How Apple Beats the Demise of Music Downloads
Jon Maples (via John Gruber):
The first number [13.3] is the percentage that music downloads have decreased in Q1 of this year compared with 2013. This is on the heels of a 5% decrease last year, so it’s looking like the decline is picking up speed.
[…]
It’s pretty clear when it comes to the choice between buying downloads or using a streaming service, customers are beginning to choose streaming. But so far, Apple has sat out of the subscription music trend. After all, the Book of Jobs says that customers wanted to own rather than rent music.
I thought Jobs was right about this. I don’t want to have to subscribe to anything. But clearly lots of people think otherwise. Maples suggests that Apple would keep the streaming service separate from iTunes, as a hedge.
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@someone Yes, for the music I buy it seems like iTunes is usually more expensive than Amazon MP3 and even new CDs from Amazon, not to mention used CDs. I wonder whether Apple’s deals prevent it from cutting prices.
Jobs was right.
The only issue is that iTunes is not the solution if you care about owning your music. With iTunes, you just get a license to listen to the music. Contrary to CDs (or LPs), you can not resell albums or songs, nobody can obtain them when you die, etc.
And iTunes is way more expensive than CDs for albums as soon as you're not dealing with new albums or very-difficult-to-find ones. There are plenty of promotions in brick-and-mortar or online stores where you can purchase albums for 50% of the price you will pay on the iTMS.