Apple Music had Issues Streaming Taylor Swift's '1989 World Tour Live'
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Global pop star Taylor Swift may have concluded her massive "1989 World Tour", but that doesn't mean the fun is over. In fact, both those who were lucky enough to attend one of her many globe-trotting tour stops and those who missed out can now get a chance to look back at the massive production that earned millions, through Apple Music, which has just released the "The 1989 World Tour Live", a film documenting the world tour, The Wrap reports.
The 120-minute documentary features footage of the 26-year-old Grammy Award-winning performer's journey across the globe to perform in front of thousands of fans in massive arenas. The Jonas Akerlund-directed documentary also features interview segments and footage of Swift introducing her tour's special guests, including Mick Jagger, Alanis Morissette, Justin Timberlake, and Mary J. Blige, snippets of which can be seen in the trailer below.
Meanwhile, The Verge is reporting that fans had encountered problems streaming the highly anticipated video when it debuted on Sunday. Several Apple Music subscribers complained that the video would either not load, crash, or was not available on their Apple Music app. Some users also complained that the video would not start, while others experienced a stuttering stream. Because of the problems, some fans have commented about releasing a physical copy of the video instead.
Back in September, Billboard reported that the tour had grossed $130 million, and the tally on "The 1989 World Tour" Wikipedia page estimates a $250 million revenue after the tour concluded. If this is any indication, it was a good move for Apple Music to team up with one of this year's most profitable performers, but also an indication that physical copies of the documentary would probably sell adequately.
The CatsThey didn't sing, dance or perform. But The 1989 World Tour wouldn't have been the same without them.... #1989WorldTourLIVE is now on Apple Music https://smarturl.it/1989TourLIVE
Posted by Taylor Swift on Sunday, December 20, 2015
Apple Music was initially released on June 30, and in November, announced that they would be shutting down Beats Music by November 30, thereby migrating Beats Music users to Apple Music. Esquire reports that in October, Apple Music announced that they had 6.5 million paying users, a figure that is just one third of Spotify's paying users.
Fortune also reports that the competition between Apple Music and Spotify is about to get intense, with the former most likely catching up to the widely used Spotify by next year. According to media analyst Mark Mulligan of MIDia Research, Apple Music may see a 2015 closing figure of less than 8 million subscribers, but come 2016, that number would definitely more than double.
"The wildcards in the equation are whether Apple can do a better job of pushing users from iTunes Radio to Apple Music and what happens when Spotify restates its subscriber number to reflect the impact of $1-a-month 3-month trials," Mulligan wrote in a report. That remains to be seen as Apple continues to push forward in the music streaming industry.