1. What was the unique value proposition of Rhapsody? Is it appealing? This question is about what is the promised value that Rhapsody will delivered and be experienced by the customer that is serviced by the online music company. Furthermore, is the value that is to be delivered to the customer/user attractive enough to purchase over the competition, beyond simply looking at the idea of subscription music as “appealing”. Unlike retailers that sold individual and multiple song albums, and the multiple services like Apples iTunes who did equivalently the same thing as the retail stores, but added an online download dimension with a mobile music player to store them, Rhapsody went in a different direction. The model of the business focused on subscriptions, at under $10 a month, which allowed unlimited, anywhere from a PC or online capable device, to a vast library of music, albums and artists. Rhapsody also went further by making purchased music able to burned to a CD at a lower price than the competition (Apple) at a rate of 79 cents (compared to nearly $1), which after being burned, the owner of the music could do whatever they wished, including downloading onto a portable music device like the iPod. Overall though, Rhapsody provided, before the onset of competition, a dynamic shift in the way people purchased and played music. 2. Why were customers reluctant to adopt streaming music services? This question is about the struggle and unwillingness of online music customers to fully immerse themselves into the music streaming industry. Generally speaking, the way in which people understood purchasing music and playing it involved CD’s, players, and purchasing via various retailers that provided the products. Much like tapes... ... middle of paper ... ...ne. The company is continuing to grow in popularity, thus the potential advertising campaign may not attract the subscribers needed for the company to stay afloat with struggling revenue and profit margins. Likely, Real could collaborate with a multitude of partners for distribution. Broadband providers (Ex. Comcast and Verizon) cover an extremely large population, provide ads through TV, and deals can be likely cost effective in the long run compared to an uncertain $30M advertising campaign. Another option is retailers (electric) like Bestbuy, which provide a physical outlet, with on-hand assistance, and likely provide subscription service options. This also can go further by being offered by actual hardware vendors, which would distribute items compatible with Real; Phones, Tablets, PC’s, TV’s, MP3 Players, and other devices which need subscriptions to access.
Sales, expressed in terms of the number of subscribers, have been growing consistently over the 14 months of the conpany´s lifetime, yet, they have grown at a much slower rate than the one that was anticipated in face of the dimension of the market and of consumer satisfaction.
We have all watched over the last year and a half as the controversy over the digital music provider Napster has clogged our television screens and lined our floors in the forms of newspaper articles. We are also well aware of the implications and revenue losses that the service either directly or indirectly causes. What I am going to investigate more in-depth in this article is, more specifically, the effect that Napster has on the operations of record stores worldwide. I am going to try to describe the most profound effects that Napster has on this industry.
In this case, there are three main effects of Napster on the recording industry. The first one is that it caused a large decline in record sales in a short time. According to this case, the spending on recorded music in U.S dropped 4.1% in 2001 and the industry’s top 10 albums also sold much less compared to the year before. The second effect is that it cased the sales of CD burners, blank CDs and digital audio players increase and nowadays, most new computers come with CD-RW drives installed, which means people can easily store downloaded music, share music with friends and take it with them anytime as well. The third effect is that it increased the cost of recorded music. Once people can download free music through peer-to-peer software services, they have less incentive to buy original editions, which will make recording industry spend more to fight against copyrights and invest more in new artists and new music. Overall, these three effects make the recording industry go through a hard time.
Satellite radio is a technology that provides a radically new way to listen to radio. XM’s service makes use of advanced satellite capabilities and elaborates terrestrial receiver architecture to deliver a wide array of high quality radio programming nationwide. In early 1998, Robert Acker, director of strategic planning at XM, needs to develop a marketing strategy for this new radio service. There are several decisions that need to be made by the company in order to finalize the business plan. At fist XM needs to decide which of two business models to pursue, whether emphasis should be placed on charging customers a monthly subscription fee, or whether to rely more on earning revenue through advertising. In addressing this problem, management must consider the value that XM radio could propose for different consumer segments as compared with existing modes of radio (AM, FM) and in relation to its sole competitor in satellite radio – SIRIUS. Besides choosing a business model there is also a need to explore how best to approach and leverage manufacturer and channel partners, considering high unknown and high-risk technology. The purpose of this report is to analyze possibilities and outline possible recommendation on strategies for XM Radio. The following areas will be examined:
...refore the subscription they sell is still based on the niche market they started with. Unlike Pandora or Spotify, free users can stream music without interruptive advertisements, and they can also upload a limited amount of music.
It’s probably not feasible to avoid streaming music services nowadays. Every smart phone on the market is able to operate numerous music streaming applications, ranging from radio-style streaming, on-demand streaming, and even cloud-streaming. Smart TVs come equipped with Spotify, Pandora, or Rdio. AT&T partners with Beats music to offer a unique on-demand music streaming service with playlists complied by DJs. It seams that with the advent of Wifi hotspots and high-speed mobile Internet services, music streaming is becoming more and more a part of mainstream life. Spotify has been in the spotlight within this particular segment of the streaming industry ever since its introduction to the United States in 2011. (Roose, n.d.)
There have been many effects that music has in our daily lives. The growth of the internet’s bandwidth has impacted the music industry. Different companies have tried many strategies to spread out the general music interest. One of the ways has been the streaming strategy. This has caused the bandwidth of their servers to cost more money than could be made. This is why many companies have fallen in the industry. They simply could not make a profit out of having music being streamed compared to it being sold individually. A long-term profit has not been sustainable for most music-streaming companies. Music streaming has been around for over a decade. Companies such as Rhapsody, Napster, MOG, and We7 have tested different business models. They had a way where you could pay a monthly subscription to download all of the music you would like. This is easily comparable to an all-you-can-eat buffet. Some types of subscriptions made a limit on the number of songs you can download. There are different
The best part for the consumer is that similar to Netflix, you can engage in a free 2 month trial before you commit to a monthly subscription. This helps consumers continue to evaluate in order to make sure this is the best service to satisfy their need. Also, subscriptions are monthly and can be cancelled at any
The music industry survives mainly on the sales of CD’s. Napster enables one person to purchase the CD, and through the use of their computer, they give the music to millions of different users.
Music has changed plenty of times over the last twenty years. Vinyl and cassettes were dominant during the 1980’s and CD’s were unstoppable through the 1990’s until we were finally introduced to digital music consumption through music streaming and MP3 downloads. In 1999, a college student named Shawn Fanning developed a website called Napster, the first free file-sharing program that made use of MP3 technology. This website enabled music to be downloaded from the Internet which immediately dropped CD sales. After Napster was closed down due to legal issues, Apple introduced the iPod in 2001. The iPod was designed to work with the iTunes music service, allowing listeners to purchase a single song for 99 cents. Apple would take a 22-cent retailers cut from every song purchased, leaving 67 cents for labels (Knopper 172). Almost immediately, iTunes emerged as the biggest online retailer, taking more than 70 percent of the music market (Knopper 179). As said in the book Appetite for Self Destruction by Steve Knopper, “Sony Music, which had been so instrumental in developing the CD, merely watched as Apple took over the markets for both digital music players and online songs.” (Knopper 174). The old days of buying CDs, cassettes, and vinyl were now almost completely over due to the new era of digital music
Remember Napster, the first peer-to-peer file sharing service found in 1999 that raised a ruckus in the music industry? Through Napster, web users copied digital recordings that thousands of other users could copy for free, ultimately creating “a copying frenzy” (Rose, 2000). The birth of digital file sharing created uproar in the music industry as the opportunities for piracy escalated (Freedman, 2003). Contrary, this forced the music industry to retaliate; causing monumental changes in the way music was created, formatted, distributed and consumed. Digital technologies and the Internet transformed the traditional structure of activities in the music industry’s supply chain that followed content creation, production, promotion, distribution and consumption into a digital, interactive, multifaceted and collaborative model in which content creation, engagement and distribution between content
I’m going to be honest for a second; I am completely guilty of taking part in music piracy, having illegally downloaded music once or twice (cough) in my life, don’t judge me I’m sure you have been illegal once in your life wether its jay walking or whatever. But for those of you who have done this, it is so easy to slip into other peoples habits, like when your friends tell you about this awesome mp3 free downloader app, hey you’ve just got to try it out too right? The worst part about it is that people slave to write and produce these songs that we can receive within the click of a button; it’s kind of like getting a builder to build your house and then not paying him at the end. The New Media allows us so many options to slip through the
Spotify is one of the most popular streaming services. And since its breakthrough, access to music have never been easier – just type in the name of an artist or a song and press play. The advantage of it is that listeners gets to listen to their wanted music instantly and for free and artist gets paid royalties. But since spotify’s big breakthrough there has been big debates if free music streaming is going to kill the music industry or if it’s going to help it.
The music industry started in the mid 18th century with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Through the decades there has been a great increase in this industry; however, the revenues for this industry have declined by half in the last 10 years. This has been caused by music piracy, which “is the copying and distributing of copies of a piece of music for which the composer, recording artist, or copyright-holding record company did not give consent” . After 1980’s, when the Internet was released to public, people started to develop programs and websites in which they could share music, videos, and information with...
The Internet has been hailed as one of the most prolific inventions in modern times. Although many believed it to be a passing phase at its inception, it has proven to be a driving force especially in the business world. Most industries have seen a boom in business due to the access of the global market the Internet draws. However, many have had to deal with the increase in competition. The music industry is no stranger to some of these challenges. Much has been said about how music piracy has decreased the revenue for some in the business. The Internet has revolutionized not only how music is made. It has affected economically the record companies the artists and those who listen to their music.