Won't happen. The music industry has learnt it lesson and doesn't want to repeat the mistake of giving Apple a dominant position in the streaming market like they did in downloads.
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iTunes Digital Music Sales Fall 13 Percent as Apple Prepares Beats Music Refresh
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Won't happen. The music industry has learnt it lesson and doesn't want to repeat the mistake of giving Apple a dominant position in the streaming market like they did in downloads.
Maybe because people want high-quality music, not outdated AAC 256 kb/s crap
As much as I agree with you I can't see it happening anytime soon. iTunes is a means to an end - that being to sell more iPhones and iPads. Increasing the size of music downloads would mean fewer tracks on your iPhone which isn't going to help sell more iPhones.
At some point I think they will add higher quality downloads and sell the iPhone as the "best sounding smartphone" or something like that. Presumably that's why they've added the ability to connect your headphones via the lightning port. That will take time to filter through the headphone manufacturers. In the meantime they're building the library of 24 bit tracks in their database through the Mastered for iTunes program. Once all that comes together with a 256GB iPhone 7 in 2016 then hopefully they will go with it.
Music is better than ever now. Do some searching, you're not going to find the good stuff in the charts.
I'd imagine an audiophile would never have been on iTunes in the first place...nor would they be on any streaming services?
Maybe because people want high-quality music, not outdated AAC 256 kb/s crap
99 percent of people don't even know what bitrate is. Also, unless you're on high end audiophile gear the sound difference is placebo, sorry.
In file size yes, you won't hear an actual difference though.
I consider myself and audiophile...not bragging about it though. I'm using iTunes but have Audirvana Plus on the top of it. What a revelation!
Yep, all 3 of them! The other 7 billion of us can't tell the difference.Maybe because people want high-quality music, not outdated AAC 256 kb/s crap
johnnyturbouk
macrumors 68000
I get Spotify premium with my Vodafone account- have had this since my iPhone 5s. I have not purchased an iTunes song since getting Spotify premium
Maybe because people want high-quality music, not outdated AAC 256 kb/s crap
Hah, are pirated FLACs the standard? Being serious, it's probably from people streaming from Spotify or YouTube. Way cheaper or free that way. I'm surprised sales dropped for the first time ever last year and not long before that.
For me, nothing beats iTunes with imported CDs plus a few songs downloaded from YouTube, probably because I don't listen to new music. I love the organization iTunes provides, not these wishy-washy streaming things.
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THIS is the best way to go. But unfortunately, my dad didn't know that when he was ripping our CDs.
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Yeah, but the iTunes Store probably makes more^H^H^H^Hsome profit, so Apple sticks with it.
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Essential for Pink Floyd
True, but this is what it's all about. iTunes Radio was introduced during a key note to a global audience - and still didn't arrive.
Beats was acquired more or less through the backdoor and people outside the U.S. are not really familiar with it.
As a bottom line: Apple is losing market share in the music business. Why? Because Apple's strategy is unclear. Will Beats be revamped, closed down or even combined to an all new iTunes Radio or will the latter be introduced finally? This is why users hesitate to subscribe or are looking for alternatives.
By the way, since the introduction of iTunes Match my purchases also increased significantly as others described earlier in this thread
Specifically, when we're not sitting in our Anechoic chamber's, we're listening in the car (road noise), while exercising (road noise, gym noise, etc.), at public places (exterior noise, people, etc.), in the office, and a multitude of other places offering a less-than-perfect listening environment.
The percentage of people sitting in front of their sound-perfect audio setup is slim. I'd guess that few people even have the equipment needed to discern the difference, let alone the desire.
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Essential for Pink Floyd
Maybe Apple could start bundling certain albums with free cannabis (in states where it's legal) to spur the sales of music.
I know I helped with that 13 percent. I used to buy iTunes music pretty regularly but this year I think I have only bought a couple of albums--and those were during the first half of the year. I pretty much exclusively listen to Spotify now. I used to be a big fan of album listening but now I don't even do that on Spotify--I mostly just listen to their various playlists and find most of my music needs satisfied. If Apple wants to stay competitive in the music industry, they most certainly need to make Beats work.
Maybe because people want high-quality music, not outdated AAC 256 kb/s crap
Exactly. Buying music has slowed, perhaps in part because buyers have realized that music that is bought from iTunes isn't much better in quality than music that is streamed. How can you make iTunes music worth buying? By making it higher quality, so people have a motive for buying it! Duh.
There are so many idiots (on this board included) who echo what was once said about HDTV - that no one can tell the difference between regular tv and high-definition. Or that no one can tell the difference between a JPG saved at 12 versus one saved at, say, 8.
It is simply reality that higher resolution has higher resolution. They can argue against reality until they are blue in the face. Whether people WANT to buy higher quality music will remain a good question. Some won't. But at least give people the opportunity to buy the best and see what happens.
Defending lower quality audio with the argument that "Our earbuds suck, and we can't hear for sh't anyway" is not a good sales strategy, even if it is true that some people don't notice much of a difference. Myself, I only notice the difference when listening to electronica but what are you going to do, say "Well, except for electronica, what Apple sells is good enough, or pretty good anyway!"?
If Apple wants to be the primo supplier of music then they must supply the best they can - not some middle-ground that a bunch of luddites say is "good enough".
Even YouTube has been slowly improving its audio quality. But why, when their previous high of ~160 kbps compressed audio is "good enough" for people who don't care? Why do companies try to make things better? Let's honor the skeptics and do them one better: Is there some way to stop companies from improving things? Could we somehow encourage companies to make things worse?
While I like spotify more having to have an app on a computer sucks. I can't download any apps on my work computer. I'm a google play music all access guy because it's web based and I can use it work. That and I got it at the introductory 7.99 so its cheaper. Spotify has a bit more content though
Spotify has a web player too
oh cool is that new? I just saw it now? Maybe they just brought the web player to Canada recently because I could only download the app to use it before.
I love that story .... Anyway. Ignorance is bliss. If you wasn't there ...you'll never know ...but if you happy. That's all that matters ... Enjoy.
I'm almost certain you have stolen music and you are probably either in denial or completely ignorant that you have. Where is all this free music other than streaming services you speak of? Please educate us.
Put iTunes on Android
Oh boo hoo...poor Apple will only make $50 billion off iTunes this year or whatever ridiculous amount they earn, while artists struggle to get by. There's a lot of great music being produced right now. It's a simple solution to fix the declining sales. 1) sell higher fidelity downloads and hype it as better as it truly is and 2) create an Android version of iTunes to cover the other 70% of the market. Apple is allowing competitors to fill the gap in the Android market. Why not compete, they already have an Android music app with Beats. And while they're at it, revive the iPod market by improving the sound quality and storage capacities. There are many music collectors that want to take their music with them but are limited by the small capacity iPods. I want a very small iPod with at least 128K and bluetooth, c'mon.
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...and discontinuing the iPod Classic was a mistake. They should have added Bluetooth to it and some other features instead of abandoning it. Audiophiles need the extra storage capacity for their stereos and automobiles.
Oh boo hoo...poor Apple will only make $50 billion off iTunes this year or whatever ridiculous amount they earn, while artists struggle to get by. There's a lot of great music being produced right now. It's a simple solution to fix the declining sales. 1) sell higher fidelity downloads and hype it as better as it truly is and 2) create an Android version of iTunes to cover the other 70% of the market. Apple is allowing competitors to fill the gap in the Android market. Why not compete, they already have an Android music app with Beats. And while they're at it, revive the iPod market by improving the sound quality and storage capacities. There are many music collectors that want to take their music with them but are limited by the small capacity iPods. I want a very small iPod with at least 128K and bluetooth, c'mon.
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...and discontinuing the iPod Classic was a mistake. They should have added Bluetooth to it and some other features instead of abandoning it. Audiophiles need the extra storage capacity for their stereos and automobiles.
Using iTunes, you can choose a range of quality options for the result. If you choose uncompressed AIF or WAV file, then nothing can sound better. In fact, if you choose 320Kb/s AAC or MP3, the result is probably undistinguishable from the original CD by 99% of all listeners. FLAC fans will shout angrily that no one can possibly accept the quality of anything but FLAC, but we know they are theoritizing and don't really know what people can hear.
I'm all for more quality, but ABX blind listening test have proved that even in a perfect listening environment, people can't tell the difference between 256 kbps lossy and lossless audio format. Maybe if you are an audiophile with audio equipment worth several thousand dollars and are listening to a specific type of music. But how many people do? How much better will music sound for all of us who listen to music with the crappy headphones that came with our iPhone, on our laptop speakers or our TV?
Did the move to HD resulted in more sales than before though? People usually bought HDTVs to replace their ageing, bulky CRT TVs, sure, but did they start buying significantly more movies than before as a result?
People already have the opportunity to buy "the best". They can buy CDs and they can also buy hi-res 96kHz/24bit AIFF/FLAC/WAV music at many online music stores (HDtracks, Magnatune, Qobuz, ...), but that hasn't really affected sales.
Considering this quote from Steve Jobs...
'I think if you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful, not dwell on it for too long. Just figure out what's next'
...I wonder what Apple needs to do to replace/upgrade iTunes.
If music sales are declining, and they're close to entering the television market, maybe they need a leapfrog product to replace iTunes.
Stream music, watch TV shows and films, as well as the ability to purchase and manage content on any device from any device.
Everyone says iTunes is bloated... maybe a complete rewrite (akin to Photos replace iPhoto) will ensure the program is lightweight and efficient?
I think Apple is more intelligent than we give them credit for. Everyone grumbles about iCloud but Apple are slowly reworking it: iCloud Drive replaces Documents in the Cloud, Photos is set to replace Photostream. What's next?
The problem I had with iTunes is that it's trying to be too much at once and the UI doesn't suit the occasions.
Give me a dedicated media application similar to plex which the whole purpose is it organise and use my media in a beautiful manner similar to plex.
Simply have iTunes as a means to buy apps/music/movies/ and manage my phone and devices.
And have a dedicated media consuming application that is simple , intuitive and does what is it says in the box instead of trying to do too much . I got lost in the occasion when it came to iTunes ( I'm over exaggerating lol).
The news about iTunes sales isn't suprising though , I haven't bought a single song since Google music all access came out, I just love the fact for just 10 dollars a month I have access to basically any song /album/artist I want , I can make them offline , upload my own music library etc all that for the price of one album I will probably listen to a couple of times a month
I use Spotify today and it is great! i have not bought a single CD since Spotify was new.
Apple should hurry up and jump on the music streaming business right now, what are they waiting for?
I hope Apple will go for high quality streaming service like lossless or at least 320 kbps, and it should be selectable for home use and Smart phones.
I leave Spotify the day Apple release music streaming service, if the price is the same or lower, if the content is the same or better(more), if you can make your own play lists.
Apple should hurry up and jump on the music streaming business right now, what are they waiting for?
I hope Apple will go for high quality streaming service like lossless or at least 320 kbps, and it should be selectable for home use and Smart phones.
I leave Spotify the day Apple release music streaming service, if the price is the same or lower, if the content is the same or better(more), if you can make your own play lists.