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Beyond 11: So If Apple Really Cares About Streaming...


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This is Craig's second installment of Beyond 11. If you once subscribed to our newsletter,Music Gear Weekly, you'll remember Craig's "Dear Musician" editorials.

In this next installment, he takes you and this discussion Beyond 11 with "So, If Apple Really Cares About Streaming..."

 

Use this thread for comments so we can have a back-and-forth on the topic.

 

So, what do YOU think? Take this topic Beyond 11 !!

 

 

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Here's an interesting commentary from Al Horner called "Apple Music: Five Reasons to Be Excited - And Five to Be Wary."

 

At the New Music Seminar yesterday, Tom Silverman ran the numbers on the current state of the music industry and one of them involved Apple Music. Apple has sold over a billion iOS devices, and while it's hard to say how many are still in use, let's be very conservative and say 500 million. Let's also be conservative and say that 10% of those users will subscribe to Apple music. That's 50,000,000 people consuming music in a new way that will, at least in theory, produce another potential revenue stream for musicians.

 

So what will Apple do for an encore? Well, signing artists and producing original content seems like a very logical move...

 

 

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The thing Apple has going for it is a loyalty, at times approaching cult status.

 

They are very good at visual design and even better at marketing.

 

Sometimes coming late to the party puts you at a disadvantage because of the already entrenched members. (Think of all the attempts to displace the mp3 with a better way of compressing audio.)

 

On the other hand it gives you the opportunity to see what the others did right, what they did wrong, and how to improve it.

 

All in all, if Apple is to succeed at this it will need improvement, it's cult following, and plenty of marketing.

 

At least that's the way I see it.

 

And as a musician, if they do succeed, I hope they do so with the composers and musicans getting their fair share.

 

Insights and incites by Notes

 

 

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I'd love to see the industry getting back into the talent development mode. It seems to be all but gone.

 

There has always been a lot of talent out there that simply needs some guidance. But the music industry seems to want finished products by artists with built-in huge followings.

 

In today's world, someone with a finished product and a huge built-in following doesn't need the traditional industry.

 

Perhaps it's time for the industry to start making investments again. I don't know, I'm on the outside looking in.

 

Notes

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...the music industry seems to want finished products by artists with built-in huge followings.

 

In today's world, someone with a finished product and a huge built-in following doesn't need the traditional industry.

 

That is a brilliant, and very true, observation.

 

 

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It's interesting no one has commented that it would be cool if Apple developed talent instead of just distributing it. I thought this would be a hot button topic...

 

You've hit the nail on the head.

 

Ditto Spotify and Youtube/Google.

 

These companies are the CBS/EMI/Parlophone etc, of our times. Why wouldn't they want to develop talent and content/product?

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"Where Apple Music will fail is discoverability," said Chowdhry. "How do you discover something that's very good if it's a no-name artist? Suppose you [perform] good music but I have no idea. Discoverability will be a problem in Apple."

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/facebook-could-huge-music-sharing-133916671.html;_ylt=AwrBTzcU95lVsmsA3ABXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTByMjB0aG5zBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzYw--

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"Where Apple Music will fail is discoverability' date='" said Chowdhry. "How do you discover something that's very good if it's a no-name artist? Suppose you [perform'] good music but I have no idea. Discoverability will be a problem in Apple."

 

Well, that's not a new problem, but it's exacerbated by the concept of "recommending" music based on what you liked in the past. Last year, the biggest growth for people listening to EDM on YouTube was in the 35 to 49 demographic. I'm not sure what they could have listened to in the past what would have caused an algorithm to point them in that direction. Maybe what we need are some channels ruled by algorithms whose only programmed function is to play something that has nothing to do with what was played previously...that could get interesting!

 

 

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Or "All that matters is this quarter's bottom line. Who cares about the future?"

 

And to me that's what is wrong with Capitalism turned "Corporationalism".

 

Back before Columbia and Time/Warner bought up all the indie labels, we had a balance between small labels that took chances and the big guys that just wanted this quarters bottom line to please the stockholders.

 

The world is going more and more corporate, small businesses are endangered species, and I think that means less innovation.

 

When you have almost half the company owned by stockholders that do not materially participate in the corporation, all that matters is this quarter's figures. To many non-profit or low-profit quarters and the stockholders will find better investments for their dollars and bail out.

 

So in order to keep the stockholders happy, the corporation needs to grow and grow and grow and grow. So far my experience on this planet has shown me that nothing can grow forever. Every algae bloom ends up dead.

 

But a small business only needs to make enough profits to keep the owners and employees fed and doesn't need to grow and grow and grow. So if they make a little extra, they can use it for artist development or whatever.

 

As long as the salaries are being paid and no stockholders to bail, even stability is all that is necessary. Everything else is wanted but extra. And that wanting is what a small business uses to plan for the future and to try to figure out how to make more next year.

 

I own two small businesses, I know.

 

Not that corporations don't have their place. It's just that IMHO (and it is only my opinion) there needs to be a balance between the big and the small.

 

Perhaps that means there is opportunity for the small right now.

 

Insights and incites by Notes

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Maybe what we need are some channels ruled by algorithms whose only programmed function is to play something that has nothing to do with what was played previously...that could get interesting!
I really enjoyed the "Sirius Disorder" channel on Sirius :( .

 

 

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