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The Nuance of Streaming Music Services
Remember iTunes? The music library service that revolutionized the way that we listen to music in the 21st century? As the bridge between the hard copy format of CD’s to digital listening, iTunes was instrumental in advancing the way that we access music and the way that we play it. In the years since the service has been rendered effectively extinct by Apple and services like Apple Music and Spotify have taken over. But what has also changed with the advent of these streaming services is the way that we access our libraries with two very schools of thought starting form: the traditional approach of Apple versus the curated and suggestion based system being championed by Google and Spotify.
The Traditional Library
Apple as a company has a very “if it isn’t broke then don’t fix it” mentality with a lot of their software and hardware design. Consider when they introduced AirPods. From a design perspective, they looked like the regular wired EarPods with the wire cut off. This is because people were satisfied with the fit and finish of the EarPods but wanted a wireless option. Apple did not overthink it and delivered on this.
