Itunes的商业模式分析dissertation

互联网和Web 2.0对我们生活产生的影响是不容忽视的。互联网的使用改变了网上音乐的营销方式。2001年1月9日，苹果公司在旧金山市研发公布了iTunes。它的最新版本是iTunes 9。iTunes是一个数码播放器，在播放器里有一个音乐商店，苹果设备的核心就是它的iTunes播放器。从这个意义上来说，iTunes相当于是Web 2.0ish。

 

首先，这是非法销售音乐的一个转变。用户可以通过点对点技术在网上共享音乐，这样一来，用户下载音乐也不用付钱了。可就是因为这样的情况导致了唱片业起诉用户侵犯了歌曲的版权。因此，苹果推出了iTunes，它改变了网上音乐的销售方式。这样用户就可以购买个别自己喜欢的歌曲而不必购买整张专辑了。唱片业不喜欢只出售专辑中的一首歌，而不是出售整个专辑的这种行为，所以他们在尽可能得抵制这种行为。但是用户很喜欢这种已经成为苹果标签的这种理念。

 

通过互联网销售音乐的想法并不新鲜，因为还缺少一个商业模式的口号。苹果试图用一种没有人尝试成功过的方式在互联网上营销音乐。
 

1 iTunes的介绍———1 Introducing iTunes
 

The impact of Internet and web 2.0 is no longer possible to ignore. The use of Internet has changed the way of marketing music online. iTunes was introduced byApple Inc.on January 9, 2001,in San Francisco. The latest version is iTunes 9. iTunes player is a digital player and it has a music store which is integrated into the player, the core of the Apple's approach was based on it iTunes player. iTunes is Web 2.0ish in this sense. .
 

At the first place, there was a turn towards illegal distribution of music. Users shared the music through peer-to-peer networks thus downloaded it without paying. The previous situation led the recording industry to prosecute users who had songs without the copyright. At this point Apple launched iTunes which changed the way of marketing music online. Finally users can buy individual songs instead of having to buy whole albums. The recording industry hated the idea of selling one song from an album instead of whole album, so they resisted it as long as possible. But it was obvious that users liked the concept, so Apple flew under the labels. 
 

2苹果的itunes的商业模式———2 Business model of Apple's itunes
 

2.1 The Apple iTunes Music Store: How Apple Get it Right?
 

The idea of selling music via the Internet isn't new, what's been missing is a business model slogan. Apple tried marketing music on the internet in a way no one had tried before, and it worked. The nature of competition is changing rapidly; the key factors are globalization, deregulation, and technological changes are opening opportunities for the development of new, original business models. The rate in which the global digital music market is growing is amazing and need for the Business ecosystem has been on rise [3].#p#分页标题#e#
 

2.2 Ecosystem
 

Apple ecosystem has emerged into a global empire from a sad little high tech shell. More than 20k companies have signed on with Apple in the past two year to create Apple Products, nearly 25% increase from the year before. Apple supported iTunes platform by launching iPod, this gave the user to carry their music wherever they go. Some 70% of new model cars in U.S have an iPod connectors built in, and more than 100,000 airlines seats have the same. Apple's product is compatible with each other, so the customers found it easy to use the iTunes in the entire Apple product they used. Leading channels have used iTunes to sell their TV shows [4].
 

Apple reinforce its business model with the consumers where contract law most freely permits re-allocating copyright entitlements and where it most fully allows private parties to define terms. Apple's business design was in such a way that it identifies which customers valued a lot to them and with which propositions they should serve those customers [5].
 

2.3 Customer needs and priorities
 

How and why are priorities shifting? What current and emerging needs are not being met by existing offerings? Finding answers to this question will help Apple to retain its customers.

Self-reinforcing cycle for its customer
 

When Apple's competitors pursued either a device based or music store approach, Apple provided an integrated offer of hardware (iPod), software (iTunes music library), and content (iTunes music store). This business design made customers more tied to iPod-iTunes system.
 

2.4 Suppliers, Accessory producers and Content providers
 

Its line-up of digital music players, computers, and phone places Apple in the centre of an expanding world of suppliers, accessory producers, and content providers [7]. Here's a look.
 

3 IT 的作用———3 Role of IT
 

Now, Mobile web 2.0 adoption is starting to grow with the increased usage of devices such as iPhone. The rise of wireless networks offers vendors' potential revenue and added convenience for mobile users. The iTunes is an example of mobile web 2.0. The iPod uses the internet as the back end and uses the storage area of the device as the local cache to store the downloaded file. iTunes is called as a Mobile Web 2.0 service because it uses the Web as a backbone.
 

3.1 Mobile technologies
 

The increasing usage of internet, mobile technologies, smart phones and portable devices continue to drive the digital music market. The music industry is undergoing major structural changes as companies enter the digital music market and making changes to the business ecosystem according to the changing market demands.#p#分页标题#e#
 

3.2 Mobile Multimedia
 

The creation, delivery, and playback of multimedia over 3rd generation has some worldwide standards such as 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) and 3GPP2 (3rd Generation Partnership Project 2). The Quick time player has adopted these standards giving millions of Quick time users mobile multimedia capabilities. These standards provide uniform delivery of rich multimedia over newly evolved, 3rd generation networks to the latest multimedia-enabled cell phones [8].
 

3.3 DRM System
 

Apple removed Fairplay DRM system from iTunes music, this created cross-platform iTunes functionality creating a larger iTunes user base. The internet has revolutionised business, and iTunes is just another example. Adding wireless technology to iPod enabled user to purchase media while on the go [9].
 

3.4 Podcasting
 

Podcasting now called as downloadable media has been very successful. Customers can source more than 150,000 podcasts with the help of iTunes stores. Apple has introduced a new platform features that upgrades iTunes UX and gives advertisers a return of investment (ROI) [10].
 

3.5 Satellite TV and Radio
 

Satellite TV operators, such as EchoStar Communications (DISH) and DirecTV (DTV) along with Apple partnered with AT&T to offer a video service which was combined with AT&T's Broadband Intenet.
 

Also, satellite radio player Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI) offers its own video service, aimed at the automotive market, which is launched in several car models. Sirius offer enhanced the iTunes Internet radio offering by streaming music services for their subscribers .
 

3.6 Streaming Technology
 

A quick time player gives you the cushion to receive streaming media delivered over internet. It includes the latest advances in streaming technology which gives immediate access to the music file without having to wait for a long time for the media to buffer [12].
 

3.6.1 End-to-end, Standards-based solution
 

Quick time player supports the IETF standard RTP/RTSP streaming protocols for receiving live and on-demand streaming media.
 

3.6.2 Streaming Types
 

Unicast streams, Multicast streams and Reflected multicast streams.
 

3.7 H.264
 

The H.264 is a video codec; it delivers excellent quality at remarkable low rates. It uses the latest innovation in video compressing technology to provide excellent quality from the smallest amount of video data. It means that user saves bandwidth and storage costs. No matter whether you need high-quality video for your mobile phone or a satellite delivery, H.264 provides excellent performance at low data rates .#p#分页标题#e#

 

4 itunes和竞争对手相比如何?———4 How does itunes compare with competitors?
 

iTunes is widening its lead in the digital music market while the rest of its competitors is going down the ladder, according to a new report by Ipsos. 50% of the users identified that the best fee-based digital music service in 2007 was iTunes, a 9% increase from 2006.Consumers used gift cards to buy music after the holiday season, and those gift cards certainly helped propel Apple to number one position [14].Buying patterns for digital downloads are different, as customers are likely to pick a favourite track or two from an album than purchase the whole album. Furthermore, the users can hear 30 seconds of the songs; the service is called as “try before you buy.” It helps user to examine if they have found the right song.

 

Ease of Access: With iTunes the songs are one click away, whereas in Amazon user have to install a application in order to play the song.Wishlists and Gifts:One major flaw of Amazon MP3 is the lack of digital albums as wishlist items or buy them as gifts.Multimedia:The iTunes is a one stop-shop and iTunes is integrated with som many devices. On the other hand Amazon just has a way for users to watch movies streaming on users computer .

 

4.1 WMPvsWinampvsiTunesvsMediaMonkey
 

It can be said that each program works similarly, but iTunes have some advance features in it while makes iTunes to stand ahead in the race.iTunes differ in the way they store the file in the main library when compared to others. In a nutshell, when a file is played or created in iTunes, that file is added to the library automatically. Other player requires rescan of the folder that contains the file.iTunes comes with a online shop as standard. Earlier they used to sell only DRM tracks which had certain restriction in distribution and copyrights, now they have started to sell DRM-free music under the “iTunes Plus” label since 2007. iTunes music store (iTMS) accounts for majority of the digital music sales. Many albums contains reviews and ratings and also ranked by popularity. Other competitors lack an inbuilt music shop of any kind, though one of the competitor Mediamonkey links each track to Amazon .
 

4.2 Unique Features in iTunes
 

In addition to the jukebox functions, iTunes offers some advanced features:
 

• Autosyncing: iTunes will automatically download all content you added to iTunes since the last sync. And iTunes will be updated automatically according to the new ratings released.
 

• Smart Playlists: To create a playlist the user can set parameters for iTunes to create a playlist from the music library. The parameters should be related to the song genre, date of release or rating. When you add a new song to your library it will automatically check the parameters and add the file to the playlist in which the parameters matches.#p#分页标题#e#
 

• Genius: Genius is one of the recent features added to iTunes. Genius assembles a playlist for the user, just pick up a song and the genius will built a playlist around it. Ideally the song should complement each other. It will also recommend songs for the user to purchase to build out the library.
 

• Home Sharing: To enjoy the benefit of home sharing all the computer in the home network should be logged on to the iTunes under the same account. It allows user to share music across multiple computers to have several music libraries.
 

• Videos: Users can now download videos, movies, tv shows from the iTMS to watch them in Itunes. Users can also convert a DVDs to iTunes video format using some external software.
 

• Audiobooks: Audiobooks can also be downloaded through the iTMS.
 

• Editing ID3 tags: User needs to know some details about the song; the ID3 tags are bits of data attached to the song which contains details about the artist, album title and other related items. Through iTunes user can edit the tags and add tags to the song.
 

• Gifts and Wishlist: User can send gift from the iTunes Store, and can also add some gift to his/her wish list and publish them to Facebook or twitter [19].
 

5新技术———5 New Technologies
 

5.1 Apple buys up Lala, music streaming on the way?
 

Apple has purchased the music service, Lala (IP) according to Reuters. Lala overlapped Apple's iTunes store in many areas except that Lala offers a music streaming service. Apple is looking for ways to adapt its Business model by including streaming services. The service has about 100,000 subscribers, offers user the ability to stream any song once for free and charge 10 cents a month for unlimited streaming. It is likely that this will be Apple's response to popular Zune subscription music service [20].
 

5.2 eBay application
 

The e-commerce giant is developing a new application called Deals, which basically gives iPhone and iPod users a way to access the never ending stream of bargain among thousands of eBay listing. The application will have built-in integration with social networking, making it easier for buyers to share their shopping activity with their friends. Users should shake their device to refresh the deals on display.
 

5.3 iTunes LPs and iTunes Extras#p#分页标题#e#
 

By taking iTunes LP and Extras public, Apple insists individual developers to work on interactive digital content. This move signals the apple readiness in challenging Adobe flash, emphasing the adoption of web standards and creating a new business model for content.
 

The iTunes Extra format is designed in such a way that it presents a movie with some interactive menus which is self explanatory. The chapter navigation is similar to those supplied by DVD or Blue ray authors. The iTunes extra is shown below [21].
 

Apple's new interactive content is based on web standard. iTunes contains websites that use special scripts to present content from user library, along with animation effect, bonus content and visualisations that can play along with the music. It is called as TuneKit[22].
 

5.4 ITLP and ITE files
 

Within the iTunes are folders which contain audio, video, html files that serves as its home page. This brings out the possibility of extending the format in the future so that it can accommodate new type of devices.
 

5.5 A business model (web)
 

In addition to selling music, TV shows and iPhone software the new iTunes format indicates an opportunity to sell interactive contents also. It will open up the business for the iTunes and the traditional print publishers can enter the digital age with a business model. It also opens up a market of advertising in the iTunes. By doing this the Apple can put an end to the dominance of Google in the ad sense, and can offer content producers to market their product through iTunes and sell their product as selling songs in iTunes Music store [23].
 

6结论———6 Conclusion
 

The prediction is that the global digital music market will grow from $4.81bn in 2009 to $13.74bn by 2013. The industry is characterised by changing structure and an evolving value chain. New players are entering the market and rapidly expanding their revenue streams to match consumer demands. Music piracy still remains a challenge that industry is faced with. China, India and Brazil are the emerging markets that present enormous potential.
 

Dispute file sharing concerns, consumers have indicated that they were willing to pay for the music as long as they can enjoy the same usage rights as with a purchase. The continued popularity of Apple's iTunes music store (iTMS) suggests that so long as online music providers can continue to provide competitive pricing and relatively free DRM policies, there is a market for digital music.