Apple Inc. has been a market leader for technology in the 21st Century by constantly releasing new products that are easy to use and simple. You will see iPad users aged between 3 and 93 if you go around an airport for more than two hours. Apple’s success has been built by creating bold, new products that outperform the rest. Apple recently made the decision to enter the music streaming market, which is the fastest-growing form of music listening. Apple announced Monday that iTunes Radio, a radio streaming service for all Apple products, will launch this fall.
Strong Field of Competition
Apple is facing a lot competition in the streaming music industry. Pandora Radio is the current market leader in web radio streaming. Pandora has been improving its recommendation service, the media player and user experience over the past 13 years. According to reports, the company has over 150 million users. TuneIn Radio, which provides users with access to over 70,000 radio stations across the globe, is another key player. Tech giants like Google and Apple are also getting involved. Spotify and Facebook have partnered to allow users to search for songs and artists directly through their catalog of over 20 million songs. You can also create playlists and listen to radio stations. In addition, you can set up feeds to tell your Facebook friends which song you are currently listening to. Twitter also discussed the possibility of launching a music service that recommends songs to users; Google recently announced Google Play Music All Access; and there are many more Tubidy.
Is iTunes Radio a Success
iTunes Radio is a great success story for Apple. Although I don’t like Apple entering the field as a second-mover, I love what they are doing here. When it opened on April 28, 2003, the iTunes Store was the first to sell digital music. With a catalogue that contains more than 26 million songs, it is recognized as the largest music retailer in the world. Apple’s iTunes Store already boasts a wider selection of songs than Spotify and other music streaming services. Apple should join the streaming radio field, as the new music trend is to listen to large music libraries and not purchase individual songs.
Why iTunes Radio’s Success is Important
Apple may be copying other tech giants in a market already crowded with them. Apple, unlike Twitter and Google, has been providing amazing products for music lovers for many years. The iPod changed the way I listened and stored music. I don’t know of anyone who hasn’t owned an iPod at one time or another. Even those who bought the Microsoft Zune did not buy an iPod. Since its inception in 2001, iTunes has been the most popular media player and library program. Apple iTunes Radio will combine the best features of all current music streaming stations. My iTunes Radio experience will become more personal as I use iTunes Radio and play more music from my iTunes library. It’s perfect because I have all the music I have collected over the past decade in my iTunes library.
iTunes Radio allows me to select any song from my music library, and it will instantly build a station around it. Apple has added adjustment features that allow you to control the balance between playing new songs and listening to the classics. Apple should use the same playlists created by iTunes Genius. I love them so much that I believe they will create or use similar software for iTunes Radio. iTunes Radio also offers the option to download and purchase tracks I have listened to from the iTunes store. All the music I listen to on iTunes Radio is saved in my history. This means that if I like a song, I can tap buy and it will be added to my iTunes. It’s amazing! Pandora has so many great songs that I’ve listened to, I just want to download them all and add them to my iPod. But I never get to do it.
Closing
My only Apple products are the iPhone 4S (and an iPod Classic), so I don’t consider myself a diehard Apple guy. They seem to know what they are doing in the digital music business. Although I don’t think Apple will overtake Pandora in this market, they will thrive. Apple has a strong customer base and does an excellent job of building brand loyalty. When iTunes Radio launches in the Fall, I expect many people to convert to it.