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cube

Suspended
May 10, 2004
17,011
4,972
40 new CDs per month, it's cheaper to pay Deezer $7.

And the CDs are cheaper than iTunes.

I would prefer to pay Qobuz a bit more for lossless, but even with the price decrease, that one does indeed feel like too much for renting instead of owning.
 

AdonisSMU

macrumors 604
Oct 23, 2010
7,297
3,047
This is the point. Lots of people like to own the "records" that they buy. Spotify is ok, but it suffers from outages like every other streaming service (carrier fault) and I consistently find it to be a pain in certain areas where I live (Denver, CO).

I miss owning my music. If I lose my spotify subscription I lose my music. I can totally see the need to want to own what you purchase.

I think streaming vs downloads is a balance thing. I think downloads are going down because the digital markets are moderating. Many times streaming music is all you need instead of say radio. Streaming allows the user great control over what they hear which radio was failing at. However, there are times when you want to own the music. This is when you buy. Streaming without any ownership is bad for the music markets and vice versa. Streaming gives people who don't care that much a legitimate way to hear your songs without having to overcommit financially. It's an extension of giving the user just the amount of product they want and nothing more.
 
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DudeAbides59

macrumors newbie
May 5, 2011
20
0
iTunes for Android

Apple needs to release the Android version of iTunes to make up for the 60% of users that have moved on. As a former iPhone user and now an Android user I really don't want to use Google Music or others but there are no good options. My main music library is still in iTunes on my PC and I need to use Windows Media Player or something else to sync my library to my Moto X. I'd much rather sync from iTunes right to my Android phone.
 

sualpine

macrumors 6502
May 13, 2013
497
513
Apple needs to release the Android version of iTunes to make up for the 60% of users that have moved on. As a former iPhone user and now an Android user I really don't want to use Google Music or others but there are no good options. My main music library is still in iTunes on my PC and I need to use Windows Media Player or something else to sync my library to my Moto X. I'd much rather sync from iTunes right to my Android phone.

Apple doesn't need to support you at all, you left the ecosystem. Come back if you want it.
 

alent1234

macrumors 603
Jun 19, 2009
5,688
170
Apple needs to release the Android version of iTunes to make up for the 60% of users that have moved on. As a former iPhone user and now an Android user I really don't want to use Google Music or others but there are no good options. My main music library is still in iTunes on my PC and I need to use Windows Media Player or something else to sync my library to my Moto X. I'd much rather sync from iTunes right to my Android phone.


most people don't buy music anymore via the itunes model
why buy a $10 album when you can get unlimited streaming for $10 a month?
 

AdonisSMU

macrumors 604
Oct 23, 2010
7,297
3,047
Apple doesn't need to support you at all, you left the ecosystem. Come back if you want it.

He makes a valid point though. Android isn't going anywhere. Apple might as well support it with iTunes music. Beats is probably a way to accomplish this as well.
 

bushido

Suspended
Mar 26, 2008
8,070
2,755
Germany
40 new CDs per month, it's cheaper to pay Deezer $7.

And the CDs are cheaper than iTunes.

40???? then you clearly arent the demo for the streaming market though. i bought one cd two years ago. thats about it but i happily pay for Spotify. no need to find downloads from other "sources" anymore. i am actually getting it legal this way now. plus i never listen to an album for more than a month so owning it wouldnt even make much sense for me besides costing more money
 

AdonisSMU

macrumors 604
Oct 23, 2010
7,297
3,047
most people don't buy music anymore via the itunes model
why buy a $10 album when you can get unlimited streaming for $10 a month?

Who spends $10 on an album when you can buy the two or three tracks you actually like and let the filler sit there?
 

dmylrea

macrumors 601
Sep 27, 2005
4,792
6,840
There goes Apple...innovating again by trying to duplicate/catch-up to similar services. To me, the quickest way to subscription services would be to create something like the Zune Pass that MS had (now XBox Music Pass), allow people to download anything they want (w/DRM) and keep 10 songs per month (non-DRM) as part of their subscription, all under the iTunes umbrella.

To Apple, spending $3B on a lame subscription/streaming service with a name synonymous with overpriced makes more sense, I guess.

After trying out the Beats service for a month (free trial), I uninstalled it and cancelled my subscription.

There are plenty of streaming/"Radio" music services. The problem is, there isn't enough good music these days.
 

aliaxos

macrumors newbie
Sep 23, 2013
14
4
Plex

APPLE - LOOK INTO OTHER PEOPLE's APPs and LEARN!

PLEX WILL DOMINATE THE MARKET VERY SOON AND YOU LOOK INTO BUYING SUCCESS!!

Make iTunes a proper MEDIA SERVER //MARKET PLACE and you ll win
 

sualpine

macrumors 6502
May 13, 2013
497
513
Such arrogance. Its no wonder that iTunes sales are declining.

The purchase of media in general is declining. There's nothing Apple can do to convince people to buy music when streaming is the new market. Absolutely nothing about this is surprising/unexpected.
 

AdonisSMU

macrumors 604
Oct 23, 2010
7,297
3,047
Streaming solves the radio problem.
Downloads solves the physical product problem.

Both will co-exist. People want greater control over the music they hear on the radio. Those are the streaming listeners. There will always be a benefit to downloading and owning some of your music. Downloads gives people greater control of the amount of product they are buying.
 

cube

Suspended
May 10, 2004
17,011
4,972
40???? then you clearly arent the demo for the streaming market though. i bought one cd two years ago. thats about it but i happily pay for Spotify. no need to find downloads from other "sources" anymore. i am actually getting it legal this way now. plus i never listen to an album for more than a month so owning it wouldnt even make much sense for me besides costing more money

Well, that's the point. I would buy around 40 CDs per month and listen only once to most of them.
So now I subscribe to Deezer and I never stream, always offline sync. And I only listen to COMPLETE albums, only once each.
 

DudeAbides59

macrumors newbie
May 5, 2011
20
0
The purchase of media in general is declining. There's nothing Apple can do to convince people to buy music when streaming is the new market. Absolutely nothing about this is surprising/unexpected.

I buy music that I want to keep or play remotely. When I do I buy through iTunes.
 

Benjamins

macrumors 6502a
Jul 15, 2010
668
137
It seems that one of the major reasons Apple wants Iovine is to negotiate content deals with entertainment companies. I don't think they are as shortsighted as you think, and probably most Apple employees use prime/netflix/hulu. They're just getting stonewalled by content providers that don't want to deal with their level of control. Hopefully some acquisitions can help them in this department.

But one amazing thing about Apple is that they have the money to overcome any deficiency if they have to. They could easily buy netflix! Hell, they could buy the cable companies themselves and still only use about half of their on hand cash. Not saying they'd want to, but still...

As far as I am concerned, Apple already have iTMS, iTunes radio, iTunes Match. Creating a subscription based music streaming service doesn't sound like such an impossible thing. If Apple is on the bad side of the music label, they could've just yanked the licenses for the current services.

Also Iovine is 61 years old, Steve Jobs died when he's 56.
 

NOV

macrumors 6502
Mar 27, 2004
406
158
The Netherlands
iTunes revenue is declining because it focuses on a dying medium (music) instead of video. It took Apple way too far into the game to launch iTunes Radio and they have ZERO focus on a Netflix/Prime competitor which is where future revenues are to be had.

Don't think so, it's like saying when the TV was introduced, that radio was a dying medium.
 

Steve121178

macrumors 603
Apr 13, 2010
6,400
6,951
Bedfordshire, UK
How many songs do you buy a year. for 9.99 a month, to me it's cheaper to just buy what I want.

I'm also paying for the sheer convenience Spotify gives it's users.

I can listen to whatever I want, create as many playlists as I want, have everything available & synced across my iPhone, iPad & computers.

Brilliant!
 

AdonisSMU

macrumors 604
Oct 23, 2010
7,297
3,047
People who think one is going to kill the other are wrong. There are benefits to both ways of doing things. It's like buying a TV show ala carte vs paying for cable service every month.
 
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