Competing services may come out to challenge Apple Music and Spotify. YouTube Red and SoundCloud Go, both recently-launched, paid services, have yet to establish any real subscriber traction.
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According to Sisario’s article dated September 11, Sunday, the said executives chose to remain anonymous since negotiations are still ongoing.
But legacy habits have made it hard for traditionally free services like YouTube and SoundCloud to get people to pay.
Amazon and Pandora are to launch cut-price streaming services later this month, according to a report from the New York Times.
The company will introduce a fresh version of its streaming platform and could charge as little as $5 month, according to a report from The New York Times. Pandora now offers a free ad-supported service on top of its $5-per-month ad-free premium platform. The company plans to launch a full-fledged on-demand platform by Christmas. That version of Pandora will reportedly cost $10. Such a price will put Pandora’s offering in direct competition with industry incumbents. Both Apple and Spotify offer single-person subscriptions at $10 a month with discounts available.
Adding to the list of possible competitors is Amazon. Such a platform, priced at $10 a month, would compete with Spotify and Apple Music.
The plan features a wider catalog of music than what’s provided under Amazon.com’s existing Prime subscription, the Times notes. Amazon describes it as the only unlimited on-demand streaming service with free two-day shipping.
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While the major streaming services have largely settled on $10 per month as a standard price point – a level driven mainly by record companies that don’t want their product to be any cheaper – and people have been willing to pay that amount, it remains unclear whether that sum makes for an optimal system, the New York Times said.
