Apple Music, YouTube Red Mark a Momentous Week for Digital Music
Apple Music has 6.5 million subscribers. YouTube announced its subscription service. Paid access just got a big boost.
The week of October 19 is the week digital music met its future. Long dominated by early entrants and standalone companies, the music subscription market was rocked by the world's two largest technology companies, Apple and Google.
Monday's news that Apple Music has 6.5 million subscribers and Wednesday's unveiling of YouTube Red, the company's upcoming subscription service, are two hugely important steps in helping, or properly enticing, consumers to make the transition from buying music to streaming for free to paying a monthly fee to access -- but not own outright -- a large collection of audio tracks and videos. If the jump from cassettes to CDs crossed over a hurdle, going from downloads to paid streaming requires scaling a 10-foot wall.
The industry has had trouble with that climb. There were 41 million subscribers to streaming services of all kinds at the end of 2014, according to the IFPI's Digital Music Report 2015. It's a number more appropriate for a few large markets than the entire planet.
Apple Music quickly became the second-largest music subscription with 6.5 million subscribers. READ MORE