iTunes 11 Faces Tough Competition From New Methods Of Music Discovery And Consumption

By: Talha Bhatti  |   November 23rd, 2012   |   Apple, iOS, News

Over a decade ago Apple was not the major consumer brand it is today. The rebirth of the technology giant started with a piece of software called iTunes. The Mac only version of the popular tool was launched to allow users to simply arrange, store and play music. With the release of the iPod, music became highly portable and the popularity of the device caused iTunes to end up on PC’s as well. As Apple grew it released more mobile devices like the iPhone and iPad, however these new devices do not need iTunes on a desktop to function thanks to paid streaming services and Apple’s paid Match service.

 

With more and more information being stored in the cloud and buying and selling occurring online, iTunes has stopped being the center of the Apple universe. That is why a lot needs to be changed in the latest version of iTunes which should be released for both Macs and PC by the end of the month. The latest release will attempt to address how users utilize data today and will be integrated more tightly into Apple’s media store. It will also put more focus on storing user data from a paid cloud service along with controlling iTunes through a widget without having the software running.

 

However this still does not change the fact that less people are using desktop based iTunes to find, purchase, and listen to music. According to Apple’s data, two-thirds of iTunes downloads now come from iOS devices. Apple is also facing competition from services like Spotify who provide on demand music which drags people away from storing music on their desktops or iPhones. Interestingly, even YouTube is considered a competitor in the segment. Services like Pandora have also become a huge hit and Apple will need to fight off these advances if it expects to keep it lead.

 

iTunes11 seems to be a good upgrade to already the existing features but there is nothing in the package at the moment that will help keep the service ahead of the competition. Apple is rumored to be coming up with a competitor to Pandora and Spotify but the latest version of iTunes will not benefit from that in the near future.

 

Source: CNET