Complex published an interview with what it dubs Apple’s ‘Stream Team:’ Zane Lowe, Bozoma Saint John, and Larry Jackson. The three sat down with Complex to discuss Apple Music, its evolution since it launched in June 2015, where the music industry is heading, and life at Apple.

Regarding their vision for Apple Music as a product, the trio told Complex:

It’s been almost 18 months since Apple Music’s launch, and it isn’t a simple streaming platform anymore. How would each of you describe Apple Music today?

Larry Jackson: It’s really interesting that you would even ask a question like that, because it means that we’ve achieved what we set out to achieve initially: Make something that’s the intersection of all things pop-culture. To make it more than just a utility. I like to think of it as a place where the best creative thinkers in music can congregate and come up with different ideas.

Zane Lowe: Larry was the first person who ever called me and asked if I wanted to be involved in Apple Music. For the most part, it remains how he and I talked about it in that first conversation, which was a place for music to live, and for artists to call home, and for an audience to feel like this is where the conversation is happening. I want it to go deeper than just availability.

Bozoma Saint John: Apple Music is a living, breathing brand. Obviously, as a marketer, I love to work with brands that aren’t static, that have life and personality. Apple Music has that. It’s very affirming to be able to take the personalities that already exist and then make that one statement that can move culture. 

Saint John and Lowe also addressed how, at Apple, the artistry of music exists alongside the technology used to deliver it to music fans, echoing Steve Jobs’ explanation of the intersection of technology and the liberal arts:

What are the advantages and disadvantages of working on this project at a company like Apple?

Saint John: Apple is a unique company, in that the art and the science sit together very nicely. There’s an appreciation for both sides of the brain. For me, it’s a much easier conversation in this particular environment, because you have to appreciate what is a very artistic, emotional, ever-changing platform, and also have the rigor of a technology that cannot fail, that has to be consistent. It doesn’t have any flexibility.

Lowe: With tech, it’s mathematics. There are hard margins. What happens when you take something that you love, that makes you feel a certain way, that’s made of those hard margins? What does the future feel and sound like? How do you keep the humanity and the feelings and the stories and the conversations in it? 

Apple Music has evolved quite a bit since it launched and based on recent reports, that appears likely to continue into the foreseeable future. Complex’s interview with Lowe, Saint John, and Jackson, which includes a video segment worth watching, is a fascinating snapshot of the thoughts of three of the people leading Apple Music at a time of ever-increasing competition among streaming services.

Although there isn’t a launch date yet, new details emerged about the first show slated to debut on Apple Music. Variety reports that Carpool Karaoke will air 16 half-hour episodes based on the James Corden bit from the ’Late Late Show.’ According to Variety:

the series won’t have a single host in the drivers’ seat. Instead, the trio conceived of a format that is more of an interview series than longer versions of the “Late Late Show” bit, with a different “host” for every episode.

The show will also feature an eclectic mix of interview pairings including:

more traditional musical choices like John Legend with Alicia Keys and Seth MacFarlane with Ariana Grande, but also more outside-the-box choices like Billy Eichner in the passenger seat, surrounded by the band Metallica, or former NFL star and talk show host Michael Strahan with NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon.

The Carpool Karaoke described by Variety sounds very different from the ‘Late Late Show’ segment it’s based on, which is probably a good thing considering the show is a half-hour long.

This year should be the first time that music streaming revenue meaningfully exceeds download revenue. According to Pitchfork:

Going into 2017, streaming will no longer be a niche for music but the new normal. The big question is no longer whether streaming is the future, but what form that future will take, who will benefit, and what that might mean for listeners.

To mark this pivotal moment in the music industry’s history, Pitchfork published a survey on the state of music streaming. The article goes into depth about each of the major players, evaluating the highlights and lowlights of each and considers what the future may hold.

Apple Music gets high marks from Pitchfork for solidifying its number two position behind Spotify through exclusive deals with artists, but it also points to missteps that angered customers and artists this year. As for the future, Pitchfork predicts more exclusives and algorithmic playlists for Apple Music and concludes that:

Apple was too late to streaming to hold anything like the stranglehold iTunes had over downloads (at least, not yet). Instead, Apple Music’s battle with Spotify may be more like the Mac vs. PC debate: a corporate presentation of chic tastefulness versus an ostensibly techier rival.

The on-going battle between Spotify and Apple will be interesting. Spotify has never turned a profit and Apple has the cash to weather a long, drawn-out fight for the hearts and minds of customers. With the bulk of music revenues now coming from streaming, it looks as though 2017 could turn out to be an interesting year for the music industry.

Reggie Ugwu, in a BuzzFeed feature story on the second act of Apple Music, got some details on the new ‘My Favorites Mix’ and ‘My New Music Mix’ playlists introduced with iOS 10:

Revealing how the mixes operate for the first time to BuzzFeed News, Apple claimed a potential advantage over similar algorithmically personalized playlists, including Spotify’s Discover Weekly and Pandora’s Thumbprint Radio: deep historical knowledge of individual users’ tastes and habits, based on years of data carried over from iTunes.

If you gave high ratings to a song or album in your old iTunes library, or just played it a lot more than others, you’ll find that behavior reflected in your My Favorites Mix. Meanwhile, the My New Music Mix algorithm serves recently released songs — as well as songs that Apple Music knows you haven’t played before — that the service’s music experts have flagged as similar to others in your taste profile. Apple Music executives suggested even more personalized playlists will follow in the series; but only after prototypes have been vetted, with all possible outcomes — intentional and otherwise — given careful consideration.

This explains why the ‘My Favorites Mix’ playlists have (anecdotally) been spot-on for people I talked to. As I previously noted, back-catalogue songs from artists you’re not familiar with (essentially, Discover Weekly) would be a good addition to Apple Music’s mixes.