2 posts tagged “itunes”

In Stars Are Aligning for Subscription Music in yesterday's Business Week, Peter Burrows reports that subscription music services may be gaining momentum due to changes in consumer behavior. Users are becoming acclimated to receiving whatever they want whenever they want it. This is also applying to media which is evident in this years' crop of free, online & on-demand video services for television network shows.

I agree that iTunes is an old-school e-retailer.  It has been an issue since they opened their doors that you can only preview :30 of a song. iTunes said that full playback is limited due to "streaming rights".  Which legally, the last time I checked, is still gray territory.  You'd think that a big shop like Apple could have worked something out.

First, the industry needs to come up with a model that allows listeners to preview a track in it's entirety.  Have a vast catalog! (I predict that the indies will go first) AND, what a lot of industry folks seem to be missing, is that users want to share this content. They want to embed it on their blogs. They want to add it to their profile page, and add it to a mix for their friends. This is where the marketing is. This is where the promotion is. This is where the music industry needs to shift. Because, what better way to promote an artist if it's being done for you? 

Further reading:

The more things change: Subscription music services still not taking off (Macuser)

iTunes is being pushed aside as record labels and networks leave to pursue better deals, or create an alternative music source to the burgeoning digital music biz that iTunes has reigned over for some time.

NBC has ditched iTunes in favor of having more control of sales and bundling of television programs. An increasing amount of networks are realizing that they don't need iTunes to hit the digital sales market bullseye and are exploring other options. Universal Music has pulled the plug on iTunes, offering DRM-free music on the artists' websites instead.

GBox, a site built by Sony-BMG may be one competitor. Amazon is also expected to throw their hat in the ring, with a scheduled store to launch next month. Both stores are expected to sell music for .99 cents, placing themselves in direct competition with iTunes.

Apple has nothing to worry about. The majority of their music revenue comes from the sale of the iPod (of which, a new one is being unveiled next week in SF). Apple also continues reach on the mobile front with the sale of ringtones.

I like the integration of  iTunes  and  hoped that Apple would eventually do a better job in retaining labels and managing DRM.  And that DRM thing is a huge pain. I have a feeling that users will continue to use iTunes as a music organizer due to it's simplistic, scalable qualities  - but - will continue to discover and purchase music elsewhere.  Someone had to be the first Indian in, and iTunes has certainly set a precedent for online distribution from top to tail.