Will iTunes Continue To Be A Dominant Global Player? What Are Its Weaknesses?
Will iTunes Radio be a dominant global player? Kyle Bylin, a user research at Live Nation Labs and former Hypebot editor, recently conducted a Sidewinder survey about iTunes Radio. We've gathered together some of the outstanding comments regarding the future of Apple and iTunes Radio.
In addition, take a look at this earlier interview with Jason Herskowitz by Kyle Bylin regarding mainstream consumers and iTunes Radio.
Respondents were asked if iTunes would continue to be a "dominant global player" while also identifying the "biggest weak spots in the music service that leave it open to be overtaken by another company."
Will iTunes Continue To Be A Dominant Global Player?
"Yes. It's the easiest service out there with which to purchase music. The biggest weakness, I would say, is complicating things with a ton of added features (think Ping and even the Cloud to a certain extent). If Apple keeps things simple and streamlined for the average consumer, they will be able to stay on top."
— Anon
"Apple has long since put iTunes on autopilot. Music is an afterthought now, with or without radio. But if they see an important market opportunity in the living room or dashboard, they can re-energize their product offering. Biggest weak spot is that Android now owns reach on mobile, YouTube and Pandora owns music on connected TV, and Clear Channel owns music in the car. Those are not easy to overcome."
— Lucas Gonze
"They're fine for now. They're not blazing new trails, but music has proven a difficult place to do so anyway. They can afford to let others (Pandora) fight the tough battles, then learn and adapt themselves. My ultimate question is whether they can appeal to the younger generation."
— Ty White, Pepperland Labs
"Downloading will stop once wireless connections are everywhere. iTunes will then be more of a boutique service for people who don't understand technology. As those people dwindle in numbers so will the relevance of iTunes."
— Tony Hymes, Whyd
"Yes, iTunes will continue to be a dominant global player. The biggest weak spot is the lack of true innovation in the streaming radio space. Whereas portable MP3 players and tablets were clunky and left a lot to be desired, Pandora, Spotify, and Rdio are already great services. Apple has a fine line to walk between mainstream adoption and genuine disruption of the streaming radio space."
— Wes Davenport, Wes Davenport Marketing
"Yes. Its weakness is its focus on the Apple platform; Android users will never be able to participate. Amazon has as powerful and customer-friendly a brand as Apple and has no problem selling to both Apple and Android customers."
— C.Y. Lee, xDJs
"It is likely that iTunes will continue to be a dominant player on the download side. iTunes radio biggest challenge is instead to create more active usage and reaching a wider consumer audience. If it's not going to be an on-demand service, there will be definitely space for Youtube, Spotiify etc and same regarding the "soundtracking/background playlist" side for Songza, Beats by Dre, etc."
— Claudio Gallo, StereoMood / Bad Panda Records
"Yes, it will continue to be a dominant player. The weak spot is the reliance on Apple's hardware dominance, which is ebbing and is always under threat from rival innovators."
— Aram Sinnreich, Rutgers University
[Thumbnail image courtesy Adam Wyles.]
More: iTunes Radio Launching This Week, Can Apple Convince Mainstream Consumers To Switch?
