The rationale behind Apple’s move into streaming music can be neatly summarised in two stats from the latest Nielsen data on American music sales: music downloads fell by 10% in the first half of the year to 531M, while streaming almost doubled to 135B. The streaming figure includes iTunes Radio but not, of course, Apple Music.
While I and others may have a number of complaints about Apple Music, one thing’s for sure: that streaming number is going to be very much bigger by the time Nielsen reports stats for the second half of the year.
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Most of those logos are awful and forgettable. One of them looks like Plays For Sure!
Rhapsody has a very nice logo: a play button inside a guitar pick.
Rhapsody is a great service, but only available in the US, the logo looks ugly.
Apple’s cash hoard, audience reach, and Beats bundling will make it the market leader in online music. Top artist exclusivity, walled gardens, and vast freemium audiences are the future of streaming music.