[NewsPoster]

Sales at Apple's iTunes Store have fallen between 13 and 14 percent in 2014 so far, sources tell the Wall Street Journal. That represents a steepening decline, coming in the wake of a 2.1 percent dip in 2013. The trend is believed to be connected to the music industry's overall swing away from downloads, and towards streaming subscription services like Pandora and Spotify.

The Journal backs the view that Apple is planning to deal with the problem by rebranding Beats Music next year. The paper adds that it expects the service to be rebuilt, and moreover be integrated into iTunes. That could have significant ramifications, as for the moment Beats Music is available not only on iOS devices but Android, Windows, and Windows Phone. It is, in fact, the only Apple product with a presence on Android and Windows Phone, and iTunes integration may shut those users out.

Apple already has a basic ad-supported streaming service in the form of iTunes Radio, and while it quickly became the third most-popular streaming service in the US, it hasn't expanded internationally as expected -- and, like Pandora, simply serves up tracks based on an algorithm that relies on user input of a particular artist or genre. Beats Music is a hand-curated but subscription-only service that offers selections and track discovery based on moods, which could potentially allow Apple to go head-to-head with with fourth-place Spotify and even the top two services, iHeartRadio and Pandora.

[nowwhatareyoulookingat]

"The trend is believed to be connected to the music industry's overall swing away from downloads, and towards streaming subscription services like Pandora and Spotify."

What? There is no industry campaign to get people to stop buying music and buy subscriptions. There are still lots of ads to buy various albums, generally on teen/young adult channels and shows. Sure, streaming services like Spotify do place ads, but so does Apple for iTS and Google for Google Play.

Now, the industry would LOVE to get people to move to a rental-based system, because then the industry gets money regardless of whether they produce any new music worth listening to, and they get to pay artists and writers even less than they do now [like multiple orders of magnitude less].

[Gazoobee]

This is actually completely inaccurate, just like most of the stories that have popped up on this subject. The fact is, that iTunes MUSIC sales are down 13-14 percent. NOT "iTunes sales."

Only one out of four or five times I have read this story have they actually got it right.