Apple launches its Music for Business product on a dotbrand top-level domain

By Tony Kirsch – Head of Professional Services, Neustar

The launch of Apple’s business product in the music industry has certainly made a big splash globally. Not the least bit due to the fact that along with Spotify, Apple has seemingly captured a huge market share when it comes to holistic music streaming services. For businesses, this means easy access to a limitless amount of music for a far more affordable price than traditional distribution models. The fact that Apple has used their own dotbrand top-level domain (applemusicforbusiness.apple) to launch Music for Business has got me really excited. 

But when it comes to the domain itself when looking at the new website, having the brand in the left hand part of the domain name as well as after the dot seems a little strange to the eye.

As we continue down this road of global .brand usage, this is something that seems to be appearing from time to time as rational domain branding bumps up against historical brand guidelines. When you consider many products are associated with the brand leading the product name – think BMW X5 – it’s easy to understand that some may be struggling with the nomenclature.

Nonetheless, we see this is a brilliant website for a number of reasons.

Firstly, Apple continues to lead the way with web design best practice and the user is allowed to seamlessly scroll through panels of information that are both easy on the eye and also highly informative. The use of adaptive menu bar items also allows the user to navigate with ease and we love the prominent call to action button of ‘Let’s Talk’ on each section of the site. 

Secondly, it’s just so masterfully laid out and takes you through the journey of what the product is and outlines a range of not so obvious benefits for business owners that can be gleaned by using Apple’s streaming service in your business.

As domain lovers, we were initially a little concerned to see the brand appear twice in a domain, however on reflection Apple have done a great job to minimize this impact and yet remain true to the brand guidelines – guidelines that have served Apple very well for decades which products like Apple TV etc.

Taking a little care to help users with any potential confusion by adding an additional sub-logo to the menu just shows us that Apple continues to lead the way when it comes to taking care of the little things that matter most.

GoDaddy acquired Neustar's registry business as of August 3, 2020.