Hi everyone -
The news that Apple Music is apparently converting users to premium at 2.5 times the rate of Spotify is certainly an eye-catching one, as is the claim from analyst Gene Munster that the streaming service also now has 21 million users in the US, putting it ahead of Spotify's 20 million based on last reports. Perhaps what is more interesting though is the space Apple is now carving as an opposition to... well, plenty of things.
Apple's other news today is that it will be shutting down the advertising operation at Shazam. This shouldn't be a massive surprise as Apple has become quite the opponent to the whole ad model that drives the revenues of the likes of Google and Facebook (and Twitter, and Snapchat, and.. and... its a long list). This isn't just about revenue models though; as others have noted, Apple is now taking a stand for privacy and that lines up very nicely to its long-held position on products being of a certain quality and style. So, just as Shazam will no longer be encumbered with ads, it is no shock to see that potentially Apple's music service is stealing a march based on the same focus toward higher-quality experiences and a space in which artists are perhaps more respected than on other platforms...
... such as Spotify, where news emerged over the weekend that the company was looking to make more playlists algorithmically driven. I suspect this is just something of a test for now, but the implications are certainly interesting here. Not only does it mean labels/artists/managers can't quite take that "first track on New Music Friday" bragging right, but it also starts to obfuscate our experiences to potentially be wholly personalised... but therefore not something shared with others at all. Is that a good thing? Tough to say - in some respects I quite like the idea of chipping away at annoying metrics that we in the industry can all get a little too obsessed with, but I still can't help but see it as Spotify further working to undermine labels (though I have to give credit to the Music ReDef newsletter for using the term "Spotify tunnelling under the labels", which put it better than I ever could).
I think I linked to this article previously, but I'll do it again now, as the context is spot-on: "Forget the new iPhones: Apple’s best product is now privacy" Apple could be stealing a march here purely by focusing on quality and privacy - and that might be a one-two punch capable of taking down many a competitor...
Have a great evening,
D.
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