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June 05, 2013

Apple's Targeted Audio Ads Could Threaten the Competition

By Alisen Downey, Copy Editor

Everyone is familiar with the ads that interrupt your listening on services like Pandora (News - Alert). Well, don’t expect that to change much with Apple’s soon-to-be-released music streaming service, unofficially being called “iRadio.” Apple’s (News - Alert) new music service will offer highly targeted, and highly priced, ads to marketers.



iRadio users will, not surprisingly, have the option to buy the songs they’re listening to through iTunes, which could drive increased music sales for the company. As such, iRadio may seem more attractive to record labels and advertisers, compared to competing services like Pandora and Spotify (News - Alert).

(Image via Shutterstock)

Apple’s audio ad service, provided through the mobile ad network iAd, will be more tailored to demographics than the ads offered by other services. By linking to users’ iTunes accounts, iRadio will be able to take into account users’ specific tastes in music, movies and television, allowing for personally targeted ads. By comparison, Pandora only targets its users based on gender, area code or geographical region, and listening habits. iRadio ads will be able to do that and a lot more.

Many expect the audio ad services offered by Apple to be more expensive than typical banner ads, and for iRadio, making it highly profitable for the company. Only about 10 percent of profits from audio ads would likely go to music rights holders. And, because iRadio ads would add several layers of personalization, Apple will likely ask for more money to run those ads, pointing to the less substantial capabilities of other sites’ ad services as justification. It could be a huge threat to said competing sites, but it could easily backfire if Apple starts its ad pricing too high and has to lower it later, as it had to do with iAd services.

Microsoft and Google have recently stepped into the ring, vying for footholds in the music streaming industry, but it remains to be seen which service will come out on top. In the meantime, Apple will officially announce its music streaming service at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco next week.




Edited by Jamie Epstein
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