Apple acquires Beats
This was a bit of a shock in one way, and in another, not so much.
Apple who paved the way for Music via Micro-transactions totally missed the boat on the next generation of music monetization. Subscription services.
A while back, I argued that the Xbox Music Pass (then Zune) was vastly superior to Apple's iTunes store model for any music enthusiast. Sure, DRM free is great. And the ability to by just the tracks you want was a huge leap over being forced to buy an entire album. But the cost still adds up and it is costly to use this service if you're not 100% sure of what you want, or if you find yourself truly wanting a lot of new music on a regular basis.
Subscription music services solve this. Xbox Music Pass doesn't have everything. But the collection is massive nonetheless and very rarely disappoints. I can download an entire discography and feel no remorse deciding it sucks in its entirety.
The model isn't perfect. If you don't have any urge to regularly expand your music collection, you'll pass a point of diminishing returns eventually and buying it outright would be cheaper over time. Also, DRM means limitations. For an individual, they are basically scoff worthy. I can run it on up to 4 devices + my Xbox One. In my case, that is a cell phone, tablet and desktop + Xbox One (so I have a device to spare even).
The other area it sucks is sharing. My wife can't use my Music Pass on her phone (well, she could if it weren't a Windows Phone amusingly enough). Technically, you can't legally share your iTunes downloads either. But lack of DRM means there is nothing to stop you. Especially when that sharing doesn't occur over the internet.
This move now brings Apple officially into that realm. Beats has a subscription service and based on the press release information, this is what they were interested in. Not the hardware. And that makes it a smart move in my opinion. Of course, like every other subscription service, this will mean DRM, Beats has it today, and I highly doubt Apple will be able to drop it. Which means that a subscription service from Apple won't be substantively more permissive than an Xbox Music Pass. But it could open the door for Apple to use their muscle to get some of the subscription hold outs to finally get on board. Which would be good for everyone. It also means high visibility competition which might also be good for consumers in the long haul.
Apple who paved the way for Music via Micro-transactions totally missed the boat on the next generation of music monetization. Subscription services.
A while back, I argued that the Xbox Music Pass (then Zune) was vastly superior to Apple's iTunes store model for any music enthusiast. Sure, DRM free is great. And the ability to by just the tracks you want was a huge leap over being forced to buy an entire album. But the cost still adds up and it is costly to use this service if you're not 100% sure of what you want, or if you find yourself truly wanting a lot of new music on a regular basis.
Subscription music services solve this. Xbox Music Pass doesn't have everything. But the collection is massive nonetheless and very rarely disappoints. I can download an entire discography and feel no remorse deciding it sucks in its entirety.
The model isn't perfect. If you don't have any urge to regularly expand your music collection, you'll pass a point of diminishing returns eventually and buying it outright would be cheaper over time. Also, DRM means limitations. For an individual, they are basically scoff worthy. I can run it on up to 4 devices + my Xbox One. In my case, that is a cell phone, tablet and desktop + Xbox One (so I have a device to spare even).
The other area it sucks is sharing. My wife can't use my Music Pass on her phone (well, she could if it weren't a Windows Phone amusingly enough). Technically, you can't legally share your iTunes downloads either. But lack of DRM means there is nothing to stop you. Especially when that sharing doesn't occur over the internet.
This move now brings Apple officially into that realm. Beats has a subscription service and based on the press release information, this is what they were interested in. Not the hardware. And that makes it a smart move in my opinion. Of course, like every other subscription service, this will mean DRM, Beats has it today, and I highly doubt Apple will be able to drop it. Which means that a subscription service from Apple won't be substantively more permissive than an Xbox Music Pass. But it could open the door for Apple to use their muscle to get some of the subscription hold outs to finally get on board. Which would be good for everyone. It also means high visibility competition which might also be good for consumers in the long haul.
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