I-Tunes Critique/Survey/Goals:
All in all, from my personal experiences to the survey responses I collected, there seems to be a general consensus that the functionality of I-Tunes is pretty solid. There are definitely a few features that they need to add, lyrics being a big one. I think some improvements could be made in the search and credits could be added to areas of production and behind the scenes work to the music, but those would all be quick easy fixes for I-Tunes.
Really what Apple needs to view I-Tunes as, and i think they are headed in that direction, is a literal "one stop shop for all your online media needs." They need to give consumers no reason to shop anywhere else for their media, and most importantly their musical longings.
The biggest problem i see with the I-Tunes music store is the fact that as my survey pointed out, almost NO ONE goes to I-Tunes to discover new music. Sure people may often times discover music elsewhere and go to I-Tunes to purchase it. However, if you eliminate that middle man you are much more likely to compete with illegal downloading because you are offering convenience to your customers. Link I-Tunes directly in customers minds as your place to constantly stay on the up and up with the latest and greatest in your musical tastes and people will flock there.
In an upcoming post i will detail an idea i have come up with to help take I-Tunes to the next level as a music provider to the masses. The idea centers on this concept of being a place where people can come not to just buy music, but experience and discover it. It isn't the only solution to the problem and in fact i think I-Tunes needs to consider giving their store a community element to it. The most popular illegal downloading sites i have seen over the years all center on having a communal feel. They create this atmosphere where you feel apart of something; you're in and underground society no matter how mainstream it might be and that kind of thing is attractive to people, especially in a younger demographic.
To summarize, I think there are a few things I-Tunes can definitely do to improve its functionality, interface, searching etc...But I personally believe the true answer to making I-Tunes "The future of music" lies in creating an atmosphere thats both constantly music-relevant, and also much more personal and connected to its users.
