle jab in Spotify’s direction.
Recently, Spotify announced a partnership with the lyrics-annotation website Genius, which allows fans to learn not only the words of their favorite songs, but also the specific meanings behind some of the more cryptic lyrics. Now, Apple Music appears to be responding to this by announcing that they are hiring people to be part of their “lyrics curation” team. Apple recently announced job listings for positions such as Lyrics Curator and Lyrics Curation Manager. For these positions, they are looking for people with extensive knowledge of music history who could handle the task of contextualizing individual lyrics. These employees will likely be hired to work on a feature in the iOS 10 version of Apple Music, which allows users to view the lyrics of the songs they are listening to as it plays.
This move appears to be a direct response to Spotify’s Genius collaboration, and is potential proof that in the Streaming Wars, if one platform has a unique feature, everyone else will likely look to emulate it as soon as they can.
(Via Mac Rumors)