This may be one of the busiest weeks in recent memory as far as the music industry is concerned. There have been more announcements in the past week then we can ever remember. Things are heating up for Apple as everyone and their mother seems to be offering yet another "iPod Killer" service or device.
Of course ZuneMAX.com fans are aware that Microsoft has announced their entry into the portable media device market with the holiday release of Zune music video players manufactured by Toshiba but there are many other devices and services scheduled that may be more damaging then the Zune alone.
Things kicked of last week when the most popular social network online MySpace announced it was going to begin selling digital music from nearly 3 million unsigned bands to its base of over 100 million users. That’s right, 100 million MySpace users and growing. That’s a huge marketing opportunity for MySpace musicians and we expect it to not only boost users as more bands see the possibility of commercial gain but it’s sure to keep current users at the site for longer periods of time as they hunt for and purchase new music. Granted most of these 3 million bands should probably remain unsigned and the content will be sold without a DRM or any copyright protections but this could very well pose a threat to iTunes and the Zune Music service.
The second and most talked about of the music services comes from an unknown Internet start-up from New York by the name of Spiral Frog which announced over the weekend that it would begin to allow free and legal online music downloads. The company thinks it can do what so few others could and generate revenue through advertising. Spiral Frog made lots of noise this weekend by announcing it has already reached an agreement with Vivendi’s Universal Music Group to supply songs from its catalog which makes it is at least a viable threat to Apple and their iTunes service.
The third and seemingly least challenging of the new music services comes from Samsung, which recently reported that it will launch its own digital music download service. Samsung officials noted that the new service will be fully compatible with its line of digital media players, including its new M5 device.
Nokia may be looking to challenge Apple’s iTunes service by launching one of its own, as it buys out online music service Loudeye. They’re setting their sights on multi-function mobile devices as being the preferred medium for enjoying music, through Nokia’s own products like the N91. They have 15 million music enabled phones on the market and claim to be the 2nd largest music device manufacturer.
Along with attacks to their dominance in the music service side of things Apple now faces a slew of new devices from Microsoft, Samsung, and SanDisk. SanDisk has hit the market with a line of flash memory based devices that are taking a hit at the Nano line. The Sansa e280 directly challenges the iPod Nano, one of the most popular members of the iPod family. At $250 the e280 offers 8GB of skip free music, an FM tuner with voice recorder and a microSD expansion-card slot that can increase the Sansa’s overall capacity to 10 gigabytes, or somewhere around 2,500 songs. The Sansa also offers a rechargeable lithium-ion battery which can be replaced by the user for about $20 in comparison to the $59 Apple charges for battery replacement.
Samsung has developed a music-playing cellphone with 8GB of built-in flash memory — that’s double the amount of memory in Apple’s largest-capacity iPod nano. The SCH-B570 can store about 1,600 MP3 files or about 16 movies and if that’s not enough entertainment then there’s also a receiver for South Korea’s mobile satellite broadcasting service (S-DMB). It also has a 2-megapixel camera. A US version is expected soon.
It’s doubtful any of the new music services will actually replace iTunes but with more options to chose from it’s certain they will lose some customers to the ever expanding line of competitors. Apple seems prepared to defend their position at the top by expanding both their music service and the hardware line. Rumors of plans to launch a movie download service gained momentum Tuesday after the company sent invitations to the media for an event next week, saying, "It’s Showtime." Sources at several Hollywood studios confirmed Tuesday they were in talks to sell their films through iTunes.
Apple also may introduce new iPods, including a video iPod with a larger screen than the current 2.5-inch display and the one everyone seems to be waiting for the Apple iPod Phone. American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu seems to believe that Apple’s first cell phone will be introduced in the first half of 2007 and is urging his readers to buy shares of Apple before an official announcement is made. “With a history of revolutionizing the PC industry, the music industry, and the movie industry, we encourage investors to get aggressive in purchasing shares of Apple prior to the potential revolution of the handset industry,” Wu wrote in a research note. “Our research indicates that an Apple-designed smart phone has moved from concept to prototype and recently has progressed to near completion as a production unit,” Wu said. “We believe this smart phone has been in development for over 12 months and has overcome substantial challenges including design, interference, battery life, and other technical glitches. We believe that Steve Jobs is finally satisfied with the end product Apple engineers have produced in terms of quality and the right blend of cell phone and portable media player.”
No matter what it looks like musicians and fans everywhere are going to have a wide variety of choices as everyone jockeys for position in the music wars. Apple has a huge lead but the number of competitors and the innovations in device design are sure to set them back some. It’s what they do in the next year that will determine how much a lead they can keep and who comes in 2nd place. No one is going to kill the ipod but it looks like they will offer some serious competition.
