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iTunes (France) Organizational Audit

03.26.2012 · Posted in Accounting Articles

Entertainment is an aspect that is widely influencing many people in the whole world. People like to be entertained through music and hence companies have taken this opportunity to make money. Apple Inc. is a company that has excelled significantly in this field especially currently when music field has become very competitive. In the past few years, United States of America has been on the lead in as far as music is concerned but in the current world, other countries are leading. For instance, music field is more competitive in France as compared to the United States of America. The process of listening to music from all over the world online has been made possible, cheap, and easy by production of software. Apple Inc. is a company that manufactures, designs, and markets software that include iTunes, OS X operating system, iLife, and QuickTime among others. The rate advancement in technology has greatly impacted Apple Inc. positively as it is able to manufacture iTunes that help in increasing entertainment. iTunes is a free application for a computer where it organizes and plays digital music and video in a computer. The introduction of iTunes by Apple Inc. in most countries in the world has reduced the restrictions that were there before when downloading a song. Through this technology people in any part of the world are able to listen to any music or tune by downloading it. rnrnOrganizational audit of iTunesrnAs indicated by Barney and Hesterly (2008: 5), iTunes in the most popular music site that supplies download music over the internet. Despite the fact that Apple Inc. has been known for a long period of time as being very innovative and using highly advanced technology, iTunes has not been so successful as a result of first mover advantage. The iTunes is nearly monopolizing the music industry in the whole world. In order to assess this aspect, it is of great importance to address its Five Forces analysis. rnApple Inc. has introduced iTunes Store which is an online digital media store that helps in marketing and selling iTunes. This has enabled individual songs to be sold at the same price without any subscription fee. This is in contrast to what was practiced by other online music stores that charged a subscription of certain amount for the access of their catalogue. Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) format is used in storing music in the store (Biersdorfer & Pogue (2006: 49). This is aided by advancement of technology in the music industry and the increased need for music. All songs with DRM are usually encoded at 128 kbt/s but in January 2009, Apple Inc. stated that the process of encoding songs would be revised and hence they would be encoded at a higher quality rate of 256 kbt/s and all music in iTunes will be available without DRM. Before this was introduced, iTunes Plus model was only available for music from EMI as well as some independent labels. In order to satisfy customers adequately, there are previews that are offered ninety seconds free so that a customer is able to discern whether to buy the song or not (Hollington 2010: 33). rnResulting from the wide scope of its products and services, Apple Inc. has expanded from the production of computers and software to digital entertainment industry. As indicated by Apple Inc. (2008), by the year 2005 Apple Inc. had around 300 million different songs and this number is still increasing enormously. The only challenge that the music industry is facing at the moment is the fact that a lot of money is lost to privacy. In this case therefore, as indicated by Barney and Hesterly (2008: 4), customers are not willing to pay higher prices for songs as they are able to access them cheaply through piracy.rnIn the pursuit of making sure that as many people as possible get information about iTunes, it has been the duty and responsibility of the Apple Inc. to advertise or promote it weekly. Some iTunes television programs have in the recent past began creating brand loyalty. This encourages customers to purchase and download music and hence increasing the profitability of the company (Biersdorfer & Pogue (2006: 49). The iTunes Stores offer a wide range of songs that are downloaded at no cost. In order to buy songs from these stores, an individual is required to install the property digital player iTunes. rnOn dairy basis, new songs are added to the iTunes catalog in order to make sure that there are all kinds of songs in the library. Downloaded songs are arranged in a certain order that helps in making sure that the user is in a position to easily locate them. According to Mohr et al (2009: 68), online downloads are gaining increased momentum in France despite the fact that music market is declining globally. In the year 2009, digital music documented a 46% increase in revenues and 44% increase in sales. This shows that music industry in France is growing at very high rate. In the past few decades, music market has been vibrant in the United States of America, but with the introduction of technology especially iTunes technology, France has participated heavily in this industry. Hsu (2007: 45) illustrates that, some 31.7 million song titles were downloaded through iTunes. This was an increase from what was recorded in the year 2008. rnThrough iTunes, Apple Inc. is getting a lot of profits especially from France bearing in mind that a lot of people download music and television episodes. As can be learned from Miller et al (2010: 45), the operating budget for iTunes has increased dramatically from the year 2009 to the present. In this respect, in the year 2009 operations were estimated to be $30 million but this amount has increased to around $75 million. It should be noted that iTunes is increasingly used in the whole world; most of the local music is collapsing. This is because people are going for international music that is readily available online. The advancing technological knowhow has increased tremendously the use of iTunes globally. rnITunes application helps in making sure that song and video files are arranged in a manner that is easy to access. It usually keeps track of songs by keeping and maintaining a virtual library and hence allowing users to access and edit a song

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