Bye bye, Spotify–New Apple streaming service will crush competitors

I buy a lot of music. Let’s just say I’m confident that I personally skew the average to make up for those people who don’t buy music.

I haven’t yet embraced any of the many streaming music services for a few reasons. I like Pandora, but it’s too random. If I want to listen to Prince, then I want to listen to Prince. Not an occasional Prince song mixed with a bunch of artists I’ve never heard of that Pandora thinks might be similarly appealing.

When it comes to services like Spotify, my primary issues are lock-in to that specific app or service, and the limited inventory of artists. Most music services have an impressive catalog of artists on board, but each seems to lack key artists. I don’t want to listen to most of my music in one app, but then have to switch apps just to listen to certain artists.

That’s why I’m excited about the upcoming service from Apple, though. The rebranded Beats Music service is expected to launch sometime in the middle of this year, and there are a few reasons that [inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=””]rivals like Spotify should be very concerned[/inlinetweet].

I wrote this blog post explaining why:

Last year Apple paid a lot of money to buy Beats—the iconic headphones and streaming music company founded by rap mogul Dr. Dre and music industry veteran Jimmy Iovine. This year, it plans to try and cash in on that $3 billion investment with its own streaming music service, according to a report from 9to5Mac. Rival services, like Spotify, better brace for impact.

Spotify and other streaming music services probably weren’t all that concerned with Beats Music as a standalone competitor. Beats Music has only a fraction of the subscribers that Spotify has. Spotify recently passed 15 million paid subscribers—with another 45 million or so using the free service.

Beats Music is about to change the whole game, though. When Apple launches its rebranded Beats Music service, competing services like Rdio and Spotify could be crushed.

[inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=””]Apple has a secret ingredient that rival streaming music services like Spotify and Rdio lack: it’s Apple.[/inlinetweet] Being Apple gives it three key advantages over the competition:

1. Apple Ecosystem

Apple has a massive base of loyal customers. There are millions upon millions of people around the world using Mac PCs, iPhone smartphones, and iPad tablets. Part of what those customers buy into is the simplicity of the Apple ecosystem.

Individuals can use Spotify, Pandora , or other services on their Mac or iOS devices, and many do. According to 9to5Mac, though, this new Apple service will be woven into the default Music app on iOS as well as the iTunes desktop software. That alone will be a significant advantage for Apple.

Read the full article on Forbes to find out the other two reasons Apple is guaranteed to disrupt the streaming music market when it launches its service: 3 Reasons Apple Streaming Music Will Be Serious Threat To Rival Services.

Do you use Pandora, Spotify, or one of the other streaming music services? Are you a paying subscriber, or do you just use the free service? Do you plan to try the Apple streaming service when it launches? Share your thoughts in the comments below.