Ahead Of Anticipated iTunes Revamp, Apple Goes On A Hiring Spree
Apple is rumored to be planning a big iTunes overhaul, and now the Cupertino, Calif. company has sent out job advertisements for four new iTunes-oriented positions.
The new ads, first spotted by 9to5mac, are for iTunes Software Engineers, a Senior Software Engineer for iTunes Radio, and a Software Engineer for iTunes Recommendations. Apple explains at its job listing page for the former iTunes Software Engineer positions:
The iTunes team is looking for a software engineer to help build innovative features that will delight millions of customers around the world. The candidate should be a well rounded developer who is not afraid to question assumptions, and has excellent written and oral skills. The ideal candidate enjoys collaborating under tight deadlines and tackles problems with imaginative and elegant solutions.
All of this comes after a report from Billboard argued that iTunes is set to receive a “major shakeup” in the near future. Big changes rumored to be in the pipeline include an on-demand streaming service, iTunes for Android, and negotiating sales windows which would favor Apple (rather than its rivals).
The report added: “How Apple transforms iTunes, however, remains hotly debated, both within the company and among Apple’s content partners, sources say. Apple’s desire for a smooth transition is complicated by an urgency that iTunes must move quickly as people move away from downloads, where Apple controls 90% of download music sales in the U.S., towards streaming, where Apple is overshadowed.”
As a reminder, Apple does offer music lovers a subscription-based service in the form of iTunes Match, but the market appears to be demanding a more fully-featured system. For a $25-per-year fee, iTunes Match allows users to enjoy iTunes Radio ad-free, while also “matching” the contents of their iTunes library with iCloud copies which can be enjoyed across multiple iOS and OS X devices.
Only 1 million people subscribe to the service, however, prompting Apple to consider an alternative offering. As my colleague Bryan Wolfe concluded in his recent report:
I’m definitely one of the listeners who have abandoned the music store side of iTunes in favor of streaming music services. I’d much rather pay my $9.99 per month fee to Spotify and have access to millions of songs instead of having to deal with downloading from the store. And I don’t seem to be alone.
You can count me among that demographic too, Bryan.
It’ll be interesting to see how Apple’s upcoming hires help transform iTunes. As usual, we’ll keep you updated with further information as we receive it.
In the meantime, see: Apple Confirms That iOS, OS X And iCloud Aren’t Affected By Heartbleed Security Flaw, Twitterrific 5 Update Should Help Prevent Duplicate Tweets, and Are You Ready To Be The Best Biker Around? Find Out In Trials Frontier.
