My name is Kenneth and I write cool Mac and iPhone software. This is my personal weblog where I post about stuff I find interesting. I usually write about Mac development, the business of shareware and the Mac community in general.
read more →Apple’s introduction of Genius into iTunes may have been one of the best business decisions they ever made.
First, it’s a great feature for the user. It’s a joy to just chose a beloved track, and instantly get plenty more of that awesomeness. I’ve been a great fan of Genius myself, and I use it all the time. It’s also great when picking out tracks for a DJ set.
But what probably goes unnoticed by the general public is the staggering amounts of money Apple will be able to make of this. They will own the data to what millions of people are listening to. They’ll have direct access to millions of people’s tastes, likes, dislikes. Many companies would kill for such data, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the labels were prepared to pay big for such statistics.
Additionally, Apple is using genius to sell more music on the iTunes Store through the sidebar. The iTunes Store is already the biggest music retailer in the US, but with Genius, it’ll only sell even more music to the people already buying music on the store.
And lastly, Apple could sell promotions for artists who want more exposure for their music. Since Apple controls what users are exposed to / listen to when they’re in Genius, they can now push an artist more often in their user’s Genius lists, and thus give the user the impression and the feeling of liking the music. They can thus manipulate the user’s tastes, and I’m willing to bet that many record labels would pay big money for that kind of exposure.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 31st, 2009 at 5:34 pm and is filed under Apple, Business, English, Internet. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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