“There has been a lot of speculation lately that Apple is getting ready to create some media bundle that would be under subscription,” Tim Bajarin writes for Tech.pinions. “According to multiple sites, the idea would be to bundle all of their media properties under a special program that mirrors something like Amazon’s Prime services.”
“I have no direct knowledge that this will happen but if you read the tea leaves surrounding Apple’s various acquisitions and new media emphasis, it is not too hard to see this possibility,” Bajarin writes. “With that in mind, their most strategic investment so far this year that could be related to this is Texture, the magazine subscription service that has close to 200 magazines in this service for $9.99 a month. I am a big fan of Texture… The service itself has grown from about 20 magazines at launch to the 200+ available today, and now that Apple owns it, I suspect it will add many more new magazine titles to its offering in the future.”
“If they were to follow Amazon’s Prime example, then any service would also need to have video content too,” Bajarin writes. “I would not be surprised to see Apple buy a couple of the smaller video production companies that already have hits in the market to accelerate their original programming. Also, given their tight relationship with Disney and Pixar, I could even see them trying to tap into some of their skills and content as well. However, well planning by Apple when it comes to subscription infrastructure puts them in an excellent place to deliver an encompassing media subscription service.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We’re very interested to see how Apple sells Texture subscriptiosn and whether “Apple can save magazines” for real this time around (iPad alone was suposed to do that).
SEE ALSO:
A bundled media subscription would be good news for Apple users and for Apple itself – June 29, 2018
Apple reportedly considering subscription bundle of Apple Music, News and original video content – June 28, 2018
Apple is building a media platform like we’ve never seen before – June 27, 2018
Here’s how much Apple could make from streaming – June 27, 2018
Apple’s next $10 billion frontier is content creation – June 25, 2018
Apple intends to beat Netflix on price with standalone subscription to original content – June 19, 2018
I don’t know that revenue from Texture would “save” magazines based on subscriptions alone. Say I already subscribe to 5 magazines at roughly $20 each per year or $100 total. With texture I’d be spending $98 a year to get open access to 200 magazines. So $2 cheaper for me. But assuming that one or all of those magazines will now have to split my subscription income with all of the others, that’s not such a good model for them. The question is whether or not Texture will bring them a volume of new subscribers at a lower rate per customer.
Or is it really Apple, the next Comcast bundle purveyor? Amazon is in the process of putting retailers out of business or subjugating them under their marketplace umbrella. Apple is doing no such thing. Apple is merely trying to be middle man, selling bundles of content that others create, without actually handling any shipping logistics, or acting as cloud server, or really doing anything at all but standing in as middleman. Hell, Comcast even has the overhead of maintaining a physical distribution network. What value does Apple provide exactly to justify yet another subscription in your life???
I _still_ think that Apple should have used a bunch of that overseas-repatriated money to buy Disney.