iTunes is rumored to be shutting down – here’s what that means for musicians

It’s not looking good for iTunes

Recently, Apple executive Jimmy Iovine stated in an interview with BBC that iTunes’s fall will happen as early as 2019. This is a move to get users to migrate over to Apple Music.

Additionally, digital downloads have been falling immensely, while physical products such as CDs and vinyl have been on the rise.

iTunes innovated the digital downloads market when it first launched back in 2001. Apple was already ahead of its time, and the introduction of download a digital file of a song would open up a can of worms (music piracy). It was a release that would also change the landscape of the music industry forever.

Streaming continues to rise

Now that streaming continues to grow and digital downloads are falling, consumers are no longer interested in paying $0.69 to $1.29 for one track. A subscription model is now the new thing. You can pay $9.99/mo. and theoretically download any and as many songs as you want. Whereas purchasing one song at a time would only allow you to download 11 songs (so, one album). Subscription models are the new norm, and it will be for years to come.

Apple Music is on track to surpass Spotify’s paying users by the end of the summer. Apple Music currently sits at half of Spotify’s paying users, so garnering more than Spotify in a matter of months would be extremely impressive.

What does iTunes’s fall mean for musicians?

The fall of iTunes doesn’t mean a whole lot, honestly. The digital streaming realm and its technologies continue to change on a daily basis, and it’s only a matter of time before the next big thing comes around. Currently, Spotify and Apple Music are dominating and it seems as though it’ll be that way for at least a few years.

Additionally, it’s imperative that musicians stay up-to-date on what the digital service providers are doing with their technologies. For example, if your audience isn’t on Deezer, then you might not want to release your music on there. We at Jamvana recommend that you choose 10 services to distribute to. This makes it easier for you to promote your music. You can’t promote your music very well on a platform you don’t use or aren’t familiar with.

The bottom line

The music industry and its technologies are continually changing. It’s imperative that you stay up-to-date with what it’s doing. There are a plethora of ways to do so, including reading blog posts and following industry pioneers, like Jimmy Iovine.

With iTunes’s inevitable shutdown just around the corner, this opens the door for other digital service providers to open their opportunity gates or for another company to come through and innovate.