I'm pretty sure that the focus with Apple music won't be so consumer-based as it will be artist-based.
In other words, I think that Apple will attempt to form their own "label," sign artists, then revenue share directly with them on sales as opposed to some company giving the artist cents per song. Imagine something around the 70/30 model in favor of artists.
After music is well established, expect Apple studios or some other film-related thing. Think Amazon studios, except done correctly and Apple certainly has deep enough pockets to make it happen.
In other words, I think Apple is trying to turn the entire entertainment industry on its head.
Well ultimately that would be consumer based because the end goal would be to get that music to the Itunes/Apple Music marketplace for the millions of consumers to consume.
I really dont know if Apple is interested in making a label where they give the same 70/30 split they're already giving. Labels are attractive to artists because they give multi- million dollar budget advances and dedicated promotional teams to promote your music not only on Itunes but on radio, billboards, buses, record stores, and other physical avenues as well as social media. That's the reason why they dont give you that 70/30 split because they want to make back all the money they invested in you plus still turn a profit. Do you think Apple is gonna want to exclusively sign artists and start giving out millions of dollars for studio, production, recording, manufacturing, promotion, marketing, and advertising ? I dont know what Apple really gets out of that versus just continuing to allow the major and indie labels to continue to take care of all that.
I mean Apple is a tech company run by tech minded people. I may be wrong but I dont know if I see what the allure is for them wanting to start a real record label in the traditional sense of giving advances, budgets, and having to hire employees to run it. Like what would be the advantage versus the model they have now ? Everyone knows the music industry relative to other entertainment industries and especially tech industries isn't really that profitable right now and that's with labels taking MUCH more than 70%. I may be wrong but I just dont see the advantage of Apple starting a full on record label that operates more hands on than what they are doing now. Their passion, expertise, and bread and butter is in creating new tech and at times simply providing a marketplace for additional content that goes with that tech. I just dont see what the allure and benefits are with wanting to start and run an actual label.
That's exactly what they're doing. Apple Music is being set up like the App Store but for musicians. If you're an unsigned bedroom musician, you can produce music in GarageBand and share it directly to Apple Music through Connect. Now, imagine an artist's bedroom jam going viral. People can share to Facebook and Twitter from Connect. Apple can then add that new viral track into Apple Music streaming and the bedroom artist gets paid. Why in the world would they want to sign with a label and pay another middleman?
Apple makes and sells the hardware and software to produce music. Now they've introduced a way for artists to get paid for it too.
Hasn't Itunes already been doing this for years though ? Unsigned bedroom artists have already been able to upload their music on Itunes and sell it after they create it on Garage Band or whatever software they choose as well as promote through all the major streams of social media. The only real thing different here is Connect which is just a revised version of a failed Ping which I may be wrong but I dont think is gonna eclipse Twitter, Youtube, Instagram, and Facebook as the main avenues for promotion. It will just be one extra spot on the totem pole of social media promotion but one of the smaller lesser used spots relative to those other social media giants.
This "new way " for artists to get paid has existed for a while now through Itunes. I dont see what the difference is now ? Unsigned artist have been going viral through Myspace, Youtube, Itunes, etc for almost a decade. Most of the biggest ones still end up signing to a major though because majors are corporate machines designed to put millions of dollars of promotion and a whole team of individuals dedicated to working each aspect of promotion in every market. For some reason unsigned artists still want that because the vast majority consumers are still receptive to that model even though the alternate indie bedroom viral route has been widely available for over 10 years now.
