Apple Music poised to rock streaming music market
The launch of Apple Music on Tuesday will speed the shift in consumer spending to music subscriptions at the expense of music ownership, Futuresource Consulting said Monday. Futuresource predicts subscriptions will reach at least one-third of total global consumer music spending by 2016. Last year, global consumer spending on music streaming subscriptions reached $3 billion, or 16% of total music market spending, Futuresource analyst David Sidebottom said in a statement. Apple’s (AAPL) new streaming music service “could potentially hit tens of millions of users almost instantly, and many users will likely be drawn by the three-month free trial period,” Sidebottom said. Apple Music will compete with Spotify, Radio, Google ‘s (GOOGL) Google Play Music and others. Spotify is the market leader with more than 20 million paying subscribers and more than 75 million active users. For $9.99 a month, Apple Music users will be able to stream over 30 million…