Apple, Spotify, and Google are preparing for a gruesome music war — but there's not much to fight over yet (AAPL) | ||
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First it was the record. Then came the cassette tape, followed by the compact disc, and finally, the MP3. Now, some of the biggest tech companies are betting that people around the world are eager to pony up and pay a monthly fee to have access to nearly every song ever made at anytime. But the truth is that we’re barely on the cusp of this new subscription era, which Apple, Spotify, Google, and others are betting will be the future of how we listen to music. In case you missed it, Apple on Monday unveiled its long-awaited on-demand music service called Apple Music. Apple's bet is that it can once again change the way we listen to music, like it already did with the iTunes store for digital downloads in 2003. Not to be outdone, the Swedish streaming music leader Spotify the next day closed a round of funding that valued the company at a whopping $8.53 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported. While both Apple and Spotify have options that allow you to listen for free, the core of each of their services is a $9.99 per month premium membership that allows for on-demand access to millions of songs (and a number of gimmicks). Subscribers can also save those songs to their devices so they can listen to them when they don’t have connections to the internet, like when they’re on an airplane or riding on a subway.
Only about 5% of those 13 and older who live in the US and have access to the internet actually pay for monthly subscriptions to on-demand streaming services, like Spotify, Tidal, and Google Play Music, according to MusicWatch, a music industry market research firm. “We're not even at early days yet,” Russ Crupnick, the managing partner of MusicWatch, told Business Insider, referring to paid subscriptions to streaming services. “We haven't even hit the early adopters.” Crupnick said that the people who pay for streaming are akin to those who decades ago were the first to buy LaserDisc and CD players. Although the majority of people over 13 listen to music online — they stream using free services like Pandora, YouTube, iHeartRadio, or the free version of Spotify — only about one in 13 of those actually pay to do it, according to MusicWatch. “Is streaming mainstream? I would say absolutely,” Crupnick said. “Is paying for streaming mainstream? [There’s a] long way to go.” There are more ways to listen to music today than ever before. Long gone are the days where you relied on the radio to hear new music, and you could only build up your own music collection by visiting the record store to buy records, tapes, or CDs. Even the age of paying to download a song or album from online stores like iTunes and Amazon has come, and for all intents and purposes, is on its way out.
Now, in addition to traditional radio, CDs, vinyl, and their own purchased MP3s, people can listen to music through Internet radio services like Pandora, free and paid versions of streaming services like Spotify, through their TV providers, via satellite radio, through countless apps on their phones like iHeartRadio, and even by typing a song or artist into YouTube. The market now is more fragmented than ever.
When CD sales were at their peak, 80% of Americans regularly bought CDs, MusicWatch’s Crupnick said. When digital downloads, like iTunes and Amazon MP3 ruled, 25% of people were regularly paying to download music, he said. But the tide is certainly beginning to turn. Revenue from streaming companies, which includes free ad-supported services like Pandora, as well as subscription services like Spotify, is growing by the double digits, and last year, for the first time ever, revenue from these types of services accounted for more of the music industry’s revenue than sales of CDs. These two charts from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), an industry trade group, illustrate that trend. The chart on the left shows steadily growing music streaming revenue, while the chart on the right shows the various sources of US music industry revenue.
Here's a chart that shows Spotify's free and paid user growth, via BI Intelligence:
People listening in the background at work, or while they’re driving and can’t control the music, will listen to something that’s curated, like Pandora, or maybe Apple’s new global 24-hour streaming radio station, Beats 1. But when they're passengers on a road trip, or at home, they'll go to the on-demand service that they're paying for to create their own custom playlists, or use one of the service's own. Consumers have more options than ever, and with Apple Music launching later this month, they'll have one more. It’s now up to the many companies duking it out with each other to create the best experience and convince us that theirs is the one worth paying for. SEE ALSO: The dirty truth about streaming music services Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Here are all of Google's awesome science projects — that we know about  | ||
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Apple, Spotify, and Google are preparing for a gruesome music war — but there's not much to fight over yet (AAPL) | ||
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First it was the record. Then came the cassette tape, followed by the compact disc, and finally, the MP3. Now, some of the biggest tech companies are betting that people around the world are eager to pony up and pay a monthly fee to have access to nearly every song ever made at anytime. But the truth is that we’re barely on the cusp of this new subscription era, which Apple, Spotify, Google, and others are betting will be the future of how we listen to music. In case you missed it, Apple on Monday unveiled its long-awaited on-demand music service called Apple Music. Apple's bet is that it can once again change the way we listen to music, like it already did with the iTunes store for digital downloads in 2003. Not to be outdone, the Swedish streaming music leader Spotify the next day closed a round of funding that valued the company at a whopping $8.53 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported. While both Apple and Spotify have options that allow you to listen for free, the core of each of their services is a $9.99 per month premium membership that allows for on-demand access to millions of songs (and a number of gimmicks). Subscribers can also save those songs to their devices so they can listen to them when they don’t have connections to the internet, like when they’re on an airplane or riding on a subway.
Only about 5% of those 13 and older who live in the US and have access to the internet actually pay for monthly subscriptions to on-demand streaming services, like Spotify, Tidal, and Google Play Music, according to MusicWatch, a music industry market research firm. “We're not even at early days yet,” Russ Crupnick, the managing partner of MusicWatch, told Business Insider, referring to paid subscriptions to streaming services. “We haven't even hit the early adopters.” Crupnick said that the people who pay for streaming are akin to those who decades ago were the first to buy LaserDisc and CD players. Although the majority of people over 13 listen to music online — they stream using free services like Pandora, YouTube, iHeartRadio, or the free version of Spotify — only about one in 13 of those actually pay to do it, according to MusicWatch. “Is streaming mainstream? I would say absolutely,” Crupnick said. “Is paying for streaming mainstream? [There’s a] long way to go.” There are more ways to listen to music today than ever before. Long gone are the days where you relied on the radio to hear new music, and you could only build up your own music collection by visiting the record store to buy records, tapes, or CDs. Even the age of paying to download a song or album from online stores like iTunes and Amazon has come, and for all intents and purposes, is on its way out.
Now, in addition to traditional radio, CDs, vinyl, and their own purchased MP3s, people can listen to music through Internet radio services like Pandora, free and paid versions of streaming services like Spotify, through their TV providers, via satellite radio, through countless apps on their phones like iHeartRadio, and even by typing a song or artist into YouTube. The market now is more fragmented than ever.
When CD sales were at their peak, 80% of Americans regularly bought CDs, MusicWatch’s Crupnick said. When digital downloads, like iTunes and Amazon MP3 ruled, 25% of people were regularly paying to download music, he said. But the tide is certainly beginning to turn. Revenue from streaming companies, which includes free ad-supported services like Pandora, as well as subscription services like Spotify, is growing by the double digits, and last year, for the first time ever, revenue from these types of services accounted for more of the music industry’s revenue than sales of CDs. These two charts from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), an industry trade group, illustrate that trend. The chart on the left shows steadily growing music streaming revenue, while the chart on the right shows the various sources of US music industry revenue.
Here's a chart that shows Spotify's free and paid user growth, via BI Intelligence:
People listening in the background at work, or while they’re driving and can’t control the music, will listen to something that’s curated, like Pandora, or maybe Apple’s new global 24-hour streaming radio station, Beats 1. But when they're passengers on a road trip, or at home, they'll go to the on-demand service that they're paying for to create their own custom playlists, or use one of the service's own. Consumers have more options than ever, and with Apple Music launching later this month, they'll have one more. It’s now up to the many companies duking it out with each other to create the best experience and convince us that theirs is the one worth paying for. SEE ALSO: The dirty truth about streaming music services Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Here are all of Google's awesome science projects — that we know about  | ||
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Niger's former desert jewel becomes its 'Wild West' | ||
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Agadez (Niger) (AFP) - Its stunning ancient mosque and atmospheric streets once earned Agadez a reputation as a jewel of the Sahara desert, thronging with tourists. These days, it's Niger's answer to the Wild West. There was a time when tourists wandered happily around the ochre walls of northern Niger's main town, snapping the mosque's towering 15th century minaret, gazing out at the Sahara's vast expanse. Now it's a hotbed of human trafficking, smuggling and crime. The holiday-makers have long packed up. "We used to watch the full moon over the dunes. There was freedom," says former tour guide El-Hadj Mohamed Sale. "Now we're always afraid, even when we're home." A white turban wrapped around his head and a photo album in his hand, he leafs through old snaps of the spots where he used to take foreign travellers: prehistoric rock paintings, the breathtaking Sahara. There are shots of him with Swiss tourists, French visitors, and "a Canadian friend". "Sometimes there were hundreds of people in the desert," he remembers. From the 1980s until 2000, thousands of foreigners came to soak up the history and beauty. But the emergence of armed jihadists and rebellions by ethnic Tuaregs in the early 1990s and again in 2007-09 all but wiped out local tourism. The Tuaregs, making up about 10 percent of Niger's population, wanted more autonomy. Those tensions have largely died down, though troublemakers can slip across from neighbouring Mali, with 24 soldiers killed in a Malian Islamist attack in Agadez in 2013 and seven foreign workers kidnapped in 2010 by a pro-Al-Qaeda group. The foreigners were later freed but the kidnap "signalled the death of tourism in Niger," says Ibrahim Manzo Diallo, an Agadez media proprietor. "We've lost hope," he adds. The last straw came after the 2011 ouster of Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi as instability rippled across the vast arid region now peopled by criminal groups and jihadists. Gone are the gushing travel articles, despite the UNESCO World Heritage listing that Agadez won in 2013. A return to the good old days seems impossible. - Stolen goods, cocaine and jihadists - "All kinds of trafficking, gold prospecting, stolen goods from Libya, illegal immigration, cocaine -- all of it centres on Agadez," says Rhissa Ag Boula, an Agadez native who is an advisor to President Mahamadou Issoufou. Hundreds of years ago the town was a key crossroads on desert caravan routes. Now the last major transit hub before Libya and Europe, it is best known for migrant "ghettoes", criminals of all varieties, and general insecurity. In recent years its population has exploded to over 120,000. The migrants are mainly from West Africa -- Senegal, Gambia or Mali. Some are hoping to find work in Libya, others to set sail from there to Europe -- a perilous journey that has seen some 1,800 migrants die at sea this year. At nightfall, cars packed with migrants roar at top speed around the town's outskirts, quickly loading and unloading their human cargo. Agadez is "a point of transit", acknowledges Mayor Rhissa Feltou, but he denies it's a "trafficking hub" and blames the media for what he says is a distorted view of the situation. In defence of the migrants, he says they "make the local economy work -- they live with local residents, they buy things to eat, they rent houses." But not all agree with the mayor. "Our infrastructure is saturated. There is no more water, there's no more electricity," complains Salifou Manzo, a prominent civil society member. "Residents are ashamed." In total, officials expect the arrival of 150,000 migrants this year. "Agadez was a good town, where everyone came. But it's become a dumping ground for all the traffickers, all the criminals," added Manzo. Brand new cars, stolen in Libya, are a common sight. Stalls selling wheelbarrows, shovels and metal detectors have also sprung up, catering to the swarm of prospectors who have descended on Agadez in the hunt for gold -- many of them heading to the the desert site of Djado, 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) to the northeast. El-Hadj Mohamed Sale, the tour guide with such nostalgia for the "old" Agadez, has joined the local gold rush and is among those heading out of town with metal detectors. "At the moment we're doing odd jobs," he says. "You've got to keep your head above the water." Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Germany, Canada join scramble for last 16 at Women's World Cup | ||
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Vancouver (AFP) - Ex-champions Germany and Norway join the scramble to advance to the knockout round at the Women's World Cup Monday along with hosts Canada as the final round of group games gets under way. As champions Japan and Brazil coasted out of Group C and Group E respectively with a game to spare, the battle will go down to the wire in Monday's Group A and Group B ties. Germany, winners in 2003 and 2007, are top of Group B with four points from two games, ahead of 1995 champions Norway, who also have four. Asian newcomers Thailand have three, while the Ivory Coast are already out of the running after two defeats. The Germans won their opening game against Ivory Coast 10-0 but were held 1-1 by Norway in their second, with the Scandinavians beating Thailand 4-0 in their opener. Top ranked Germany play Thailand, ranked 29, in Winnipeg, as group rivals Norway take on the Ivory Coast in Moncton. "We are lucky to meet the best team in the world," said Thailand coach Nuengruethai Sathongwien. "It is a great experience and we will do our best to get a win." In Group A, Canada are top with four points ahead of China and the Netherlands, both on three, with New Zealand still in the running one one point. The Canadians face a tough test against the Netherlands in Montreal with China playing New Zealand in Winnipeg. China coach Hao Wei said his young side, dubbed 'The Steel Roses', are holding up well under the 'pressure' of an international competition, following on from the 1-0 loss to Canada by beating the Netherlands 1-0. "In Group A all the games are even, we need to take every game seriously," he said. "For different teams we have different strategies and will now focus on the New Zealand team." New Zealand earned a point in a goalless draw against Canada, after falling 1-0 to the Dutch. "We know China so well, we've played them more than we've played any other team," said New Zealand coach Tony Readings. "We've beaten them three of the last four times we played them, but they beat us last time. It's always going to be tight when we play them." Canada coach John Herdman was confident of finishing top of the group. "We're still in the driving seat to finish top of the group. It just means going into the Netherlands game we have to be in fifth gear. "It would have been nice to drop down to fourth in that game. Canada always seems to do it the hard way, that's how we roll." The top two in each group advance along with the four best third-place finishers out of the six groups. Fixtures (all times GMT) Monday, June 15 Group B Thailand v Germany at Winnipeg (2000) Ivory Coast v Norway at Moncton (2000) Group A Netherlands v Canada at Montreal (2330) China v New Zealand at Winnipeg (2330) Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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