The international terminal at the L.A. airport has debuted three permanent art installations, including one by Mark Bradford (pictured); Apple Music's streaming service debuted today without the Beatles, but with Taylor Swift.
Playing with Apple Music to see if it can compete with Spotify
Tuesday morning, Apple launched its new streaming service, Apple Music. The service features new elements like the "Beats 1" radio service hosted by DJs and popular musicians, as well as "Connect," a network that allows fans and artists to communicate with each other.
Apple is trying to compete with preexisting music services like Spotify, Pandora and Google Play Music. With 30 million songs available to stream, curated playlists by experts and unique artist radio shows for $9.99 a month after their free trial period, Apple hopes to absorb its preexisting iTunes consumer base as well as attracting users paying for similar services.
Ben Johnson, host of Marketplace Tech, met with the Frame's John Horn to discuss the new music service.
Interview highlights:
So I know you spent all of your waking hours listening to Apple Music, how does it measure up?
Well this is a good question, and John, I should tell you — I have been playing with Apple Music, but I'm going to admit something to you — I am an Android. I use Google Music. I am one of these users that, I think, Apple is probably hoping to poach from other services like Pandora, Google Music, and Spotify. But I have been playing with it this morning. It's a really interesting service. There is a lot going on in the software.
The first ride I will say was bit bumpy. When I updated the operating system to the phone that I was using it on and opened up Apple Music, it immediately crashed. Then I was listening to a Rilo Kiley song a little bit later and the phone froze. So, I think there are still a few bugs in the system.
You use the word "interesting," which is what I think a lot of people use on a blind date that doesn't work out very well. Are you going to go back for a second date?
You know, my first love is Google Music, so I am probably not going to jump into the Apple ecosystem just for this. I will say that the company seems to be doing a lot of smart stuff when it comes to curation. Both in terms of human curation and algorithmic curation.
You can talk to Siri and ask Siri to play you the top R&B hits or songs from 1994, which would be a personal favorite of mine. Also, once you get started, there is this little bubble interface, and inside the bubbles are artists, and they're kind of floating around. You tap on the bubbles to let the company know what you're into and then it starts curating stuff for you.
Let's talk a little bit about the music. The Beatles are not on Spotify — were you able to find them on Apple Music hidden somewhere?
You know, I have to admit I love the Beatles dearly, but I didn't look for the Beatles. But what I can tell you is — yes, Taylor Swift is not only on Apple Music but, shocker, she is featured prominently. So they do have a lot of artists that I think are really big and will get people to sign up actually to pay, or not cancel after the first free months.
In my car I have XM. There are four channels on my XM dials for hip-hop and rap — probably about five or six for alternative rock. Does Apple's radio option have that depth of programming, and what does it look like?
I actually started to use the radio function on this and I looked at the screen and it was dead empty.
Not a good sign.
Not a good sign. You have to start by telling Apple what you're into, and you can start to create stations for yourself. So it takes a little bit of input from the user before it starts giving you an output that you want to listen to.
As to whether or not it is going to replace your listening habits in your car, I don't know. The radio component of this doesn't seem all that compelling to me as a user. I don't know that it has been super successful in the past for other companies. So it will be interesting to see how it plays out.
Do you get the impression that Apple Music is trying to take some of the better elements of competing services, like this personalization you can get on Spotify or the radio element of Pandora, and combine them? If that is the case, is it really a shotgun marriage right now?
I think that is a really good question. I think undoubtedly with Apple sort of entering this race, not dead last, but after a lot of other services have become available, sure there is a lot of stuff you would experience in Spotify or Pandora that is going to feel really familiar to you once you start playing with Apple Music. I think that is probably a good thing.
One of the big questions for Apple is whether it can get users to jump ship from Spotify, Pandora, and some of these other services, and really start paying for Apple. I saw people tweeting today #Spotibye. So it seems evident that some people are starting to actually jump ship and do this.
Apple, think about it, the company has millions and millions of devices in the hands of millions of people. Of course, you've probably heard this number — 800 million credit card data sets that Apple has through iTunes. That is almost most of Facebook's entire usership.
So I think that the company does have a lot going for it in that regard. But it does feel familiar, and I know don't know that there is anything, at least for me, that is brand new that gets me super excited about using the service
So is it worth 10 bucks a month you think?
So, I talk to this guy Alex White — he is the CEO of a music streaming data company called Next Big Sound. He told me that what we've learned about the way that people stream music at this point is that many of us actually just listen to the same stuff over and over. We don't use discoverability or go out and discover a ton of new music and listen to that. We're pretty habitual as users. I think when you're paying 10 bucks a month for a service in which you might only end up listen to, I don't know, 15 albums, I think it will be really interesting to see if Apple can convince people to pay on a regular basis for this kind of thing.
I think other services have struggled with this too. I mean you look at Spotify and it has tens of millions of listeners and really only 20 million or 10 million of them are actually paying on a regular basis. So I think that is a thing we still have to figure out in the streaming world.
LAX gets 3 new massive pieces of contemporary art, with one hung over TSA
Los Angeles International Airport probably isn’t the first place that comes to mind when you think about art venues in the city. Sure, the LAX Theme Building where the Encounters restaurant used to be is an iconic piece of L.A. architecture, and the color-shifting light installation that welcomes passengers to the airport serves as a great backdrop for local TV weather reports. But even so, for L.A. natives and travelers alike, LAX doesn’t always conjure the beauty that art can bring.
Jasmine Cotton, who works at the III Forks restaurant at LAX, thinks the airport’s reputation is changing, thanks to three new massive art installations recently unveiled inside the Tom Bradley International Terminal. They’re not the first artworks to be displayed at the airport, but they may be the most noticeable because of their huge size and difficult placement — like directly above the TSA screening area.
“You don’t really know what you’re in for,” Cotton says. “So when you walk into the terminal it’s all these beautiful buildings, beautiful sculptures and this beautiful art in these crazy places you wouldn’t imagine art being.”
It’s understandable that LAX has someone in charge of logistics, maintenance, security... lost luggage. But there’s also someone who manages the airport’s art. That’s Sarah Cifarelli’s job.
“We’re bringing them an art experience,” says Cifarelli. “We’re bringing them something normally they would see in a museum and placing it in an airport, and really changing the idea of LAX and creating an impression of Los Angeles as a cultural, vibrant city.”
One of the three commissions went to L.A. artists Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues of the Ball-Nogues Studio. Their work, “Air Garden,” hangs from the ceiling in the terminal’s Great Hall. A mass of painted chains hung in a U-shape, the piece offers the eyes a shifting color palette.
As travelers make their way in and around the Great Hall, the “Air Garden” is an ever-present haze of color that floats in the middle of the space.
“Airports are pretty monotone,” says Nogues. “That’s kind of where the idea of the garden comes in. This splash of color. That’s what you can expect in a garden in your home, that spot of color as you enter your house.”
Another commission is from L.A. artist Mark Bradford, whose piece is a colossal, twelve-and-a-half-thousand-pound mix of salvaged plywood and weathered posters he found at construction sites all over L.A. Called the “Bell Tower,” it hangs like a bulky chandelier over the TSA screening area.
According to Bradford, there were some logistical challenges in getting the piece installed, like having to apply a fire-retardant coating to the piece.
“The craziest thing was getting it through the door,” Bradford says. “The sheer volume of it. I mean really, over TSA. It’s like a flying saucer floating over TSA.”
Bradford says he wants the piece to serve as a respite for passengers as they’re asked to take off their shoes, drop their belongings in bins and prepare for a full-body scan.
“I wanted them to feel the idea of an urban environment,” he says, “but also those small little moments when you’re walking down a street and you run into a little doorway when it’s raining or something, and you’re sitting there and you’re involved in this urban environment, but you have this little space that’s safe and it’s yours.”
Pasadena-born artist Pae White was commissioned to create a piece for the terminal’s north and south passageways. White’s work hovers above what’s known as the “sterile corridor” that leads passengers to customs, but the art is anything but monochromatic — White has strung 23 miles of custom-dyed cables in kaleidoscopic patterns above the carpeted floors and moving walkways.
(Above photos: Kelly Barrie)
While these three artworks may be flung to separate corners of the terminal and are thematically different, they still have one thing in common: their ambitious scope.
“A lot of airports now have art programs,” Cifarelli says. “But I’d like to think that L.A.'s art program is on the cutting edge, because we’re really trying to push the boundaries of contemporary art and what you might expect to see in an airport.”
Even though travelers may experience LAX’s new installations for a few minutes — maybe a few hours as they wait to board flights — it’s the people who work at the airport who will live with them daily. But, as someone who works at LAX, Cotton says she’s happy the art is here to stay.
“When they unveiled it, it was just like a present for us,” Cotton says. “So it’s like welcome to our airport, welcome to art. Here’s some art for your eyes.”