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Apple Near Deal For Radio Service
An anonymous reader writes "TechCrunch and The Verge are reporting that Apple is near a deal with Universal Music to provide a streaming 'iRadio' music service. 'Apple is expected to launch a web radio service similar to Pandora's later this year, provided that executives there can strike an agreement with Sony Music Entertainment as well as music publishers. Talks with Sony, which operates the third label, Sony Music Entertainment and Sony / ATV, the music publishing company jointly run with the estate of the late singer Michael Jackson, are said to not be as far along towards reaching a deal. ... As for the financial terms, Apple will not receive the steep discounts it had sought for the labels' music.' Apple's 400 million active iTunes accounts could give even Pandora, with its 200 million users, something to worry about. 'For startups and streaming music companies, this means looking closely at the competitive advantages offered by their own platforms and decided how best to position their own services. A key advantage, and one that will likely get emphasized by virtually everyone challenged by an iRadio, is cross-platform compatibility. Apple will likely be able to offer something along those lines through iTunes on Windows, but for the most part it'll be a strictly iOS/Mac affair. That, combined with personalization and recommendation engines, along with other value add features, will be the way to combat an iTunes streaming service, but no matter what, an Apple product will change the face of this market.'"
If their music choice that they'll give customers is anything like the choices given in phones, it will be more repetitive than the top 20 radio station. But less popular, and more hipsterish.
Yep. Yet another slashvertisement, this time for a rumor/vapor service.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
> an Apple product will change the face of this market
An Android product would make more of a difference, what with the current approx 2:1 ratio in favour of Android usage on smartphones.
Then why are you reading apple.slashdot.org?
As long as it's a separate app.
I don't need any more fucking bloat in iTunes. iTunes 11 is GOOD. Leave it the fuck alone. I don't want your goddam radio service rammed up my ass, just like you tried to do with Ping.
no need to report until either one of actually happens. reading about it every few days gets old when there's nothing concrete new to report.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
I do not care who makes the product. As long as the artists make a fair wage, and the content is quality. Good audio quality content is hard to find anywhere on the web. Finding quality MP3 bitrate is hard as well. That is why people turn to apple, because there is quality control. I would love to see a free software foundation built store full of high quality content that artists are proud to be a part of. Developers are artists, and like artists its had to get along, and agree on some thing so large. maybe I should go over to kick starter...... But then Stallman would get mad when the Hollywood types would want to DRM the whole business.
In fanboy hype! Lead the way Apple, be different, just like pandora and spotify and last.fm and ...
Speak for yourself.
Yeah... a troll... Tried to add an .mkv to the iTunes library yesterday. Apparently it is not possible (after googling), but some indicator for things that it doesn't permit you to do would be nice. Connected a relative's iPad to it, and it promptly named the thing to -my username-'s iPad. Great.
>"Apple will likely be able to offer something along those lines through iTunes on Windows, but for the most part it'll be a strictly iOS/Mac affair."
That is no surprise. Just what we need- another platform-locked streaming radio. So far, Spotify has better options than Pandora, but it doesn't run on Linux, severely limiting it's usefulness to me.
iWhatever be certainly be less useful, since at least Spotify AND Pandora are available on the #1 phone platform (Android) and the #1 or #2 (depending on your sources) tablet platform (Android). If they ignore Linux, Android, and even MS-Windows, I can't believe they would make that much of an effective competitor.
I like to choose the music I listen to. I gave up radio long ago.
Fuck all these big companies that think they can own the world.
If we had a Justice Department that was worth a damn, Apple would be facing huge anti-trust suits just for thinking about something like this.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Is slashdot becoming like 4chan? Enough with these homophobic comments.
If there is even one commercial I will not use it.
the difference will be that apple makes a shitload more money than all the others combined
Not even close; Google+Samsung alone are larger than Apple :). Apples ipod market has died a quiet death, and its Market share of phones is so awful even Microsoft brag of Bigger market share. Apple has a tiny [and shrinking] share [after a race for early *hardware* profits] of potential customers.
Perhaps you should get your education from a better quality metal source...I would recommend Accept for financial analysis.
Trouble is, most folks on Android are known to loathe "paying for any software."
This is an article about an Apple user being attacked for Piracy by an Apple developer by Hyjacking their twitter accounts and posting confessions of piracy :) http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/11/ios-apps-hijack-twitter-accounts-post-false-confessions-of-piracy/. Perhaps you should should stop Demonising Android users. I'm personally willing to post screenshots of my Play account, showing all my purchases.
iOS has almost 100% of the market that matters
No they don't. Lets be honest about Apples market share...Its a localised phenomena in US and UK, and its more about how the carriers expect users to pay for the phones. Apples market share is so low...even Windows phone brag about having larger market share. You can pretend the Apple has some kind of lead...and it did, but that was when it did have major market share, but today applications are developed first for Android, and in some markets where Apple is none existent...Apple Applications are not being developed at all...and the same goes for video; books; music :). Would you like be to show you recipts of my Play purchases :) I just bought NBA Jam :)
Why does it matter what platforms your streaming solution supports? If someone moves to a platform that doesn't support your service, they just switch to someone who does. If they move to a platform that supports your service, there's almost no barrier to switch over because you are both offering an unlimited supply of streaming music with a variety of channels. When you are providing a service that gives the user nothing of permanence, they have no reason to stay with you.
I don't think iTunes can compete on price at all, there's no way the music industry is going to let margin slip out of their grasp again. So it'll probably be nearly the same price as other services.
Where iTunes might be able to have a bit of a leg up is baking streaming radio support into indie contracts that iTunes carries, so that they automatically get a wider range of music that other services would have a rough time matching since it would involve a ton of separate contracts. Perhaps that's widespread in streaming today, I don't know.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I don't know.
I guess you don't. I absolutely agree with you Apple is rotten, but excusing them, just because they are heading towards being a niche product is not right. We have learnt from IE that bundling software how abuse monopolies can stop innovation...and can only imagine how bad it would be not if like the iphone the bowser was locked to the iphone [safari frontends don't count ;)], and your right Apple should not not be considered a platform at all, but opened up to competing services, so Apple users can benefit...no matter how small Apple is [the same should and in the case of Android does apply].
Competition needs protecting.
you have 60% pirates,
So your saying that Android users are more likely to pirate by only 15% as the Application I linked to had 75% of Apple user being pirates. pirates.
Not to be cynical - a promise which I'll most likely break in the first sentence - but one of the ways this market will be changed by Apple's entry is the expected launch of several law suits, most likely by Apple. The start has probably already been made by Apple patenting the most trivial aspects of their future service. In a few years time we'll see lawsuits started by Apple on the way competitors match music choices, on the automatic composition of playlists, etc. It would be good news if I were to be wrong, but with history as my guide I'm probably right.
--frank[at]unternet.org
So what you are saying is that at least on Fandroid fails at Math. And Logic. And reading comprehension. And at not being a dick.
No my maths is pretty good, Apple users Pirate at 75% Android users at 60%. Apple users are more likely to pirate [and get attacked by Developers on their twitter pages]. My writing on that post was pretty sloppy, but my maths flawless.
It seems very important to you that Google and Samsung together are very large, isn't it? Emotionally involved with them? One of those companies makes their money selling your data.
Ignoring your personal attacks. My comments were in reference to a factual error by the original poster. Like you made with this one. Google will NEVER sell your data, because they can only do so once...they sell targeted advertising space [done by a computing algorithm] to other companies. Ironically Apple sell their users to Google for $400 Million [reportedly going up to 1Billion] So i'm not really sure what your point is Apple still has a small and shrinking part of the audio player market.
Yeah, likely they'll end up like Nintendo.
Except Nintendo won the console wars [had the majority market share at least] with its wii...although its struggling with its wii u http://www.vgchartz.com/ as you can see it outsold both Sony and Microsoft. Ironically Apple [when its still did computing] was rumoured to be serious about buying Nintendo, and would have been an incredibly good use of its money [they have $140 Billion now under the couch], unfortunately Jobs was always been against games [maybe sour grapes]...but right now I suspect unless Apple expand their product line [as they are rumoured to be doing...and is a little late], and quit their lock-in games [proprietary software and hardware only cuts it when your on top]. I think they are going to become relevant only in the US soon, and then only until the carriers gang up on Apple [dies a natural death].
Sounds good until you realize that it'll be tied down into Itunes and iDevices and that it'll likely use the AAC format or some variation of it to stream music and they most definetly will insert audio and possibly video ads into it as well. And it will not support shoutcast radio streams something that's been around now for over 10 years.
I'd rather stick with my own music collection of Ogg Vorbis files ripped from CD's I own and much higher sound quality compared to mp3 and AAC and not be tied down to the patent and license crap that Fraunhofer and Apple made with their own audio formats.
Do we really need another clone of pretty much every radio station in the USA and Canada that plays pretty much the same music tracks over and over each month but just shuffles it around a bit? No.
You must master your joystick like a fisherman masters bait! - Gimpy
Where did that wild and totally unrelated missive come from? It's in response to my pointing out that streaming radio is the OPPOSITE of lock-in, no matter WHO is providing it because it's so easy to leave. So iTunes providing streaming radio does nothing to further Apple lock-in, it's just a nice to user service on a number of popular platforms (including Windows I might point out). In fact if anything it reduces average consumer lock-in if fewer people are buying and more are streaming. It ties people to Apple less, not more!
You have gone off the deep end. And for what? What good does it do you or anyone to hate a company so much? I once disliked Microsoft almost as much as you hate Apple today; but I got over it and am a better person today as a result. There is no room in our lives for as much hate as you are willing to harbor. Something else beautiful or vital goes when you chose to make space for that particular kind of personal demon, and it will eat you alive if you let it. Let it go, and free yourself in the process!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I have no problems at all finding music in MP3 format in good quality. I just go to Amazon.
There have been a lot of singles that I haven't been able to find on Amazon, except by cover bands best known for their karaoke albums. "Anyone At All" by Carole King and "Gimme Little Sign" were among them last time I checked.
further Apple lock-in
I agree. Especially considering the news that a quarter of American books sold are electronic, imagine what a disaster it would be if Steve Jobs had succeeded in forming its [another?] cartel. It needs greater scrutiny regarding its abusive policies, especially in regards companies able to compete with Apples first parts Applications..especially the abuse of not allowing other stores on their [not your] phones including book/music/magiazine...and obviously Application. Competition is a precious commodity, and needs to be preserved. In fact movement vbetween platforms needs to be trivial...and the rights of users protected against Apple. Users are not even aware that they are being sold to advertising companies.
Streaming services like Pandora and Rdio aren't radio, they're jukeboxes. Even a canned playlist from another user is missing the human element of an announcer who shares his or her knowledge of the music and bands, as well as adding thought and experience into the segues and sets.There's no spontaneity in these services, no tie to the time of day or local events, no cultural gathering point. Other than music, they exhibit few of the characteristics that make good radio a great listening experience.
This service seems to be limited to the music of certain big labels. If you're not with that big label, your music will not be on iRadio. That's a serious limitation that traditional over-the-air radio stations do not have - they pay a flat fee, or a fee per song played, regardless of the publisher of the song. That alone makes it so much less interesting. It's not radio, it's more of a "universal music promotion channel".
And probably a total lack of dj's, that do announcements, some silly talk sometimes, give some news facts, whatever. Some may be experts in a certain music genre, and will introduce their listeners to interesting new stuff. Major part of what makes radio, radio.
Android users don't spend money...Or even surf the web as often as iOS users:
Check your spin from your own outdated article that have dubious sources :) "Google Play paid revenue grew by 311 percent since January, Apple's paid revenue only grew by 12.9 percent" reread my comments :)....and this is an outdated article.
As for the browse think it is [was!?] an anomaly of netlink...I'm not even sure if its true their any-more, but the site is borked, a quick look at statcounter http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_browser-ww-monthly-201203-201303 shows that ios web presence continue to be well below Android :) unsurprisingly.
You should read and verify your links before posting and wasting peoples time, especially mine.
You want to talk about profits :) not "Market cap" or "Market share" suddenly we are back to the same point *profit*, because lets face it Apple just aren't that big...but they are profitable [At least in the short term :). This is a sign of how much Apple can *milk* its customers, and the Answer is "OMG" and they have a reported $140Billion just sat around allegedly. Its why they have [just] the biggest Market cap in the world [Although as I point out there are a lot of large players in the smartphone market].
But here is the thing. Apple have lost 35% of their Market value in 6Months alone, and the main reason is Apple makes the vast majority of those profits from the iPhone hardware sales, and investors got so nervous, about it failing to meet its sales targets; its shrinking margins; long term profitability is suddenly *puff* all that value just vanished from the company [$250Billion]...but the bottom line is the market does not see Apple as a long term prospect.
Actually I thought Apple cannibalising its music player sales for that of the iPhone was brilliant [and pretty much everyone agrees], not cannibalising its iPhone sales with an iPhone nano I suspect will prove its downfall. The reference to Microsoft is their latest brag that they outsell the iPhone in 6 countries...they even reported it here, personally I think its a bad reflection on both companies.
Lets be honest about Apples market share...Its a localised phenomena in US and UK,
Tell that to Japan, Germany and China. And quarter by quarter numbers seem good in many other markets too.
Not sure where you are getting your data from. :) This is the latest article I can find [sorry about the Google translate] http://translate.google.com.hk/translate?hl=en&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&sl=zh-CN&tl=en&u=http://data.eguan.cn/yidonghulian_147283.html It shows Apples market share *dropping* from 6.2% to 4.2 while Android continued to rise to 90.1%. To put that in perspective. Apples market share is 21times smaller...do you seriously want to claim that the Chinese Developers are developing any Applications. Apple is a dead platform in the largest market in the world.
if you weren't such a dipshit you would have realized...google doesn't sell music or radio services (neither does samsung)
Samsung Music Hub
http://www.samsung.com/us/article/music-hub-all-the-music-you-want-all-in-one-place
Music on Google Play
https://play.google.com/store/music
Yes I'm afraid you have indeed made a factual error, don't feel too bad
there's a thousand grandmas who got their Android phone free
I think the main reason Android is so much more successful with All generations...and sexes is more down to its larger screen size; resolution and pixel density allowing better viewing, and its ease of use.
IDG has it at 8.5% by volume up .5%. Most smartphones in China are sold at $79. If you look at revenue rather than units a more balanced image: http://image.slidesharecdn.com/201304stock-130412135737-phpapp01/95/slide-7-638.jpg?1365793092
This BTW is a global picture: http://image.slidesharecdn.com/201304stock-130412135737-phpapp01/95/slide-5-638.jpg?1365793092
do you seriously want to claim that the Chinese Developers are developing any Applications
I have no idea. But I don't particularly care the claim was about Apple's dying marketshare worldwide not the geography of its developers.
Most smartphones in China are sold at $79
Not according to the Chinese who claim the average is 1,393 yuan(about $220) admittedly I agree the iPhone has priced itself out of the market for short term profitability in the American market.
What can you get for 1,393 yuan in china...lets have a look at the Chinese Amazon.cn http://translate.google.com.hk/translate?hl=en&sl=zh-CN&tl=en&u=amazon.cn unsurprisingly their top selling phone is 1,165 yuan...so a little less than average. its a Motorola; dual-mode dual standby 1.2GHz dual-core Android 4.0 system 4.3-inch phone. Its a better phone than I own :) Interesting that its a Motorola too, as I haven't heard much good news about them in a while. The bottom line is check your fact before posting them.
Market Caps: AAPL - 403.6B
GOOG - 260.4B
Market Cap Trend:
AAPL - Down 39%
GOOG - Up 22%
You want to argue...you wont get one from me. I just think trend more important :)
I'm sticking with IDG over Amazon. I did check the facts and went with a reputable agency.
The you need to look at the data...as stupid as it is, you need to look at Android/Other Android Which look to collaborate *Analysys Network* results [amazon was used to provide meaning to data] which also shows the downward trend of Apple in China :) Perhaps you should click on my links, by the way on your graphs which show last quarters current sales those large yellow bars show Android sales...its difficult to make out but if your zoom in you can just make out the tiny market share of Apple :).
But again the your make up average selling smartphone in china is Comical, and without support, because at worst its a lie or at best a little racist through ignorance.
$79 is IDG not me.
There is no downward trend. Here is another source. I think the growth is too high but it sure ain't down: http://www.canalys.com/static/press_release/2013/canalys-press-release-070213-android-powered-third-all-mobile-phones-shipped-q4-2012.pdf
Then show me your source, because right now local Analysis and Local retail...and the graphs you supply by IDG all point to $76 Android phone being a lie made up by you.
You provide no information about china and the source you provide again restates the fact Apple is a failure in China "China is a massive growth prospect but Apple is not making the market share impact there that it is in other markets. The lack of a device on the China Mobile network is a big drawback, combined with high price points."
Do you even read your own links.
Then why are you reading apple.slashdot.org?
I see Slashdot stories via RSS feed where there is no indication of which subslashdot they are part of.
Even in terms of "market share", Apple is much larger than Google
I'm pretty confident that in the context of this article Google has a lot more customers than Apple :) Its called Android its what Google Play sits on [I suppose Microsoft don't have any computers either :) with only surface]. To quote myself the response to "apple makes a shitload more money than all the others combined" was "Google+Samsung alone are larger than Apple :)" That is still true. Although its interesting to note the decline of Apple and the rise of Google :). I treated your posts seriously In future I will just have fun with you :)
Apple has so much money in their war chest, why don't they just buy them outright instead of trying to strike a deal? Is this such a crazy idea? Or maybe they just don't want to actually run them.
Your right I do *state* that Apple is a localised phenomena in US and UK, they even sell less than Android even in those places elsewhere else they sell badly. Apple do not sell over 40M units consistently [A number half that of Samsung Alone :)] they are feast or fast depending when they launch an iphone :) Here is an easy to understand graph...as you can see Apple only broke the 40M unit once http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/World_Wide_Smartphone_Sales.png and Android sell over 140M in the same quarter. :) In fact it was that very 40M figure that was crashed Apples Market Cap for being too low.
I do mention China...although it could have easily been Brazil, When Apple has a teeny tiny market share, and not one single reference refutes that fact, irrespective of various variances. Is still sitting 80% behind Android :). I'm not sure why it terrifies you that the Chinese are currently using arguably better phones than the iphones at less cost. Its why Apple is a failure in china [and why Android sells more phone everywhere]. I provide two sources of information, and information from your own. That refutes your made up figure [and machine gunning company names is proof of this] Just for completeness here is a comparison of market share over time for smartphones http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/World_Wide_Smartphone_Sales_Share.png...its an Android world :)
Apple is a failure in China
No I used Amazon to verify average costs of a Chinese Android phone and the what you get for that cost, based on what the Largest Online retailer stated are in realtime was the most popular Android phones, and then quote the price and specifications of that model. To quote myself "1,165 yuan...so a little less than average. its a Motorola; dual-mode dual standby 1.2GHz dual-core Android 4.0 system 4.3-inch phone" Its actually been overtake by "ZTE ZTE U930 3G Mobile Phone (Black) TD-SCDMA/GSM, Android4.0, 4.3-inch IPS screen, 1.2Ghz dual-core" for 650 Yuan and you can see why. All the phones in the top ten are this price or over all with >4" screens and dual core processer over >1.2Ghz. The lie that the Chinese are using some kind on Android Dumbphone is insulting everyone's intelligence, as it pushes the bounds of Logic. http://translate.google.com.hk/translate?hl=en&sl=zh-CN&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Famazon.cn
Amazon.cn is not the largest online retailer in China. Which is what I have told you. And yet you keep pretending.
Amazon is the largest online retailer. Which is what I have told you. And yet you keep pretending. :).
Either way rather if you want to disprove my post I'm happy for your to provide a link to a translated larger Chinese only!? online retailer that lists Android phones by popularity, you won't because your affirming a disjunct. Either way the Chinese are walking around with killer Android phones. :)
Customers are the people buying your products. Apple's customers are the users, Google's customers are the advertisers.
Please don't waste my time quibbling over words, newspapers, TV, Radio and Magazines, Sports make most of their money through advertising. Would your prefer consumer or User...personally I don't care. ironically by your definition though Google is Apples customer as Apple sells its user to Google :)
"Market share" without profitability is meaningless -- ask the PC companies.
Now your getting it. As a market matures, margins drop, and Apple moves towards obscurity.
As for asking PC companies Intel's average quarterly gross margin in the last five years is 59.97 per cent, and Microsoft's is even higher at 78.31 per cent. Dell's average gross profit margin at group level is 19.53 per cent and HP's is 22.32 per cent.
Perhaps you should look at Financial *performance* rather than the the top and bottom line
Silly me for actually thinking profit and loss is more important than some random numbers,
Ok you don't know how to read a financial statement.
You work out Gross Profit Margin by Gross Profit ÷ Total Revenue
The fact that you think that is a random number means the end of this conversation.
Yes because everytime that one number doesn't fit your narrative - market cap, profit, or revenue - you pull out another number trying to prove your point.
But the bottom line is that profit is what matters.