The Apple Music catalog has 100 million tracks

And finally Business News Digital

By Andy Malt | Posted on Tuesday October 4, 2022

Apple has announced that more than 100 million tracks are now available on the Apple Music streaming service. Which, as they say, is “easily the largest collection of music ever in any format.” It’s also… well, it’s too many, isn’t it? We should probably start deleting some.

However, I don’t think Apple will follow that advice. If anything, it thinks there should be more music. And that’s why it’s super cool that there’s a big old stack of new tracks popping up every day.

“It’s a number that will continue to grow and multiply exponentially,” says Rachel Newman, Apple Music’s global head of editorial, of the big 100 million statistic. “But it’s more than just a number, it represents something much more significant – the tectonic shift in the business of music creation and distribution over the past two decades.”

“Every day,” she continues, “over 20,000 singers and songwriters are delivering new songs to Apple Music—songs that make our catalog even better than the day before. One hundred million songs is proof of a more democratic space where anyone, even a new artist, making music from their bedroom can have their next big hit.”

Come on you bedroom hitmaker! However, with all this music out there, how can a listener ever hope to navigate through it all? How can they ever identify the 12,809 tracks that ain’t shit? Apple is aware that people see algorithms – and Spotify algorithms in particular – as the enemy, and would like to point out that it offers a more personal touch in this area.

“This is not only an opportunity to reflect on how far we’ve come, but also a moment to look forward to the work that lies ahead,” says Newman.

“At Apple Music, human curation has always been at the core of everything we do, both in ways you can see, like our editorial playlists; and ways you can’t, like the human touch that powers our recommendation algorithms. Today, more than ever, we know that investing in human curation will be key to making us the best when it comes to connecting artists and audiences.”

“We also know that it’s more important than ever to elevate artists’ voices and give them opportunities to tell their own stories and contextualize their music,” she adds. “It’s no longer enough to just connect artists and fans, it’s about making those connections deeper and more meaningful.”

To help with this, Apple Music has announced a new series called Apple Music Today. “We’ll pick a new song every day and dive into its story,” explains Newman, “because we know that each of the 100 million songs in our catalog has its own story.” Yes, perhaps.

So congratulations to Apple Music on its massive music collection — much larger than Spotify, which is still on the move with “over 80 million tracks” on its official blurbs. I mean technically that could mean 100 million as well I think. But they don’t say it, do they? So “woo” for Apple.

Though those Apple guys probably shouldn’t accidentally glance at SoundCloud’s official blurb, which claims to have 300 million tracks. Because that would really mess up the claim of “simply the largest music collection of all time in any format”, right?

Maybe 200 million and one of those tracks on SoundCloud is podcasts, considering these official streaming service stats are often a bit vague about what specific types of content and creators are factored into the math.