The Death of iTunes?
iTunes has basically taken the music business out of the hands of the record labels. By embracing technology instead of stubbornly trying to fight the rising tide, Apple’s iTunes has reinvented the music industry and looks like the unstoppable leader. That is until Spotify came along. Spotify is a European music service that serves up music on demand for free. What is the catch? You have to listen to a commercial every 30 minutes or so similar to commercial radio or you can pay a $14 monthly charge to listen ad free. Record labels seem to be embracing this new format including heavy weights like Sony, EMI, Warner Music and Naxos. The 6-month old service already boasts 1 million users, and they are serving up an impressive catalog of music, adding songs at the rate of 10,000 tracks a day. Will this new licensing format make downloading MP3s obsolete? Only time will tell if consumers adopt this format whole-heartedly, but with little downside I certainly wouldn’t bet against it. If I were Apple, I’d be looking to launch a competing service yesterday before Spotify hits the US market and slaughters their cash cow. To be one of the first in the know concerning when Spotify hits the US, signup on their website.
Source: Newsweek