Apple's Beats Music Deal Seen as Key to Bolstering Declining iTunes Revenue Momentum

[usarioclave]

Steve Jobs said no one wants subscriptions

The only ones who want subscriptions have already bought them.

The music industry is looking for a way out of their decline, and Apple spending $3bn on some accessories company isn't the answer.

The bad thing is that Apple thinks that subscriptions are an answer.

How much of iTunes' success was a response to a format change?

 

[iPhysicist]

As a customer, I say "yay unlimited music!", but as a professional musician with music on iTunes and Spotify, I say "well, there goes my chance at paying rent with this stuff".

Maybe your to young but musicians say this for decades if not centuries. Your chances are similar to those who play lotteries to make their living.



Get a real job


(...says the drummer)

 

[Gasu E.]

People who think one is going to kill the other are wrong. There are benefits to both ways of doing things. It's like buying a TV show ala carte vs paying for cable service every month.

That's a great analogy! Why should I have to pay the streaming service for the 40M songs I don't want, just to listen to the 10K I care about!?!?! This bundling is a rip-off!

 

[Soni Sanjay]

I agree but it's not the total answer. HD downloads would triple the size of the files. Not plausible for people with 16GB devices and no SD storage.

HD downloads can still be compressed, you should download AAC 256 for mobile use and the ALAC version for home.

 

[ineedamac]

Why buy music from iTunes when I can stream whatever I want for a small monthly fee with Spotify?

What do you do when you do not have a data connection to stream the music?

 

[VulchR]

I think Apple, and the music industry in general, fail to understand one essential point: People won't buy music that is crap. The declining sales are likely to be due to people finding the high-quality music that they like and then only occasionally buying new music that they discover in iTunes. Thus, what iTunes needs is not some flash outfit like Beats, but better algorithms for discovering new music that go beyond 'other people who bought a song that you bought also bought X', which is a supremely lazy way of trying to get people to explore music.

 

[Alumeenium]

So when can we stream Apps ?

oh now you know how musicians feel...

the Digital Revolution is such a joke

 

[BigMovieGeek]

If you expect to pay your rent with iTunes and Spotify royalties you need to reevaluate your career in music

I was just telling my friend Bono that and he took it pretty hard. Thank god he took my advice on the chin and he's just got himself a job in a call centre. It's nothing too fancy, but it's steady money and more stable than busking or whatever he does...

 

[JAT]

And I only listen to COMPLETE albums, only once each.

Ok, I know everyone can have differences and their own opinions and whatnot, and that's fine. But please tell me you are a reviewer, because that is the strangest way to listen to music I have ever heard of.

 

[tkermit]

Well, good luck with that.

If iTunes offered lossless downloads I might get more than a song here or there...

 

[Gasu E.]

buying a 4th tier streaming system with 110k users

And there's another dubious point. According to what I just read, Beats' service went live just four months ago. Given that audits run a quarter behind at best, at what point in the services's lifetime did that get measured? Three weeks after it was launched?

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I was just telling my friend Bono that and he took it pretty hard. Thank god he took my advice on the chin and he's just got himself a job in a call centre. It's nothing too fancy, but it's steady money and more stable than busking or whatever he does...

I think what he does is called "preaching."

 

[Soni Sanjay]

I think Apple, and the music industry in general, fail to understand one essential point: People won't buy music that is crap. The declining sales are likely to be due to people finding the high-quality music that they like and then only occasionally buying new music that they discover in iTunes. Thus, what iTunes needs is not some flash outfit like Beats, but better algorithms for discovering new music that go beyond 'other people who bought a song that you bought also bought X', which is a supremely lazy way of trying to get people to explore music.

iTunes needs a make-over, yes, but i agree, I'm worried they will transfer Beats style to iTunes, I want a stylish, classy app, not the other way around.

As for music discovery, this is a must have feature.

 

[cube]

What do you do when you do not have a data connection to stream the music?

If you pay, you don't have to stream. I never stream, always offline sync. Both before with Spotify, and now with Deezer.

 

[TsMkLg068426]

I agree but it's not the total answer. HD downloads would triple the size of the files. Not plausible for people with 16GB devices and no SD storage.

True but if you have iTunes Match or Cloud than it does not matter for device hard drive space other than offline, only problem their might be is for people listening over data plan not sure how much data would a HD audio eat up while streaming through the Cloud.

 

[kuwxman]

Apple needs to release the Android version of iTunes to make up for the 60% of users that have moved on. As a former iPhone user and now an Android user I really don't want to use Google Music or others but there are no good options. My main music library is still in iTunes on my PC and I need to use Windows Media Player or something else to sync my library to my Moto X. I'd much rather sync from iTunes right to my Android phone.

No you don't. You can use iTunes for everything and have it sync with Google Music. Boom. Access to all your iTunes music.

Believe you can do the same with doubletwist but I haven't used it in quite some time.

 

[Benjamins]

I was just telling my friend Bono that and he took it pretty hard. Thank god he took my advice on the chin and he's just got himself a job in a call centre. It's nothing too fancy, but it's steady money and more stable than busking or whatever he does...

Well my friend Michael have to keep releasing new music and have live performances even after he died.

 

[cube]

Ok, I know everyone can have differences and their own opinions and whatnot, and that's fine. But please tell me you are a reviewer, because that is the strangest way to listen to music I have ever heard of.

There's too much music available with subscription services to go repeating. What's strange about only listening to new music as full albums?

 

[kuwxman]

Most people probably get their music from Piratebay or just stream it for free through Pandora. The real economy is in bad shape, most people will rather spend any extra money they have on food instead of music. Just sayin'

YouTube is a great way to get songs as well.

 

[ZZ9pluralZalpha]

I'm deeply skeptical that this acquisition is anything like its rumors describe.

This is skating to where the puck hasn't been for a long, long time. The iTunes Music Store was a key lever for the iPod to succeed, but the heyday of the dedicated music player is long over. Apple knows this well, because they were the ones who arguably kick-started the process by introducing the iPhone. Music is losing ground as a percentage of iTunes revenue in part because the other segments are all growing, including iBooks and Apps that no (non-iOS) iPod ever knew. The rise of subscription music signals one thing: it's not worth that much anymore.

The one thing of great value Beats might have is a complete collection of multi-decade, fixed-terms, irrevocable, and transferrable contracts with the music labels. By past accounts, a few billion would be a bargain to cure that headache.

 

[Iconoclysm]

Not really every month, because it was too much work.

But that is what I would have to buy, to match my Deezer usage.

So you never listen to the same song twice, is what I'm gathering from all you've said. The music I listen to demands to be heard over and over again.

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I meant Amazon Prime will help Apple TV sorry not iTunes and as mainstream music not everyone listens to mainstream just because it is mainstream.

I don't listen to mainstream music but it's called mainstream music because the mainstream listens to it.

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That would be nice! Maybe you could explain how that every HD movie I've purchased in iTunes have all been 720p...

May want to check your iTunes preferences. You will download either the maximum your monitor/tv supports or whatever resolution you tell iTunes to download automatically.

 

[Benjamins]

The one thing of great value Beats might have is a complete collection of multi-decade, fixed-terms, irrevocable, and transferrable contracts with the music labels. By past accounts, a few billion would be a bargain to cure that headache.

Yes this would be the ONLY reason why this makes sense. But I doubt any music label (or business) would sign any multi-decade, fixed-terms, irrevocable and transferable agreement. That contract would go up in value as time passes.

 

[TechZeke]

Songs?

I used to buy a couple albums a month.

With Spotify, not only do I get those albums for less a month, I also get to listen to anything else too.

If my friend recommends a band? I've got all their music.
If I hear a song I like on the radio? I've got all their music too.

The benefits of streaming services go far beyond any monetary savings.

Definitely agree, it's great being able to legally check out new bands and songs I hear on the radios and at parties on the fly wherever I'm at. Now, what it does to my data plan is a different story, though.

 

[Iconoclysm]

No you don't. You can use iTunes for everything and have it sync with Google Music. Boom. Access to all your iTunes music.

Believe you can do the same with doubletwist but I haven't used it in quite some time.

And you can do the reverse with iTunes Match...without having to upload the files.

 

[RedBanana]

I get the heart of your statement, but . . . you don't REALLY think that music is a dying medium, do you? The most memorable scenes in any movie are usually made all the more memorable by well chosen music to accompany the image. Music goes much deeper than video, it's more primal than the cerebral nature of the spoken word or human interaction portrayed on the screen. Music grabs you in a way an image never can.

As a professional medium it is dying. Very few can make enough money to pay bills or rent, same for almost anything that is digital or now digital; app developers, photographers, artists, video editors, writers (books/magazines), etc, etc. The price the public is willing to pay for anything digital is getting closer and closer to zero every year.

 

[cube]

So you never listen to the same song twice, is what I'm gathering from all you've said. The music I listen to demands to be heard over and over again.

Some I would like to listen again sometime. Right now, I'm more interested in experiencing new music.

I used to listen to stuff again when I ran out of new CDs...