It’s safe to say that Apple didn’t buy Beats primarily for its overpriced and overrated headphones. Instead, it’s more likely that Apple bought Beats because many of its executives — most notably Jimmy Iovine, Dr. Dre and Trent Reznor — all have extensive connections and influence in the music industry. With these influential music industry figures on board, argues Neil Cybart, Apple can create a music streaming service around Beats Music that will offer artists significantly more value than what they’re getting from Spotify.
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Taking a look at some of the recent tension that’s come up between artists and streaming services, such as the major dustup between Spotify and Taylor Swift, Cybart imagines Apple developing a music streaming service that offers artists much more control over their product than anything else on the market today.
What does this entail? Cybart imagines the following features: “Music is free, but delivered via a platform where artists rely on software to monetize the brand (image and personality) through merchandising, advertisements, sponsorships; Artists have access to information on their fans; Artists can set up their own tours including ticket sales, booking venues, and even PR circuits through third-party apps; New talent can transition from discovery to monetization quickly without many barriers; The definition of ‘music artist’ becomes boarder to emphasize a wider range of content creators.”
So in other words, the streaming service would be just one tiny part of what Beats Music would offer. The real meat of it is that it would serve as a hub for artists to manage their entire careers and not just music sales.
The whole essay is worth reading and can be found at the source link below.
