As a committed audiophile, the Apple story filled me with horror as I thought about how I have curated my music collection over the years and, more importantly, the sound quality of streaming services compared to playing them through my dual DAC player.
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Apple rep Tom Neumayr wouldn’t expand on [the “not true”] comment, except to make it clear that he was responding to both timelines proposed in today’s story from Digital Music News.
It’s not a question of if but when Apple will phase out its online music store in favour of Apple Music, Apple’s year-old streaming music service, Digital Music News says. Did somebody at Apple ask in a meeting how long, in a world rushing toward music streaming, would the iTunes download store be viable?
With the rise of countless streaming services and high-profile album exclusives, there’s no denying that way music is obtained and consumed has changed drastically in the past few years. According to MULLIGAN, that is surging towards 20 million by year’s end, with streaming revenues slated to match the 2012 peak music download revenues by 2020.
Music download sales overall in the U.S. are facing significant decline since 2013. Last year, downloads declined by 16%, while this year so far they are declining by “between 25% and 30%”.
Unsurprisingly, Apple Music is playing a big part in their thinking. Probably not if those downloads still account for billions of dollars in sales. And let’s be honest, it probably was iTunes where you bought your first, legal song download. While downloads became a dominant part of the industry, the CD has never gone away and remains a very viable medium for the distribution of music. You will have to wait until Apple gives more details on the rising concerns.
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Music downloads will likely exist forever, but there will come a point when they are a niche market, and Apple doesn’t really do niche.
