Can Apple’s iTunes Radio Gain A Solid Foothold In The World Of Internet Radio?
Kyle Bylin, a user researcher at Live Nation Labs and former Hypebot editor, recently conducted a Sidewinder survey about iTunes Radio which launches this Wednesday, September 18. We've gathered together some of the outstanding comments from his studt regarding the future of Apple and iTunes Radio in a series of related posts.
In addition, take a look at this earlier interview with Jason Herskowitz by Kyle Bylin regarding mainstream consumers and iTunes Radio.
Survey respondents were almost evenly divided on the question, "Is Apple late to the streaming music game with iTunes Radio?"
But all agreed that Apple can still gain a "solid foothold in the world of Internet radio." Here's why:
Can Apple Gain a Solid Foothold in the World of Internet Radio?
"Apple already has a pretty solid foothold in the digital music marketshare — the ability to listen to music for free via Apple products will be huge for a large, pre-existing userbase."
— Anon
"Apple is in a great position to capitalize on the backlash from Pandora's war on songwriters."
— Dustin Fenison
"Again, integrations. It'll be on them to innovate in the areas of living room and vehicle technology if they want to win with their existing closed ecosystem approach — they've done a pretty poor job of selling other stereo manufacturers on AirPlay integrations, but a pretty great job selling Apple TVs without marketing. It's certainly no slam dunk, but they've got the resources to do it."
— Ty White, Pepperland Labs
"Hundreds of millions of devices in the world is a pretty good foothold, they could've put out anything they wanted and still get a large amount of traction. As to whether it is sustainable in the long term remains to be seen. The question will be: will the radio stations be varied enough to let people come back and listen to them every day without hearing the same stuff all the time?"
— Tony Hymes, Whyd
"They'll put it inside the most used player and music ecosystem on the planet."
— Bruce Houghton, Hypebot/Skyline Music
"Is Apple late to the streaming music game with iTunes Radio?"
"The industry is still finding the sweet spot. Not even the well established players are really finding profitability. I still believe the streaming market is in a test phase. Someone will eventually crack it. Although they haven't got first mover advantage they already have the established music platform on mobile. Spotify and the rest are still fragmented by their desktop model. Apple have the chance to dominate the mobile streaming space very quickly and in reality that's where the future lies; not with pc's or desktop."
— Enda McGuinness
"Apple didn't need to be an early player in the streaming music game. Historically, Apple has been very strategic on when to enter or disrupt a market. See: iPod/Phone/Pad, iTunes, iBooks. A mainstream audience is finally getting used to the idea of streaming radio. Indicators include Pandora's 60 million users and the installation of internet radio in vehicles."
— Wes Davenport, Wes Davenport Marketing
"All the current broadcast radio listeners are still up for grabs so Apple is right on time for them."
— Pete Bruckbauer, formerly Pandora, currently AudienceExpress
More: iTunes Radio Launching This Week, Can Apple Convince Mainstream Consumers To Switch?
