Apple has launched Apple Music TV, a free 24-hour curated livestream of popular music videos that will also include “exclusive new music videos and premiers, special curated music video blocks, and live shows and events as well as chart countdowns and guests,” according to the announcement.
Apple Music TV will be available to U.S. residents only on the Apple Music app and the Apple TV app. It can be found at apple.co/AppleMusicTV and in the browse tab in the Apple Music and Apple TV app.
The service premiered Monday morning (Oct. 19) with a countdown of the top 100 all-time most-streamed songs in the U.S. on Apple Music. On Thursday (October 22), it will celebrate the upcoming release of Bruce Springsteens’s “Letter to You” album with an “all day Bruce takeover” featuring music-video blocks of his most popular videos, an interview with Zane Lowe, anchor of Apple Music’s radio station, and a special livestream fan event.
It will also have two exclusive video premieres on Friday at 12 p.m. ET/9 a.m. PT, Joji’s “777” and Saint Jhn’s “Gorgeous”; the channel will premiere new videos every Friday at that time.
Further details were scant before launch, but Lowe’s involvement implies a connection between the new TV channel and Apple Music 1 radio station (formerly called Beats 1), its on-air hosts and its purview, which is geared toward hits but features adventurous programming, largely overseen by Lowe. However, the fact that the channel is launching with a heritage artist like Springsteen implies a difference in scope.
The move is the long-anticipated culmination of years of speculation and talk about when and how the company would move into the music video space, which has long been dominated by YouTube, Vevo and, in the past, MTV.
Surprisingly, the announcement includes no specific mention of music documentaries, which is a format the company has already invested in — most notably the forthcoming Billie Eilish feature-length doc “The World’s a Little Blurry,” which is scheduled for release in February.
Apple Music has created a bounty of original content since its official launch in 2015, including concert films, interviews and more — “that content will now also have a home on Apple Music TV,” the announcement promises.