Apple stepping up pressure on music labels to snub Amazon
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pApple has allegedly been pressuring music labels to ditch Amazon MP3’s “Daily Deal” promotions, lest they be excluded from being promoted through the iTunes machine. According to anonymous executives speaking to a href=”http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/magazine/upfront/e3i5207f9d259b81f62d46a894f7a55e1bd”Billboard/a, Apple has always been uncomfortable with the labels double dipping with both iTunes and Amazon, but the company has ramped up its complaints lately in an attempt to retain its lead in the online music market. Though Apple still remains in the a href=”http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2008/04/apple-passes-wal-mart-now-1-music-retailer-in-us.ars”number one spot among all music retailers/a, the move is indicative that Apple takes competition from Amazon very seriously./p
pOne unnamed music executive said that, when Amazon first launched its Daily Deal section in 2008, the labels weren’t included in the discussion and no one was given any special privileges for being there. Nowadays, however, Amazon has asked labels to give the company a one-day exclusive before street date in order to be featured in the Daily Deals. This was the turning point for iTunes, it seems#8212;iTunes reps allegedly began threatening to “[withdraw] marketing support for certain releases featured as Daily Deals” if labels continued participating./p
pSpeaking about iTunes, another major label executive told Billboard that “[t]hey are . . . diverting their energy from ‘let’s make this machine better’ to ‘let’s protect what we got.’”/p
pSome of those threats have apparently worked: labels representing Corinne Bailey Rae, Lady Antebellum, and Ke$ha have all reportedly pulled out of Daily Deals consideration in favor of staying on Apple’s good side. And, because Apple’s distaste for the Daily Deals at Amazon has become widely known in the industry, other labels have decided not to play the game at all by holding back their online offerings on the street date emand/em the day before. /p
pAmazon MP3 has been gaining popularity rather quickly since its launch in 2007, due largely to the fact that it was the first major online music store with a fully DRM-free library. In late 2008, market research firm NPD Group noted that a href=”http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2008/04/amazon-mp3-stores-gains-not-coming-at-itunes-expense.ars”Amazon MP3’s gains were not coming at the expense of iTunes/a, though. Instead, NPD said Amazon had been building its own user base and that only 10 percent of Amazon’s customers had previously bought through iTunes. /p
pLast year, however, NPD released a new report saying that a href=”http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/08/itunes-sells-25-of-all-music-in-the-us-69-of-digital.ars”Amazon had already taken the number two spot/a in online-only music sales#8212;iTunes sat at 69 percent with Amazon MP3 at eight percent. Even though the differences in market share were significant, Apple knows that Amazon is gunning for its spot and that it’s only a matter of time before the two are on more equal footing. /p
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Passed through but not fully digested at AppleSecrets.com
etc: Apple is counting down to 10 billion iTunes songs sold—the current count is over 9.87 billion. The buyer of song number 10,000,000,000 will win a $10,000 iTunes gift card.
Apple is counting down to 10 billion iTunes songs sold—the current count is over 9.87 billion. The buyer of song number 10,000,000,000 will win a $10,000 iTunes gift card.
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Apple, Contest Rules
Variable download pricing correlated with slower music sales
It has been about a year since the music labels got what they had been asking for from the major online music stores: tiered music pricing. Problem is, that system may not be working out as well as the labels had hoped—Warner Music Group has reported slowed digital music growth since the pricing changes, and even though the company tried to spin the news as positive, it acknowledged that the timing may not have been the best.
Warner’s digital sales (and by “digital,” it means online sales, not CDs) made up 20 percent of its total revenue in its quarter ending on December 31, 2009—flat sequentially from the previous quarter. Unit growth in “digital track equivalent albums” saw a five percent growth rate during the December quarter, though it’s down from 10 percent in the September quarter and 11 percent earlier in the year. Digital revenues were up eight percent year over year, compared to 20 percent the year prior.
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Cloud storage may be main focus of Apple’s Lala buyout
Apple’s acquisition of Lala won’t form the basis of any iTunes subscription service, but instead may help Apple quickly build a cloud-storage component into the next version of iTunes. Apple will supposedly leverage Lala’s current music uploading technology to give users “anywhere access” to their music library.
Michael Robertson, guest writing at TechCrunch, cites a number of insider sources who say definitively that Apple will not offer a subscription option to the iTunes Store. Instead, it will complement the current model with cloud storage, giving iTunes users the ability to “to navigate and play their music, videos and playlists from their personal URL using a browser based iTunes experience.” Robertson, formerly the CEO of MP3.com, is currently the head of MP3tunes, which offers a cloud-storage service for music files similar to what he describes as the future of iTunes.
Such a strategy is one we speculated Apple would pursue, and one that sources for the Wall Street Journal also claimed would be wrapped into iTunes in a future update. Obviously, Lala’s technology and engineering expertise, combined with a giant data center, could power such a feature. Robertson suggests that doing so could make an end-run around having to negotiate additional streaming licenses from record labels, since each library would be linked to a specific customer.
“Apple will link the tens of millions of previously sold iPods, Touches, AppleTV and iTablets to mobile iTunes giving users seamless playback of their media from a wide range of Apple branded devices,” Robertson said. “iTunes shoppers will be able to continue to buy music and movies as they can now, with purchases still being downloaded, but once downloaded they will be automatically loaded to their mobile iTunes area for anywhere access.”
etc: If your indie band has songs on iTunes and you want to offer fans an iTunes LP package, check out this straightforward tutorial to adapt the sample iTunes LP project from Apple.
If your indie band has songs on iTunes and you want to offer fans an iTunes LP package, check out this straightforward tutorial to adapt the sample iTunes LP project from Apple.
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The Apple Blog, Apple
etc: Apple has updated Logic and MainStage with "improved compatibility and numerous fixes," including finally adding 64-bit support. There are still some limitations in 64-bit mode, however.
Apple has updated Logic and MainStage with “improved compatibility and numerous fixes,” including finally adding 64-bit support. There are still some limitations in 64-bit mode, however.
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The Loop, Logic 9.1, MainStage 2.1
Apple to fold Lala into iTunes, transform into Web service
Apple is supposedly planning to use its acquisition of online music service Lala to transform iTunes into a Web-based service, according to sources “briefed” on the strategy. Infrastructure and licensing hurdles must still be overcome, but if all goes according to plan, it may change they way we think about media ownership forever.
Lala currently offers two ways to buy music—10¢ buys the right to stream the song anytime from Lala’s servers, whereas a variable price—about 69¢-$1.29—gives you unlimited streaming as well as an mp3 download. Lala also allows users to stream songs they already own at no charge.
Apple buys music streamer Lala, but what’s it getting?
Last week’s rumors have become this weekend’s facts, as various sources are confirming a possible deal we discussed on Friday: Apple has purchased the music streaming service Lala. Right now, Apple’s iTunes dominates the US music download sales, and does very well in many overseas markets, but the company has so far refused to experiment with any delivery model other than downloads. That will almost inevitably change, but the purchase of Lala isn’t necessarily a sign that “inevitably” means “soon.”
An unnamed source in a Reuters report made the case that Apple is ready to start streaming, saying, “Apple recognizes that the model is going to evolve into a streaming one and this could probably propel iTunes to the next level.” As our original report noted, Apple has also been rumored to be testing a streaming service for video content; adding music to the menu seems like an obvious choice.
