What impact will iCloud have?
I was reading the Lefsetz letter about Apple’s iCloud service and felt that he had quite a lot of interesting points.
Before taking up his argument, I would point out that the Play.me subscription service is already aggressively priced given the current costs of paying for the rights… for less than 10 bucks a month you get an incredible deal and are always up-to-date with the latest releases without having to continually buy new tracks. Plus, with our mobile apps, you’ve got the music in your earbuds wherever you go.
Lefsetz argues that Apple has scored a huge victory over the labels, that have sold their soul for a few million bucks now, rather than understanding how to sell music in the future. And he’s not happy about it: “For approximately $40 million to the bottom line of each recording company, you know they’re not going to share the revenue with artists, the labels sold out their future.”
He understands, like we do, that the future of music should be lowering the price on high-value subscription services to the point where it becomes a no-brainer to sign up. Make it easier than stealing music!
Let’s hope that the music industry as a whole sees the launch of iCloud as a wake up call to let go of yesterday’s models and to create a better tomorrow.
