iTunes to stop selling downloads

DulcetJones · May 2016

They are looking at a two year plan to move to streaming only, thereby erasing the only "fair" price todays artists have access to. Not that I was making big bucks or anything but each time I sold an mp3 of my music there I earned more than 3 or 4 months of streaming on all of my songs combined. I'm just putting the finishing touches on another album and have to wonder if I'll even finish it, let alone make more. I love making music but it does cost money and time, a lot of time, and I have to be able to recoup something. I gave up trying to rely on music and got a day job a long time ago, but this is depressing news that's probably going to even hit the Taylor Swifts and Justin Biebers of the world.

http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2016/05/11/apple-terminating-music-downloads-two-years/

Fretwired · May 2016

I can't see their new CEO kissing goodbye to $600 million worth of revenue which Amazon could easily hoover up. And Apple would have to improve their streaming service as it's shite compared to Spotify.

stickyfiddle · May 2016

Eurgh.

I'll be surprised if it happens in the next 2 years. 4 or 5 maybe. In any case, am I the only person who still wants to pay for something once and then get use of it forever?

I don't want my TV, movie collection, music collection, amazon shipping, photoshop, lightroom, windows, office, etc all on rolling subscriptions that cost a fortune.

jellyroll · May 2016

stickyfiddle said:

Eurgh.

I'll be surprised if it happens in the next 2 years. 4 or 5 maybe. In any case, am I the only person who still wants to pay for something once and then get use of it forever?

I don't want my TV, movie collection, music collection, amazon shipping, photoshop, lightroom, windows, office, etc all on rolling subscriptions that cost a fortune.

I get what you're saying but I'm moving over to the view that paying £10/month for access to all music and never having to "buy" a download isn't such a bad deal. No more "do I own it? do I want to own? which version should I buy? where is it in my catalogue? I know it's here somewhere....."

One of my questions though is around travel. No wifi on London underground trains so streaming is tricky.....

andyp · May 2016

stickyfiddle said:

Eurgh.

I'll be surprised if it happens in the next 2 years. 4 or 5 maybe. In any case, am I the only person who still wants to pay for something once and then get use of it forever?

I don't want my TV, movie collection, music collection, amazon shipping, photoshop, lightroom, windows, office, etc all on rolling subscriptions that cost a fortune.

Yeah, this is exactly how I see it too.

I understand a lot of folk could just want to stream stuff, but I prefer owning it to listen to offline whenever I want. I know I can save stuff on Apple Music for offline use but it's still a bit of a faff and I have to remember to do this at home rather than at work or out and about and I never stream over mobile data.

I love Apple Music but my main beef is that when it should be a 10 second task, Apple's latest iTunes software makes it a complete buggeration to move a purchased CD from my laptop onto my phone. I have to switch off iCloud, then connect to the laptop, then drag it over (which quite often fails) then reconnect to iCloud for it to then re-download the stuff I've saved from Apple Music. Why this has to happen I've no idea. It defeats the whole purpose in my view... but I've persevered as I find I use Apple Music for about 4-6 hours a day and it's effortless apart from that issue.

Just now I pay for Apple Music for me and Mrs. P (£15 a month, but I get a lot of use from this), I still buy quite CDs regularly (but generally only once I know I like it from a test drive on Apple Music) and we have Amazon Prime and Netflix too. I'm pretty much at my limit for this stuff in terms of numbers of things to be shelling out for per month and I find both Amazon and Netflix don't quite offer as much as I'd hoped. In every other aspect of my life I'm trying to get rid of monthly payments.

Personally, I think most folk will be thinking the same thing with having a breaking point with regard to loads of monthly subscriptions, and artists and labels surely won't like a streaming-only future? I can see it being a "white paper" kind of idea from Apple, but I really don't see it being implemented any time in the near future.

Andy

Fretwired · May 2016

This may be good for the consumer, but it will hit the big record companies and artists hard. I can see streaming prices having to rise or artists will pull their music. I use Spotify and have noticed lots of albums disappearing recently.

Drew_TNBD · May 2016

We need a return to physical media, and we need it now.

stickyfiddle · May 2016

jellyroll said:

stickyfiddle said:

Eurgh.

I'll be surprised if it happens in the next 2 years. 4 or 5 maybe. In any case, am I the only person who still wants to pay for something once and then get use of it forever?

I don't want my TV, movie collection, music collection, amazon shipping, photoshop, lightroom, windows, office, etc all on rolling subscriptions that cost a fortune.

I get what you're saying but I'm moving over to the view that paying £10/month for access to all music and never having to "buy" a download isn't such a bad deal. No more "do I own it? do I want to own? which version should I buy? where is it in my catalogue? I know it's here somewhere....."
One of my questions though is around travel. No wifi on London underground trains so streaming is tricky.....

£10 a month isn't much for Spotify or Apple Music.

£15 a month isn't much for Netflix

£80 a year isn't much for Amazon Prime

£50 a year for PSN isn't too bad if you like gaming

$10 a month for Office isn't that much money if you nede to write docs

£17 a month for photoshop is much cheaper than buying it outright, until you've had it for 2 years at least

But when you add ALL of that up, then realise that when you stop paying you lose 100% of the value you'd apparently gained, it's really not so good.

FWIW I don't like downloads for the same reason. CDs ripped to my own machine are still the best way whenever possible.

Philly_Q · May 2016

Call me paranoid, but I always worry that albums* only available via streaming will suddenly disappear one day and I'll never be able to hear them again. It makes me uncomfortable.

(* yes I still listen to whole albums)

english_bob · May 2016

£10 a month isn't much for Spotify or Apple Music.
£15 a month isn't much for Netflix

£80 a year isn't much for Amazon Prime

£50 a year for PSN isn't too bad if you like gaming

$10 a month for Office isn't that much money if you nede to write docs

£17 a month for photoshop is much cheaper than buying it outright, until you've had it for 2 years at least

But when you add ALL of that up, then realise that when you stop paying you lose 100% of the value you'd apparently gained, it's really not so good.

FWIW I don't like downloads for the same reason. CDs ripped to my own machine are still the best way whenever possible.

Yep. The fact that Netflix and Amazon are producing their own programmes (others will likely follow suit if it makes money) means that you may well find yourself wanting to subscribe to more than one streaming TV service.

Also, I read somewhere recently that apparently lots of the big content providers for services like Netflix are realizing that they could be making the money that Netflix makes from streaming their content and are considering withdrawing material from Netflix to stock their own streaming services. The more fragmented this sort of thing becomes in order to watch everything you want, the less it seems worth the bother- or the expense- of subscribing to all the different services, none of which will individually get any cheaper.

And I'll stop buying and ripping CDs when they bulldoze every last CD in existence in to a massive pit and burn the lot. Not before.

Fretwired · May 2016

english_bob said:

Also, I read somewhere recently that apparently lots of the big content providers for services like Netflix are realizing that they could be making the money that Netflix makes from streaming their content and are considering withdrawing material from Netflix to stock their own streaming services. The more fragmented this sort of thing becomes in order to watch everything you want, the less it seems worth the bother- or the expense- of subscribing to all the different services, none of which will individually get any cheaper.

Scrap the licence fee and give the BBC the right to offer subscription services and it could clean up - music, films, TV and sport around the world - it's highly respected globally. It's just run as if its still the 1950s. Give Apple a swift kick in the crotch.

andyp · May 2016

100% agree with these posts. It's the fragmented part and the totalling up of various £5-10 a month subscriptions that are the biggest issue. I don't think pay per view is a good model either. We still buy DVDs even though you can buy / rent via Sky+ as you can watch the DVD elsewhere, especially for the kids.

I still favour buying CDs and copying them over to my phone above any other version of listening. Better quality using Lossless and I have the CD for the car... and to hold onto and cuddle. If Apple hadn't offered as much as Spotify (for me, maybe not overall) I would've stuck with Spotify, no way I'd pay for both. I chose Apple as it was more integrated to my phone and laptop libraries.

For the TV stuff, I think it's going to get a lot more disjointed before it settles down. I know it might appear as if we have more choice, but when Amazon only have some things and Netflix only have some things, although there's a crossover where some things are available on both, ultimately it comes down to choosing one and accepting you won't get to see some things you want to watch. I'm not sure this is sustainable. I'm more likely to quit paying if I find I can't see things than take out more subscriptions. For films / TV etc. the only way to get exactly what you want is still currently to buy it on disc / box set.

Andy

andyp · May 2016

Fretwired said:

I use Spotify and have noticed lots of albums disappearing recently.

I think this is an issue too. If there's not much money in it, artists will pull them and folk will just have to pony up the cash if they want to hear it. I think this is more likely to happen than streaming only models.

Or they'll let their singles / partial albums onto streaming as a way of promoting purchases - by download or disc.

guitarfishbay · May 2016

I've only bought brand new CDs since the end of last year. I definitely outspend £10/month on music, and I'm sure many who use Spotify used to. It's your money at the end of the day. But the figures are clear - streaming can't and doesn't support smaller artists, and I don't see any future where it can. It is set up to dilute your £10 in with the £10s of those listening to mainstream radio music and old classics that already managed to generate more cash through physical sales in the past. If your £10 was split exactly between what you listened to and nothing else then at least that would be an improvement.

digitalscream · May 2016

stickyfiddle said:
FWIW I don't like downloads for the same reason. CDs ripped to my own machine are still the best way whenever possible.

How is a CD different from a read-only copy of the file on a hard drive or memory stick?

It's no different at all in a functional sense, except that the memory stick will probably function for longer than the CD will.

Philly_Q · May 2016

My process nowadays is:

1. Listen to album on Spotify for a few weeks. Or months.

2. If I really like it, eventually buy the CD.

3. Leave CD in wrapper.

4. Carry on listening on Spotify (or Amazon Music if it's an Autorip)

wibble · May 2016

DulcetJones said:

They are looking at a two year plan to move to streaming only, thereby erasing the only "fair" price todays artists have access to. Not that I was making big bucks or anything but each time I sold an mp3 of my music there I earned more than 3 or 4 months of streaming on all of my songs combined. I'm just putting the finishing touches on another album and have to wonder if I'll even finish it, let alone make more. I love making music but it does cost money and time, a lot of time, and I have to be able to recoup something. I gave up trying to rely on music and got a day job a long time ago, but this is depressing news that's probably going to even hit the Taylor Swifts and Justin Biebers of the world.

http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2016/05/11/apple-terminating-music-downloads-two-years/

http://www.recode.net/2016/5/11/11660982/apple-itunes-music-downloads-not-true

DulcetJones · May 2016

wibble said:

DulcetJones said:

They are looking at a two year plan to move to streaming only, thereby erasing the only "fair" price todays artists have access to. Not that I was making big bucks or anything but each time I sold an mp3 of my music there I earned more than 3 or 4 months of streaming on all of my songs combined. I'm just putting the finishing touches on another album and have to wonder if I'll even finish it, let alone make more. I love making music but it does cost money and time, a lot of time, and I have to be able to recoup something. I gave up trying to rely on music and got a day job a long time ago, but this is depressing news that's probably going to even hit the Taylor Swifts and Justin Biebers of the world.

http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2016/05/11/apple-terminating-music-downloads-two-years/

http://www.recode.net/2016/5/11/11660982/apple-itunes-music-downloads-not-true

Now I'm confused....I first saw this on the national news on TV, then googled it and got the story I linked above. Stay tuned.....

wibble · May 2016

DulcetJones said:

Now I'm confused....I first saw this on the national news on TV, then googled it and got the story I linked above. Stay tuned.....

Well it wouldn't be the first time that news sites would report an Apple rumour as a news fact.

Apple don't often issue responses to rumours/stories but I would suspect they've certainly considered a scenario where they don't offer downloads anymore but I think that would be some way off still.

Phil_aka_Pip · May 2016

stickyfiddle said:

Eurgh.

I'll be surprised if it happens in the next 2 years. 4 or 5 maybe. In any case, am I the only person who still wants to pay for something once and then get use of it forever?

I don't want my TV, movie collection, music collection, amazon shipping, photoshop, lightroom, windows, office, etc all on rolling subscriptions that cost a fortune.

Exactly. I've still got everything on physical media. Ironically its the DVD player that's on the blink not the VHS player. And I still have mountains of cassettes, vinyl, and CDs.

digitalscream · May 2016

wibble said:

DulcetJones said:

Now I'm confused....I first saw this on the national news on TV, then googled it and got the story I linked above. Stay tuned.....

Well it wouldn't be the first time that news sites would report an Apple rumour as a news fact.

It also wouldn't be the first time Apple have said "We categorically won't do <something>" and then done it shortly afterwards.

While I'm thinking about it, it also wouldn't be the first time they've done a straight 180 based on public opinion.

So...the reality of this is anyone's guess, really.

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iTunes to stop selling downloads

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