Martin Atkins, SAE Institute Blast Apple Music As Flawed, Exploitive

Hypebot readers know Martin Atkins from his book Welcome to the Music Business: You're F**ked! and fiery keynotes at music conventions. He's also the Chair of the Music Business at SAE Institute Chicago, and it's in that role that he and a colleague chose to blast Apple Music subscription service as bad for the music business – and recording artists in particular. 

_____________________________

Given the growing preference of streaming over purchasing music, Martin Atkins, Chair of the Music Business at SAE Institute Chicago, feels that the addition of Apple Music makes it that much more difficult for musicians to prosper. “Apple used to be the underdog and worked hard for our delight at each new step, but with Apple Music, they’ve become the new ‘boss’ of the music industry – and an exploitive one at that,” says Atkins.

“When you consider that Pharrell made $6,003 in royalties from 106 million streams of his hit ‘Happy’ on Pandora, it’s obvious that the revenue opportunities delivered by streaming are meaningless to those who create and own the music,”  he continued. “Apple could have come up with a business model that was more amenable to artists, labels, and songwriters and still profitable for the company, but that’s not the way they operate. Apple makes things better for Apple, not for any of the players whose artistic output the company is leveraging to add to its bottom line.”

Another SAE department head also calls Apple Music a flawed idea.

"I don’t believe that there’s a marketplace need for Apple Music," says Dr. E. Michael Harrington, Music Business Program Faculty Chairperson at SAE Institute Nashville. “Apple Music's launch didn’t solve any consumer problems in the same way that the brilliant iTunes Store did in 2003 and the Apple Store did in 2007. Also, Apple Music has a confusing user interface/user experience as well as an unclear purpose: is it meant to eliminate iTunes as a vendor of MP3s? Or is it meant to complement iTunes with a streaming experience? And does Apple truly think that their $10 per month all-you-can-stream price has more value than, for example, Netflix and its $8 per month all-you-can-watch price?"

With the popularity of Spotify, Slacker, Stitcher, and Pandora, Harrington also feels that Apple is late to the streaming space. He believes that Apple Music will face significant competition from YouTube, which will launch a music streaming subscription service later this year, and from Facebook, which is in talks with record labels about what will likely be another streaming service.

Related articles

new music industry – midemblog

Taylor Swift thought Apple would spy on her, delete her music from iTunes following Apple Music criticism

Pandora executive says Steve Jobs "eviscerated the music industry"

Pharrell Williams Net Worth: Surely an Interesting Matter

Music industry analyst estimates Apple Music will hit 8M paid subscribers this year, 20M next year