Rumors about Apple creating a streaming music service are not going away. With WWDC just around the corner, many believe we will hear something about this service on June 10th, where Apple will also hold its regular keynote.
I must admit that I find such an idea very good and I would like such a service from Apple, but the question of whether the company needs such a streaming service and what form it will ultimately take remains.
The short answer is that no, Apple doesn't need to create such a service, but should it do it anyway?
Apple was the company that changed the way we listen to music, making digital tracks appealing to both record labels and consumers. The iPod brought the iTunes Store, and today digital downloads have almost completely replaced the music CD market. The iTunes Store remains the largest source of digital downloads in the world.
The iTunes Store is very well-established and brings in a lot of money for Apple. It is also easy to understand since it works on the basis of I give you money and you give me music in return. It also comes with a sense of ownership. Apple offers iTunes on iCloud allowing you to access your previous downloads while with iTunes Match it allows you to transfer all your music to iCloud and from there you can access your music tracks anytime and anywhere you want from any of your devices.
So you have purchased and own a series of music albums and songs, in digital form, and Apple, in the above ways, is trying to make your access to them easier, but in no way can it be considered streaming music. It seems that a subscription streaming service is something completely different.
Apple's competitors that offer streaming services usually also have corresponding online music stores, such as Google, but none can compare so far, at least not with iTunes.
Streaming services have been built on a subscription model, unlike iTunes, which was built on a device purchase model. Users buy digital music – users buy devices to listen to it, and Apple has been offering both in the best possible way for years, generating huge revenue. So the question is whether Apple believes that adding subscriptions and a streaming service as a natural extension of this simple model, which it has relied on for years, will further improve its iTunes model and generate more revenue.
We must remember that Apple being Apple, if it finally takes this step into the music streaming space, it will not offer what the competition offers. They will base the product/service on a model that will offer something simpler, easier and therefore better than the existing services.
So the so-called iRadio is a good idea. Think for example that Google and Spotify give you the ability to create your own stations based on the songs you like to listen to. Apple could do this much better since for years now it has had a huge database of iTunes users' purchases and music preferences. This database is already used in part by Apple in Genius Recommendations and Mixes. So theoretically Apple could much more easily create stations with music that the user likes based on their purchases in the iTunes Store.
Think about how Apple could very easily create a streaming service that would fit between Twitter #music and Spotify and offer better and more direct suggestions for music choices based on the user's history, keeping the music-device purchase model unchanged but also more profitable.
Dimitrios Georgoulas @ GreekAppleNews
