Deezer has just released a press release about Apple’s recent announcement of their new subscription option. Below is the press release.
Following Apple’s announcement to impose a 30% commission on all subscriptions using its apps, European leading digital music services Deezer decided to point out that the confusion brought by such a decision on the music market will kill its start of recovery.
A lot has been said already on how untenable Apple’s new distribution rules are for digital music services considering their level of gross margin, and the very specific competition with iTunes. It is very unlikely that Apple could legally apply these rules on the paid digital music services. It would be a leverage of its dominant position on the mobile applications market to reinforce its already over‐dominant position in the paid digital music market.
Thus, considering that the distribution of applications is entirely controlled by Apple, they could not force us to use their billing system. It’s even more unlikely to be legally applicable if the imposed commission is 7 times as high as any standard billing fee.
Moreover, to protect its brand and its current user experience advantage, it’s also unlikely since:
‐ Apple has built its brand legacy around the music and is too respectful of its brand to take the risk to kill the music start of recovery for only an economic reason
‐ Applying the tax on the paid music services will favor the innovation investment on Android and lead after a while to a less competitive user experience on Apple.
Middle term, we do not believe that these conditions could be applied. The huge risk of this announcement by Apple lies into the short term uncertainty that Apple is setting in the music market.
After 10 years of drastic decrease of the music market, the subscription based music services are offering a fresh and fast growing momentum. Apple’s music model currently stays in the transition technology of à la carte music download and will be affected by this new competition. However, its interest cannot be to break the streaming services momentum for its own benefit whatever the collateral damages on music creation.
We are therefore waiting for Apple to quickly provide its exact position re music services.
The NPD has just released new data about the digital download market. According to the report, Apple has continued to pull away from Amazon and Walmart and now controls 66% of the market.
Apple’s share of the digital-download market from 63.2 percent to 66.2 percent. Amazon’s share climbed from 11 percent to 13.3 percent.
Record label distribution executives say the situation could be even worse for Amazon than reported. According to them, Amazon maintains just 6 to 10 percent of the market in any given week, while Apple hovers at closer to 90 percent.
NPD’s report affirms Apple as the continued leader in music sales. In 2008, Apple surpassed Walmart to take the No. 1 spot among U.S. music retailers. Last year, iTunes represented more than a quarter of all U.S. music sales.
What was I saying yesterday about being sick of all the music/Christmas blogging? Sigh…
This however is something well worth paying attention to. It’s not very often that Apple give things away for free, so when they do it’s essential that between us we squeeze as much as possible from them.
From the 26th of December until the 6th of January you will be able to download one free song every day from the iTunes store.
There are two ways of registering for this; 1) Sign up your email address via the 12 Days of Christmas website or 2) Downloading the iPhone app. I’ve tried both and advise the latter, especially if you’re a fan of Kylie, they seem to be offering a free EP on the iPhone app exclusively.
The website doesn’t say if there is a limited number of subscriptions, so get involved now. You can find out everything you need to know about this offer by clicking here.
Have you ever found yourself flicking through your overpriced iPhone music apps and thinking “these are all great, but what would really complete my life would be if I could take them onto a stage with me, or go busking with them”
Of course you haven’t, only an idiot would confuse virtual music toys with real performance instruments. This, however, hasn’t stopped gadget company Evenno from creating, producing and now marketing the single most pointless iPhone accessory on the planet.
The Fingerist is essentially an iPhone holder that vaguely resembles a guitar and can be strapped around your neck. It has a small speaker built into what would be the guitar’s body, but if you’re booked to play the o2 fear not, it can also be plugged into an amplifier with a quater inch jack.
So, you may be thinking “this sounds like quite a cool little toy, stop being such a stick in the mud you miserable bastard” and I agree, I thought this until I saw how much one of these things cost; £210. You might be able to find it for cheaper on ebay or Amazon, but as of yet I’ve not seen them in stock anywhere other than the Japan Gadget Shop.
So, if you do fancy spending a hell of a lot of money for this novelty toy, be my guest and please let me know how it has worked out for you on twitter @monkeyhotel
There are a lot of rumours that the Beatles catalogue will be released on iTunes within the next 30 min. While Apple, EMI and the Beatles estate have yet to announce the partnership officially, Billboard has stated that they believe from their own Music industry sources that a deal is in place and ready to come about.
If you don’t know what a granular synthesizer is then first of all, there is no need to feel stupid, it’s pretty specialist stuff and you may wish to have a quick read of this wiki article before going any further.
When I first discovered the joy granular synthesis, I became so obsessed with it I didn’t make any music that didn’t involve one for about 5 months, a serious hinderance if you are studying for a degree in music composition.
Well, for £1.19 you can share this joy without having to go through the pain of learning a programming language and making one yourself. All you need as an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.
The app is fairly versatile and allows you to load your own samples via a web style drop box. The interface is pretty intuitive too. If you need further convincing of how fun messing around with sound is, then check out the video below.
Just a quick post for those of you who missed yesterday’s Apple news because you live in a cave on the moon or somewhere beneath the ocean – here are the most exciting bits from the keynote;
1) iPod Shuffle – not much new to say here. They have returned to the clip design which I approve of. The voice over feature might be useful; this will say the name of the song, album or playlist to you so you know roughly where in your playlist you are. This has been a genuine problem with previous shuffles. £39 for 2gb is excellent value for money.
2) iPod Touch – consistently the most underwhelming of the iPod range. This new version has made a move inline with the iPhone 4, as was probably to be expected. HD video recording, front facing camera allowing for ‘FaceTime’ blah blah blah. It’s not that I don’t think this is a great product, I do, it’s just that the entry level 8gb model is £189. For that price you could just get an iPhone 4 and have the same product as your mobile phone.
3) Apple TV – you’ve got to give it to Steve Jobs, the guy is persistent. After years of trying to make Apple TV work they are still grinding away. Here is the latest redesign/revamp of the service. I really want this to work and think that the Movie rental feature will be key to its success. Call me a capitalist if you will, but a way to monetize the online video market is something the media has been in desperate need of for years. I will be buying it, I suggest you do the same.
4) iPod Nano - this 6th generation of the iPod Nano has taken my first place award as the best announcement of last night. A brilliant multi-touch screen on a device that clips to your jacket is inspired. If I didn’t already own an iPhone 4 this would be the iPod for me. At £129 for the basic 8gb I think that these will sell quicker than any of the other new announcements. Watch the video below for full details.
The app phenomenon has really helped Apple stay ahead of their competitors, but in iTunes users still buy music more than anything else, according to a Tuesday study from the NPD Group.
NPD found that while nearly every iPhone and iPod Touch user has downloaded a free app, users were more likely to pay for music than an application.
Of the 3,862 people surveyed by NPD, about 82 percent of iPhone and iPod Touch users have purchased music, while 56 percent of iTunes users bought music from the service exclusively.
NPD found that 9 out of 10 iPhone and iPod touch users said they had downloaded a freebie app. Russ Crupnick, vice president and senior entertainment analyst at NPD, said this behavior could lead to a “major up-selling opportunity to paid versions of the same app.”
“Apps and video certainly do compete for consumer dollars, but they can also be used to promote music and re-energize digital music and video download sales,” Crupnick said.
Apple’s Steve Jobs will take the stage on Wednesday at the company’s annual September media event, and he is expected to announce that iTunes users will be allowed at least twice the amount of time to sample a song.
iTunes currently offers 30 second snippets of songs, which is to provide users with a taste of the music to help them decide whether they like it enough to buy.
While Apple offers the Genius Mix, a song recommendation engine, music consumers know that they can go elsewhere and be given more of a chance to try out a song. This could give YouTube and Pandora an advantage, as iTunes is not the starting point in the song-purchasing process.
According to the sources, Jobs and Apple will focus a large part of Wednesday’s gathering on how the company is improving iTunes’ music discovery experience.
Deezer has just released a press release about Apple’s recent announcement of their new subscription option. Below is the press release.
The NPD has just released new data about the digital download market. According to the report, Apple has continued to pull away from Amazon and Walmart and now controls 66% of the market.
