Apple’s new music streaming service is set to launch today at 11am Eastern Standard Time (around 5pm SA time), but there’s still confusion around whether or not South Africans will be dancing to a new beat on their iPhones – or whether or not we’ll have to wait longer for the music service to launch.
When Apple Music was announced at the tech giant’s WWDC conference early this month, the company said that over 100 countries will be able to enjoy its music streaming service. But no specific countries were mentioned.
According to Apple watching website Cult of Mac, only 66 countries have so far been confirmed for the launch.
By going through the entire list of countries with an Apple presence and an iTunes website, it checked which ones had a Music page header. If it didn’t have a header, it was pretty sure that it wasn’t getting the service.
Using that technique, we checked to see if South Africa had a page header. It did, but it lacked the floating page selection in the middle of the main website that includes a link to Music, as other countries have.
You’ll notice that South Africa only has the iPhone 6, MacBook and iPad Air 2 available as scroll-throughs. Australia, as an example below, has Apple Watch and Apple Music added.
On the official Apple website from the US, it has all those things with one crucial detail included, which South Africa lacks – a release date. At the top of the Music page, it says “Music. Available 06.30.15.” On SA’s page, it simply says “Coming Soon”.
Another element that South Africa’s page doesn’t have, is the sub-pages for Discover, Radio, and Connect. The only option we have is Membership, and that is a generic link across all the regional websites.
There are, however, promising signs. According to Mobile SDK Engineer Edward Seshoka however, the current beta version of iOS does have a South African landing page for Apple Music. .
Just installed iOS 8.4 beta 4, now restoring all my photos and videos from iCloud 😱😱😱 pic.twitter.com/iLLUzKiyUo
— Edward Seshoka (@iam3ddie) June 29, 2015
If you have to squint your eyes to read the text, it says “Until automatic renewal is turned off from your Apple Music account, you Apple Music account will continue to renew.”
He also included a screen grab of the supposed pricing structure, with individual subscriptions pegged at R60 a month after the free 30-day trial ends, and the family subscription will retail for R90 a month.
Looks like Apple Music is coming to South Africa with the iOS 8.4 update at these prices (via @iam3ddie) pic.twitter.com/3tHljlgWRd
— Nafisa Akabor (@nafisa1) June 29, 2015
If Apple’s representatives in South Africa – Core Group – know whether or not Apple Music is coming, however, they’re being cagey. The unofficial line is that everything is speculation right now. Just a few hours to wait, then.