They may be vocal opponents of this transition, and decide to holdout of streaming with Apple all together if downloads are not part of the equation. While some albums are not always available on certain streaming services, practically every song ever released commercially can be purchased on iTunes and synced with the rest of your Apple Music library.įurthermore, even though major labels may be in favor of terminating downloads and focusing entirely on streaming, indie artists still make a lot of money from the iTunes Store. Yes, this integration is a little messy, but it’s something that no other music streaming service can offer. Not just because iTunes Store sales still generate a nice chunk of change for the company, but because music downloads can actually fill gaps in Apple Music’s catalog. Why this matters: We don’t think Apple is getting ready to exit the music downloads business in two years. Tim Cook revealed during a conference call last month that Apple Music had racked up 13 million subscribers. He also estimated that Apple Music will have reached 20 million subscribers by the end of 2016. This is the point at which Apple would choose to turn off the iTunes Store,” Mulligan said.
“By 2020 download business would be tracking to be 10 times smaller than streaming revenue but, crucially, streaming revenue would nearly have reached the 2012 iTunes Store download revenue peak. Mulligan also estimates, however, that by 2020 revenue from Apple Music subscriptions will have surpassed iTunes Store sales even at their peak. He projected that they would generate upwards of $600 million in 2019. in order to stop the chronicoms from launching their future-dismantling plan. Mark Mulligan, a music industry analyst at Canadian Music Week, told Digital Music News that music downloads still generate a lot of money. Administrators would like to block media downloads via iTunes but allow all. “This is the point at which Apple would choose to turn off the iTunes Store.”