iOS 8.4 Launching at 8 AM Pacific Tuesday, Beats 1 Goes Live at 9 AM [Updated]

Former Beats Music CEO and current Apple Music senior director Ian Rogers made a brief blog post yesterday summarizing some of his background in music leading up to this week's debut of Apple Music while also revealing Apple's launch schedule for iOS 8.4 and the new Beats 1 radio station.


According to Rogers, iOS 8.4 will go live at 8 AM Pacific this Tuesday, two hours earlier than Apple's usual iOS update release window. Beats 1 will kick off programming an hour later, offering users around the world a 24/7 streaming music station led by former BBC DJ Zane Lowe and featuring a mixture of interviews and music sets from DJs interspersed with programming blocks from celebrities such as Elton John, Dr. Dre, Pharrell, and Drake.

Tuesday morning we’ll be unveiling the next chapter. Please make a note to upgrade to iOS 8.4 at 8am PT Tuesday, June 30th and listen to the first Beats 1 broadcast at 9am PT. Here’s a Facebook invite to make it easy for you to say yes, you’ll be there, and invite all your friends. See you there.

Aside from Beats 1, which is free to all users signed in with an Apple ID, Apple Music also includes a paid streaming component priced at $9.99 per month for a single user or $14.99 for a family of up to six people. Subscribers will have streaming access to the full Apple Music catalog of over 30 million tracks, with Apple offering a three-month free trial to give users an extended opportunity to test out the new service.

Update: In a series of responses on Twitter, Eddy Cue has confirmed Apple will be releasing a new seed of iOS 9 to enable Apple Music for users on that version, as well as Apple's plans to increase the current 25,000-track limit for iTunes Match (and thus Apple Music's scan/match/upload service) to 100,000 with the launch of iOS 9.

Update 2: Rogers has removed mention of the specific timing for the launch from his blog post, but a Tweet by Rogers yesterday encouraging a user to upgrade at 8:00 AM ahead of Zane Lowe's kickoff of Beats 1 at 9:00 AM remains.

Popular Stories

iOS 26 on iPhone Feature

Here's When iOS 26 Rolls Out Today in Every Time Zone [Update: Out Now!]

Monday September 15, 2025 12:00 am PDT by
Update 10:06 a.m.: iOS 26 is rolling out now, though it may take a bit for all users to see it, so keep checking! Today's the day! Apple is about to release iOS 26, which will deliver the biggest redesign since iOS 7 and bring a range of new features and improvements to iPhones worldwide. It's Apple's biggest software update of the year, and Apple announced at last week's iPhone event that...
Tim Cook Rainbow

Apple Reportedly Plans to Launch These 10 Products in 'Coming Months'

Sunday September 14, 2025 8:45 am PDT by
Apple's annual September event is now in the rearview mirror, with the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, iPhone Air, Apple Watch Series 11, Apple Watch Ultra 3, Apple Watch SE 3, and AirPods Pro 3 set to launch this Friday, September 19. As always, there is more to come. In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said Apple plans to release many products in the...
iOS 26 Battery Glass Feature

Apple Says Installing iOS 26 Might Impact Battery Life

Monday September 15, 2025 10:56 am PDT by
In the iOS 26 release notes, Apple is warning iPhone users that installing the new software might have a temporary impact on battery life, which is normal. A new support document explains that major iOS updates require background setup like indexing data and files for search, downloading new assets, and updating apps. Further, Apple says that new features could require more resources,...
apple n1 chip

Apple's New N1 Chip in iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone Air Has a Wi-Fi 7 Limitation

Saturday September 13, 2025 10:01 am PDT by
The latest iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, and iPhone Air models are equipped with Apple's all-new N1 chip for Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and Thread connectivity. However, the chip has a Wi-Fi 7 bandwidth limitation. According to FCC documents reviewed by MacRumors, the N1 chip in all of the new iPhone models supports up to 160 MHz channel bandwidth for Wi-Fi 7, short of the...
iphone 17 lineup

iPhone 17 Models Launch on September 19 With These New Features

Friday September 12, 2025 7:58 am PDT by
Apple will launch its new iPhone 17 lineup and ultra-thin iPhone Air in stores on Friday, September 19, and the company has already shown off the new devices at its fall event, which ran with the the tagline "Awe dropping." The iPhone 17 series brings a host of new features and enhancements. Here's a rundown of the biggest upgrades and changes: iPhone 17 Display Changes The iPhone...
iphone air all colors

iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Pro Now Facing Extended Delivery Estimates

Saturday September 13, 2025 11:43 am PDT by
iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, and iPhone Air pre-orders began on Friday in the U.S. and many other countries. iPhone 17 Pro Max delivery estimates quickly slipped beyond the Friday, September 19 launch day for those who had yet to place an order, and now the rest of the new models have started to follow suit. As of shortly after 11:30 a.m. Pacific Time today, select iPhone 17, ...
iPhone 17 Pro Air Boxes

iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Pro Boxes Revealed

Sunday September 14, 2025 1:36 pm PDT by
T-Mobile President Jon Freier today shared real-world photos of Apple's boxes for the iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 models, which launch on Friday. Image Credit: Jon Freier Apple has typically included iPhone box renders in its product environmental reports, but it did not do so for the latest models. However, Apple's iPhone Upgrade Program page does offer some images of the boxes, ...
AirPods Pro Firmware Feature

AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4 Get iOS 26 Features With New Firmware Update

Monday September 15, 2025 10:50 am PDT by
Apple today released updated firmware for the AirPods Pro 2 and the AirPods 4, introducing support for the new AirPods features that are included in iOS 26, iPadOS 26, and macOS Tahoe. The firmware has a build number of 8A356, and it replaces the current 7E93 firmware. With Apple's new software updates, the AirPods Pro 2 and the AirPods 4 support better audio quality for phone calls and...

Top Rated Comments

thekeyring Avatar
133 months ago
Can't wait!
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
AngerDanger Avatar
133 months ago
Let the moaning begin... Sigh.......
And the sighing too, apparently.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
shandyman Avatar
133 months ago
That's cutting it close, considering usually it's quite a polava getting a new iOS update installed within an hour! Had expected it to be out on Monday, giving people a day to get it installed.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Rogifan Avatar
133 months ago
And there's this from Eddy Cue:

Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
prowlmedia Avatar
133 months ago
I think 1 hour to get an update and install is insane. Only about 1000 people will get to hear the launch!

Should have launched the music channel 1 day or even 1 week later. Just run an intro loop or something.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TMRJIJ Avatar
133 months ago
Let see what we got here:

* Excited comments about Apple Music - check
* People hating on Apple Music and thinking it will fail - check
* People complaining about it possibly not going to be available in their country - check
* Taylor Swift joke - check lol
* People arguing about a design - check
* People complaining about music format and/or CD quality sound. - check
* Apple Music v. Spotify comments - check
* Person that didn't even read the article and making false assumptions - check
* This guy - check

Great. Carry on guys.
Can't wait for this unveiling and I will bookmark certain comments and reply with given praise or 'you failed' posts when we finally see what Apple Music is made of.
Enjoy.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)