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Many people around the world were holding their breath yesterday in anticipation of a huge announcement from Apple. While there was an announcement (The Beatles finally came to iTunes), I wouldn’t dare call it huge. It was simply long overdue. Most Apple fanatics were hoping that the company at One Infinite Loop would finally announce a streaming music option. That did not happen and still has critics wondering why. Well, what else holds Apple back from releasing new products? Perfection.
We all know how Apple is, there is no such thing as half-ass (although, I may allow you to fight me on that concerning Ping). The big question used to be whether the record labels would allow an “all you can eat” option. That has since been answered with the launch of services like MOG and Rdio. If these smaller companies can reach deals then surely Apple can.
The issue is with usability. As a subscriber to MOG I can tell you that having (almost) any song I want available on a plethora of devices is great. What isn’t great is the functionality. The web experience is sloppy, at best, and the iPhone app is sub-par. This is not just true of MOG but also of other similar services as well. Finding a song takes far too long, sorting through your library is daunting, adding music to a playlist is a headache, and don’t even think about shuffling. On top of that, none of these services can make a radio station like Pandora. Simply put, nothing is as simple and clean as iTunes/iPod.
For Apple these are all issues that must be worked out before they launch a subscription-based music plan. This is no simple task either. It will require an entire overhaul of how iTunes and the iPod work. They will have to ensure that the usability is just as easy and simple as it is now plus the added on-demand benefits.
If you don’t think Apple is hard at work on this then you are crazy. It is almost guaranteed that their engineers and designers are chugging away at this project this very moment. When it finally does get announced it will be refined and ready for mass consumption, not just for early adopters.
Oh, and don’t expect a simple little site takeover either. This will be birthed via a full blown Jobs-note and probably accompanied by some musical guests. And in that moment all the other services will cease to be relevant. That is, unless they can reach perfection before Apple does.
Apple bought out a company recently (within the last year) that had a streaming music service. Can’t recall the name of the company, but that’s not important. Eventually, they shut that service down. Some have theorized that Apple wanted the other company’s technology, which makes all of this speculation about iTunes streaming seem pretty valid. I think the pivotal pieces of information will be price and accessibility. If the ENTIRE iTunes Music Store library was available for less than $20.00/month, that’d be extraordinary. Definitely something I’d consider. If the price was much higher than that and/or the available list of songs was a mere fraction of the current iTunes Store catalog, I’d probably pass.
I think pricing will probably be around $10/month since that’s the standard that has already started to form. Plus, they’re probably aiming at converting everyone to this new model and cannibalizing their a la carte option. That’s just pertaining to music though. There may be other plans that include TV and movies. Possibly a discount if you subscribed to all three. Imagine if you had guaranteed revenue each month from every person who used iTunes.
[...] Many people around the world were holding their breath yesterday in anticipation of a huge announcement from Apple. While there was an announcement (The Beatles finally came to iTunes), I wouldn't dare call it huge. It was simply long overdue. Most Apple fanatics were hoping that the company at One Infinite Loop would finally announce a streaming music option. … Read More [...]
[...] few months ago I wrote a post about why I thought it was taking Apple so long to launch stream music. I chalked it up to perfection. Of the startups who had launched with the offering I noted that [...]