If record companies had their way, the internet would never have been invented. For much of the second half of the 20th Century, music fans who wanted to listen to the latest release from their favourite artist had to make a trip to their local record store to buy an album or single on vinyl, cassette or CD.
However, the mass adoption of broadband in the developed world at the start of the last decade soon destroyed what was a very cosy – and highly profitable – business model.
A generation has grown up illegally downloading music – and many music fans are content to use advertising-funded websites such as YouTube to hear almost any track you can think of.
In 1999 the global recorded music industry raked in $26.6bn – buoyed mostly by sales of highly profitable CDs. But as pirating took off the total slipped to less than $20bn in 2007 and last year was down to just under $15bn, according to industry body IFPI.
The arrival of Apple’s iTunes music download store in 2003 made it much easier to legally buy music online, but its growth has stalled as more music fans switch to streaming services such as Spotify.
The transition is similar to the way that many consumers now rent movies online or through subscription services such as Sky or Netflix rather than buying a DVD.
Spotify’s jukebox-like service lets users play millions of songs for free with ads in between, or pay £9.99/$9.99 a month without those annoying interruptions.
It will offer users a three-month free trial, after which it will cost the same as market leader Spotify, but with no free tier.
Apple Music will have a crucial advantage over the likes of competitors such as Spotify: it will be pre-loaded on the hundreds of millions of iPhones and iPads being used globally via a software update.
That saves Apple from having to do much marketing to promote the service, says Andrew Sheehy, lead analyst at Generator Research.
Rather than aiming to make a profit from music, he says Apple’s main aim is to give iPhone users another reason to keep buying its highly profitable devices.
However, the company will use its might in the music business to persuade some big artists to offer some exclusive content – with Pharrell Williams being the first.
His latest song, Freedom, will only be available on Apple Music. Similarly, Taylor Swift will make her music available on the service after pulling it from Spotify last year.
