Apple Music: when all else fails, cut the price
Tomorrow, September 7th is the anticipated launch of the iPhone 7. We have to say anticipated because Apple hasn’t officially said its planned event is for the launch of its latest iThingy. Of course, everyone knows it’s going to be the launch of the 7, so this dance is starting to get a little old, to say the least.
We could go on and on, but, anyway . . . Another “anticipated”, but not confirmed — but everyone knows about it — component of tomorrow’s event is the update to Apple’s streaming music service, amply called Apple Music. There is a host of new features expected (oops, “anticipated”), but most important are the new offer — $99 for 12 months, which undercuts the cost of industry-leading Spotify and it’s 30 million users. While Apple has seen it’s numbers increase, last reported to be 13 million in April of this year, it hasn’t been able to catch-up with Spotify’s numbers.
It’s said in business school that there are only three ways to compete:
- Service
- Features
- Price
Seems like Apple is pulling the lever on #3 to see if that will propel it to #1. We’ll see.
To further differentiate itself, Apple Music is slashing its price. Apple is selling 12-month subscriptions to the music streaming platform for $99 via gift cards, bringing the monthly cost down from $9.99 to $8.25.
Source: Apple (AAPL) iPhone Sept 7 event: What to expect from Apple Music — Quartz
