Apple may overhaul iTunes to reverse declining music downloads

Apple’s iTunes Radio saw an uptick in adoption shortly after launch, but the service has failed to garner significant interest among consumers who listen for a short time, but don’t buy the music they hear. As a result, Apple may overhaul its iTunes music store for the first time in more than decade, claims a report in Billboard. Music downloads from iTunes have been declining as much as 15 percent claim music label executives, who report a drop in revenue from the service. iTunes Radio isn’t helping drive downloads with less than 2 percent of users actually hitting the purchase button while streaming a channel. “iTunes Radio hasn’t solved the problem of refreshing the iTunes store,” said a senior label executive. “While listeners are clicking the buy buttons, the traffic it is driving is in the low single digits of listeners.” Apple may have to take drastic measures to reverse this decline, considering options, like an iTunes Music store for Android, which were never on the table before. Other possibilities to expand the influence of iTunes includes an on-demand streaming service and negotiating sales windows that favor Apple. Apple is expected to move quickly in this area to keep pace with its customer base, which are rapidly turning away from music downloads and towards streaming alternatives like Spotify and Rdio. More than two-thirds of Apple’s lucrative customer base now subscribed to a streaming music service, which sources claim is a wake up cal for Apple executives. Apple allegedly is committed to making this change and in less than five years, iTunes may be a completely different product than it is today. Would you like to see a radical change in iTunes? Continue reading →

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