The New Ecology 29
Polygram and MCA Music), and WEA. This group was responsible for
80 per cent of music sales in the world and, as Stephen Witt observes,
the conglomerates had long been out of touch with their fans.
68
Rather
than embrace digital downloads, they preferred to maintain what had
been a very profitable ecosystem based on CD manufacturing and retailing. In 1999, the music industry recorded a high point of $36.9 billion
in revenues worldwide – a figure that dropped to $6.3 billion by 2009.
69
Napster was the disruptive innovator, but Apple was the beneficiary.
Apple itself was surprised at how successful the iPod was a year after
its release, and that the volume of pirated music was even more valuable
to consumers once it was made portable. As such, the company increasingly sought to press home a new business model for distributing music:
it would sell individual tracks for 99 cents each on iTunes and keep 30
per cent of the revenue. In 2002, companies such as Universal were not
interested – by 2005, they recognised that sales of CDs were falling off
a cliff.
70
With the iPod and iTunes, Apple realised its first major transformation
of a media industry and this is often held up as a prophetic example of
technological determinism, how a visionary leader inspired behavioural
change across a generation, frequently being the argument of hagiographies such as Walter Isaacson’s authorised biography of Jobs.
71
More
thoughtful accounts, such as those by Stephen Witt, draw attention to
how such a teleological account is retrofitted to the facts, and that not
only was the success of the iPod unexpected by Apple but just how much
the company was adapting to consumer behaviour rather than leading
it. iTunes and the iPod were indeed part of a new media ecology, but
this was the one that very much operated outside of the strict remit of
its emerging (and limited) ecosystem as millions of users put the device
to frankly illicit purposes in its first years. Nonetheless, by 2013 iTunes
accounted for 63 per cent of digital downloads.
72
The level of transformation of one media industry, however, would be completely dwarfed by
Apple’s next innovation: the iPhone.
When it was first announced in January 2007, perhaps no one had
any real conception of just how important the iPhone would be: Jobs
himself referred to it as a “widescreen iPod with touch controls” and
a “revolutionary mobile phone”, but sceptics abounded. Kate Bevan in
The Guardian observed that £269 was “quite a lot for an 8GB music
player”, especially one that didn’t allow you to use custom ringtones
(oh, how priorities have changed in a decade)
73
while C¦Net gave it
a measly 3.5 stars out of 5 and remarked likewise that the memory
was “stingy for an iPod”.
74
Nonetheless, more prescient commentators
such as Guy Kewney were hailing it as a success while its availability
in stores by the end of June 2007 led to what would become a regular
phenomenon: that of eager fans camping outside Apple stores to get
their hands on the new device.
75
Mobile devices had been an important
Polygram and MCA Music), and WEA. This group was responsible for
80 per cent of music sales in the world and, as Stephen Witt observes,
the conglomerates had long been out of touch with their fans.
68
Rather
than embrace digital downloads, they preferred to maintain what had
been a very profitable ecosystem based on CD manufacturing and retailing. In 1999, the music industry recorded a high point of $36.9 billion
in revenues worldwide – a figure that dropped to $6.3 billion by 2009.
69
Napster was the disruptive innovator, but Apple was the beneficiary.
Apple itself was surprised at how successful the iPod was a year after
its release, and that the volume of pirated music was even more valuable
to consumers once it was made portable. As such, the company increasingly sought to press home a new business model for distributing music:
it would sell individual tracks for 99 cents each on iTunes and keep 30
per cent of the revenue. In 2002, companies such as Universal were not
interested – by 2005, they recognised that sales of CDs were falling off
a cliff.
70
With the iPod and iTunes, Apple realised its first major transformation
of a media industry and this is often held up as a prophetic example of
technological determinism, how a visionary leader inspired behavioural
change across a generation, frequently being the argument of hagiographies such as Walter Isaacson’s authorised biography of Jobs.
71
More
thoughtful accounts, such as those by Stephen Witt, draw attention to
how such a teleological account is retrofitted to the facts, and that not
only was the success of the iPod unexpected by Apple but just how much
the company was adapting to consumer behaviour rather than leading
it. iTunes and the iPod were indeed part of a new media ecology, but
this was the one that very much operated outside of the strict remit of
its emerging (and limited) ecosystem as millions of users put the device
to frankly illicit purposes in its first years. Nonetheless, by 2013 iTunes
accounted for 63 per cent of digital downloads.
72
The level of transformation of one media industry, however, would be completely dwarfed by
Apple’s next innovation: the iPhone.
When it was first announced in January 2007, perhaps no one had
any real conception of just how important the iPhone would be: Jobs
himself referred to it as a “widescreen iPod with touch controls” and
a “revolutionary mobile phone”, but sceptics abounded. Kate Bevan in
The Guardian observed that £269 was “quite a lot for an 8GB music
player”, especially one that didn’t allow you to use custom ringtones
(oh, how priorities have changed in a decade)
73
while C¦Net gave it
a measly 3.5 stars out of 5 and remarked likewise that the memory
was “stingy for an iPod”.
74
Nonetheless, more prescient commentators
such as Guy Kewney were hailing it as a success while its availability
in stores by the end of June 2007 led to what would become a regular
phenomenon: that of eager fans camping outside Apple stores to get
their hands on the new device.
75
Mobile devices had been an important