Apple has issued a two-word statement responding to a report in Digital Music News that it’s preparing to “completely terminate” its music downloads business.
“Not true,” according to Apple spokesperson Tom Neumayr. It’s an unusual (but not unknown) slapdown of a story that has been making waves over the company’s long-term plans.
Neumayr said nothing more on the record, but given that he spoke to Recode, his line of argument is surely accurately paraphrased in its story: “If he did want to say more, I imagine that he would argue that lots of people continue to buy downloads — and even physical discs,” wrote journalist Peter Kafka.
“Case in point: Drake’s new album ‘Views,’ which sold a million copies in its first week — which happened to be the week it was available exclusively on Apple Music and at Apple’s iTunes store.”
Digital Music News has yet to respond, but its original story claimed that Apple was considering “an aggressive, two-year termination timetable”, while also mulling less-aggressive plans to “ride the [iTunes music download offering] out for the next 3-4 years, maybe longer”.
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