I must say I am surprised too. I can only think it must be due to licensing restrictions, why would Apple withhold a service if it didn't have to?
My guess is that Apple realized that iTunes radio is a bit of a half arsed product. With the Beats acquisition everything changed and whatever comes out when it is released will displace iTunes Radio. Lets hope that when the new launch happens it will spread quickly. Lets hope the foundations for that is being laid as we impatiently wait.
"One of our top priorities is to bring iTunes Radio obviously here in the U.K. but everywhere in the world," Cue said last week in an interview from London. "We certainly want to be in more than 100 countries."
That was back in 2013. We have 2015 and iTunes Radio is still available only in 2 countries. Honestly, I don't care what's holding them back, this is just totally unacceptable. Apple seems to be becoming more and more US-centric with some of their solutions and I'm seriously losing my patience.
Unacceptable? Wtf, it's free service and free thing takes time to serve.
My guess is that Apple realized that iTunes radio is a bit of a half arsed product. With the Beats acquisition everything changed and whatever comes out when it is released will displace iTunes Radio. Lets hope that when the new launch happens it will spread quickly. Lets hope the foundations for that is being laid as we impatiently wait.
I'd suggest you are incorrect and it was purely licensing issues.
Major League Baseball is actually rather innovative on the media front, and MLB Advanced Media provides the backbone for a lot of streaming services, including HBO.
Now if only F1 racing, Football (the FIFA variety) and Tennis would follow that example and be available on Netflix I'd be a happy camper.
I'd suggest you are incorrect and it was purely licensing issues.
I think licensing issues is what took so long but do you think Apple is still trying to roll out iTunes Radio in its present form? And then roll out Beats as a separate service? If Apple was sticking with iTunes Radio and were fully committed I can't see why they would have bought Beats.
I don't understand this acquisition at all. Is Apple still after the golden goose of curation? Impossible. Its not something you are ever going to perfect.
Apple already had it as good as it gets with Genius. Genius collected the info about the Libraries/Playlists of hundreds of millions of iTunes users and used that data to create Genius Playlists. Then they acquired LaLa, and I think a few other similar small streaming outfits, and combined Genius with all of those acquisitions to fuel iTunes Radio. Now they have Beats, which has its own curation, and now they buy another startup with curation.
The hopeful side of me wants to believe that they are combining this all together to make one brilliant music streaming service with the best curation on the planet.
The pessimist in me thinks they are chasing a level of curation that simply doesn't exist. I know that for me personally, you (Apple) are never going to get it quite right, so don't bother making a playlist for me....I'll make my own.
I agree. No matter how amazing good curation can be, there's always going to be a hit or miss element. I suspect a big reason for Spotify's success is the ability to make and share your playlist with others. Although I'm hopeful that Beats EDM curation won't still be bad after it's formally re-released, I'm most looking forward to being able to create and share my own stuff. FWIW, the best way I've found to explore music on iTunes has been to look at the "other people bought this" section. The genre home pages and suggestions are rarely helpful, and often make terrible suggestions (again, speaking from the perspective of an EDM fan).
Don't worry UK'ers. You're not missing much with ITunes Radio. I tried setting up a Supertramp channel to see if it would find similar artists. The first two that it gave me were Jimi Hendrix and Bob Seger... I turned it off and never tried it again. I do like and subscribe to the Beats Music service though.
Here is a quote from Apple's web pages about using iTunes Radio:
"While you’re listening, you can make adjustments by tapping Play More Like This or Never Play This Song."
I have found that this is a very important step in creating a customized radio station that you enjoy. If you make only 3 or 4 adjustments it makes a huge difference in the applicability of the songs it chooses. You gave up way too soon.
Don't worry UK'ers. You're not missing much with ITunes Radio. I tried setting up a Supertramp channel to see if it would find similar artists. The first two that it gave me were Jimi Hendrix and Bob Seger... I turned it off and never tried it again. I do like and subscribe to the Beats Music service though.
It's all about curation.
Actually those artists would be all together in my list, the LPs were certainly all in my collection. What am awesome set, I must try that! Such memories of the 70's, (Jimmy lived on through the 70's too to me).
I'm not a fan of Hendrix. Right old racket.
Supertramp, on the other hand, are the bee's knees.
Don't worry UK'ers. You're not missing much with ITunes Radio. I tried setting up a Supertramp channel to see if it would find similar artists. The first two that it gave me were Jimi Hendrix and Bob Seger... I turned it off and never tried it again. I do like and subscribe to the Beats Music service though.
Wouldn't a service like iTunes Radio be similar to Siri; meaning it has to learn what your likes and dislikes are. I'd say give it time, it works great for me (whole being in The Netherlands)
And for those longing for iTR, I think TV rentals are even longer absent, at least in my country.
Everything you just said was invented in your post alone. There is no PR fiasco. If you consider the measly cost of the acquisition, the hardware business alone will recoup that in short order...which means if Beats Music has even 1 subscriber, its profitable.
So Beats has sold over $3B in profit? Show me the link please. That's like the mother of invention- that post.
Beats' revenue was only $1.5B- that's not profit. Do you understand the difference?
Everything you just said was invented in your post alone. There is no PR fiasco. If you consider the measly cost of the acquisition, the hardware business alone will recoup that in short order...which means if Beats Music has even 1 subscriber, its profitable.
So Beats has sold over $3B in profit? Show me the link please. That's like the mother of invention- that post.
Beats' revenue was only $1.5B- that's not profit. Do you understand the difference?
He said that Beats hardware will recoup the $3b over time and the music service would effectively have been free so it doesn't need to make a significant profit. Plus they monetize users by selling tracks through iTunes on top of the subscriptions so it's not just about direct profit on the streaming service.
If they sell 2 million Beats headphones per quarter at $100, they make ~$200m revenue every quarter. The margins on headphones are high (60%+) so $120m per quarter profit or $480m per year. That pays off the $3b in just over 6 years. The ongoing costs for staff are negligible vs revenue and they already said they grew the business from where it was before.
They wanted to make a streaming service themselves anyway so this gave them a head-start with industry contacts, it gave them a way to pull in new users to their hardware products and their music services and if the music hardware revenue keeps up then that was all for free. That sounds like a pretty good purchase decision.
Comments
I must say I am surprised too. I can only think it must be due to licensing restrictions, why would Apple withhold a service if it didn't have to?
My guess is that Apple realized that iTunes radio is a bit of a half arsed product. With the Beats acquisition everything changed and whatever comes out when it is released will displace iTunes Radio. Lets hope that when the new launch happens it will spread quickly. Lets hope the foundations for that is being laid as we impatiently wait.
I'd suggest you are incorrect and it was purely licensing issues.
Now if only F1 racing, Football (the FIFA variety) and Tennis would follow that example and be available on Netflix I'd be a happy camper.
I'd suggest you are incorrect and it was purely licensing issues.
I think licensing issues is what took so long but do you think Apple is still trying to roll out iTunes Radio in its present form? And then roll out Beats as a separate service? If Apple was sticking with iTunes Radio and were fully committed I can't see why they would have bought Beats.
I don't understand this acquisition at all. Is Apple still after the golden goose of curation? Impossible. Its not something you are ever going to perfect.
Apple already had it as good as it gets with Genius. Genius collected the info about the Libraries/Playlists of hundreds of millions of iTunes users and used that data to create Genius Playlists. Then they acquired LaLa, and I think a few other similar small streaming outfits, and combined Genius with all of those acquisitions to fuel iTunes Radio. Now they have Beats, which has its own curation, and now they buy another startup with curation.
The hopeful side of me wants to believe that they are combining this all together to make one brilliant music streaming service with the best curation on the planet.
The pessimist in me thinks they are chasing a level of curation that simply doesn't exist. I know that for me personally, you (Apple) are never going to get it quite right, so don't bother making a playlist for me....I'll make my own.
I agree. No matter how amazing good curation can be, there's always going to be a hit or miss element. I suspect a big reason for Spotify's success is the ability to make and share your playlist with others. Although I'm hopeful that Beats EDM curation won't still be bad after it's formally re-released, I'm most looking forward to being able to create and share my own stuff. FWIW, the best way I've found to explore music on iTunes has been to look at the "other people bought this" section. The genre home pages and suggestions are rarely helpful, and often make terrible suggestions (again, speaking from the perspective of an EDM fan).
Here is a quote from Apple's web pages about using iTunes Radio:
"While you’re listening, you can make adjustments by tapping Play More Like This or Never Play This Song."
I have found that this is a very important step in creating a customized radio station that you enjoy. If you make only 3 or 4 adjustments it makes a huge difference in the applicability of the songs it chooses. You gave up way too soon.
I'm not a fan of Hendrix. Right old racket.
Supertramp, on the other hand, are the bee's knees.
Wouldn't a service like iTunes Radio be similar to Siri; meaning it has to learn what your likes and dislikes are. I'd say give it time, it works great for me (whole being in The Netherlands)
And for those longing for iTR, I think TV rentals are even longer absent, at least in my country.
So Beats has sold over $3B in profit? Show me the link please. That's like the mother of invention- that post.
Beats' revenue was only $1.5B- that's not profit. Do you understand the difference?
He said that Beats hardware will recoup the $3b over time and the music service would effectively have been free so it doesn't need to make a significant profit. Plus they monetize users by selling tracks through iTunes on top of the subscriptions so it's not just about direct profit on the streaming service.
If they sell 2 million Beats headphones per quarter at $100, they make ~$200m revenue every quarter. The margins on headphones are high (60%+) so $120m per quarter profit or $480m per year. That pays off the $3b in just over 6 years. The ongoing costs for staff are negligible vs revenue and they already said they grew the business from where it was before.
They wanted to make a streaming service themselves anyway so this gave them a head-start with industry contacts, it gave them a way to pull in new users to their hardware products and their music services and if the music hardware revenue keeps up then that was all for free. That sounds like a pretty good purchase decision.