Apple To Launch A Spotify-Like Service this year?

[EbookReader]

http://musically.com/2012/07/13/spotify-sweden-ifpi-figures/
Spotify helps Swedish music sales rise 30.1% in first half of 2012

So, while physical revenues fell by 2.2% in the first six months of 2012, digital revenues were up 60.5%. Streaming revenues rose 79.4% to SEK 252.7m ($40m), while ‘other’ digital revenues (i.e. downloads) fell 14% to SEK 30.7m ($4.4m).

The popularity of Spotify – while other streaming services are available in Sweden, it’s really Spotify we’re talking about – might be bad news for Apple’s iTunes, but it looks like good news for labels, publishers AND artists.

First 6 months of 2012: Spotify up 79.4% to $40 million USD
First 6 months of 2012: Itunes down 14% to $4.4 million USD

Spotify is now 9 times bigger than Itunes in Sweden and this gap will continue to grow.

Is this the sign of the future (say 5-10 years from now)?

 

[mattopotamus]

wouldn't that defeat the purpose of buying songs from itunes? Since spotify has come out, I have not bought a single song from itunes. Unless apple wants to abandon buying songs through itunes, doesn't this sound counter intuitive to what they currently offer?

 

[EbookReader]

wouldn't that defeat the purpose of buying songs from itunes? Since spotify has come out, I have not bought a single song from itunes. Unless apple wants to abandon buying songs through itunes, doesn't this sound counter intuitive to what they currently offer?

if you don't disrupt your own business, someone else will do it for you.



Look at Barnes and Noble. Ebook is disrupting its traditional business of selling physical books. It decided to invest hundreds of millions in the Nook and now selling both ebooks and physical books. Preparing for the future in which its physical stores will be no more (Borders already went bankrupt).

Apple can sell both downloads and subscription music at the same time. Preparing for the future in which subscription will dominate.

The sooner the better because once the MOBILE CARRIERS like AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile jump into the game, it's game over.

Unlimited Music download could be common as unlimited text and talk as a mobile plan (it's already happen with Cricket Muve Music with over 600,000 paid subscribers and Cricket only has 6 million total users).

 

[mattopotamus]

if you don't disrupt your own business, someone else will do it for you.

touche!

 

[thenaes]

I really really hope this is coming this year.

I've been going back and forth with Rdio/Spotify (at this point, Rdio is the best I think, Spotify is a buggy mess), but if Apple came out with a streaming service I would definitely jump ship to that if it matched features.

 

[Technarchy]

Sure, why not...

 

[617aircav]

I like Spotify a lot, mainly because you can't lose your music. If I had something like Spotify back when I first started collecting music (back in middle school), I'd have an amazing library now. As it is, I've had so many different computers since then, and I'd like to think all of my music is somewhere (scattered across tens of hard drives), but it's a pain to find and amalgamate it all. It's not that I want those actual files—I'd like the playlists—a record of which music I enjoyed throughout the years. With Spotify, if a computer breaks down, you just install Spotify, sign in, and all your music is there.

I know Apple is making inroads with allowing you to redownload your music, but Spotify has other advantages, in terms of allowing easy music discovery without having to buy something to see if you'll like it, and sharing playlists. I think it's a pretty good model because you don't lose anything even if you decide not to pay, you just have to listen to ads.

I only use iTunes for movies and podcasts now, not music. In fact sometimes when I go into iTunes I forget you can't double-click on a playlist to start playing music because I've become so used to the Spotify way of doing things. I use Spotify every day, which I used to be able to say of iTunes.

Are you not just renting the music with spotify?

 

[swingerofbirch]

Are you not just renting the music with spotify?

I guess you could say that. However, the difference is that if I stop paying, my playlists and library I have built up are still there and I can still play any of the songs; it's just they would then have ads. I am basically paying not to have ads.

With iTunes, what I meant is that I would be more interested just to have my playlist data--not the actual songs-- from throughout the years to import into Spotify, as most of my music was imported from CDs or ...ahem... other sources, and I just can't remember all the types of music I listened to and liked. I may have my iTunes libraries going back to 2001 on hard drives somewhere, but to be honest, I don't know where. I'd like to assume they are somewhere, but I don't know where. With Spotify you don't have to worry about losing anything--they keep the playlists on their servers. With iTunes, you now can see everything that you have downloaded from them over time, but you can't of course see what was in your iTunes music library back in 2001 before the iTunes Store came out and you imported from different sources.

For me Spotify is the perfect model. I don't lose everything if I stop paying, and my collection, which is to say my choices in music, is still there. Steve Jobs said people want to own their music, and that may have been true compared to earlier streaming models, but I think Spotify gets it just right. It's a better way to experience music. You can listen to any album as much as you want without paying extra so you feel free to explore. With iTunes or any older model of buying music, you gamble when you buy an album, and before iTunes in the Cloud, you were also responsible for keeping track of it. The price seems fair to me; although, I do feel like I should be finding even more great music. They need a feature that suggests music to you based on your current library, which iTunes has.

 

[pdutta2000]

For me the killer feature of an iTunes streaming service is the ability to use the built in iPod functionality of all iDevices. I love spotify but hooking up my phone to my car requires me to use the Spotify app on the iPhone and not the bullt in controls on my car. Think of all the devices out there that are built to use the iTunes app? That's the killer feature. People already know how to use it. They already have devices looking for it and designed to work with it. All Apple has to do is incorporate Spotify's functionality into the iTunes app.

 

[chiefpavvy]

That's the killer feature. People already know how to use it. They already have devices looking for it and designed to work with it. All Apple has to do is incorporate Spotify's functionality into the iTunes app.

This, absolutely. Native functionality is always superior to third-party no matter how well integrated.

No doubt there's a big market up-and-coming here. Spotify is awesome, been using it for a long time. Some will argue $10 is a waste as you don't "own" anything but whatever.

 

[Prof.]

Guys, guys, guys... Apple is just going to BUY Spotify.

 

[smoledman]

Maybe Apple just buys Spotify.

 

[Dr McKay]

Microsoft do something similar with Zune, you can buy songs like iTunes, or pay for their music pass and stream them like Spotify.

 

[smoledman]

Microsoft do something similar with Zune, you can buy songs like iTunes, or pay for their music pass and stream them like Spotify.

I just bought an annual Zune Pass.

 

[EbookReader]

Maybe Apple just buys Spotify.

Why spend $4 billion to buy Spotify (Spotify current valuation is $4 billion USD)

when you can build your own version of Spotify?

 

[smoledman]

Why spend $4 billion to buy Spotify (Spotify current valuation is $4 billion USD)

when you can build your own version of Spotify?

As if Apple is going to build their own version for every digital service out there.

 

[Prof.]

Why spend $4 billion to buy Spotify (Spotify current valuation is $4 billion USD)

when you can build your own version of Spotify?

Because Apple has the money.

 

[EbookReader]

Because Apple has the money.

Sure. But at $4 billion, that's a lot of money to spend for something that you could build from the ground up for little cost. Heck, Spotify competitor MOG was sold for $25 million recently to HTC. Buy a competitor like Rhapsody, Rdio, MOG, WIMP, Slacker, 7 Digital, Napster etc...for the technology on the cheap.


Though buying Spotify will put Apple #1 in subscription music by a long mile. That might be worth the $4 billion. However, would the EU and USA government allow this takeover on antitrust ground? Would the major labels be for it? (they already fear Apple market share in digital music).

The #1 digital music store in the world buying the #2 digital music store in the world would raise a lot of concern.

It's like AT&T buying Verizon.





From the May 12, 2012 issue of Billboard

Top 10 US Music Accounts

Rank/Account/2011 Market Share/Type

1. iTunes 38.23%
2. Anderson 17.86% - stocks Walmart/Best Buy
3. Amazon 7.93%
4. Alliance 5.97% - stocks Kmart and one stop stores, internet fulfillment
5. Target 5.45%
6. Trans World Entertainment 1.97% - owns FYE record stores
7. Rhapsody 1.97%
8. Super D 1.66% - online cd store
9. Vevo 1.15%
10. Microsoft 1.09% - Zune, XBox, MSN

 

[nuckinfutz]

What exactly would Apple be purchasing?

Apple already has the same contacts with the media conglomerates. They have the contacts and relationship with the bandwidth providers.

I see the streaming business as something Apple will jump into when it looks like it's about to become a credible threat to iTunes and offers the potential to make money on.

 

[EbookReader]

What exactly would Apple be purchasing?

Apple already has the same contacts with the media conglomerates. They have the contacts and relationship with the bandwidth providers.

I see the streaming business as something Apple will jump into when it looks like it's about to become a credible threat to iTunes and offers the potential to make money on.

Yup. Apple has everything in place for a Spotify-like service. It just need to turn the switch on.

And having 150+ million credit cards log in with Apple will give it an almighty weapon.

 

[EbookReader]

http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/31/sp...-15m-active-users-over-4m-paying-subscribers/

At the ‘Global Business Summit on Creative Content‘ in London Ken Parks (Spotify’s Chief Content Officer and Managing Director of Spotify N. America) said Spotify now has over 15 million active users and over 4 million paying subscribers.

January, 2010:------------ 250,000 paid subscribers
March 17, 2010:----------- 320,000
July 20, 2010: ---------------- 500,000
December 8, 2010: ------ 750,000
March 8, 2011:--------------- 1,000,000
July 14, 2011: -----------------1,600,000
Sept 21, 2011: ---------------- 2,000,000
Nov 23, 2011: ------------------2,500,000
Jan 26, 2012: -------------------3,000,000
July 31, 2012:--------------------4,000,000

 

[EbookReader]

Cricket Wireless Muve Music will be #1 (surpassing Rhapsody and Spotify) in the USA in the near future.

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/indu...s-makes-muve-music-available-1007904522.story

Muve Music by Cricket Wireless has quietly become the second-biggest subscription service in the U.S. Soon, it will be the biggest in the country.

On Wednesday, prepaid mobile carrier Cricket announced its Muve Music subscription service will be included in all new Android plans -- at no extra cost -- starting September 2. "This is the first time any carrier has put music in all their plans the way voicemail is in all their plans," Jeff Toig, Senior Vice President, Muve Music, tells Billboard.biz. "We think this is a huge step in the story, a huge innovation."

Nevertheless, given the rate of new-customer acquisition, Muve Music can expect to add hundreds of thousands of new subscribers by the end year and should exceed 2 million subscribers by the summer of 2013.

 

[EbookReader]

was expecting Itunes 11 to come with Spotify-like subscription service.

Maybe Itunes 12?


January, 2010:------------ 250,000 paid subscribers
March 17, 2010:----------- 320,000
July 20, 2010: ---------------- 500,000
December 8, 2010: ------ 750,000
March 8, 2011:--------------- 1,000,000
July 14, 2011: -----------------1,600,000
Sept 21, 2011: ---------------- 2,000,000
Nov 23, 2011: ------------------2,500,000
Jan 26, 2012: -------------------3,000,000
July 31, 2012:--------------------4,000,000
today------------------------------very near to 5,000,000 paying subscribers

 

[76ShovelHead]

I doubt this will happen. Apple just released a slimmed down iTunes client, no more bloat like ping. Besides apple's business model is simplicity, there is no need for apple to create their own it would just fragment market.

 

[smoledman]

Apple will come with their own Spotify-type service integrated into the Music app by April 2013. There will be 2 new tabs:

Radio - Pandora type service
Streaming - Spotify/XBox Music type service