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Apple's Beats Music Deal Seen as Key to Bolstering Declining iTunes Revenue Momentum
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I don't need playlists. This makes it easy to switch providers, like I did from Spotify to Deezer.
Lots of good info on here...
My POV is that streaming @ $10/month is like renting a place to live. The day you move out (stop paying) you have nothing! I'll pay my mortgage/iTunes purchases and accept that I have less access to some music but in the end I'll have something. Just my $0.02
My POV is that streaming @ $10/month is like renting a place to live. The day you move out (stop paying) you have nothing! I'll pay my mortgage/iTunes purchases and accept that I have less access to some music but in the end I'll have something. Just my $0.02
my bad i read it wrong
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i havent looked back to iTunes since T-Mobile went into a partnership with Spotify over here. you simply buy the Premium Account (9,99) through T-Mobile and its web traffic doesnt get added to your data package. its amazing and surprisingly doesnt even cost more than the usual 9,99. its also the reason i never use iTunes Radio because it would use all my data easily so unless Apple comes up woth some partnerships to exclude its mobile data traffic from the data volume i am not coming back
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Right so debating streaming vs owning is pointless IMO. Streaming has won. That's what most people want.
It's not how many songs you are buying, but how many songs can you listen to. I have Google All Play and I can tell you that it is nice that I can listen to everything that comes to mind. It would cost me hundreds if I had to buy those songs individually. The fact that I am free to immerse myself into a genre and explore all the artists is great.
The real issue
My purchases from iTunes are down too... Why? Because technology has progressed to a point where music can be distributed in a high quality lossless format, and movies & music videos can and should all be in full HD...
Does Apple provide 24bit 48k (or higher) lossless audio? No.
Does Apple provide HD music videos? No.
Does Apple provide 1080p movies? No.
I'm an avid Apple fan - Macs, iPhones, iPads, etc., but my purchases are way down because Apple has failed to provide the products I want for about 2 years now. Their lack of advancement has forced me to begin shopping elsewhere.
All iDevices should have double the storage capacity that they do now (flash memory is cheap folks) at the same price, and they should all support 24bit audio. I'm crossing my fingers for the forthcoming iPhone 6, along with iTunes improvements... It will be Apple's last opportunity to keep me as a media customer.
My purchases from iTunes are down too... Why? Because technology has progressed to a point where music can be distributed in a high quality lossless format, and movies & music videos can and should all be in full HD...
Does Apple provide 24bit 48k (or higher) lossless audio? No.
Does Apple provide HD music videos? No.
Does Apple provide 1080p movies? No.
I'm an avid Apple fan - Macs, iPhones, iPads, etc., but my purchases are way down because Apple has failed to provide the products I want for about 2 years now. Their lack of advancement has forced me to begin shopping elsewhere.
All iDevices should have double the storage capacity that they do now (flash memory is cheap folks) at the same price, and they should all support 24bit audio. I'm crossing my fingers for the forthcoming iPhone 6, along with iTunes improvements... It will be Apple's last opportunity to keep me as a media customer.
This is really the future of the market. We'll have streaming services like Beats/Spotify etc. to stream the stuff we want to hear in the moment. Also great for parents to buy kids. $120/yr for unlimited music instead of buying every album they want--and no piracy risks.
iTunes will still be there to buy the albums we want to own forever. My guess is that iTunes moves to higher quality files sooner rather than later as well.
3 Billion!?
If they want to catch-up with the streaming it shouldn't cost that much. If they pay the music industries just for 1 billion for the rights to stream music through iTunes they can have the best music streaming service. I'm sure Lovine and the fake doctor shouldn't be worth 2 billion. This 2 will come to Apple campus richer than Tim and eveybody else. This could be a big mess their head will get bigger, Dre already brags about it even before they were acquired by Apple. Apple already makes better sounding and cheaper headphones.
If they want to catch-up with the streaming it shouldn't cost that much. If they pay the music industries just for 1 billion for the rights to stream music through iTunes they can have the best music streaming service. I'm sure Lovine and the fake doctor shouldn't be worth 2 billion. This 2 will come to Apple campus richer than Tim and eveybody else. This could be a big mess their head will get bigger, Dre already brags about it even before they were acquired by Apple. Apple already makes better sounding and cheaper headphones.
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Apple has been offering movies & TV shows in 1080p for the last couple of years...
Steve Jobs said no one wants subscriptions
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=S6DX5NaPvk4#t=1379
Although seemingly being left more and more in the minority, I dont want subscription. I will admit that being an ex DJ from a day gone by, I am biased heavily towards ownership. I want to store my music localy and then play it on one of my DJ apps. I want to carry my music with me and be able to play it at a party without worry of network connectivity. I use BeaTunes to add meta data like BPM, key, color and mood so that I can mix music. It even adds lyrics so I can sing along.
When I want to hear random music to experience something else that might motivate me to expand my libary even further, I use iTunes radio, which is free and ad-free.
As I said, I recognize that I may be a minority (i mean aside from my ethnicity), but I wanted to get this perspective out there so that this is not all one sided.
Streaming hasn't won anything. It's different. Streaming is for a different type of consumer. If you aren't in the market for buying you rent. Both buying and renting digital music make sense but please don't confuse the two as being something other than two sides of the same coin.
You can say streaming won when traditional radio is gone. Then and only then has streaming won. The bottom line is if a legitimate product isn't available for sale people will download for free when they want to own their music.
Through AT&T I received a free three-month subscription to Beats Music and I must say that I am enjoying the service. I have tried Spotify and I didn't like the UI. I do think that the price is too high ($15), and I probably won't renew unless the price drops to $10 a month.
Exactly. Time to return to highest fidelity A/V. If you are going to buy it, it should be a much much better experience than streaming from network or air.
I buy from iTunes and the like for 2 reasons. (1) There is a sense of ownership and maybe it's weird but I like to know what's in my music library. If EVERY song ever released is available, that is overwhelming and how do you choose etc. I enjoying buying an album and listening the crap out of it for a while. Spotify is nice as a reference but I use iTunes on my devices about 95% of time vs Spotify/Pandora.
And for (2) I have a capped data plan and I can't stream music whenever I want. It is VERY helpful to have the music physically available on my device since I'm not around Wi-Fi much of my life.
I like those charts though, very interesting.
can you say 'overpay'
there simply is no way Beats is worth billions.
If Apple is this intent on cornering the market on music than this does not bode well. Music is extremely low margin, extremely high volume, and there are a dozen slices to that pie in terms of royalties, publishing etc.
The entire global music industry is roughly $15 billion a year.
Spending $3 billion to capture a tiny slice of that pie is idiotic.
there simply is no way Beats is worth billions.
If Apple is this intent on cornering the market on music than this does not bode well. Music is extremely low margin, extremely high volume, and there are a dozen slices to that pie in terms of royalties, publishing etc.
The entire global music industry is roughly $15 billion a year.
Spending $3 billion to capture a tiny slice of that pie is idiotic.
Yeah, there is no way in hell you are buying decent music or you'd have stopped buying 40 a month years ago.
Buying Beats is NOT going to help Apple in any way.
This will not turn the tide.
Its beyond me why Apple didn't buy Spotify, which is regarded as a high quality streaming service that would perfectly fit in the spot.
Instead Apple goes to bed with a company that has a far from clean slate. This is not going to be a good deal for Apple's reputation as a high grade company.
Buying Beats is a bad deal + a bad joke.
This will not turn the tide.
Its beyond me why Apple didn't buy Spotify, which is regarded as a high quality streaming service that would perfectly fit in the spot.
Instead Apple goes to bed with a company that has a far from clean slate. This is not going to be a good deal for Apple's reputation as a high grade company.
Buying Beats is a bad deal + a bad joke.
What's the bitrate on that offline sync? If you're listening to pop music, not a big deal...but with most of the stuff I listen to, anything less than 256kbps sounds like it's being played through a steel pipe into a trash can because of the wide dynamic range of actual instruments.
I've got nothing against streaming services, but there is always a need for me to own music.
I did not say I was buying new releases, and I'm sure you could still find 40 if you looked at ALL of them anyway.