iTunes is an ancient relic of an old music era, right? Not so fast, says a new report highlighting iTunes’ resilience despite stiff streaming competition, as evidenced by new statistics from Apple.
iTunes continues finding a market despite trend toward streaming services
Ashley Carman writes in her Soundbite newsletter at Bloomberg:
Labels have been strategizing around iTunes, in part, at the behest of Apple, executives tell me. In conversations with its partners, the platform’s team has been encouraging them to take advantage of the full breadth of its offerings — not just marketing to Apple Music subscribers, in other words, but also to iTunes users. One stat that makes the opportunity clear: over 80% of iTunes users are not subscribed to Apple Music, meaning they are fresh eyes and ears to reach, particularly during an album’s initial release week. (This also suggests these customers either don’t stream music or have chosen a different service for their primary consumption needs — something Apple likely needs to watch.)
An Apple spokesperson tells me that half of iTunes customers began buying songs on the platform in the past 10 years, or since the launch of Apple Music, and almost 50% of the top 10,000 best-selling albums each quarter are new releases. This suggests that people aren’t just using iTunes to revisit old music from their youth.
These three shared statistics really stand out:
- over 80% of iTunes users aren’t Apple Music subscribers—though it’s unclear how many subscribe to competing services
- 50% of iTunes users started buying songs after Apple Music launched
- almost 50% of the top 10,000 bestselling albums every quarter are new releases
Even though services like Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube are clearly where most music listeners have migrated, it sounds like there’s still a decent market for iTunes.
Top comment by Nick
Yes, I make several purchases from the iTunes store every month, and have done since the store started. It has a very good classical music section. (Apple Classical is also very good, but I prefer to own the music).
It’s fascinating too that while Apple Music keeps trying to gain more new subscribers (like with the current 3 months free offer), the company nonetheless continues promoting iTunes among industry partners.
I understand the appeal of iTunes for one-off marketing stunts by popular artists like Taylor Swift. But based on this report, the market for Apple’s once-dominant platform is still much broader than that.
Do you ever use iTunes anymore? Why or why not? Let us know in the comments.
Apple Music is available for $10.99/month and is currently offering three months free to new subscribers.
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