“At its developers’ conference next week, Apple is expected to announce a new set of music services, putting the company in competition with Spotify, the world’s leading streaming service, as well as Internet-radio player Pandora and even traditional broadcast stations,” Ethan Smith and Daisuke Wakabayashi report for The Wall Street Journal. “Apple is expected to offer unlimited on-demand streaming for $10 a month, as Spotify does, according to people familiar with the plan. Unlike Spotify, Apple won’t let listeners stream its entire music catalog on demand free of charge. But it plans to augment its free, ad-supported Internet radio service with channels programmed and hosted by human DJs.”
“Music-industry executives see Apple’s all-in bet as a watershed moment for streaming music that could move the technology from early adopters to the mainstream,” Smith and Wakabayashi report. “Apple can aggressively push its hundreds of millions of iTunes customers—most with credit cards already registered with the company—to embrace a subscription model on the same devices where they listen to downloaded songs and albums.”
“People familiar with Apple’s thinking say the company — the world’s leading music retailer — is prepared to cannibalize its download business in favor of streaming, which has been gaining traction world-wide. The subscription model offers the prospect of more revenue for both Apple and the biggest music labels. Apple’s push may include prompting people who download a $10 album to instead subscribe to the streaming service for $10 a month, those people said,” Smith and Wakabayashi report. “Apple plans to promote the new subscription service aggressively, with a major advertising campaign.”
Much more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Are you willing to pay $119.88/year ($9.99/month) for unlimited on-demand music streaming? Let us know in our poll and, either way, explain what Apple would have to offer for you to do so?
A little birdy who ought to know told us: “Once Apple’s music services are revealed, people are going to say, ‘This is how music should have been distributed online since the widespread advent of 4G LTE.'”
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “BD” for the heads up.]
SEE ALSO:
Apple in talks to sign Drake, Pharrell Williams, and David Guetta as iTunes Radio DJs – June 1, 2015
Kanye West’s long-delayed album release may be connected to Apple Music’s launch – May 21, 2015
Apple’s music streaming service to have Ping-like social network for artists – May 14, 2015
Apple’s new streaming music service to offer free song sampling, free trial, other free features – May 8, 2015
