Apple Inc. has been a leader in technology for the past 21 years by creating simple, easy-to-use products. You can be sure that iPad users are between the ages 3 and 93 when you stroll around an airport. Apple has created bold new products two years ahead the competition to build its empire. Apple is now a late entrant to the music streaming business, which is rapidly growing. Apple has announced that iTunes Radio will become a radio streaming player for all Apple devices starting in the Fall.
Strong Field of Competition
Apple faces fierce competition in music streaming. Pandora Radio is the market leader in streaming web radio. Pandora has been working for 13 years to perfect its recommendation service and media player. It was estimated that the company had more than 150 million users. TuneIn Radio is another important player Tubidy. It offers over 70,000 stations on every continent. Many tech giants are joining the fray. Spotify partnered with Facebook to enable users to search through the approximately 20 million songs in their library. Users can share playlists, listen radio stations and create feeds which tell friends what song they are listening to. Twitter has spoken out about the possibility of creating a music service that suggests songs to users. Google recently announced Google Play Music All Access.
Will iTunes Radio be a Success
iTunes Radio is going to be an Apple success story. I am not used to Apple being a second mover in the market, but I enjoy what they are doing. The iTunes Store opened April 28, 2003 and was the first store to offer digital music. It is the world’s largest music seller, with over 26 million songs. Apple’s iTunes Store has an already larger song database than Spotify or other streaming music services. Apple could join the radio streaming industry, since music lovers are now more inclined to listen to music from large collections than to purchase individual tracks.
The Reasons I Love iTunes Radio’s Remarkable Success
Apple is sure to copy the competition in a sector that already has every tech giant possible. Apple has been providing incredible products to music fans for many years, not unlike Twitter or Google. The iPod revolutionized how I listened to music and stored it. I don’t know anyone who hasn’t owned an iPod at least once. Even those who purchased the Microsoft Zune bought an iPod. iTunes has been the best media player since its original release in 2001. Apple iTunes Radio will be a combination of the best music streaming stations. The more I use iTunes Radio and my iTunes Library, the more personalized it becomes. Because all of my music from the past decade is stored in my iTunes Library, this is fantastic.
iTunes Radio lets me select any song from my library and instantly creates a station. Apple has created adjustment features which allow you to adjust the balance between finding new songs and playing old favorites. Apple has a lot of great playlists, and I’m a big fan of iTunes Genius playlists. Apple will use or develop similar software for iTunes Radio. iTunes Radio has another advantage: I can purchase and download songs that I’ve listened to straight from iTunes. iTunes Radio stores everything I listen too. When I love a song, all I need to do is tap the buy button and it is added instantly to my iTunes. That’s just amazing! Pandora is so amazing! I have listened a lot to Pandora songs and I wish I could immediately download them to my iPod.
In Closing
My two Apple products I have are an iPhone 4S, and an iPod Classic. I’m not one these Apple haters. I think they know what they’re doing in digital music. While I doubt Apple will surpass Pandora as the leader in this industry, I believe they will succeed. Apple has a large customer base and does a fantastic job at building brand loyalty. When iTunes Radio is released in the Fall, I predict many people will switch to it.