Don’t count iTunes out in the streaming era.
While stats show that the average listener does indeed largely take in music via streaming platforms, a recent Bloomberg piece from Ashley Carman highlights how, exactly, this doesn’t tell the full story.
Tucked into the piece are several illuminating stats, including the fact that more than 80 percent of iTunes users are not Apple Music subscribers. Also noted in Carman’s reporting is that nearly half of the top 10,000 best-selling albums for each quarter on iTunes are new releases, per an Apple rep, which points to a lack of nostalgia-fueled downloading habits among users.
Furthermore, per the same Apple rep cited in the piece, about half of iTunes users started purchasing music from the platform within the last decade. Roughly, this coincides with the launch of the Apple Music streaming service, which debuted in 2015.
Read Carman’s full piece, which also points out that record labels “have been strategizing” on how to harness the power of iTunes, right here.
Of course, activity among iTunes users (and other download-focused platforms) also has an impact on the charts. For example, Billboard’s Digital Song Sales chart, currently topped by Bruce Springsteen’s “Streets of Minneapolis” protest track, provides a continually updated look at what’s popping off in the paid downloads space.
Still, in this writer’s opinion, physical media reigns supreme. While streaming is convenient, and in many cases presents the lone option to see particular films or listen to certain albums, we’ll all be shit out of luck should there ever be, say, a concentrated attack on the somewhat mysterious forces that hold our current intake model together.
Put another way, if you really love an artist and hope to be able to enjoy their work for years to come, invest in the tangible.