It is no secret that downloading music on to your iPod from your computer via the poorly designed iTunes Store is becoming a thing of the past and this summer marked the end of two of Apple’s most famous devices.
The iPod Nano and the iPod Shuffle, two of the early 2000s most popular music devices, were removed from Apple’s official website in July leaving just the iPod Touch, the company’s only remaining iPod device.
Listening to music through audio streaming services has become the most popular method of music consumption thanks to websites and apps such as Spotify, Deezer and Apple Music offering users a chance to listen to their favourite music on their smartphone at any time.
These services have probably been the single most damaging invention to the iPod collection, which already had its classic device discontinued in 2014, as owners can only store music purchased on iTunes or from physical music such as CDs.
Since you are reading this you are probably a student who pays no more than £5 per month to access a bank with tens of millions of songs. Therefore, it begs the question of how can these music streaming services make any money?
Well, online music services have helped to boost the UK music industry revenue to a five year high at the end of last year with 11% of the adult population in the UK being subscribed to audio streaming websites and apps such as Spotify and Apple Music.
In fact, during the first quarter of this year alone audio streams within the UK rose by 55.6% year-on-year to over 15 billion which is all thanks to their user friendly service which recommends new music based on your listen history.
With the UK music industry making three quarters of its profit from audio streaming websites in the first half of this year it remains to be seen just how much life the iPod Touch has ahead of it.
Featured image credit – Apple
