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Apple Considering Dramatic Overhaul of iTunes to Address Declining Music Downloads

SkydiveGuy said:
.... its that the music these days sucks.
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Well that and I understand the number of tracks they are releasing per year has dropped as well over the last decade.

So less music of lower quality and they still blame falling revenue drop on the stores and customers.

They have been using that line since the early mp3 days and somehow still get away with it.
 
My collection is wilting of the vine

The current UI is unusable. I have an iTunes collection from years past that I hardly visit.
 
Wouldn't be surprised if they kept the current download to own model for desktop/laptop users with a subscription option made available for iPhone only.

iTunes overhaul is long overdue.
 
Luba said:
Not skyrocket, but it would stop the bleeding. Why not offer lossless HD music? Because it will overload Apple's servers?

I agree, at present, customers asking for HD music are small in numbers. I don't know how small, but what about Apple's previous philosophy of "customers don't know what they want until we provide it". I do believe if more people knew about HD music and it's just as convenient, they would buy it.

Streaming is convenient because you don't even have to decide what artist to listen to, just choose the genre. But you can do the same with your own stored music. Streaming does expose you to new music that you don't own though.
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Oh yeah, do not take it the wrong way, I would love ALAC downloads from iTunes, definitely, however I implied that many people won't care since the only difference for 96 or 97% of customers would be the huge size file, however, if Apple were to educate people about the benefits of loseless music, that would be another story, or even better, if Apple's streaming service offered a Loseless option, plus the enormous library iTunes offers, they would kill the competition in 3 months, but to do that they need an Android app and to have it here ASAP.
 
wizard said:
Seriously when you can turn a radio on, hook into a streaming service or whatever is new and enjoy fresh content, why buy?

By the way I don't want to dismiss the value of following a favorite artist with owned music. What I'm getting at is the value of owning for general listening. Life is just easier when you tune to your favorite channel.
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I reckon you make an interesting point even though I don't agree with the last sentence. I think listening to music now is a fundamentally different experience to what it's been in the past. Here's why...

1. I think for a lot of young people their world is small - Little travel, college/school, home, friend's house. That's not meant to be a slight, that's just how it is when you are young with no money. As you get older, your world broadens and at this point in the world, it's still a PITA to connect to wireless services across the world, on the road or wherever you might be.

2. generation gap - The younger generation's evolving thirst for constant change is greater than it has ever been thanks to Social Media. Owning means putting in more of an effort and more money to constantly keep up. Which leads to...

3. Passion - You pointed to it yourself. Music is seen as far more disposable now than it has ever been. Enjoy it then move on. Just as casual gaming is the thing now, casual music listening is also the thing. Yes, that makes it easier, but it's not as enveloping an experience. Good or Bad? Don't know. It's just different.
 
It's obvious that some of you guys aren't as invested in music like others. But maybe you should realize that it's pretty hard to let go of something that took years and years to polish with correct tags, artwork, and the like. There's a lot of memories a lot of us here have when the iPod was a big deal.

iTunes is not perfect, but it works for those of us that still use it to store our huge music libraries.

I could use Spotify very cheaply as a student, but I don't. You know why? Because I spend more time actually finding something to listen to, then I actually listen to music on it. And I honestly don't have the time to catalog all the music I actually would like to hear, you know, the music that I can just go on iTunes and listen to instead.

---

Whatever Apple does, I hope that they add a few more cool things for us that do have a nice library. :D
 
If Apple wants to keep people buying music instead of just subscribing and listening to streams, then Apple needs to give people the ability to "give" that track to someone else if they no longer want it in their collection or if they die, pass their music collection on to someone else using a different iTunes ID.

Also, Apple needs to market why someone would want a music collection rather than stream music. Maybe the newer generation isn't that nostalgic but I like to listen to old tracks when I want to, where I want to - not just listen to streaming music and hope the track I want to hear is played.

Also, if record companies want to make money, they need to find talent that makes timeless music that people want to buy and add to their collection. The crap on the radio now is only good for a few months and then move on.

Sorry if this has been said already. I didn't read the entire thread.
 
the retina MBP's and the MBA's aren't helping
if you're selling a computer with enough storage for an OS and some data you are telling your customers not to buy from your music store that takes a lot of storage and use a streaming service that uses no local storage
 
topmounter said:
I'm a Match subscriber, but with a Spotify subscription I really don't have much use for iTunes Radio.
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Why subscribe to Match and Spotify when you could just subscribe to Google Play Music All Access and get the same functionality (argueably better due to cross platform support and the fact the interface is browser based) for less money?
 
ppdix said:
iTunes radio sucks compared to Pandora. They repeat songs all the time and they play music that has nothing to do with your taste…
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Exactly my complaint. With pandora they send me the type of music I create a station for, itunes is not even close at least with mexican music. It's really bad. The problem is that I can't get pandora without a vpn so I usually use youtube.
 
keterboy said:
Ill happily change to Apple's streaming service once they offer Spotify like quality.

It would be even better for me since i have songs on iTunes that are not available on Spotify, and it sucks switching between the two apps all the time.

Maybe Apple should acquire them? Just an idea... :apple:
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Sorry, but I don't understand the difference in quality.. I have never used spotify, I use iTunes Radio almost everyday... both are streaming services related to what u like.. Could you please explain me how spotify and the others mentioned are better than iTunes radio.. ?? I really can't differentiate between them..
 
Luba said:
iTunes needs to offer at least CD quality music (16 bit, 44.1kHz), although I prefer they would offer HD music files (24 bit, 96khz or 192kHz)!

Why not, at least offer better quality music for those that want it?

If I want to own the music I rather go through the small hassle of buying the CD and ripping it into iTunes as an Apple Lossless format. Going that route is not even more expensive, just more work.
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And you even get a nice box that you can put into your shelf, which for your favorite albums may be a smart idea. Let's face it, our music listening may go digital, but we still have walls and shelves, hang posters, framed pictures, flags, pin stuff to our walls, put nice boxes into our shelves, maybe the favorite picture album, etc...
Our homes aren't all-digital! People (still) need physical room to live in. Would you believe it? ;)

So yeah, and on top of that, in Germany you could even rip the CD and then sell the CD and legally keep your digital copy.
("Privatkopie")

Glassed Silver:mac
 
slu said:
Why subscribe to Match and Spotify when you could just subscribe to Google Play Music All Access and get the same functionality (argueably better due to cross platform support and the fact the interface is browser based) for less money?
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I no longer use an Apple phone or tablet so I'm really not sure why I still subscribe to Match other than it is cheap and I do buy music from the iTunes Store periodically.

I did sync my library to Google Music, but I never cared for the interface enough to pay for the subscription service.
 
KieranDotW said:
Maybe you need to open your mind and find the good music that is still being made today.
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I didn't say there isn't any good music being made today. I certainly buy some. But as others have said it has become harder to find, in part because of how much bad stuff is out there.
 
slu said:
Why subscribe to Match and Spotify when you could just subscribe to Google Play Music All Access and get the same functionality (argueably better due to cross platform support and the fact the interface is browser based) for less money?
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I have all my music uploaded to Google Music but still prefer iTunes Match due to being able to get matched copies of my music and iTunes Radio is commercial free with it. I love iTunes Radio. Never liked pandora or spotify.
 
What ?.. !!!

People are not buying music anymore on iTunes?

Why the hell not....

ITunes Radio is good, but since when would Apple think it would be double digits overnight. Its more like "snails-pace" maybe it's the content?? *shrugs*
 
BornAgainApple said:
Why download when you can stream.
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I'm in the middle of nowhere with minimal internet that lets me do some browsing, but streaming music is definitely not happening. Good thing I have a bunch of downloaded, locally stored music on hand!

Streaming's great, and I look forward to doing it when I return home in two months, but sometimes life throws you into situations where decent internet is not available.
 
jrswizzle said:
Holy crap, AMEN!

I'm 25, and when I saw a special on the Beatles' 40th anniversary this past year I thought "Good lord....they had the Beatles back in the 60s. We have Justin Bieber."

I swear, I about cried.
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Umm plenty of good music today if you ignore the "top pop" lists. Honestly this attitude won't help new musicians at all.

Anywy, I hate that the industry has pushed a "rental" model of music rather than "ownership" (ie. own a copy whether physical or digital) that is even less fair for most musicians than the older download, CD models. Plus as others have said there are times you will want local copies as internet access is still spotty sometimes. So no from me, or perhaps not yet.
 
KazKam said:
I think the main reason music downloads are declining has almost nothing to do with streaming services, or even pricing...

The main reason music downloads/purchases are declining is because, at this point, most people have already filled-in/built-out their core music libraries. All their CDs have been ripped and gaps filled in with online downloads. All that's left for most people to buy anymore is new stuff, which, let's face it, is mostly crap.
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I think this is nearer the truth than anyone in the music industry is daring to think. When digital downloads were new a lot of people were filling out their collections with the stuff they missed and that is not going to continue for ever. Youngsters coming along now are far more likely to use a streaming service rather than wanting to own music, which it seems is becoming an outdated idea. I think, generally, with new music the quality is just not there for anyone to want to build up a collection. Also a lot of digital files is really not the same as hard copies when it comes to collecting. The real problem is no artists seem to be making any money from streaming so its a game of diminishing returns and the music industry is not going to survive if this trend continues, it will simply run out of money. I suppose it will reach a balance eventually but I think it will be a very different industry than it is today.
 
Apple blogger said:
Sorry, but I don't understand the difference in quality.. I have never used spotify, I use iTunes Radio almost everyday... both are streaming services related to what u like.. Could you please explain me how spotify and the others mentioned are better than iTunes radio.. ?? I really can't differentiate between them..
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No problem. The quality i was referring to was not the quality of sound but the quality of overall experience. And when i speak about Spotify, then only about their premium service which costs $9.99 per month. On iTunes i have to buy my music, where with Spotify i pay for a monthly service. I pay those 10 bucks and get unlimited access to any song or album that i like. What im trying to say is, as a very heavy music consumer myself, its rather easier and cheaper for me to "rent" those tracks rather than buy them. Spotify lets you also create your own playlists and 'download' your tracks to your device in high quality (320kbits) for offline use, as many as you want or as much as your storage can fit. I usually search and download on my MBP and it synchronizes it automatically to my iPad and iPhone, i dont have to do anything else :)

So. With Spotify i dont have to worry about spending "money" anymore. I pay those 10 bucks monthly and i get unlimited access to all of it. Now if Apple will come up with a subscription based platform just like or better than Spotify, I would gladly change back to them and have all my music together under one roof. Only problem is Im already paying $24.99 per year for iTunes Match, so it wouldn't make sense for them to ask for another $9.99. Im guessing that they will offer iTunes Match included in those monthly 9.99 (or cheaper).

By the way, Spotify has a free trial of 30 days premium if you're interested. You should definitely try and see for yourself ;)

Cheers
 
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