A Second Bite At The Apple…

My last blog post discussed hmv’s inability to adapt in the ever changing landscape of entertainment consumption. So, it’s only fitting that for this post, I will be discussing a company who (among others) were responsible for that downfall. A company who’s evolution over the years and constant ability to crash through barriers enables them to continually disturb conventional ways of thinking. A company who approached your average hmv consumer who was struggling under the weight of a hundred CDs and cursing the AA batteries in their CD walkman and said: “we can fit 1000 songs, in your pocket”.

The evolution of Apple

Progression and moving forward are concepts that sit at the core (sorry, couldn’t resist) of Apple’s business model. Fundamentally though, Apple made products, computers… things; they operated in the physical space. The first Apple computer was released in 1976 and various models followed until the model that really combined Apple’s expertise at designing beautiful machines with the internet was born, the iMac was released in 1998. The idea behind the iMac was to give internet access to the ‘low-end’ market and was a huge step towards bringing the digital world, a space which was rapidly evolving by this point, into our lives permanently.

The digital Apple

It may sound simplistic to say but this thing we call ‘digital’, isn’t a thing at all. It’s actually the opposite of a thing. The fact that there isn’t a physicality to digital put the nail in the hmv coffin because they weren’t able to sell it in their stores. What Apple did, and continue to do, so well are two things: 1. Grant us access to the digital world. 2. Fill the digital world with incredible things.

So let’s break down those two services.

Access to the digital world

As I established earlier, Apple were one of the companies to make access to the internet available in a tight, compact and sleek personal computer. They were responsible for creating the iPod which revolutionized the way we consume music and they practically invented what we expect from a smartphone today. All of these tools are gateways into the digital world like the internet, digital photography, digital music, apps etc. Apple predicted the importance of digital and not only supported it but ran with it to the extent of pushing it further.

Filling the digital space

It is here that Apple’s true genius shows.

In the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, mp3s were gathering speed and importance in the digital space and “In January, 1999, ‘MP3’ became the pre-Google internet’s top search term, overtaking ‘sex.’” (Hill 2013), it really was a jungle out there with peer-to-peer file sharing and illegal downloading; but it couldn’t last and it didn’t. The record labels started acting and bit by bit, the illegal file sharing flurry of the early 2000’s began to crumble and iTunes rose up as the legal solution. 

Apple had invented the perfect device for listening to music on the go in 2001 and then iTunes was available to all in 2003. By the mid 2000s, Apple were running the game of digital music both in terms of the physical product and the digital music marketplace but there was another wave of change on the horizon…

Diversify… Spotify.

It was in 2006 that the world of digital entertainment changed again. 

Spotify were coming to change the game and after launching in 2006, announced two million paying subscribers in 2011(Lidsky 2018). While it had only been around for less than 10 years, the business of digital music was changing again and it was a big one; people no longer wanted to pay for downloads, they wanted to move to a subscription model and stream their music.

So what did Apple do? They launched their own streaming service, Apple Music, in 2015 and as of November 2018, had 56 million paying subscribers. Although it is worth noting that Spotify has a far superior 83 million paying subscribers in the same year (Gartenberg 2018), you cannot fault Apple’s ability to develop, challenge and stay relevant in a marketplace which only really was invented less than 20 years ago.

So what now?

So Apple diversified their offering from iTunes to Apple Music to compete with the streaming services and now what? It seems as though Apple are following the footsteps of fellow streaming giants, Netflix, into the world of content creation and further improving their offering in the digital world (Leskin 2018) but when the next phase of digital entertainment comes to wipe streaming off the map, guess who’s got my money to evolve and remodel to move with the times?

References

Gartenberg, C. 2018. Spotify Hits 83 Million Paid Subscribers. The Verge. Accessed: https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/26/17616404/spotify-paid-subscribers-83-million-streaming-music-quarterly-results

Gibbs, S. 2016. The Guardian. 40 Years Of Apple – In Pictures. Accessed: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/gallery/2016/apr/01/40-years-of-apple-in-pictures

Glazer, J. 2018. NDC San Diego. 40 Years of Apple: A Look Back at Apple Product Evolution. Accessed: https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/tech/Apple-Products-Through-the-Years-374175161.html

Hill, B. 2013. Engadget. The iTunes Influence, Part One: How Apple Changed The Face Of The Music Marketplace. Accessed: https://www.engadget.com/2013/04/29/the-itunes-influence-part-one

Lidsky, D. 2018. Fast Company. The Definitive Timeline Of Spotify’s Critic-Defying Journey To Rule Music. Accessed: https://www.fastcompany.com/90205527/the-definitive-timeline-of-spotifys-critic-defying-journey-to-rule-music

Leskin, P. 2018. Business Insider. Apple’s Original TV Shows And Movies Could Be Free For All iPhone and iPad Owners With The Launch Of Its New Video Streaming Service. Accessed: https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-plans-to-make-its-original-content-free-for-all-iphone-and-ipad-owners-2018-10?r=US&IR=T