Apple iTunes Launch Event; 600 Million iTunes

[MacRumors]

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ZDNet.com.au reports (http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/software/soa/Apple_Our_biggest_competitor_is_P2P/0,2000061733,39218809,00.htm) on iTunes vice-president Eddy Cue's speech at the iTunes Austrlia launch.

According to Cue, the Australian iTunes launch was one of the biggest international launches, and focuses heavily <on local and independent labels.

According to Cue, it was important that the Australian iTunes music store was built for and by Australians because the domestic music industry is so strong.

Cue acknowledged that Sony BMG was not a part of the iTunes Australia launch, as previous rumored. Also reported is that Apple has sold over 600 million songs worldwide.

[iGary]

Rock!

The 1 billion prize better be sweet!

[puckhead193]

watch the prize will be something stupid like a nano or a $15 gift certificate, but dam that's alot of songs

[stoid]

Doctor Q, where are you?!?

Let's see some pretty graphs, with some awesome number-crinched predictions for the 1 billion mark! :D

[Fabio_gsilva]

Very cool...

I wonder if maybe, just maybe, someday we will see a ITMS Brazil...

Well, maybe it's beter not have one... they could open it at Buenos Aires and sell only samba and this kind of garbage...:D

[ipacmm]

wow, thats a lot of music sold...I wonder what the prize is going to be for 1B mark.

[GroundLoop]

I hope that the 1 billion song prize will be a PowerMac Quad + 30" ACD + 60GB iPod + Unlimited Free iTunes. I am not going to buy any more iTunes until the 1 billion point rolls around. Just keep adding to the cart, then I will download them all at once. Might give me better odds, but chances are still very slim.

Hickman

[Lacero]

Burgers vs. iTunes Songs, which do you think sells more per second?

[devilot]

Doctor Q, where are you?!?

Let's see some pretty graphs, with some awesome number-crinched predictions for the 1 billion mark! :DIsn't he in Japan (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=148076&highlight=japan), now? :p

[devilot]

Burgers vs. iTunes Songs, which do you think sells more per second?BURGERS!

[wdlove]

Isn't he in Japan (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=148076&highlight=japan), now? :p

Hopefully Doctor Q is having an awesome and enjoyable time.

[samh004]

I thought he said nearly 600 million songs at the launch, not over 600 million...

But it's good news anyway. I wonder how many days it'll take us Australians to rack up a million downloads. I haven't seen any advertisements for the store, although the Eminem iTunes ad seems to be on ever ad break now (but that doesn't point you to the store really...)

And I tried to buy a pre-paid card at a Target today, when they said that they'd be launching in 2500 locations at the same time today, but nothing was there :(

[nagromme]

I remember when they were wonering when they'd hit a million :o

Wasn't Apple's stated goal at first 1 million songs in half a year?

[czardmitri]

http://www.macrumors.com/images/macrumorsthreadlogo.gif (http://www.macrumors.com)

iTunes Austrlia

Austrlia ?
Have Austria and Australia joined forces as the combined Austrlia?

[devilot]

Austrlia ?
Have Austria and Australia joined forces as the combined Austrlia?Good catch. I feel silly for not noticing. :o

[sushi]

Doctor Q, where are you?!?
Q & Q'ette [are] having fun in Japan! :D

Sushi

[VIIGemina]

Also reported is that Apple has sold over 600 million songs worldwide.

Eddy Cue is just restating what has already been said. Jobs at the iPod nano event Sept 7th said they had 10 million iTMS accounts that on average had downloaded 60 songs. That was your 600 million songs announcement.

The trend shows Apple should hit 700 million this week and 1 billion songs in early Feb 2006.

They may not announce another milestone till 3/4 billion.

[Hattig]

Aww, poor widdle Sony BMG having a tantrum are we?

Fact is, people looking to buy music by browsing via iTunes are just not going to see your entire catalogue of music in Australia. They aren't thinking 'Oh, I really want that Sony BMG artist's song'. They'll find something else and buy it, or maybe they won't buy anything, but that's an impulse sale gone.

Of course, maybe Sony will simply sell via its own Australian web store. I'm sure they sell their music in AAC or MP3 format ... oh, no, probably ATRAC3 or WMA - so yet again they'll be losing out on the iPod market.

Of course we all know that Sony wants in on the iPod gravy train, but what have they done to deserve that? They get a boat-load of money per track sold online vs. retail anyway - that's their reward. Greedy.

[sushi]

Aww, poor widdle Sony BMG having a tantrum are we? ... Greedy.
I like Sony. They make some great products.

Having said that, I think that they are terrible for the market with their proprietary items such as Memory Sticks, ATAC (Mini Disc), etc.

It is about time that Sony wake up and discover that it is much better to support industry standards than create their own proprietary type. You would think that the would learn after the Betamax lesson. VHS was so much cheaper and easer to license so the market shifted quickly to that camp. Same holds true today.

...another company that was the same comes to mind. Apple. Thank God SJ was fired, went away and learned some things and came back with a vengence! The new Apple is so much better than the Apple of the 90s. Even Apple Japan has come around quite a bit compared to what it was before. They still have a ways to go, but have made significant progress.

Sushi

[illw!l]

Eddy Cue is just restating what has already been said. Jobs at the iPod nano event Sept 7th said they had 10 million iTMS accounts that on average had downloaded 60 songs. That was your 600 million songs announcement.

The trend shows Apple should hit 700 million this week and 1 billion songs in early Feb 2006.

They may not announce another milestone till 3/4 billion.

Thanks for posting this info; it kept me from going back see just where the "600 million" was announced.

Unlike birthdays, you want to keep celebrating new itunes milestones, not celebrate a previous milestone.

[samh004]

I remember when they were wonering when they'd hit a million :o

Wasn't Apple's stated goal at first 1 million songs in half a year?

If it was, they certainly eclipsed that goal quickly.

Hopefully it wont take that long for the iTMS AUS to sell that many songs... :p

[Will_reed]

What About New Zealand?!!? I Don't Live In Australia

[NicP]

I like Sony. They make some great products.

Having said that, I think that they are terrible for the market with their proprietary items such as Memory Sticks, ATAC (Mini Disc), etc.

It is about time that Sony wake up and discover that it is much better to support industry standards than create their own proprietary type. You would think that the would learn after the Betamax lesson. VHS was so much cheaper and easer to license so the market shifted quickly to that camp. Same holds true today.

...another company that was the same comes to mind. Apple. Thank God SJ was fired, went away and learned some things and came back with a vengence! The new Apple is so much better than the Apple of the 90s. Even Apple Japan has come around quite a bit compared to what it was before. They still have a ways to go, but have made significant progress.

Sushi

I hate sony, the used to make good products, now all their products seam to suck. They used to make great dj headphones now they suck, their car audio is complete and utter crap, and their general consumer goods like dvd players seem to be going down the drain.

All their proprietory formats suck, they are saying how great blu-ray is when the consumer is going to get completly screwed over with all the copy protection DRM type crap they are stacking on.

Sure some of the things they have come up with have been great but overall i think the negatives outweigh the positives!

[Renegate]

I hate sony, the used to make good products, now all their products seam to suck. They used to make great dj headphones now they suck, their car audio is complete and utter crap, and their general consumer goods like dvd players seem to be going down the drain.

All their proprietory formats suck, they are saying how great blu-ray is when the consumer is going to get completly screwed over with all the copy protection DRM type crap they are stacking on.

Sure some of the things they have come up with have been great but overall i think the negatives outweigh the positives!
Agree, in the old times Sony was a reference for a lot of things and i bought Sony products without even checking test reports; i do now!

[sushi]

All their proprietory formats suck
Didn't I say that in my original post? :D

Sony is not the only one to do this either. Sure glad to see Apple is becoming more standard.

Sushi