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Report Insists Apple Will Eliminate iTunes Store Music Downloads in Future
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Go read the source of this article and you'll see there's no truth to this at all. They couldn't even mention the Apple Rep that they quoted other then to say Source. Good grief people need to learn not to believe everything they see/hear unless there's facts behind it, there's none with this "news". 
My understanding, technically you have a long term lease of the songs. When you end your time here on earth, the lease ends.
and like satellite radio, this too will die. A profitable streaming music service has been a very rare bird. With immune deficiency.
I use Google Music to play stuff I own.
Mess with Spotify occasionally.
I buy from whomever has it DRM-free the cheapest. with quality.
I have a physical offline backup.
I buy minimal physical albums - regional cost restrictions - I'm a global listener
Its not going to happen while Apple sell any device without wifi connectivity. Their iPod still has those.
Or even more than that, data plans. An iPod Touch would be useless while running for instance.
Or even more than that, data plans. An iPod Touch would be useless while running for instance.
I have quite a nice audio set-up in my living room and my car's system is the top-end of the available factory install, I rarely use iPod/earbuds except on long plane/train journeys where ambient noise makes high-end impossible anyway (yes, yes, noise-cancelling and all). I frequently drive/visit places where the cellular signal is dodgy and/or WiFi/bandwidth isn't particularly reliable so streaming is far from optimal.
Here's my listening/spending pattern:-
I hear something I like on Apple Music, I listen again
I hear something I really like, I buy the download via iTunes
I hear something I really, really like, I buy the CD (often from Amazon) and rip it lossless for on-the-move and use the CD at home
So a move to streaming only wouldn't work for me and the Apple Music subscription would become mostly redundant.
I know it'll never happen, but I'd quite like Apple to add an optional "send me the CD" to the iTunes Album download - they'd get (even) more of my money that way. Alternatively, Apple could offer true lossless downloads at a premium over 256kb stuff. And support FLAC
Here's my listening/spending pattern:-
I hear something I like on Apple Music, I listen again
I hear something I really like, I buy the download via iTunes
I hear something I really, really like, I buy the CD (often from Amazon) and rip it lossless for on-the-move and use the CD at home
So a move to streaming only wouldn't work for me and the Apple Music subscription would become mostly redundant.
I know it'll never happen, but I'd quite like Apple to add an optional "send me the CD" to the iTunes Album download - they'd get (even) more of my money that way. Alternatively, Apple could offer true lossless downloads at a premium over 256kb stuff. And support FLAC
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Yep. I really heavily utilize iTunes Match to sync my music to my phone, basically having my whole library at my fingertips anywhere whether streamed or downloaded. Having the radio was great to discover music. Now the radio is gone. And if they take away iTunes Match, I'll find somewhere else to store my music. And at that point I won't need Apple.
Might be late, but in case nobody has stated so already.... no, you do not "own" the songs you download off of iTunes or any other location for that matter. You're just licensing them.
From http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/apr/05/digital-media-licensed-not-owned
A Federal judge has reminded us of a fundamental reality: if it's digital, we don't own it. In an unfortunate but unsurprising ruling, District Judge Richard J Sullivan sided (pdf) with the Copyright Cartel – specifically, Capitol Records in this case – against an innovative startup that was providing a marketplace for used songs.
Had the users of the startup, ReDigi, been selling used CDs via any number of online stores, there would have been no issue. But the music in this case was stored in computer files, so the doctrine of "first sale" – your right to resell what you've bought – didn't apply.
The first-sale doctrine has been an essential part of American copyright law. If you buy a book, you can resell it or give it away (or even throw it away). The new owner, or your heirs, will have the same rights. First sale got a big boost recently when the supreme court rejected a publisher's stance that a book it sold overseas couldn't legally be resold in the United States.
But with digital material, the original owners are only providing you a license to use the material. This creates a market condition they absolutely love, where your possession of the material lasts, essentially, only as long as you do. Less freedom for you, more sales – sorry, licenses – for them.
My concern is that if Apple kills paid music downloads then how will I play the music I already own on an Apple device? I'm assuming they'll take away that playback ability and that I may be left with files. Perhaps another app in the appstore will take over that functionality?
If this ever does happen, I hope that there will be alternatives on the market because I'll be using them. Streaming, cloud services, etc are all well and good as long as you have a solid connection but we all know that there are failures which are frequent enough to warrant local backup.
If this ever does happen, I hope that there will be alternatives on the market because I'll be using them. Streaming, cloud services, etc are all well and good as long as you have a solid connection but we all know that there are failures which are frequent enough to warrant local backup.
Am I missing something? You don't have to stream (yes that would suck). You can download the music locally. I go running with playlists off of Apple Music all the time, locally downloaded.
Not exactly....
The predominance of download buyers are in the 45+ age group while the younger generation (under 25) is into streaming. You can tell where the money is coming from - over the age of 25. To try to eliminate / minimize downloads and morph this into a streaming environment makes little sense. You end up alienating your predominant monetary stream.
We, as posters and users, are either missing something critical or Apple is growing out of touch with true reality. Or they could just be giving a F*U* to the older gen's. The ones with the fluid cash.
While 99% of the time I stream my music nowadays. There are a few artists/bands for whom I still purchase their albums via iTunes. If Apple eliminates digital downloads for music, is it going to be the end of the world? No. I will just have to go elsewhere and purchase the album. But I certainly will not be pleased with Apple.
Feel tired to go through remaining posts.
Here, I would never pay for streaming. Never, ever. I use Spotify, free tier. No. No Apple Music. Thank you.
I do own a lot of music, from various sources, not only purchasing. Many of such is simply never will be released for streaming, or even extremely difficult to buy (bundled with something else I don't need blah blah).
Talking about streaming, let me do one a bit extreme case. Assume an artist will be paid for $0.10/play. Then maybe 10000 play would this artist earn $1000 from that single song. And assume this artist has created 10 songs, then $10000.
Sounds great? Each playback is 5:00. 10000 play would be 50000 minutes, or 35 days.
Personally speaking, even though I really like one song, I would listen to it about 100 times then I will switch to another before listening to it again. Then the artist would need to let 100 customers to listen to his song 100 times, or 1000 customers to listen to his song 10 times.
I clearly know such estimation is extremely vague and misses a ton of other critical factors. However, streaming is very difficult for individual artist to earn enough money. Heck, I even think maybe I just let my iPhone play a few songs overnight while I am sleeping to contribute a bit more income for that artist.
I would stream, but only through free services, and radio. No paid stuff. I am holding 4 subs and I simply don't want to add even more. I have no idea why those millenniums like streaming, just like they don't understand why we like owning stuff. Generation Gap. Right?
If ever Apple stops allowing customers to buy songs and only allow renting them, I would like to support artists through other ways. Nowadays there are sites in Japan sells Hi-Res music album (24kHz/48bit, or 24kHz/96bit), with almost the same price as a single CD. I think this is a very good start and potentially reliable alternative.
All in all, those industry "leaders" just think about capital and money and cash too much.
Here, I would never pay for streaming. Never, ever. I use Spotify, free tier. No. No Apple Music. Thank you.
I do own a lot of music, from various sources, not only purchasing. Many of such is simply never will be released for streaming, or even extremely difficult to buy (bundled with something else I don't need blah blah).
Talking about streaming, let me do one a bit extreme case. Assume an artist will be paid for $0.10/play. Then maybe 10000 play would this artist earn $1000 from that single song. And assume this artist has created 10 songs, then $10000.
Sounds great? Each playback is 5:00. 10000 play would be 50000 minutes, or 35 days.
Personally speaking, even though I really like one song, I would listen to it about 100 times then I will switch to another before listening to it again. Then the artist would need to let 100 customers to listen to his song 100 times, or 1000 customers to listen to his song 10 times.
I clearly know such estimation is extremely vague and misses a ton of other critical factors. However, streaming is very difficult for individual artist to earn enough money. Heck, I even think maybe I just let my iPhone play a few songs overnight while I am sleeping to contribute a bit more income for that artist.
I would stream, but only through free services, and radio. No paid stuff. I am holding 4 subs and I simply don't want to add even more. I have no idea why those millenniums like streaming, just like they don't understand why we like owning stuff. Generation Gap. Right?
If ever Apple stops allowing customers to buy songs and only allow renting them, I would like to support artists through other ways. Nowadays there are sites in Japan sells Hi-Res music album (24kHz/48bit, or 24kHz/96bit), with almost the same price as a single CD. I think this is a very good start and potentially reliable alternative.
All in all, those industry "leaders" just think about capital and money and cash too much.
Eroding the concept of ownership or is it eroding the concept of source? Current business models are forced into regional models. Digital works better as a global model. Antiquated models.
Why would they do that? That would just be spiteful.
Apple have always let you play music you have ripped from CDs or downloaded from other sources so I don't think they will stop you playing your own music just because they have withdrawn from download sales.
Their content that I already bought is the SINGLE reason that I still use my iPhone. Without it I'm gone too.. I don't want to rent music and if I can't buy new no reason to stay on the platform.
Dear Apple,
Please go ahead and eliminate music downloads.
Keep ONLY subscription based streaming.
Just do it and do it NOW.
Love,
Amazon
Please go ahead and eliminate music downloads.
Keep ONLY subscription based streaming.
Just do it and do it NOW.
Love,
Amazon