WHEN Apple bought Beats, best known for making brightly coloured headphones, for around $3 billion last year, many wondered what the technology giant had in mind. They now have their answer. On June 8th, at Apple’s annual gathering for software developers in San Francisco, it revealed a new music-streaming service, based on one it had acquired as part of Beats. Tim Cook, Apple’s boss, promised that, “It will change the way you experience music forever.” Others on the stage called it “revolutionary”.
Apple led the way in popularising the legal downloading of music, with the launch of its iPod player in 2001. But as music fans have taken to streaming songs in a big way over the past few years—in effect, renting them rather than owning them—downloads have started to decline (see chart 1). Apple’s revenues from music have started to fade, even as those from apps and other services have kept soaring (see chart 2). This time it is following, rather than leading, a musical revolution. Spotify, the most popular on-demand streaming service, has 20m paying subscribers worldwide, and around 55m who regularly use its free, ad-supported version...
from The Economist: Business http://ift.tt/1cNDl42
No comments:
Post a Comment