When it comes to the music industry, I used to hire Tower Records to deliver my music. To disrupt the purchase of my afternoon Coke, a product would has to be fundamentally advantaged in one of the two areas I value for that product caffeine and time away from my desk. I am happy to pay for the Coke because it completes the job I hire a mid-day beverage to complete. But because the job is to break up the afternoon, I value both the caffeine in the product and the distance I walk to pick up the product. I could substitute a free cup of coffee from my own office, which would provide my much-needed caffeine at no cost. To get the Coke, I walk from my building to a store next door and pay $1.25. For example, every day I hire a Coke to be a wake-me-up mid-afternoon break in my workday. Jobs-to-be-done suggests that in order to predict how to develop, compare, and position our products, we should be driven by a fundamental understanding of what that product is hired to do. To appreciate the truth of this claim, it’s vital to understand one of Clayton Christensen’s theories on marketing and product development: Jobs-to-be-done. But innovation theory can provide a crystal ball theory could have predicted iTunes’ success and it’s currently predicting Spotify’s success. Apple set the stage to decimate Tower Records and Sam Goody before either had a clue their industry was about to revolt. And it could even be thought of as fitting iTunes accomplished the exact same thing during its early-2000s attack on the bricks-and-mortar retail music industry. Though you might not even be aware of the competitor that is attacking the music titan of the past decade, that iTunes business model is about to be blown up completely and swiftly.

It is walking, talking, and continuing to pretend it’s alive, but Spotify, Europe’s outrageously successful streaming music product, has just shown us the future. For another look at the Spotify launch, see “ Why I’m Not Going Near Spotify (and Why You Shouldn’t Either).”

Spotify or itunes which is better