The digital music consultancy, Music Ally’s most recent fortnightly report reveals that during the UK Copyright Tribunal’s decision on online royalty rates, Apple piped up about ad-funded online music services.
According to witnesses, during the tribunal iTunes VP Eddie Cue stated that Apple would only pay advertising revenue where “that revenue is earned as a result of an advertisement, sponsorship or a click-through link located on a Licensed service … and only where the Licensed Service is offered to the User at a price which has been artificially depressed to reflect such revenue.”
Ad funded iTunes anyone? Such a dramatic shift in Apple’s business model would send shockwaves throughout the digital download industry, but there is no need to go ducking for cover quite yet. The Music Ally report stresses that these discussions were centred squarely on the potential for ad-funded downloads rather than mapping a route to their introduction.
Still, it does give a hint at how music download services might evolve and you have to wonder how Apple’s devices might factor into this. With the iPhone’s wi-fi capabilities and the likelihood that future iterations of the iPod will include some sort of Zune like wi-fi features, the possibility for constantly streamed advertising doesn’t seem so remote.
The advertising industry will doubtlessly want to make use of the technology; the opportunity to reach the screens of so many always online and always in the pocket devices is far too tantalising for the industry to ignore. Until Apple gets onboard with some sort of wireless iTunes service however, ad subsidised downloads are likely to remain in the future alongside flying cars, clothes made out of tinfoil and thought controlled computers.
(Via Tech Digest)
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