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Imagine if a company like Dell made a laptop computer cheaper than a MacBook...
 
Ok he's probably right Spotify would take a hit if Amazon and or Apple lowered their price but what does he care he works and has for Apple?

I also don't think Apple or Amazon want to provide music services at a loss and Spotify has a free tier that generates ad revenue and Amazon and Apple don't seem to want to have a free ad based tier. I think Spotify will be fine for the time being anyway.
 
Doesn't seem so at all. He's absolutely spot on. If Apple or Amazon decide to drop their prices on streaming services, they will really hurt Spotify.

Amazon and Apple both have add-on devices that make them far more on margins along with their streaming. Spotify has none of that.

Remember that Apple has done in a year what it took Spotify more than 5 to do. I don't see how Apple would be jealous of far outperforming Spotify when it comes to growth and certainly in profitability.

If this if that...

If Apple have not lowered their prices is because they can't. If anything, they'd raise them.

It's Spotify the one that has molded the streaming industry of today and what users expect of a steaming service. And neither apple nor any other big company has been able to change.
 
"Streaming services have a bad situation"
Oh, did I say streaming services? I actually just meant Spotify. Spotify is in a bad situation because they don't offer something as valuable to consumers as YouTube Red, or Carpool Karaoke.

"Why don't we try $7.99 for music?"
It's so obvious people will flock to the cheapest ad-free music service. Can't remember why we didn't do it ourselves. It's almost as if the music industry has us by the balls and it's not trivial to simply reduce prices on a whim.

"They have to figure out a way to show the road to making this a real business"
There has never been a company that operated at a loss to attract a large consumer base, such a company would cease to exist! There's no way Spotify can last much longer than 9 years. Imagine if Amazon ran at a loss? Ha!

"[the recording industry doesn't yet know] where technology is going to go"
It's just like Jobs always said: the best way to predict the future is to wait for new technology and then figure out how to adapt. Access to large libraries of high quality music could just be a fad, because, you know, after cassettes, came CDs!

[Streaming services that offer content for free undermine the music industry and present a major problem that's not something television providers like Netflix have to deal with]
What do you mean Hulu had a free tier? Whatever, it's gone now. No way that helped attract investors.

"Music, everybody has everything, ... , every song is on YouTube, so how can they charge $11.99"
Why would anyone pay for something they can otherwise get for free? This is why all games, movies, and music are pirated. Consumers are poor and don't put any value into good, quality services.
 
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No, he’s just stating that Spotify doesn’t have a good business plan, which they don’t.
He’s right, but he does still give me the creeps! :p Most record producer types did when I saw them in action on American Idol. The business side of music is just creepy all around for some reason. Music itself is fine. These days I enjoy and support local artists when I can.
 
I don't use a streaming service. Never been a fan of the concept. I don't think Apple belongs in this arena. I dont like the idea of other business units(hardware) being used to prop up(subsidize) the operation of AppleMusic. I think Tim Cook wasted $3bn of Apple's money on Beats. IMHO

The hardware is leading the software side of the business--give the shift to SSD required by reducing computer size, storing entire libraries of music would overwhelm the paltry size they offer--so you have to have some way of storing in the cloud. Apple music is clearly a buildout of icloud music library utilized by itunes match, with the streaming trend stuff tacked on. Apple serves a customer need (music storage--everywhere) and can better target customers/sell data by getting ridiculous amounts of data on people's library listening behavior. Not long before they are giving you targeted ads for an iphone with music from your favorite artists rather than one song for all.
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If this if that...

If Apple have not lowered their prices is because they can't. If anything, they'd raise them.

It's Spotify the one that has molded the streaming industry of today and what users expect of a steaming service. And neither apple nor any other big company has been able to change.

Apple of course can lower prices if they want--all the way to zero. They obviously aren't paying the music companies anything close to $10/mo per subscriber served. And Apple captures valuable info about subscriber preferences that can be either sold directly or utilized for better customer targeting of their own. So, reduced cost to apple minus residual revenues means they could easily lower it dramatically and break even. Having it at $10/per now doesn't hurt them because they don't have serious phone competition and they want to reserve the opportunity to defend phone sales by bundling services later to increase the value proposition for the phone. Will likely always keep a nominal charge just to keep from free riding and keep an updated customer credit card on file (like icloud 99c tier).
 
There is great Apple original content on AM, like the 808 documentary, Give me Future and many others.

Always better to try and actually know something about a subject before judging, but I know it’s asking much.

I have tried to watch a bunch of the video content on Apple Music. Zero value for me. My previous post was hyperbolic, but your welcome to pretend otherwise.
 



Jimmy_SJ_SM_v1-250x310.jpg
Apple Music executive Jimmy Iovine sat down for an interview recently with Billboard to talk about The Defiant Ones, a four-part documentary series that focuses on the careers of both Iovine and his long-time partner Dr. Dre.

During the interview, Iovine commented on the state of the streaming music industry and the precarious position of companies focused solely on streaming music, like Spotify.Streaming music, says Iovine, is "fine" with major companies like Amazon, Apple, and Google, but it's "not a great business" for standalone companies like Spotify. "They have to figure out a way to show the road to making this a real business," he said.

Iovine went on to explain that the record industry doesn't yet know "where technology is gonna go," and that things could shift at any moment with the debut of software and hardware breakthroughs. Referencing the 8-track, cassette tape, and CD, Iovine says companies need to adapt and "figure out their role."

According to Iovine, streaming services that offer content for free undermine the music industry and present a major problem that's not something television providers like Netflix have to deal with. Streaming services all offer the same general content, making it difficult to convince customers to pay when content is available elsewhere at no cost.Iovine's opinion on free music is likely one of the reasons why Apple is focusing heavily on exclusive content. Apple has purchased the rights to air multiple exclusive documentaries, and the company is working on exclusive television shows much like Netflix, with the aim of drawing in customers with original content.

So far, two shows have premiered exclusively on Apple Music: Planet of the Apps and Carpool Karaoke: The Series. Apple has other television shows in the works, including an Amazing Stories reboot with Steven Spielberg and a morning talk show drama that will star Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon. Apple has not yet confirmed these new shows will be exclusive to Apple Music, but it's a possibility, and it's also possible Apple is planning on some kind of future service that offers both music and television content.

Jimmy Iovine's full interview, which goes into further detail on streaming services and covers The Defiant Ones, can be read over at Billboard.

Article Link: Apple Music's Jimmy Iovine: 'Streaming Services Have a Bad Situation'
[doublepost=1512010882][/doublepost]I would pay apple 11.99 for CD quality I don't want anything better just redbook cd ALAC
 
I've been a touring musician off and on for almost 15 years. I applaud you guys for caring about this topic, but most of you are under the assumption that there is some form of money to be had for musicians through touring, merch, etc...

Here's the skinny for 99% of musicians today:

For a solo artist, with minimal tour gear, has no bills at home, and plays most nights of the week followed by crashing on friends' couches every night away on tour, perhaps a modest living could be made from selling expertly designed t-shirts for $20. Any less than that, and you're losing money on the shirts...because musician's can't help but give away half of their shirts for free to cute fans. Keep in mind, if you design your t-shirt poorly, or choose a bad color scheme/material that doesn't appeal to the fans, you're out somewhere between $2-5k.

For a band, forget about it. Once you add 4 other members, dividing the nightly funds makes it impossible. Rent on the bands' respective studio apartments, rent on the practice space, costs to replace gear and maintain a van/bus that drinks fuel for breakfast, hotel costs, makes it impossible to pay bills.

My advice.... Find a dayjob, stay/play local, and relish in the feeling of writing and rocking songs. If you must sell something on the road, sell pizza, burritos, or drugs. Those are the only things people will buy late at night.
 
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I don't use a streaming service. Never been a fan of the concept. I don't think Apple belongs in this arena. I dont like the idea of other business units(hardware) being used to prop up(subsidize) the operation of AppleMusic. I think Tim Cook wasted $3bn of Apple's money on Beats. IMHO
That has always been Apple's business model - selling hardware differentiated by cheap / free software. Why do you think Final Cut Pro is only $300? It exists solely to sell Macs, nothing more. Siri, Maps, iMessage are all free, yet clearly cost money to run, and serve to differentiate the Apple ecosystem.

Considering how even Spotify has yet to turn a profit, it's possible that they never will (or run out of cash before they do), and maybe the only viable music streaming services in the future is those which cost way more (like $20 or even $30 a month), or rely on subsidies from other areas (like what Apple is likely doing).

Maybe Apple was late to the music streaming scene, but who know? They just might be the last man standing.
 
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he's right you know.
Yup. Apple Music is subsidized by all the other revenue streams.

What Apple needs is video streams of live concerts, special unplugged concerts, video and audio. I’d be pumped to watch artists unplugged like the good ol days. See true artists doing their thing. That then becomes exclusive albums and audio tracks only for subscribers.

Either way, they gotta have a theme..stick to music. Anything music. Not planet of the apps. People who subscribe are likely an older demographic. Not young adults and teens. They are the ones who watch/ listen on YouTube. Bring back Unplugged!
 
He’s right, but he does still give me the creeps! :p Most record producer types did when I saw them in action on American Idol. The business side of music is just creepy all around for some reason. Music itself is fine. These days I enjoy and support local artists when I can.

Oh, he’s creepy as hell. We can agree on that much.
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"Streaming services have a bad situation"
Oh, did I say streaming services? I actually just meant Spotify. Spotify is in a bad situation because they don't offer something as valuable to consumers as YouTube Red, or Carpool Karaoke.

"Why don't we try $7.99 for music?"
It's so obvious people will flock to the cheapest ad-free music service. Can't remember why we didn't do it ourselves. It's almost as if the music industry has us by the balls and it's not trivial to simply reduce prices on a whim.

"They have to figure out a way to show the road to making this a real business"
There has never been a company that operated at a loss to attract a large consumer base, such a company would cease to exist! There's no way Spotify can last much longer than 9 years. Imagine if Amazon ran at a loss? Ha!

"[the recording industry doesn't yet know] where technology is going to go"
It's just like Jobs always said: the best way to predict the future is to wait for new technology and then figure out how to adapt. Access to large libraries of high quality music could just be a fad, because, you know, after cassettes, came CDs!

[Streaming services that offer content for free undermine the music industry and present a major problem that's not something television providers like Netflix have to deal with]
What do you mean Hulu had a free tier? Whatever, it's gone now. No way that helped attract investors.

"Music, everybody has everything, ... , every song is on YouTube, so how can they charge $11.99"
Why would anyone pay for something they can otherwise get for free? This is why all games, movies, and music are pirated. Consumers are poor and don't put any value into good, quality services.

It’s pretty obvious why they don’t have a free tier. Apple actually has a strathey to make money on streaming and that doesn’t involve free users.
 
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I don't use a streaming service. Never been a fan of the concept. I don't think Apple belongs in this arena. I dont like the idea of other business units(hardware) being used to prop up(subsidize) the operation of AppleMusic. I think Tim Cook wasted $3bn of Apple's money on Beats. IMHO

I stream everything and so you are dead wrong.
 
Doesn't seem so at all. He's absolutely spot on. If Apple or Amazon decide to drop their prices on streaming services, they will really hurt Spotify.

Amazon and Apple both have add-on devices that make them far more on margins along with their streaming. Spotify has none of that.

Maybie not, but where u lack on one, you make up on the other, and that's what u may want...

Apple has no option but to use iTunes on Mac.. Music app on iOS or Android apps and Sonos supports Apple music,

while Spotify has web access... everyone has an internet connection, and web browser, so everyone with a spotify account can listen on the web.. Apple users have no choice but to listen via other methods so regardless of content,that is always gonna be number #1 spot. 'where can i listen..'
 
TL;DR... "Our business model is correct. Our competitor's business model is dumb and isn't allowing us to charge our customers more for the same content."

Also, they really ned to keep this guy out of the public eye. He comes off super self-righteous, condescending, and I don't know exactly why, but a little creepy.

Agreed. He’s totally full of ****. Just like everyone at Apple now a days.
 
I pay by the year so it’s $8.30/mo
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So are you arguing that Spotify, which hasn’t made money in years, is a good business?

Nope. I’m saying the manipulative word-game drool that comes out of all the Apple execs now a days is just that... drool.
 
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