“I was extremely surprised when Apple made the decision to drop its Single of the Week, after doing the same thing with its 12 Days of Christmas promo,” Ben Lovejoy writes for 9to5Mac. “As I wrote then, the free single seemed a win-win-win: consumers got free music, lesser-known artists got exposure, Apple got the goodwill that stems from giving away free stuff.”
“But thinking more about it, perhaps there is method in Apple’s madness after all,” Lovejoy writes. “Let’s start with the obvious point: the company is about to launch an Apple-branded Beats Music service, and it would then make sense to say that this, not iTunes freebies, is the way to discover new music.”
“But it’s not just music: 12 Days of Christmas was content of all types, apps included, so I think there could be a bigger picture here,” Lovejoy writes. “Think about Apple’s own positioning in the market. You know you’ll never be able to buy a cheap Apple product. You’re paying a premium for quality (though not necessarily a large one). What if it could adopt that same positioning for content? What if it could say ‘If you want freebies, head over to Android; if you want quality content, buy it here’?”
Read more in the full article – recommended – here.