This is the D-day for Apple in digital music. A market with the multinational was the great pioneer, there are twelve years now, launching its Pay iTunes download store that revolutionized music consumption in the network age. The group based in Cupertino, California, is expected to present in late afternoon “Apple Music,” his new listener demand service that will frontally attack the many streamers preceded this market. Still emerging, this model very strong growth is now the majority form of access – via a free or paid subscription – music on fixed and mobile networks. Written streaming playlist of ten questions.
What will the price of Apple Music?
It was announced around 10 dollars a month (9 euros) or a price approximately equal to the paid version of Spotify, the main competitor of Apple in streaming. First, Apple has sought to position itself at a much lower price, as the trade magazine Billboard be around $ 5 a month before finally abandon due to the opposition of houses discs. In its negotiations with the US major record labels, Apple has been pushing for the past do not renew their agreements with platforms also offer a free version as Spotify. According to the website The Verge, the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) has put the nose on file to verify that the group led by Tim Cook does not seek to distort the rules of free competition.
Will there a free version?
The music on demand service should be paid only after a possible Free subscription period of one to three months. But free party should also be proposed. It would be based on a revised version of iTunes Radio, the interactive service listens Apple launched in 2013 and which has not really imposed. According to research firm specializing MusicWatch, iTunes Radio represents only 5% of online music listening time in the United States.
What form will the service?
This will be a new “Apple Music” application completely redesigned, offering both the final download, streaming and radio service. The service should also be accompanied by a social networking component to allow artists to share with their fans. This application should also be available on the Android platform “Google Play”, the main competitor to the App Store, which offers more applications but Apple sells less, and whose clients are deemed to have a power Higher purchase.
Apple Music Will he kill downloading model the act of iTunes?
Consumers will have the choice . They will access their library of previously downloaded titles and will switch if they wish on the new pay streaming service. Experts expect a massive and rapid decline in purchasing model of dematerialized securities individually or by album, when the 860 million iTunes account holders can access a catalog of over 30 million shares for a ten dollars a month. According to a logic all of Schumpeterian “creative destruction”, iTunes will pay the price. But the model is already in decline. According to Ifpi, the international federation of the disc, the number of paid download business fell 8% in 2014 in the world while the music services on demand subscription grew by 39% over the same period. In the US, streaming from 21% of the US music mix in 2013 to 27% a year later. If download-related income still weigh 37% of segment revenues, this figure was 40% a year earlier.
Apple does it come too late?
The Apple brand is certainly not the first to launch in a market where others have suffered casts before him. The US market for streaming application fee is dominated by the Swedish Spotify with 60 million subscribers worldwide, including 15 million in pay. Also present in the United States and in 180 countries, the French Deezer, world number 2, far fewer paying subscribers. It boasts 6 million, thanks to its agreement with telecom operator Orange which includes the service in many of its packages. The big Apple’s strength lies in its huge customer base already installed, used for ages to pay for consumption of music, and one click will migrate to the new offer. “Apple enters the game a little late, but it could have no importance,” Judge Van Baker, an analyst with Gartner. Director of Licensing and collections SACEM, the main author of French society, Cécile Rap-Véber judge for his part that Apple’s timing is pretty good: “They let the market settle and continued to earn money with the download where others rowed to install new model of streaming, Does analysis. They cleared the area for Apple with the notable difference that they still do not earn money. “
How reacts competition?
It shows serene even if the arrival of Apple could quickly reshuffle in the sector. “I’m not really worried,” assured early June Gustav Söderström, director of product Spotify, told the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter Despite heavy losses -. Swedish company almost tripled its deficit in 2014, to 162.3 million euros against 55.9 million in 2013 -, Spotify is now a non startups listed the most valued in the world with 8.4 billion dollars (7.5 billion euros), according to the Wall Street Journal. Its turnover has still increased by 45% in 2014 to 1.082 billion but at a reduced pace than previous years (over 74% in 2013 and 128% in 2012). Present in Cannes which runs until tonight 49 th edition of Midem, the international market in music and music publishing, CEO Hans-Holger Albrecht Deezer judge for his part that Apple’s arrival will strengthen the model of streaming. Good news for the consumer according to him, “because it creates competition. There’s room for three of us, “ he said, adding that four or five big players could ultimately live the music streaming due to a considerable growth potential.
Can become massively streaming free?
This is the question. Of the 135 million Internet users who listen to music online in the US, only 18 million use a paid account, of which 7.7 million for streaming services. According Crupnik Russ, CEO and founder of MusicWatch, even with its new offer, “Apple needs to show why a paid subscription sense in a world already full of free options.” He concedes Apple “benefits such as a database on consumers, a healthy activity gift cards, and the potential for apple pay ” the new payment system the group launched in October in the US. Apple’s new features Pay – as a loyalty program – or new markets could also be announced tonight at WWDC, the annual conference for Apple developers. In 2014, revenue generated by pay streaming offerings overseas increased by 25% to $ 799 million (€ 738 million) and those based on an advertising model like YouTube and free video hoster 34% to 295 million. Providers of online radio streams like Pandora or SiriusXM services increased their share to 31%, to 773 million. It’s the American peculiarity: the Internet radio services (Pandora) or via satellite (Sirius XM) are highly developed in contrast to Europe. The latter alone has 27, 7 million customers in the US. “The big difficulty for streaming services is that the willingness to pay of consumers is still limited, Hans-Holger Albrecht warns. That is, even with the arrival of Apple, many systems will continue to coexist.
What is the financial issue for Apple?
Apple has already spent a lot of money to strengthen in online music. With its new service, the company hopes to monetize the largest acquisition in its history: the listening-demand system developed by Beats, paid $ 3 billion last year. A company created by West Coast rapper Dr. Dre and producer Jimmy Iovine, unique member of industrial metal band Nine Inch Nails. Both sizes recognized the sector have invested heavily in the design of the new service Apple Music. The group also enlisted four producers of the British station BBC Radio 1 to beef up the editorial content of its future supply, including DJ Zane. It would also have convinced the rapper Drake to join the adventure with the task of developing playlists or production of exclusive content. Still, this new activity, even if successful, will weigh little in the accounts of World market capitalization: the music services on demand subscription last year generated $ 1.6 billion in revenue worldwide where Apple has generated a turnover of $ 183 billion in its last fiscal year, ended in late September, 2014.
Apple is ready?
The question may seem strange, but according to several US media reports, Apple has not yet found common ground with the three majors that are Sony, Warner and Universal, concerning the exploitation rights of their artists catalogs. The negotiations are very long and complex in this area, and in the absence of agreement, Apple does take the risk of proposing an incomplete service? This is unlikely. In this case, launch Apple Music should be postponed. What seems even more unimaginable.
Others Are ads expected?
It’s hard to know the content with a past master in the company of surprise and puts great care to spare his ads. But as each year since 2007, a new version of iOS (iOS 9), its mobile operating system should be unveiled Monday. A new OS X 10.11 system for computers should also be presented. Among the new features of iOS 9, Apple should focus on synergies with its new shows connected Apple Watch. Maybe it will however have to wait for the new version of Apple TV. Apple has decided to postpone the launch of its new housing whose ambitions have been revised upwards. The goal? Create a new ecosystem of applications specific to the Apple TV in particular by opening a section of the App Store that will be specifically dedicated to them. One way to answer that Google TV launched its Android, an operating system designed for sailing on the television and adopted in France by Free box for its new 4K.
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