Showbiz Sandbox 283: Why Apple Is Cannibalizing Its Own Music Sales

June 16, 2015

Apple finally announced its long rumored music streaming service last week, which is meant to compete with market leaders Pandora and Spotify. The offering seems in direct conflict with the ongoing business of the largest music retailer in the world, but as Ryan Faughnder of the Los Angeles Times points out, Apple may have had no choice since iTunes digital music sales have significantly decreased.

Now, the music industry is hoping that Apple can ride to their rescue once again, as they did with digital music previously, by attracting the large subscriber base required to make music streaming profitable. Faughnder gives us his thoughts on what the new service means to the business, and tells us how competitors have responded to Apple’s entrance into the market.

There seemed to be no competition for “Jurassic World” during its theatrical debut. The film was released globally and gobbled up opening weekend box office records both in North America and internationally, earning more $500 million in just three days. That gross is more than the combined weekend receipts for every other film currently in theaters worldwide.

Of course, we also cover the week’s top entertainment news stories including Rupert Murdoch steps down as CEO of 21st Century Fox, video games get their own hall of fame and what happened when Dave Grohl of the rock band Foo Fighters broke his leg in the middle of a concert.

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Showbiz Sandbox 243: United They Stand – SAG-AFTRA Forges Ground-Breaking Contract

July 7, 2014

Two years after merging their unions, and with their current contracts set to expire within hours, SAG-AFTRA reached an agreement with studios and producers for a new three-year contract. Jonathan Handel, an entertainment attorney and contributing editor at the Hollywood Reporter, discusses the proposed deal and what improvements actors managed to secure.

Music sales, on the other hand, aren’t improving at all. Nielsen reports that album and digital download sales for the first half of 2014 are down significantly. Could the increase in on demand music streaming be the cause?

Movies aren’t faring much better so far this year, at least not in North America and Germany where box office is down 12% and 8% respectively. Is something amiss with this summer’s blockbuster releases, or is setting new earnings records every year simply unrealistic?

Of course, we also cover the week’s top entertainment news stories including how the characters from “Frozen” are crossing over to television, why cable set-top boxes gobble up so much energy and The Who plan on saying a long, slow goodbye during yet another one of their farewell tours.

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