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Apple Confirms 71.5% Revenue Sharing for Apple Music, No Royalties During Trial Period
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Like many, I'm concerned about non-US Apple sites simply saying "Coming Soon", however on https://www.apple.com/pr/library/20...he-Ways-You-Love-Music-All-in-One-Place-.html it clearly states it will launch in over 100 (so 101?) countries on June 30th.
If the UK and Canada are NOT included in that 100, I'm going to lose it.
If the UK and Canada are NOT included in that 100, I'm going to lose it.
"No royalties during trial period" - what a shabby business model where artists are pre-financing Apple's market entry.
I know this is probably industry standard, and due to negotiations with the labels, but for me, that means I will not buy Apple Music. I simply do not want to support such a business model.
They are paying a slightly royalty rate to offset the royalty-free period.
But more importantly, the royalty-free period is not subsidizing Apple's market entry, it is subsidizing the acquisition of new users. The expectations for consumers that they get to try before they buy is pretty universal nowadays.
Finally, it appears you are arguing that, as a consumer, you do not want a free trial period. Fair enough, but most people are not that willing to gamble their money on a new service with which they may not be familiar. Obviously, you are a special case.
Weird, it changed back to Coming soon. Positive it said june 30th for the UK a little while ago. My apologies.
I disagree with this sentiment. It is Apple's decision to offer certain goods (the music being streamed) without incurring revenue. That doesn't mean they should have access to the goods for free. It's Apple's risk to run their business like that - why pass the risk on to their suppliers? Because they can, not because they ought to.
If Uber were to offer free trial months, would you let them use your car for free?
Reminds me of a typical customer behavior lots of freelancers should have seen: "Hey, you should do this for me for free - if the project takes off, you'll earn lots of money with follow-up projects".
With Apple not being active in the streaming music market yet, certainly "acquisition of users" is a market entry.
I'm not saying they shouldn't offer a trial period. I'm saying this is Apple's business risk, and there is no reason to push it on to the artists. Spotify offers an ad-financed free tier.
Is the music from the artist streamed or not? Are they paid little or not if the music is played?
But yes, why compare if we can bash the competitors
For me it's because I already have something for nothing. My T-Mobile plan gives me free rhapsody. Unlike the original iTunes Store this has to compete with free and legal.
Last time I checked, Steve actually passed away in 2011, and back then people did want to own music. It's 2015 now, and the market has spoken – streaming is the way to go. Also, you're free to buy music from iTunes Store. It's not like they're closing iTunes Store all in favor of the new streaming service. Saying you like owning your music and then complaining about Apple catering to the market with a streaming service is utter arrogance.
I disagree with most of this but I want to specifically say some things about the bold. Steve was right when he said that people want to own their music. Tim is also right today. Things can and have changed. There are still a group of people that want to own their music and iTunes will still be around for those people (Eddy made this point recently). If I had to guess this group is older and less likely to be interested in newer music.
So what has changed and what is the advantage of streaming?
1. Internet speeds have increased dramatically. Almost everyone has 4G LTE on their phone now. The faster and more reliable the networks are the less it matters if a song is local or if it's being streamed.
2. More music is coming out faster than ever before. Right now I typically listen to anywhere from 3-7 albums a week. The vast majority of these albums I don't want to purchase or save to a library. And while iTunes gives nice long previews, listening to snippets of every song on the album, isn't exactly giving the album a chance in the way I prefer to (which is to give it a few listens before forming an opinion on it). Streaming allows me to easily listen to all these albums multiple times and pay a reasonable price for that.
3. People are becoming more comfortable with both understanding and using the cloud. They're beginning to understand that just because the photo, song, video, document, etc. isn't on their device that doesn't mean they can't access it quickly and reliably.
4. Both 2 and 3 together are bringing about some pretty cool things. There is a renewed focus on albums (and to some degree artwork). The iTunes model always promoted selling singles. It was great that you didn't have to buy an entire album in order to get one song you wanted, but it also made the idea of an album a bit antiquated. Today many people are streaming all the music they have time for and then buying the records, cds, digital copies, whatever form they fancy.
5. A last point I'll make is that streaming is fantastic for sharing and hosting. It's cool that when I'm driving down the road someone else can show me a song they love from my phone. It's cool that when I have people over they can pick and choose any song they want that isn't limited to my personal library and taste. For example I've got exactly zero Britney Spears songs in my library but I'm 28, a 90's kid, and when I have girls over to my place they'd often rather dance to Britney than listen to Led Zeppelin. Not my taste, but obviously girls that grew up in the 90s love Britney.
I absolutely think there are people that still want to own music but that doesn't necessarily diminish the value of streaming. I also think that the market has already started shifting and it's in Apples best interest to have a product there regardless of how it all works out.
No it doesn't.
It's either included in the price that you're already paying for your T-Mobile plan or offered at an extra cost.
"Rhapsody unRadio is included for T-Mobile customers with our newest Unlimited 4G LTE plans, ($30 data feature), and only $4 a month for all other plans. Download and save up to 25 songs for offline listening."
http://www.t-mobile.com/offer/free-music-streaming.html
Steve Jobs has said many things and changed his mind about it. Here's a HUGE one-
http://articles.latimes.com/2013/jul/10/business/la-fi-tn-if-steve-jobs-apple-app-store-20130709
You'll just continue to download music from torrents instead?"No royalties during trial period" - what a shabby business model where artists are pre-financing Apple's market entry.
I know this is probably industry standard, and due to negotiations with the labels, but for me, that means I will not buy Apple Music. I simply do not want to support such a business model.
What is poor is that this is being portrayed as a great offer from Apple, when it is clear the artists are really paying for the offer
No, this is untrue.
They are payed royalties paid per amount of listens, and thus can't be done in advance, and they are not distributed yearly. Spotify / Apple Music anyway pay royalty associations / publishers directly who then distribute to the artists, usually quarterly.
Well, to be fair, I think most people who take advantage of the trial will actually continue to use the service and therefore generate revenue.
Besides, take the amount Apple is paying for royalties and divide by the number of artists. I don't think any of them are going to be pinching pennies waiting for October to roll around so they can get their cheques.
Agreed. I think the offensive on Spotify is not to be underestimated. If Apple manages to draw many people away from Spotify, it'll be worth it for content owners.
"No royalties during trial period" - what a shabby business model where artists are pre-financing Apple's market entry.
I know this is probably industry standard, and due to negotiations with the labels, but for me, that means I will not buy Apple Music. I simply do not want to support such a business model.
Please don't be stupid and naive... What's better, 3 months with no pay but the rest of the time being paid? Or just suffering through Spotify's free tier earning almost nothing?
I have T-Mobile too but don't get Rhapsody for free because I'm not on an unlimited data plan. T-Mobile only offers it for "free" when you have an unlimited plan ($30 per month more than their basic plan), otherwise it's $4 per month.