iTunes music sales drop for second straight year

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iTunes is down!. Photo:
iTunes music sales are diving. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple revolutionized the music industry with the introduction of iTunes in 2003, but even Cupertino is having trouble selling albums these days.

iTunes revenue dropped 13% over the last year reports the Wall Street Journal, marking the second straight year that Apple’s digital music sales have declined, after falling 5.7% in 2013.

Apple’s recent acquisition of Beats Music is now even more important as the company is supposedly considering dropping the price on the music streaming service to lure in more subscribers. The Journal also confirms previous rumors that Apple plans to rebrand Beats Music.

“The plummeting download numbers help illustrate why Apple bought the $10-a-month subscription streaming service Beats Music earlier this year, as part of its $3 billion acquisition that included headphone maker Beats Electronics. Apple is rebuilding Beats Music and plans to relaunch it next year as part of iTunes, according to a person familiar with the matter.”

The change will integrate the service into iTunes, aligning it closer to the Apple brand and iTunes Radio as Apple tries to fight of competing services like Spotify and Pandora, which recently teased a new ad model that gives users one hour of free music streaming, if you click on a banner ad.

Source: WSJ

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