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Apple Targeting 100 Million Subscribers for Streaming Music Service

Benjamin Frost said:
Three predictions for WWDC:

1. A pretty girl to run naked across the stage. Would liven things up a bit lol.

2. Tim Cook to make a broth. It should be fine, so long as there are no mirrors nearby.

3. Craig Federighi to sing a duet with Kylie Minogue 'Sealed with a Kiss' to celebrate the latest version of Mac OS 'X'.
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With Tim is advocating equality, I think the girl across the stage thing would be a stone age approach to things. Don't get your hopes up ;)
 
penajmz said:
Apple needs to come up with a VERY good reason for people to switch from Spotify to Apple Music... Beating how they're the same price.
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I could see streaming for up to 5 devices (using the same iCloud account) simultaneously for the $10/mo. That would be compelling enough for me.
 
Dagless said:
I'm still waiting for a compelling reason to rent music instead of owning it.
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There is not one. But some people will do it anyway. There are 2 dominant arguments:
-Cheap access to millions of songs vs someone's much more limited-but-owned collection
-New music discovery

In these threads, we're arguing for access to all kinds of media we may never play while in other threads we argue against having to "rent" access to cableTV bundles of a whole bunch of channels we may never watch. We want access to everything in one form of media but only exactly what we want to consume in another. I find it an interesting conflict of views from the same crowd here.

The perspective issue is probably the one that fits best. A person with a fair number of songs in their iTunes collection will probably be content with the music they already own. Another person with hardly any songs in their iTunes collection will probably be attracted to being able to spend $10 for a few months to have access to millions of songs. Yes, like all other forms of renting, I think renters will tire of paying the $10 and quit the service once they build up their own collection to a reasonable size. But between now and then, there's revenues to be made on those who really value going that way or simply try it for a while to see if it adds value to their music-listening experience.
 
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I really don't want them to kill the Beats app but it now looks unavoidable... At least, I hope they work on their Music app as it's currently an abomination... old fashioned, tired looking... counter-intuitive... ugly...

I love the Spotify design, as well as Amazon Music, they look great. I've been using Spotify instead of the Music app because of the usability and great aesthetics. Let's see what Apple comes up with but their current (beta) Music app is a deal breaker.
 
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If it's easier to access your artists and albums in a way that's less of a pain in the ass then spotify you can count me in.
 
bbeagle said:
I bet within a month, more people will know what Apple Music is vs. Spotify or Rdio. Most people don't know what those are now. The only one that has made a name for itself, that most people know is Pandora.
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Um, Spotify is actually the current market leader with 4.7 million subscribers in the US.
 
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1000 million subscribers! super! super! super! superzcoolz!!!!! Take this, Samsung!! Well done Apple!
(I guess this is what Apple expects me to say)
 
HobeSoundDarryl said:
100 Million times $10/month = $1 Billion per month. 3 months at $1 Billion/month = $3 Billion.

If this is going to be embedded in iOS 9, it seems very likely Apple will become King of the streaming space within hours after launch. This is just the Microsoft IE browser (vs. established Netscape) thing again.

And, since there is a 90-day free trial, Apple should be able to tout gigantic numbers of users pretty quickly. The key question will be monetizing free trials to stick around and start paying. The referenced rumor of 800 million iTunes accounts means about 1/8th of all iTunes users will need to not only partake in the free trial but convert to paying subscribers AND/OR that this will significantly draw more people into the iTunes total number of accounts pool.

One other interesting bit of (obvious) math: $1 Billion/month times 12 months = $12 Billion new dollars for AAPL's revenue line.
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Of course, Apple only gets 30% of that.

M
 
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Dagless said:
I'm still waiting for a compelling reason to rent music instead of owning it.
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from my limited user terms and agreements understanding, anything digital is not owned. they can pluck it from you anytime. only physical media is owned. I am sure someone with more understanding can correct me.
 
bushido said:
100 mio but US only? how is that gonna work



no one knows Spotify??? in what universe
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A lot of people over 40 have no clue about Spotify or Rdio. They only know of Pandora.
It surprises me how many times I have to explain Spotify to people at work. Start off with "You know Pandora, right? Well it's 1000% better than Pandora"...
 
freediverx said:
Um, Spotify is actually the current market leader with 4.7 million subscribers in the US.
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Which is nothing, considering the population of the US. So yes, many people do not know what Spotify is or can't be bothered to pay for it.

As for Pandora, no one even knows what Pandora is outside the US.
 
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Although doubtful, I would love it if it were something like this:

  • $10/ month, or
  • FREE with new iOS or OS X device purchase (like iWork)
 
I get to use Spotify for $5 because of a student discount. My only grudge is that they don't have an Apple Watch App. It'll take something spectacular for me to switch over to Apple Music for me to pay the extra $5 a month.
 
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freediverx said:
Incidentally, most Apple customers will concede that Google Maps has better data than Apple Maps. However, most of those same customers accept this tradeoff in exchange for a far better user interface and the protection of their personal information from Google.
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Again, I wasn't attacking Maps at all. You're reading something into a post that isn't there. I just offered it as a relevant example that Apple deciding to step into a new space by making their incarnation of something a part of iOS as a default IS a great way to become King of that space. Maps being terrible or perfect or something in between has nothing to do with the point I was trying to make by referencing it.
 
Unless they bring in education pricing (which they haven't been doing for most new products) then i'm sticking with Spotify.
 
KindredMAC said:
A lot of people over 40 have no clue about Spotify or Rdio. They only know of Pandora.
It surprises me how many times I have to explain Spotify to people at work. Start off with "You know Pandora, right? Well it's 1000% better than Pandora"...
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It all depends on where you live, Spotify is fairly well known here but Pandora is more famous as a jewellery company. :)
 
I really feel that I am gonna be disappointed at the end of the keynote. Why pay 10$ for something that I can have for free with Spotify? I pay for iCloud but it's not as functional as dropbox and the new icloud photo library is not even functional when you have 16.000 photos like I do. Imagine trying to load that library even on a 64GB phone. Even with the "optimize for space" option. Apple should really start making innovations again. It is really disappointing to think as a NEW feature the replacement of the iOS font, or a copy-paste of google plus or just changing a little the way Siri looks. iOS 8 was like iOS 7s, and now iOs 9 will be like iOS 7 double S ? LOL ...Come on people ... Since Steve Jobs is gone I don't see innovations... I don't get excited with this company. I really love all my apple devices and I only use Apple but I am starting to feel a little frustrated with what we are expecting to see.
 
Unless they plan to buy Spotify, it isn't happening. Especially not if they tie their service to their own hardware. Sony's deal with Spotify to play background music on Playstation 4 is huge. Those are the kinds of deals Apple needed to make if they wanted to make a dent in the market. They'll just be another Tidal now.
 
800M iTunes users - and climbing, i'd assume. so 1 in 8? maybe not, maybe 1 in 16 if it's convenient and compelling - which is nearly pointless to assume one way or another yet as this unreleased service may have the best UI / UX out of all of them. or among the worst, who knows.

so even with half their estimate, it could still eek out spotify, especially if their numbers start dropping at all.
 
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