BuzzJack
Entertainment Discussion

Welcome Guest ( Log In | Register | Help )

Latest Site News
> -
4 Pages V   1 2 3 > »   
Reply to this topicStart new topic
> Apple to launch streaming service (June 8), Source: MW
Track this topic - Email this topic - Print this topic - Download this topic - Subscribe to this forum
Mart!n
post Jun 7 2015, 07:04 PM
Post #1
Infamy Infamy they all got it in for me
********
Group: Members
Posts: 129,123
Member No.: 2
Joined: 5-March 06
 


Apple WILL launch its streaming service tomorrow (Monday, June 8), according to Sony Music Entertainment CEO Doug Morris.

Over the past few weeks there have been reports suggesting that Tim Cook and company were struggling to nail down crucial deals with indie and major labels alike, leaving the timely launch of the streaming platform hanging in the balance.

But, in his "Visionary Talk" at Midem in Cannes today, June 7, Morris said, "It's happening tomorrow."

Morris went on to say that Apple would bring to the table "$178 billion dollars in the bank and 800 million credit cards in iTunes." And in his opinion, Apple will "make a big splash," unlike Spotify, which "has never really advertised." He said, "My guess is that Apple will promote this [the new service] like crazy and I think that will have a halo effect on the streaming business."

For Morris, the transition from downloads to streaming "is a tipping point in the music industry. In the last 10 years the industry has halved: it was a $30bn business, now it's a $15bn business. Think of all the people who'd like to work in this industry and who can't. But I think this tipping point will bring it back to where it was before."

Morris took the example of Sweden where the business "is back to where it was 10 years ago. Europe and the USA will go the same and we be will back to having an industry that is healthy, robust and powerful. You can't have a streaming service without music, so we are really in a great position. All these companies cannot work without music!"

Morris praised Spotify founder Daniel Ek for doing "an incredible job with Spotify" but he had the highest praise for his friend (they speak twice a day on the phone) Jimmy Iovine, who joined Apple after leaving Universal, when the firm bought Beats for $3bn. "Jimmy is one of the best music people you could ever meet, and it was very smart of Apple to bring him in," said Morris. However, Morris did not disclose whether Sony had made a licensing deal with the new service.

Morris added that the arrival of Apple in the crowded streaming market would benefit to the industry as a whole. “A rising tide will lift all boats,” he said. “I think it is the the beginning of an amazing moment for our industry. It is coming and it is coming fast, and after all we've been through all these past years, we deserve some happiness.”
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
Robbie
post Jun 7 2015, 07:41 PM
Post #2
BuzzJack Gold Member
*****
Group: Members
Posts: 3,442
Member No.: 366
Joined: 4-April 06
   No Gallery Pics
 


It's possible that Apple Music will only be available in the US at first. If that is the case then I expect it will be available in the UK sooner rather than later. Certainly I would expect Apple Music to launch in the UK in time for the Global Release Day initiative and the subsequent changes to the chart sales week and chart publication day.

This will be the service that will bring streaming to the masses. There are substantially more people in the UK who have iTunes accounts than have, for example, Spotify accounts. I did read a few months ago that Apple were hoping to launch in the UK at a price below other streaming services, possibly £7.99 a month, but I doubt this will now happen. I have also read elsewhere that iTunes will be discontinued with all music related services moving over to Apple Music.

The Apple Music streaming service will hasten the decline in permanent download sales and this will have a massive effect on the charts.


This post has been edited by Robbie: Jun 7 2015, 07:45 PM
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
Ryan.
post Jun 7 2015, 09:21 PM
Post #3
BuzzJack Legend
*******
Group: Members
Posts: 24,411
Member No.: 12,608
Joined: 23-December 10
   No Gallery Pics
 


As I said in The Lounge topic, I'm very excited to see what Apple come up with. If anyone is going to convince me to move to a streaming service it will be Apple as they will be the ones who can integrate it as well as possible with my mobile device.

I do think that there is the potential for Apple to become the market leader within days of the service launching, I've seen figures of 800 million quoted in terms of the number of customers Apple have in regards to iTunes accounts and iOS devices. If they can get it right, I can see downloads dropping incredibly drastically - 20k being enough to be sales #1 by the end of the year? Sounds drastic but it's possible. If rumours are correct and iTunes will become a streaming service first and for most with downloads being an additional bonus on the side, it will be the biggest change in music history for over a decade. Let's just hope they get it right!

I wouldn't expect it to launch until maybe early July at the earliest, perhaps coinciding with the worldwide release day as Robbie says, as it hasn't appeared in any of the betas of the upcoming iOS 8.4 software with streaming is expected to launch with, so I'd expect it to appear possibly in a final beta later this month ahead of a release early next month. Then again maybe Apple have managed to do some secret testing and have it ready already, but I wouldn't expect that.
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
danG
post Jun 7 2015, 09:42 PM
Post #4
...
********
Group: Chart Mod
Posts: 74,377
Member No.: 11,746
Joined: 30-August 10
   No Gallery Pics
 


will everything that's currently on iTunes be available on their streaming service then? will be interesting to see if Taylor Swift is on the service, this could be bad news for Spotify if a lot of their users migrate to Apple Music, and if it is the same price as Spotify Premium (or less) then I will consider moving depending on how good the service is.

Also I've got about £40 in iTunes store credit from vouchers, so it would be great if I could use that up for streaming instead of it just lying there
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
Ryan.
post Jun 7 2015, 09:49 PM
Post #5
BuzzJack Legend
*******
Group: Members
Posts: 24,411
Member No.: 12,608
Joined: 23-December 10
   No Gallery Pics
 


I think that's probably the aim to have all the iTunes songs available to stream. Of course there will be the odd artist that downright refuses, just like some artists still refuse to have their songs on iTunes. It's rumoured it'll be the same price as Spotify, and they'll offer a 2 or 3 month free trial when it launches.

Personally I think Taylor Swift will be available on Apple Music considering there is no free tier that Spotify has, so it's more like Tidal in that way and there isn't the issue of people not paying for their music.
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
girl_from_oz
post Jun 7 2015, 11:02 PM
Post #6
BuzzJack Enthusiast
****
Group: Members
Posts: 1,281
Member No.: 10,540
Joined: 29-January 10
   No Gallery Pics
 


If Apple has The Beatles on their streaming service then it pretty much already has the upper hand on all the streaming services, several other bands as well who are not available to stream anywhere else such as AC/DC
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
Graham A
post Jun 8 2015, 12:29 AM
Post #7
BuzzJack Climber
**
Group: Members
Posts: 177
Member No.: 20,299
Joined: 22-December 13
   No Gallery Pics
 


I actually think it's been people switching to streaming that had iTunes accounts that has been causing the perceived fall off in download sales in the UK. So it comes as no surprise to me that Apple are introducing the streaming services.
The question now is what they do about the download side of the market. Will they eventually pull the plug on downloads completely and force everyone with iTunes accounts to stream? It wouldn't surprise me if they did. It's what Sky did to customers with analogue boxes. They just sent out loads of free digital boxes and switched off the services, even though they could have left it running. If fact the German TV service started using ex Sky Channels! Killed a lot of business off with Sky box repair people too.
It wold work too, as the people who download from iTunes don't seem to shop around. For example even this week Walk The Moon has just entered the iTunes charts and very high. But iTunes buyers could have got the record weeks ago if they shopped at Amazon. It's not an isolated example either. I would predict that when the iTunes streaming service is up and running for all, that if iTunes said it was closing down the download service very few of iTunes customers would start downloading from the other download sites. Taking up the streaming service instead.
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
zenon
post Jun 8 2015, 12:45 AM
Post #8
BuzzJack Gold Member
*****
Group: Members
Posts: 3,613
Member No.: 8,809
Joined: 9-May 09
   No Gallery Pics
 


If iTunes cease downloads, will this mean the OCC will no longer publish the sales chart?
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
Ryan.
post Jun 8 2015, 12:52 AM
Post #9
BuzzJack Legend
*******
Group: Members
Posts: 24,411
Member No.: 12,608
Joined: 23-December 10
   No Gallery Pics
 


Even if iTunes did stop selling downloads, which I doubt they will for a few years yet (it'll just be less prominent in their store), there will surely still be other sites that would still sell them so I can't see the sales chart ending any time soon. The physical CD singles chart is still going and they went out of fashion around a decade ago!
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
dhwe
post Jun 8 2015, 07:56 AM
Post #10
BuzzJack Gold Member
*****
Group: Members
Posts: 2,586
Member No.: 21,384
Joined: 20-November 14
 


I highly doubt they'd stop selling downloads just because they're venturing into streaming. It's true that in the long-term the pendulum is swinging in favor of streaming, but as of now downloads still make up a sizable share of the market and the "ownership" of music is still valuable to a lot of people. People won't necessarily go for the "easier" or newer method of music consumption right away just because you're offering it to them; it has to slowly make itself familiar to more people, because certain segments of the music audience are slower to adopt new technology than others. For example, hip-hop audiences were among the first to adopt downloads, while country audiences were among the last. You're seeing the same thing now in the adolescent years of streaming; that's why, at the moment, hip-hop is so much more visible on the Spotify charts than on the regular pop charts. It'll still be a while before streaming fully saturates the entire market, and if they pull the plug on downloads prematurely, they'd be pissing a lot of people off.

And even once streaming becomes predominant, I don't think digital sales will completely go away. There's a lot of sentimental value attached to how people consume music; it's why vinyl and CDs soldier on in 2015. In 2025, I imagine the idea of owning a music library in a hard drive would be a sentimental one for a lot of people, and I wouldn't be surprised if we see some sort of nostalgia-driven iPod revival. wink.gif


This post has been edited by dhwe: Jun 8 2015, 07:57 AM
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
AcerBen
post Jun 8 2015, 11:35 AM
Post #11
BuzzJack Gold Member
*****
Group: Members
Posts: 3,624
Member No.: 3,429
Joined: 18-May 07
   No Gallery Pics
 


QUOTE(dhwe @ Jun 8 2015, 07:56 AM) *
I highly doubt they'd stop selling downloads just because they're venturing into streaming. It's true that in the long-term the pendulum is swinging in favor of streaming, but as of now downloads still make up a sizable share of the market and the "ownership" of music is still valuable to a lot of people. People won't necessarily go for the "easier" or newer method of music consumption right away just because you're offering it to them; it has to slowly make itself familiar to more people, because certain segments of the music audience are slower to adopt new technology than others. For example, hip-hop audiences were among the first to adopt downloads, while country audiences were among the last. You're seeing the same thing now in the adolescent years of streaming; that's why, at the moment, hip-hop is so much more visible on the Spotify charts than on the regular pop charts. It'll still be a while before streaming fully saturates the entire market, and if they pull the plug on downloads prematurely, they'd be pissing a lot of people off.

And even once streaming becomes predominant, I don't think digital sales will completely go away. There's a lot of sentimental value attached to how people consume music; it's why vinyl and CDs soldier on in 2015. In 2025, I imagine the idea of owning a music library in a hard drive would be a sentimental one for a lot of people, and I wouldn't be surprised if we see some sort of nostalgia-driven iPod revival. wink.gif


I'm not sure people will feel sentimental about downloads in the same way, but I do think there will still be people who prefer downloading to streaming for some time to come. I suppose as the Internet gets cheaper, faster and more accessible, streaming will become more and more popular - as it is doing in Sweden - but I suppose there will be enough interest in downloads for them to still be available - and it probably isn't very difficult for sites to offer both anyway. I suppose the Apple store will become, if isn't from the outset, streams and downloads from the same store.

I can understand why streaming is ideal for most people, but my problem is that a lot of the music I like isn't available in this country (though that might be changing with the "EU Digital Single Market" that is coming. Though there will still be stuff that reached #135 in 1997 that just isn't online. I know you can access your local files on Spotify though.. I suppose I should just look into that more. How good is the integration of local files on the mobile version of Spotify, which I haven't used?

Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
Steve201
post Jun 8 2015, 11:55 AM
Post #12
Shakin Stevens
*******
Group: Members
Posts: 45,996
Member No.: 5,138
Joined: 29-December 07
   No Gallery Pics
 


I dont think people will be sentimental about downloading music its more likely we will see an even bigger surge in vinyl /cd pruchasing again and most will go towards streaming.

I dont get streaming, outside of a wifi area how do you listen to spotify - do you download it onto your device for sitting on the bus or something?
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
vidcapper
post Jun 8 2015, 02:44 PM
Post #13
Paul Hyett
*******
Group: Banned
Posts: 25,346
Member No.: 364
Joined: 4-April 06
   No Gallery Pics
 


QUOTE(steve201 @ Jun 8 2015, 12:55 PM) *
I dont think people will be sentimental about downloading music its more likely we will see an even bigger surge in vinyl /cd pruchasing again and most will go towards streaming.

I dont get streaming, outside of a wifi area how do you listen to spotify - do you download it onto your device for sitting on the bus or something?


Many buses round here have free wi-fi anyway... smile.gif
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
April
post Jun 8 2015, 02:44 PM
Post #14
changed the game with that digital drop
******
Group: Members
Posts: 13,000
Member No.: 11,905
Joined: 26-September 10
 


QUOTE(steve201 @ Jun 8 2015, 12:55 PM) *
I dont think people will be sentimental about downloading music its more likely we will see an even bigger surge in vinyl /cd pruchasing again and most will go towards streaming.

I dont get streaming, outside of a wifi area how do you listen to spotify - do you download it onto your device for sitting on the bus or something?


If you subscribe you can make music available offline to listen at any time.
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
Ryan.
post Jun 8 2015, 02:50 PM
Post #15
BuzzJack Legend
*******
Group: Members
Posts: 24,411
Member No.: 12,608
Joined: 23-December 10
   No Gallery Pics
 


Regarding Spotify's offline listening, does anyone know what the limit is to how many you can make available offline? I assume there is a limit otherwise in effect it's unlimited downloads for a tenner a month, and that seems too much of a bargain.

I'm interested to see how Apple's offering will compare as this is likely to be the make-or-break factor for me if I was to move to streaming!
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
April
post Jun 8 2015, 02:55 PM
Post #16
changed the game with that digital drop
******
Group: Members
Posts: 13,000
Member No.: 11,905
Joined: 26-September 10
 


QUOTE(Ryan. @ Jun 8 2015, 03:50 PM) *
Regarding Spotify's offline listening, does anyone know what the limit is to how many you can make available offline? I assume there is a limit otherwise in effect it's unlimited downloads for a tenner a month, and that seems too much of a bargain.

I'm interested to see how Apple's offering will compare as this is likely to be the make-or-break factor for me if I was to move to streaming!


3,333 (not even kidding)
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
Ryan.
post Jun 8 2015, 02:55 PM
Post #17
BuzzJack Legend
*******
Group: Members
Posts: 24,411
Member No.: 12,608
Joined: 23-December 10
   No Gallery Pics
 


To answer my own question it seems you are allowed to "download" 3,333 songs per device from Spotify. That seems pretty generous I think as I download maybe 150 singles per year, so that'd last a very long time!

EDIT: Haha, thanks April! I'd looked before but didn't find a straight answer, but I did straight away this time so I must have put in the wrong search terms before. laugh.gif
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
danG
post Jun 8 2015, 08:36 PM
Post #18
...
********
Group: Chart Mod
Posts: 74,377
Member No.: 11,746
Joined: 30-August 10
   No Gallery Pics
 


it's been confirmed to launch at the end of the month then, and you get a FREE 3 month trial!!!

I would expect download sales to drop a lot in this period as all apple users are basically getting free music for 3 months
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
Colm
post Jun 8 2015, 08:38 PM
Post #19
Yes, it's me.
******
Group: Members
Posts: 19,781
Member No.: 9,885
Joined: 4-November 09
 


Obviously I wont be using it. I'll stick to Spotify.
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
girl_from_oz
post Jun 8 2015, 10:47 PM
Post #20
BuzzJack Enthusiast
****
Group: Members
Posts: 1,281
Member No.: 10,540
Joined: 29-January 10
   No Gallery Pics
 


Comes 10 days before the new release day changes, lot's of changes ahead for itunes
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post


4 Pages V   1 2 3 > » 
Reply to this topicStart new topic

1 User(s) are reading this topic (1 Guests and 0 Anonymous Users)
0 Members:


 

Lo-Fi Version Time is now: 29th March 2024 - 11:25 AM