iTunes Hits 100 Million [Archive]

MacRumors

Jul 12, 2004, 12:31 AM

Apple reached their 100,000,000 iTunes sales mark tonight a bit before 1:30am.

Apple had launched a promotion (http://www.macrumors.com/pages/2004/07/20040701090452.shtml) giving away iPods every 100,000th song buyer between 95 million and 100 million, with the 100 millionth customer winning a 17" PowerBook, 40GB iPod and 10,000 iTune Song gift certificate.

No word yet on who the lucky winner is.

encrypt3d

Jul 12, 2004, 12:32 AM

take that napster/walmart etc.

JGowan

Jul 12, 2004, 12:32 AM

I've been "TELLING A FRIEND" all day... I was in the running for IPODS 300,000-900,000 and then telling a friend (itunes100@apple.com, x12) like a mad bastard from 99,950,000 till it turned over.

I know a lot of people probably are thinking that most of the last 5M songs were bought, but it was probably mostly the FREE way to enter.

All you needed to do was simply click “Music Store” (from iTunes 4.6) and click any album, song or whatever, and click the “Tell a Friend” button.

Instead of telling a friend, put in the email "itunes100@apple.com". Click send and you’re entered.

Of course, it also said to send email to additional addresses, just separate with a comma, so I had the address 12 times in my COPIED memory and just kept going back and forth. I probably was entered 5,000 times or more all day... and last night, too.

chewbaccapits

Jul 12, 2004, 12:33 AM

Man..I was just about to buy...iTMs is getting slammed with connections I bet! :) I'll tell you right now; I didn't win.

afields

Jul 12, 2004, 12:33 AM

Well, I bought 2 albums. I wonder how long it takes for them to notify the winner. :o

Mattski

Jul 12, 2004, 12:34 AM

Great. Maybe they will be cashed up enough to launch in Australia.

Facetious I know (as I'm sure they have the cash), but we're hanging out for it.

Jackal05

Jul 12, 2004, 12:34 AM

5 hours ago the countdown was still at under 99,000,000 then I went and played a game and checked again and it was already over.

imnoah

Jul 12, 2004, 12:35 AM

I've been watching the count for the past few hours and couldn't believe how fast the count moved once it passed the 99,970,000 mark. In the time it took me to download 3 songs, the count surpassed 100,012,000. Way to go Apple!

EDIT: The counter is still up! Any guesses as to how log it takes Apple to pull the plug? 100,040,483 at 12:39 CT

EDIT: I just realized that the ITMS peaked at 75 songs per second.

MattG

Jul 12, 2004, 12:36 AM

5 hours ago the countdown was still at under 99,000,000 then I went and played a game and checked again and it was already over.I was going to go to bed figuring nothing would happen until tomorrow morning...glad I didn't :)

Armsreach

Jul 12, 2004, 12:36 AM

I must say, this promotion was great. I've had a wishlist of songs built up that I kind of wanted to purchase ever since the functionality was built in, but hadn't purchased the songs yet. I am a music director at a radio station and get most of the music I want for free. However, I watched the website and went on a downloading frenzy downloading all the exclusive tracks I wanted right at the last minute. It was insane. The past two hours, about 1,000 songs a minute. Then about 25,000 songs in less than 5 minutes. Wow. Anyways, you got my money apple, and I got some cool itunes exclusive tracks. Anyone else purchase any songs at the last minute? What were they?

--Pixies - Bam Thwok
--Hey mercedes - Exclusive single
--Yeah yeah Yeahs - AOL Sessions
--Thrice/Thursday live at Apple Store
--Ben Folds - Speed Graphic and Sunny 16 EP's
--Get Up Kids - itunes session
--Pixies at BBC (not exclusive, but the only pixies release I don't have)

zac4mac

Jul 12, 2004, 12:38 AM

It just updated to 99,972,xxx and I started downloading Rush "Feedback" - it was over before the downloads finished. I wonder too...

Z

Mudbug

Jul 12, 2004, 12:39 AM

applekid

Jul 12, 2004, 12:40 AM

mainemike

Jul 12, 2004, 12:40 AM

No word yet on who the lucky winner is.

It ain't me.....I ain't no fortunate son.

Although I did stay up late to buy some last minute tracks. Hey, I still have some cool tuneskis, so what do I care?

Looking forward to the celebrity playlist by the winner.
I'll bet it sucks.
(Sorry..sour grapes seeping in there).

ITR 81

Jul 12, 2004, 12:42 AM

Looks like the counting funtion still works.

100,040,483..which happen in only last 15 mins.

G5orbust

Jul 12, 2004, 12:42 AM

I feel bad that I didnt contribute... stupid lack of a credit card...

JGowan

Jul 12, 2004, 12:42 AM

It ain't me.....I ain't no fortunate son.Is that a reference to Bruce Hornsby?

comictimes

Jul 12, 2004, 12:42 AM

I think they should keep up the iPod giveaway part of this - maybe a free one given away for each million mark download from this point on. Seems like almost free advertising for them, and would seriously spike downloads.

Or maybe just keep it at every 100,000. After all, they are earning a bit under $99,000 for each 100,000 songs, and will only lose $300 by giving away and ipod...

mainemike

Jul 12, 2004, 12:44 AM

Is that a reference to Bruce Hornsby?

Creedence Clearwater Revival, my boy.

Hey, if I did win the millionth download, it would have been by Duke Ellington. And if I didn't win? Who cares? The Duke rocks!

pickleman

Jul 12, 2004, 12:44 AM

although iits too late to give any tips. i did find that "telling a friend" on an imix presents a "tell another friend" after youve sent it.... which makes for a really fast sending spree.. i wonder why its only on the imixes.. maybee cause it was a newer feature and they havent bothered changing the reguralr tell a freinds.. or am i just dumb

juniormaj

Jul 12, 2004, 12:44 AM

Is that a reference to Bruce Hornsby?

John Fogerty, CCR

Freg3000

Jul 12, 2004, 12:45 AM

Here's to a great promotion, continued iTunes success, and Apple leaving http://phobos.apple.com/external_counter.js so we can still watch the numbers!

kylos

Jul 12, 2004, 12:46 AM

Best I can tell, the mark was passed about 1:22-24 GMT -4, based on the rates during the five minutes intervals before and after the winner, probably closer to 1:23 or 24. I told a friend (itunes100@apple.com) about an album at about 1:22 and bought it at about 1:23. Hopin' :)

JGowan

Jul 12, 2004, 12:48 AM

I ain't no fortunate son.
Is that a reference to Bruce Hornsby?
Creedence Clearwater Revival, my boy.

Hornsby's got a beautiful song by that name, too! ;)

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=236901&selectedItemId=236873

mainemike

Jul 12, 2004, 12:48 AM

John Fogerty, CCR

Keep on chooglin', JuniorMaj!

Say folks -

If you were the winner, and you had the opportunity to create a Celebrity Playlist on the iTunes store, what would you put together?

To be honest, I might feel a tad overwhelmed by the prospect.

rgury

Jul 12, 2004, 12:49 AM

anyone have a bar graph or log of how many songs have been downloaded since this started? i know a couple programs (macupdate) that logged the process.

Dr. Pookey

Jul 12, 2004, 12:49 AM

I just randomly downloaded the free single after it hit 99,99x,xxx. Do you think the winner should have an e-mail by now? I'm sure I didn't win, but there's always hope. :rolleyes:

ITR 81

Jul 12, 2004, 12:50 AM

Or maybe just keep it at every 100,000. After all, they are earning a bit under $99,000 for each 100,000 songs, and will only lose $300 by giving away and ipod...

Or they could give a 20GB iPod away everytime they hit every qtr million mark.
4 chances to win per 1 million songs DL.

I'm sure they could atleast afford that.

pickleman

Jul 12, 2004, 12:50 AM

hey, ryan simms has already thoght of that..hehe, read his and tons of comments at http://www.justwatchthesky.com

btw, free songs arent counted as entries.. read the fine print sorry

winmacguy

Jul 12, 2004, 12:50 AM

Go Apple! and I thought I was going to get first post

coolfactor

Jul 12, 2004, 12:50 AM

I feel bad that I didnt contribute... stupid lack of a credit card...

You can still contribute to this landmark achievement as iTMS blows the competition. Go buy a Gift Card. :)

mainemike

Jul 12, 2004, 12:51 AM

Hornsby's got a beautiful song by that name, too! ;)

Thanks for the tip. I like Bruce Hornsby.

Freg3000

Jul 12, 2004, 12:51 AM

Looks like Apple will tell us who won:

I was hoping they would.

coolfactor

Jul 12, 2004, 12:52 AM

anyone have a bar graph or log of how many songs have been downloaded since this started? i know a couple programs (macupdate) that logged the process.

http://www.itunesdaily.com/countdown/

jbembe

Jul 12, 2004, 12:54 AM

Sittin' here listenin' to my "Dr. Feelgood" download waiting for an email from apple. Sigh, who can sleep now?

MacFan782040

Jul 12, 2004, 12:55 AM

After all, they are earning a bit under $99,000 for each 100,000 songs

Apple does not make even close to 99 cents per song...

nagromme

Jul 12, 2004, 12:56 AM

Cool, the counters are still going beyond 100 mil :)

http://pages.infinit.net/voxel/itmspsychedeliccount.htm

ITR 81

Jul 12, 2004, 12:57 AM

http://www.itunesdaily.com/countdown/

Downloads in past 7 days: 3,640,307

Not bad...not bad at all.

eric_n_dfw

Jul 12, 2004, 12:58 AM

I know a lot of people probably are thinking that most of the last 5M songs were bought, but it was probably mostly the FREE way to enter.
No. Each tell a friend counted as an entry, but not they didn't increment the counter. Only downloaded songs incremented it.

AFAIK, to win the grand prize on the tell-a-friend deal, your entry had to come in after the 99,999,999'th song was downloaded but before the 100,000,000'th one was.

bloodline555

Jul 12, 2004, 12:58 AM

mariner77

Jul 12, 2004, 12:59 AM

5 hours ago the countdown was still at under 99,000,000 then I went and played a game and checked again and it was already over.

This is because you have 'refreshed' Apple's main page too many times. This happened to me around 1:10 AM, about 15 minutes before the 100 million song was bought. I cleared my Apple cookies and the counter then showed 99,989,xxx.

eric_n_dfw

Jul 12, 2004, 01:00 AM

I knew that the final 100,000,000 was going to be today. But I underestimated what time it would happen. I wanted to try and win, but I was with my girlfriend at the time... YES a geek with a girlfriend! Bask in my glory!

(Let the flame war begin)
:D
Girlfriend, eh. So what do you call you other hand? :D ;)

mariner77

Jul 12, 2004, 01:00 AM

I just randomly downloaded the free single after it hit 99,99x,xxx. Do you think the winner should have an e-mail by now? I'm sure I didn't win, but there's always hope. :rolleyes:

If you read the 'rules', the free single does NOT count.

Dahl

Jul 12, 2004, 01:01 AM

Wasn't that pretty darn fast?

mainemike

Jul 12, 2004, 01:02 AM

I've had a wishlist of songs built up that I kind of wanted to purchase ever since the functionality was built in, but hadn't purchased the songs yet.

--Hey mercedes - Exclusive single

Well, I'd never heard of Hey Mercedes, but I do remember a CD that a friend of mine once had called Blue Mercedes.
Anyone here who knows the late 80s remember this act?
Couple of Brits cranking out some terribly dated, horribly cheesy synth songs. Hmm.....sorry, that description covers a lot of acts from that era...
Thankfully, it is not available on iTMS (at least not the US store....yet).

Armsreach

Jul 12, 2004, 01:02 AM

Keep on chooglin', JuniorMaj!

Say folks -

If you were the winner, and you had the opportunity to create a Celebrity Playlist on the iTunes store, what would you put together?

To be honest, I might feel a tad overwhelmed by the prospect.

If I was extremely lucky enough to be a winner I would stock my playlist with independent artists from the Chicagoland area. I do a local music radio show here every week and have been extremely excited to see a lot of the bands I've become friends with through the show find their music on the store (and get sold on the store), so it would definitely be that.

rendezvouscp

Jul 12, 2004, 01:03 AM

Wasn't that pretty darn fast?

Actually, weren't the first projections to be two days ago on Saturday?
–Chase

eric_n_dfw

Jul 12, 2004, 01:04 AM

If I was extremely lucky enough to be a winner I would stock my playlist with independent artists from the Chicagoland area.I'd buy 10,000 copies of "We Are The World".
:eek:

golfstud

Jul 12, 2004, 01:05 AM

mainemike

Jul 12, 2004, 01:07 AM

If I was extremely lucky enough to be a winner I would stock my playlist with independent artists from the Chicagoland area. I do a local music radio show here every week and have been extremely excited to see a lot of the bands I've become friends with through the show find their music on the store (and get sold on the store), so it would definitely be that.

Excellent!
That would seem to be a very good use for a Celebrity Playlist.
Heck, Apple should tap more iPod/iTunes users more often with this sort of thing. Celebrities are fine but why not do a random "regular folk" feature?

mariner77

Jul 12, 2004, 01:08 AM

I knew that the final 100,000,000 was going to be today. But I underestimated what time it would happen. I wanted to try and win, but I was with my girlfriend at the time... YES a geek with a girlfriend! Bask in my glory!

(Let the flame war begin)
:D

My girlfriend was over too. :p But unlike yours, she was timely, left about half an hour before the 100 mil song was reached. Had plenty of time to prepare for the downloading craze.

ITR 81

Jul 12, 2004, 01:09 AM

Looks like we might hit 100,100,000 by the time the morning news grabs ahold of this in about 5 hrs EST.

Current 100,048,337

Trowaman

Jul 12, 2004, 01:10 AM

Well, I spent my first $1 on iTunes since Dec. (thank you Pepsi and free singles of the week)

My song was "Let Go' by Frou Frou (song is on the 1st trailer for Garden state)

And this has put me in the mood to spend 2 more dollars, Franz Ferdinand and Modest Mouse here I come!

*wastes money

mainemike

Jul 12, 2004, 01:11 AM

I was downloading several tracks at 10:22PST about ten of them downloaded and then I got this error message. I had to use the CHECK for PURCHASED MUSIC feature to get the rest at 10:29. I was downloading Cra ck Rear View by Hootie and Blowfish, got half the songs at 10:22.

HMMMMM....Please, please, please. I bet there were A LOT of ties and this goes to a drawing...how precise does the count go...hundreths of a second??

I got the same message once - not long after the promo began - and I'm sure others have as well.
I don't think it means anything more than "SYSTEM TEMPORARILY CHOKED" but I wish you all the best of luck nonetheless.

Pipian

Jul 12, 2004, 01:11 AM

Counter's gone

starboard

Jul 12, 2004, 01:11 AM

anyone have a bar graph or log of how many songs have been downloaded since this started? i know a couple programs (macupdate) that logged the process.

http://itunescounter.ruud.org/

eric_n_dfw

Jul 12, 2004, 01:11 AM

My girlfriend was over too. :p But unlike yours, she was timely, left about half an hour before the 100 mil song was reached. Had plenty of time to prepare for the downloading craze.
She's a keeper then!

My wife has learned to not even talk to me during such events. (Although I didn't even try for this one.)

Armsreach

Jul 12, 2004, 01:12 AM

I'd buy 10,000 copies of "We Are The World".
:eek:

Not what I would buy, my post was in reference to what I would put on my celelbrity playlist.

Buying, ugh, that's a whole 'nother story. Don't even want to fathom trying to figure it out. Maybe just an easy way to digitize a ton of my vinyl.

Trowaman

Jul 12, 2004, 01:13 AM

Looks like we might hit 100,100,000 by the time the morning news grabs ahold of this in about 5 hrs EST.

Current 100,048,337

With it just being early morning in Europe right now, i think we may be close to 101 million (100.5 prob)

well see though, should be fun.

Armsreach

Jul 12, 2004, 01:14 AM

Excellent!
That would seem to be a very good use for a Celebrity Playlist.
Heck, Apple should tap more iPod/iTunes users more often with this sort of thing. Celebrities are fine but why not do a random "regular folk" feature?

I thought that that was what iMix was for. The problem, there's a lot more "regular" people and a lot less celebrities, and for some reason, regular people prefer to look in the direction of celebrities and not so often in the opposite dirction.

heyriddle

Jul 12, 2004, 01:15 AM

She's a keeper then!

My wife has learned to not even talk to me during such events. (Although I didn't even try for this one.)

My wife was on her iBook while I was on my Powerbook.
We didn't win though...I couldn't open my Shopping Cart in time to purchase. I was trying for 10 minutes!
Right after 10:22PST it opened!!!!

Pipian

Jul 12, 2004, 01:15 AM

Counter's back

Armsreach

Jul 12, 2004, 01:16 AM

Counter's back

And its slowed back down to the pre surge average of about 3,000 per five minutes.

And on that note, the servers held up particularly well during the surge. I seriously just kept clicking download on about 50 or so songs as I'm sure many others did, and I didn't have any problems. Wonder why Apple doesn't advertise (not necesarily on TV or the radio, but spread the word) that the store is run on xServes.

Ugh tired.

FreeState

Jul 12, 2004, 01:17 AM

"Notification. Apple will notify winners by e-mail and/or by post at the address provided within approximately three (3) days following selection of each winner. Apple is not responsible for any delay or failure to receive notification for any reason, including inactive e-mail account(s), technical difficulties associated therewith, or winner’s failure to adequately monitor any e-mail account or physical address. The winner must then respond to Apple within five (5) days. Should the winner fail to respond to Apple or be disqualified, Apple reserves the right to select a new, replacement winne"

starboard

Jul 12, 2004, 01:19 AM

ITR 81

Jul 12, 2004, 01:20 AM

Counter's gone

Nope it's still going.
100,054,483 currently.

backspinner

Jul 12, 2004, 01:23 AM

Here's to a great promotion, continued iTunes success, and Apple leaving http://phobos.apple.com/external_counter.js so we can still watch the numbers!

yes, it still works at http://itunescount.tijdweb.nl

backspinner

Jul 12, 2004, 01:26 AM

anyone have a bar graph or log of how many songs have been downloaded since this started? i know a couple programs (macupdate) that logged the process.
it's not a bar, but take a look at http://itunescount.tijdweb.nl

James Craner

Jul 12, 2004, 01:27 AM

Apple have posted the main prize winner :

Kevin Britten of Hays Ellis, Kansas downloaded Somersault (Dangermouse remix) by Zero7

http://www.apple.com/itunes/100million/

ITR 81

Jul 12, 2004, 01:27 AM

yes, it still works at http://itunescount.tijdweb.nl

nice graph:

http://itunescount.tijdweb.nl/?action=plotcountday

ITR 81

Jul 12, 2004, 01:30 AM

Apple have posted the main prize winner :

Kevin Britten of Hays Ellis, Kansas downloaded Somersault (Dangermouse remix) by Zero7

http://www.apple.com/itunes/100million/

Thats one lucky dude. I hope he has broadband.

http://images.apple.com/itunes/100million/images/40gbipod-kevin071104.jpg

Thats one rare 40GB iPod.

autrefois

Jul 12, 2004, 01:33 AM

Apple have posted the main prize winner :

Kevin Britten of Hays Ellis, Kansas downloaded Somersault (Dangermouse remix) by Zero7

http://www.apple.com/itunes/100million/

Wow, that was quick!

They must have paid someone at Apple legal to work on a Sunday night just to be ready to verify everything was in order and get the announcement out quickly.

Congrats to Kevin Britten if he's reading this!

Turns out it was a 3-song EP, we don't know if he was downloading all three of the songs...But some of us (e.g. ME!) were downloading 99-track albums like this one (http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=7439941) in a vain attempt to win.

slughead

Jul 12, 2004, 01:33 AM

EDIT: The counter is still up! Any guesses as to how log it takes Apple to pull the plug? 100,040,483 at 12:39 CT

Well, since they probably just tied the counter into their normal system, I doubt it'll go down for the foreseeable future.

They have it write a .js file on the phobos server, probably takes like no processing power at all considering it's every 5 minutes.

There is no reason for them to take it down aside from it's a spoiler for when they say "500,000,000" tunes sold or whenever they have an arbitrary benchmark for sales

tech4all

Jul 12, 2004, 01:35 AM

Apple posted the winner's name and info including the name of the song on this link.

http://www.apple.com/itunes/100million/

Cool. CONGRATS to him! I wonder if he uses a Mac or PC....

Mudbug

Jul 12, 2004, 01:44 AM

for those with bad eyes - the engraving reads:
100,000,000
Congratulations Kevin!
Thanks for purchasing the 100 Millionth song from the iTunes Music Store. Together we're changing the world of music.
Your friends at Apple.

Skiniftz

Jul 12, 2004, 01:44 AM

Apple reached their 100,000,000 iTunes sales mark tonight a bit before 1:30am.
Great now maybe we can get back to product releases and, heaven forbid, perhaps actually deliver my DP2.5.

nagromme

Jul 12, 2004, 01:50 AM

Now WHEN will Apple start to hype that all this is running on Xserves with OS X Server?

Apple announced that way back when, but I never see it mentioned anywhere.

Trowaman

Jul 12, 2004, 01:51 AM

after analyzing Kevin's iPod, the back looks like all the others, no 4th gen iPods in my opinion. Guess we'll wait 2 months for the 60 GB models to ship.

CONGRATULATIONS KEVIN!!!!!

P.S. should you ever read this we'd like to know, PC or Mac?

nagromme

Jul 12, 2004, 02:02 AM

P.S. should you ever read this we'd like to know, PC or Mac?

Statistically... probably a PC user so far. But a Mac user now :) A free 17" PowerBook is the ultimate "switch" :)

Daveway

Jul 12, 2004, 02:06 AM

i think ill be sick. i wanted that thig soooo bad!

ITR 81

Jul 12, 2004, 02:18 AM

i think ill be sick. i wanted that thig soooo bad!

You and everybody else.
That whole package was probably around $15k totaled.

I just wonder if the 17inch PB is Maxed out with options.

Mr. G4

Jul 12, 2004, 02:28 AM

I was downloading several tracks at 10:22PST about ten of them downloaded and then I got this error message. I had to use the CHECK for PURCHASED MUSIC feature to get the rest at 10:29. I was downloading Cra ck Rear View by Hootie and Blowfish, got half the songs at 10:22.

HMMMMM....Please, please, please. I bet there were A LOT of ties and this goes to a drawing...how precise does the count go...hundreths of a second??

I hope you are correct...I started to buy an album when there were about 8000 to go to the 100,000,000. The next update of the counter it went over the 100 millions and I just check my iTune library it says Date added 7/11/2004 10:22 PM :D

coolfactor

Jul 12, 2004, 02:33 AM

Cool. CONGRATS to him! I wonder if he uses a Mac or PC....

Well, if was using a PC, he'll be a Mac user from now on. :D

madrobby

Jul 12, 2004, 02:33 AM

Wondering whats coming up next on the Apple homepage. Maybe some wrapped-up iMac teaser? :D

ITR 81

Jul 12, 2004, 02:38 AM

Wondering whats coming up next on the Apple homepage. Maybe some wrapped-up iMac teaser? :D

We can only hope, but I think they will juice this for atleast the rest of this week.

I figure we'll hear about the new 4th gen iPod before the iMac but I could be wrong.

winmacguy

Jul 12, 2004, 02:40 AM

Cool. CONGRATS to him! I wonder if he uses a Mac or PC....

Good bit of publicity for Apple if he is a PC owner and downloader.

iTunes 100,000,000 downloads for PC AND Mac !

sweetaction

Jul 12, 2004, 02:55 AM

Finally, Apple can announce the new iPods. I have been waiting way too long.

afields

Jul 12, 2004, 03:30 AM

That lucky bastard. :mad:

But seriously, I'm sorta happy for him. :o

MCCFR

Jul 12, 2004, 04:00 AM

Firstly, I want to know who the 8 people who rated this story negative are and why they voted that way.

Secondly, way to go.

Thirdly, I hope Kevin was a PC user - I want a convert from this, not just an Apple customer with a new box.

matthew24

Jul 12, 2004, 04:18 AM

I hope the winner is a PC user, so he can dump his PC!

BornAgainMac

Jul 12, 2004, 04:39 AM

Cool. CONGRATS to him! I wonder if he uses a Mac or PC....

If he has a PC, now he has both. One switcher, 250 million more to go.

michael666

Jul 12, 2004, 04:47 AM

I bet the winner only bought one song. ;)

And he didn't even know of the competition :D

Savage Henry

Jul 12, 2004, 04:57 AM

Why didn't anyone wake me.!!

Anyway, congrats to the winner. But I am curious so see the post-promotion weekly downloads figures as to whether any new downloaders that joined the fun have kept the habit.

backspinner

Jul 12, 2004, 05:09 AM

But I am curious so see the post-promotion weekly downloads figures
Well, on http://itunescount.tijdweb.nl the download rate already is falling to an all time low...

irmongoose

Jul 12, 2004, 05:18 AM

<Snip!>
Guess it was a little too mean...

irmongoose

eddyg

Jul 12, 2004, 05:25 AM

Kevin Britten
<Address removed>

Someone go to his house and steal his stuff. :o

irmongoose

You idiot, what did you have to go and do that for. Yes it's possible, but that doesn't mean you have to go and post that information for everyone to see.

Cheers, Edward.

irmongoose

Jul 12, 2004, 05:28 AM

It's already available on the net for everyone to see. If I were him I would be very scared.

But I guess it was a little too mean... so, off it goes.

irmongoose

Windowlicker

Jul 12, 2004, 05:53 AM

guess we'll see later if we have any winners here at macrumors :) we gotta have ... we're the potential market.

VL-Tone

Jul 12, 2004, 05:58 AM

CrackedButter

Jul 12, 2004, 05:59 AM

The counter is still up, at time of writing it was 100,082,872 songs.

Trekkie

Jul 12, 2004, 06:15 AM

FYI - It is Hays, KS. Ellis is the county.

I was born there. Haven't lived there since though :)

ThomasJefferson

Jul 12, 2004, 06:26 AM

I am so glad its over. Now maybe ... a planned leak about some new hardware? Something with an "i" in it. A picture/specs accidential sort-of hint??

howard

Jul 12, 2004, 06:35 AM

i got screwed!

i was downloading a few songs off and album and the server started chugging away. I pretty soon it started downloading the 4th song i clicked twice and skipping the 3rd song!! Now i have two copies of it and no 3rd song! there was an error in the middle of there somewhere.

i tried checking for purchased music ...no luck!

Savage Henry

Jul 12, 2004, 06:40 AM

Well, on http://itunescount.tijdweb.nl the download rate already is falling to an all time low...

Yoiks ... This one may come back to bite Apple in the a$$. :eek:

I'm gonna give this a couple of weeks and see what transpires.

howard

Jul 12, 2004, 07:03 AM

Yoiks ... This one may come back to bite Apple in the a$$. :eek:

I'm gonna give this a couple of weeks and see what transpires.

it seems to be going back to how they were before the promotion. I'm sure there will be a lull anyway, besides, the last few hours are usually the low point anyway for downloads.

Wardofsky

Jul 12, 2004, 07:09 AM

Go Apple! 100 million is soo cool.
I wonder if there was a single song that never got downloaded.

howard

Jul 12, 2004, 07:20 AM

did we ever figure out why these ipods are going to be "special"?

i hope its something more than its engraved with the number you downloaded or something like that

i may have spoke to soon

http://www.apple.com/itunes/100million/

look at the back of the ipod in the picture

macridah

Jul 12, 2004, 07:41 AM

100,000,000 baby. oh yeah, definitely a milestone. There must of been a surge in downloads, because I, like others, started buying songs at 99,995,000 and it hit 100,000,000 before my song finished downloaded.

That prize was sweet. Engraved 40 GB ipod, 17" PB, but what I would of wanted is the 10,000 iTunes gift certificate.

jouster

Jul 12, 2004, 07:42 AM

bar italia

Jul 12, 2004, 07:44 AM

choogheem

Jul 12, 2004, 08:09 AM

dvdh

Jul 12, 2004, 08:34 AM

As a collector's item that 100.000.000 ipod should be worth a nice premium over the 'normal' ones even though the only difference is the engraving. If I had won it (not that I was trying . . . no store in Canada) I think I would be having second thoughts about actually using it. Might just be tempted to buy a 'normal' one for the everyday use and keep the other one as a none-finger printed covered, unscratched, and undropped trophy.

If the winner is out there in the forums (by any chance) congratulations, you now own a (rather significant) piece of apple history.

cr2sh

Jul 12, 2004, 08:35 AM

The counter is still up, at time of writing it was 100,082,872 songs.

Well, its down now.. I didn't participate in the contest to any great extent.. Nothing more than my usual buying...
Hope you guys had fun, just don't stop buying music!

FriarTuck

Jul 12, 2004, 08:54 AM

Well, I suppose it's a good thing I didn't win. I didn't know there was a danger they would reveal my dark musical secrets to the world.

rendezvouscp

Jul 12, 2004, 09:11 AM

bryanzak

Jul 12, 2004, 09:20 AM

I know a lot of people probably are thinking that most of the last 5M songs were bought, but it was probably mostly the FREE way to enter.
Sorry, the tell-a-friend "free" entries were not free purchases and did not count towards the 100 million songs.

They were free entries into the contest, that's all, nothing more. That's not the same thing as inflating the count of sold songs. I don't understand why people keep thinking this. Odd.

CrackedButter

Jul 12, 2004, 09:24 AM

Well, its down now.. I didn't participate in the contest to any great extent.. Nothing more than my usual buying...
Hope you guys had fun, just don't stop buying music!

Is it? My counter is still counting, they have had over another 110,000 songs sold since the million mark. I'm seeing no slowdown either in the rate the songs are being bought.

MikeTheC

Jul 12, 2004, 09:25 AM

That prize was sweet. Engraved 40 GB ipod, 17" PB, but what I would of wanted is the 10,000 iTunes gift certificate.

I'd given some thought to that, and -- not to shoot you down -- but I don't know what I'd do with 10,000 songs. I probably don't have more than 100 that I could say I know and like, and probably not more than 1,000 or so that I'm even familiar with.

I would have had to inquire as to whether I can pass off some of the songs to other people. I certainly would never want a 10,000 song library.

But, then again, I was never that much into music anyhow.

Congrats to the winner, though. It would have been cool to win a 17" PB.

Trekkie

Jul 12, 2004, 09:30 AM

I only bought Velvet Underground's album, so 8? songs or so.

Really I didn't have anything I wanted to buy. I'm usually pretty on top of the new music Tuesdays most of the time.

Though my kids got my wife a $50 cert for her birthday so she has a lot to buy soon.

AstroPlain

Jul 12, 2004, 09:35 AM

I thought the graphs on my site were worth saving:

http://www.itunesdaily.com/countdown/graphs.html

--

mainemike

Jul 12, 2004, 09:52 AM

I thought that that was what iMix was for. The problem, there's a lot more "regular" people and a lot less celebrities, and for some reason, regular people prefer to look in the direction of celebrities and not so often in the opposite dirction.

Yes indeed - iMixes are playlists "for the rest of us". Your point is well taken.

Would be cool if there were more iTMS promos/contests/sweepstakes every so often as this one was wildly successful and it does generate a lot of interest.

Applespider

Jul 12, 2004, 10:10 AM

Yes indeed - iMixes are playlists "for the rest of us". Your point is well taken.

But it would be fun to have a 'normal person' iMix of the day/week picked out by the iTMS staff because of interesting music or an interesting reason - like the local Chicago bands that you play etc. And might encourage people to make more unusual iMixes

sinisterdesign

Jul 12, 2004, 10:16 AM

Have you checked this out?

http://news.com.com/iPod+undermines+Microsoft+on+copy-locked+CDs/2100-1027_3-5263842.html?tag=nefd.lede

This would be an excellent way to quash any Micro***** inroads into music.

good to hear. i've still got a bad taste in my mouth about copy-protected CDs after a CD that i purchased fragged not one, but TWO hard drives (home computer & work computer). i couldn't start up, Norton & Disk Warrior didn't even see the hard drive, nothing. i took them to a Mac repair shop swearing that both computers died right after trying to play the same CD, but the tech guy thought i was nuts. it wasn't until months later that i read that Universal had installed copy protection software on certain CDs and that software wasn't "Mac-compatible".

yeah, that "copy protection" for a disc i purchased for myself cost me $100 to get one hard drive repaired and lost the other one. i ended up losing email, contacts, Quicken data, etc. so, SunnComm & Macrovision can go ƒ#&$% themselves w/ their CP software, i'm buying from iTMS...

rendezvouscp

Jul 12, 2004, 10:22 AM

good to hear. i've still got a bad taste in my mouth about copy-protected CDs after a CD that i purchased fragged not one, but TWO hard drives (home computer & work computer). i couldn't start up, Norton & Disk Warrior didn't even see the hard drive, nothing. i took them to a Mac repair shop swearing that both computers died right after trying to play the same CD, but the tech guy thought i was nuts. it wasn't until months later that i read that Universal had installed copy protection software on certain CDs and that software wasn't "Mac-compatible".

yeah, that "copy protection" for a disc i purchased for myself cost me $100 to get one hard drive repaired and lost the other one. i ended up losing email, contacts, Quicken data, etc. so, SunnComm & Macrovision can go ƒ#&$% themselves w/ their CP software, i'm buying from iTMS...

Wow, that's horrible. I would go nuts if something like that happened to my Mac. What CD's were they?
–Chase

JohnGalt

Jul 12, 2004, 10:26 AM

I bet the winner only bought one song. ;)

I on the other hand bought 50 songs. The RHCP Greatest Hit's Album for myself, 3 Bond CD for my sister, plus 5 other songs for her. If I win, I'll owe her an iPod.

LOL. Undoubtedly. Probably a Windows users to boot, who has no interest in a powerbook........(yes, they're out there!)

jbembe

Jul 12, 2004, 10:28 AM

Have you checked this out?

http://news.com.com/iPod+undermines+Microsoft+on+copy-locked+CDs/2100-1027_3-5263842.html?tag=nefd.lede

This would be an excellent way to quash any Micro***** inroads into music.

I wonder what the bit rate of the pre-encoded DRMed songs are. And Apple should definitely license their Fairplay, if only for this purpose! I won't be purchasing any album with DRM if I can figure it out before I come across it!

jbembe

Jul 12, 2004, 10:34 AM

good to hear. i've still got a bad taste in my mouth about copy-protected CDs after a CD that i purchased fragged not one, but TWO hard drives (home computer & work computer). i couldn't start up, Norton & Disk Warrior didn't even see the hard drive, nothing. i took them to a Mac repair shop swearing that both computers died right after trying to play the same CD, but the tech guy thought i was nuts. it wasn't until months later that i read that Universal had installed copy protection software on certain CDs and that software wasn't "Mac-compatible".

yeah, that "copy protection" for a disc i purchased for myself cost me $100 to get one hard drive repaired and lost the other one. i ended up losing email, contacts, Quicken data, etc. so, SunnComm & Macrovision can go ƒ#&$% themselves w/ their CP software, i'm buying from iTMS...

If I were you I would enter a small claims court suit against them!!!
That's major B.S. :mad:

g4cubed

Jul 12, 2004, 10:41 AM

good to hear. i've still got a bad taste in my mouth about copy-protected CDs after a CD that i purchased fragged not one, but TWO hard drives (home computer & work computer). i couldn't start up, Norton & Disk Warrior didn't even see the hard drive, nothing. i took them to a Mac repair shop swearing that both computers died right after trying to play the same CD, but the tech guy thought i was nuts. it wasn't until months later that i read that Universal had installed copy protection software on certain CDs and that software wasn't "Mac-compatible".

yeah, that "copy protection" for a disc i purchased for myself cost me $100 to get one hard drive repaired and lost the other one. i ended up losing email, contacts, Quicken data, etc. so, SunnComm & Macrovision can go ƒ#&$% themselves w/ their CP software, i'm buying from iTMS...

That's sucks dude, you should see if you can get a class action lawsuit going. I'm sure others have had such an experience as you. Maybe recover some cash for the repair cost, pain/suffering, something...
they can afford it :D

Mr_Ed

Jul 12, 2004, 10:41 AM

I wonder what the bit rate of the pre-encoded DRMed songs are. And Apple should definitely license their Fairplay, if only for this purpose! I won't be purchasing any album with DRM if I can figure it out before I come across it!

That's a good question. I'm one of those who does not really deal in "pirated" music so when I buy a CD, I do so expecting the best possible sound quality. I don't want some "cut down" version of the music on a CD.

Borg3of5

Jul 12, 2004, 10:46 AM

Mr_Ed

Jul 12, 2004, 10:52 AM

I'm starting to get worried. I would have thought for sure, that Apple would use the 100,000,000th song promo as a springboard for introducing a 4G iPod. What is going on? I'm starting to get depressed; the new iMac won't be out until September with current iteration running out way before its introduction. The Dual 2.5 G5 won't ship until later this month, same as with the new displays.

Time to get more Prozac.

Yeah, it takes a special breed to go into innovation withdrawals like that :D I see you are from Orlando (I am too) so let me ask you: Weren't you just a tad disappointed with the size and layout of the Apple Store at Millenia? I sure was. I realize the Millenia Mall is probably expensive retail space for this area but damn! The store is tiny.

obeygiant

Jul 12, 2004, 11:01 AM

This copy protection stuff is going a little too far. Soon they'll make us RENT the music and pay a penny everytime we play it.

wdlove

Jul 12, 2004, 11:24 AM

Congratulations to Apple on the 100 millionth legal download. Tomorrow is Tuesday, so maybe Apple will have an announcement for us then.

coolfactor

Jul 12, 2004, 11:25 AM

This copy protection stuff is going a little too far. Soon they'll make us RENT the music and pay a penny everytime we play it.

Are you being sarcastic? I thinking somebody is doing that already. Or was that Bill Gates' solution to spam? A penny per email.

sinisterdesign

Jul 12, 2004, 11:29 AM

Wow, that's horrible. I would go nuts if something like that happened to my Mac. What CD's were they?
–Chase

my corrupt disc was the "O'Brother Where Art Thou" soundtrack put out by Universal Music. it had no warning on it that it wasn't compatible w/ a Mac (not that you would have ever seen it if it did). i went home to play it on my computer & i had barely put the disc in when i got a kernal panic. i restarted and got the wonderful "?" disc icon. i spent the next couple hours trying to revive/find my hard drive to no avail. SO, when i went to work the next day, i thought, "y'know, i never DID get to listen to my new CD, let's pop that in...CRAP!!!"

at the time (a couple years ago), the Mac technician thought it was a coincidence (riiiight, 2 hard drives in 12 hours crap out right after i play the same CD). i searched high & low on the internet trying to find info. now it's more widely known that some of the junk they're throwing on CDs now is, at best annyoing and at worst malicious. here are a couple sites:

http://ukcdr.org/issues/cd/bad/
http://www.fatchucks.com/corruptcds/

just as an ironic "screw you" to Universal, i went and downloaded all the tracks i wanted to listen to on my computer off Limewire. i could have saved myself a lot of money and a LOT of hassle if i had done that to begin with...thanks for negative reinforcement, UMG.

from news.com: Universal Music Group has said it hopes most of its releases will be protected against copying by mid-2002. Other record labels have been more circumspect, saying only that they are continuing to test the technologies.

rendezvouscp

Jul 12, 2004, 11:45 AM

I'm starting to get worried. I would have thought for sure, that Apple would use the 100,000,000th song promo as a springboard for introducing a 4G iPod. What is going on? I'm starting to get depressed; the new iMac won't be out until September with current iteration running out way before its introduction. The Dual 2.5 G5 won't ship until later this month, same as with the new displays.

Time to get more Prozac.

It's gonna be ok. Breathe in a few times, look at a field of sunflowers, whatever you need. 4th Gen iPods aren't coming until probably October, coinciding with the one year anniversary of Windows iTMS.
–Chase

nagromme

Jul 12, 2004, 11:52 AM

I would have thought for sure, that Apple would use the 100,000,000th song promo as a springboard for introducing a 4G iPod.

I'm anxious to see the 4G too--I want an iPod, and would choose a Mini now, but I want to know my options!

Current student promos ($200 off 15GB+ iPods when you buy a laptop) run through September--the rumored timeframe for new iPods. Nothing would surprise me though... maybe Apple will release iPods sooner to distract from the iMac delay :)

nagromme

Jul 12, 2004, 12:19 PM

I will now predict the CNET headline:

iTunes misses key music milestone by months... does Apple have any way to survive?

rendezvouscp

Jul 12, 2004, 12:22 PM

I will now predict the CNET headline:

iTunes misses key music milestone by months... does Apple have any way to survive?

Lol, I actually thought that they came out with that article, but I hadn't read the predict.
–Chase

Daveway

Jul 12, 2004, 12:24 PM

i just got the lowdown on this kevin guy. I think hes a kid that live with his parents based on this info:

http://phone.people.yahoo.com/py/psPhoneSearch.py?srch=bas&D=1&FirstName=&LastName=britten&City=&State=KS&Phone=&Search=Yahoo%21+Search

i did a yahoo people search

!!im still jealous!!!

rDLr

Jul 12, 2004, 12:35 PM

Can this coincidence be any bigger?

The winning song was by Zero 7. Check out this promotion with Jaguar and the limited edition black iPod. They have a chance to win tickets to.......Zero 7!

http://www.macnn.com/news/25413 :confused:

psgibbs

Jul 12, 2004, 12:35 PM

I wonder if the $200 iPod discount can be combined with a student developer purchase... If so - that would be fantastic.

Anonymous Freak

Jul 12, 2004, 12:43 PM

I know a lot of people probably are thinking that most of the last 5M songs were bought, but it was probably mostly the FREE way to enter.

If you read the long form rules, 'tell a friend' doesn't increment the counter. Only purchases do that. The rules stated that a winner would be the person who "bought a song, *OR* used 'tell a friend' as soon as the counter has reached a multiple of 100,000 minus one. (So it was possible that they had someone 'tell a friend' immediately after song 99,999,999, to win, THEN have the actual 100,000,000th song sold, and not be a winner.)

But it does say that the counter only went up for songs sold.

rendezvouscp

Jul 12, 2004, 12:49 PM

I wonder if the $200 iPod discount can be combined with a student developer purchase... If so - that would be fantastic.

I believe so.
–Chase

corywoolf

Jul 12, 2004, 12:56 PM

Why is it the Apple stock has gone down hill so much after reaching such a milestone. Apple does have the large amount due to delayed imacs, but they really have seen their peak, at least I think so. They were at their peak in June. I hate to be pesimistik, but will they recover to the point they were at before this time next year? I tend to think not. I own 25 shares and it was a real mistake by not selling after it reached that high. Well, if anyone knows anything about the expectations, please tell me, and should i sell soon?

Thank you

"Apple's to oranges, does not apply to Apple's to pc's"
-Mark Levantos
:confused:

autrefois

Jul 12, 2004, 01:24 PM

According to this report (http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=569&u=/nm/20040712/tc_nm/tech_apple_itunes_dc&printer=1) from Yahoo/Reuters, Kevin Britten got a call from Steve Jobs himself congratulating him.

I wasn't too far off: I said in another thread that the lucky 100 millionth downloader should hear Steve's voice say "BOOM! You are our 100 millionth download!!" Maybe Mr. Britten actually did hear that—from Steve himself! :)

Trekkie

Jul 12, 2004, 01:54 PM

my corrupt disc was the "O'Brother Where Art Thou" soundtrack put out by Universal Music. it had no warning on it that it wasn't compatible w/ a Mac (not that you would have ever seen it if it did). i went home to play it on my computer & i had barely put the disc in when i got a kernal panic. i restarted and got the wonderful "?" disc icon. i spent the next couple hours trying to revive/find my hard drive to no avail. SO, when i went to work the next day, i thought, "y'know, i never DID get to listen to my new CD, let's pop that in...CRAP!!!"

Now that is really weird. When did you buy it? When it came out or later? I bought it when I saw the DVD and loved the music. It ripped with iTunes on my iMac FP 800Mhz just fine a few weeks ago.

sockeatingdryer

Jul 12, 2004, 01:56 PM

The counter's gone. Even off the Apple server.

Thanks, guys, for all the counter apps!

Trekkie

Jul 12, 2004, 01:56 PM

Why is it the Apple stock has gone down hill so much after reaching such a milestone.

The whole market is sliding down right at the moment. All vendors are affected industry wide. It'll be up to IBM and Apple and others that are announcing that should at least stop the downward spiral everyone seems to be in at the moment. I think the chip vendors started it with less than stellar earnings.

rendezvouscp

Jul 12, 2004, 01:57 PM

madrobby

Jul 12, 2004, 02:02 PM

Did you notice addition to the tradional "end-of-press-release-about-the-company-line"?

Now it's "Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning desktop and notebook computers, OS X operating system, and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital music revolution with its iPod portable music players and iTunes online music store.".

This started with the press release entitled "Apple iPod mini International Availability Set for July 24" and was not included with the previous "iTunes Music Store Begins Countdown to 100 Million Songs" release.

Talk about shift in strategy... :rolleyes:

madrobby

Jul 12, 2004, 02:03 PM

That's so cool. His own call from Steve. I wonder what they said?
–Chase

"You'll start to cry about your new PowerBook, because next tuesday we will..." :D

juniormaj

Jul 12, 2004, 02:16 PM

Now that is really weird. When did you buy it? When it came out or later? I bought it when I saw the DVD and loved the music. It ripped with iTunes on my iMac FP 800Mhz just fine a few weeks ago.

I've never had any Mac related trouble with my copy of it either.
I bought mine in Japan in 2002, though.
I'm guessing my copy of this CD differs from the one that sinisterdesign bought.
It's an "Enhanced CD" with specs for Mac and PC, though the Mac specs are for System 7.5 and later. When I mount the CD in OSX it only gives me a folder full of PC .exe and .ini files on the 2nd session. The first session still works as a normal audio CD in the Finder and iTunes.

There is a standard disclaimer in the packaging relating to the "Enhanced CD" content claiming no fault for "direct, indirect, or consequential damages arising out of the use or inability to use this CD."

Of course, this is on the inside of the booklet and is in extremely small type.

sinisterdesign

Jul 12, 2004, 02:17 PM

Now that is really weird. When did you buy it? When it came out or later? I bought it when I saw the DVD and loved the music. It ripped with iTunes on my iMac FP 800Mhz just fine a few weeks ago.

it's been a couple years. yeah, i'm not sure i've even seen that soundtrack listed on the 'corrupt' lists, but i have NO doubt that that's what trashed my systems. it was as fast as: 1)insert disc 2)spin up 3)watch computer have heart attack 4)poop bricks

the only thing i could figure out was that specific kernal panic was a bad combination of shoddy protection software & an early version of OSX. i was probably on 10.1 by then, but i've been running OSX since the developer release, so i don't remember exactly which version it was. nevertheless, it was the first crash i wasn't able to recover from. i'm not a total techie, but i can hold my own. but this trashed my hard drive, even the Mac tech shop wasn't able to recover all the data. what a mess. all i wanted to do was listen to music i had purchased! grrr...

great movie & soundtrack, though! :)

sinisterdesign

Jul 12, 2004, 02:22 PM

There is a standard disclaimer ...

Of course, this is on the inside of the booklet and is in extremely small type.

exactly! which you normally read WHILE you're listening to the music.

i honestly haven't been brave enough to play that disc in any computer since then to test my "theory". hmmmmmmm, i just upgraded from a G4 to a G5 here at work. i think this is an EXCELLENT test platform! it's the exact machine i used at the dot.com i was at at the time and has both OS9 & OSX installed.

i'll try replicating the experiment tomorrow & let you guys know what happens! ;)

slughead

Jul 12, 2004, 02:45 PM

The list is up
http://www.apple.com/itunes/100million/

counter is down

mac-er

Jul 12, 2004, 02:46 PM

On http://www.apple.com/itunes/100million/, the list of winners is up. It lists the times the person purchased the song.

Interestingly, it lists the 100 millionth song being bought at "2004-07-12 20:22" (which would be *later* today-Monday the 12th-at 8:22pm)

Now, it doesn't say what time zone this time is [Eastern, Central (where the Winner is), or Pacific (where Apple is)].

But no matter the time zone, the time of 8:22pm does not fall into line with when the counter said the 100 millionth song was sold (which was about 1:30 AM EDT on Monday the 12th).

Am I crazy?

:confused:

Hlau

Jul 12, 2004, 02:49 PM

any reason why the vast majority of the winners are guys?

mac-er

Jul 12, 2004, 02:51 PM

any reason why the vast majority of the winners are guys?

I would assume it is because the iTunes music store is a particulary new technology service, and the majority of "techies" are men.

The service is not exactly "mainstream" yet, and you have to know a little bit about computers to use it (i.e. my grandma isn't downloading music off the internet).

mac-er

Jul 12, 2004, 02:52 PM

any reason why the vast majority of the winners are guys?

Did you notice all the winners are in the U.S., too?

backspinner

Jul 12, 2004, 02:54 PM

it had to happen: counter is down, also the one on http://itunescount.tijdweb.nl :(

Whyren

Jul 12, 2004, 03:05 PM

:confused:

Wait a minute...Apple's rules stated that Free Singles of the Week are ineligible as entries...so how did someone win an iPod with the song that is the current Single of the Week?!

mac-er

Jul 12, 2004, 03:09 PM

:confused:

Wait a minute...Apple's rules stated that Free Singles of the Week are ineligible as entries...so how did someone win an iPod with the song that is the current Single of the Week?!

When do they put up the Single of the Week? Maybe it wasn't the single of the week of July 7th, when that person won.

Whyren

Jul 12, 2004, 03:13 PM

When do they put up the Single of the Week? Maybe it wasn't the single of the week of July 7th, when that person won.

Interestingly enough, the free Single of the Week WAS delayed a day that week, released on Wednesday instead of Tuesday (possibly because of the Independence Day Weekend)...so there's a small chance that the winner could've downloaded that song before it became the Free Single. What would the odds be of that! The only other possibility I see is that the winner may have bought that entire album and that song just happened to be the 97,700,000th song...either way, the coincidence is staggering...

Edit: and yes, "Combat Baby" by Metric was the Free Single for that week, becoming thus on July 7th.

DrK

Jul 12, 2004, 03:18 PM

Did you notice all the winners are in the U.S., too?

There are only 23 winners listed. The others will probably be listed on www.apple.com/uk , de and fr.

Also, have you checked the time of the winning downloads against the counter log at http://ym.muda.org/kurt/apple/hist.php ?

[ I was bored ... so I checked a few and they seem ok - Pacific Time]

mrmacmanuk

Jul 12, 2004, 03:25 PM

madrobby

Jul 12, 2004, 03:28 PM

Well done to the guys who won all the iPods ect in thr itunes comp. However there is not a single non american in the list of winners. hardly a good ad for the itunes stores in europe.

cheers

mrmacmanuk

like it was said previously there are gaps in the list, probably because of european winners, which will - presumably - be added later.

Santiago

Jul 12, 2004, 03:29 PM

I know a lot of people probably are thinking that most of the last 5M songs were bought, but it was probably mostly the FREE way to enter.

According to the contest rules, free entries don't actually increase the counter. When the counter is one away from a winning entry, the next person to buy a song or send in a free email wins, but it says nothing about the free emails counting as total songs purchased at any other time.

Whyren

Jul 12, 2004, 03:29 PM

The only other possibility I see is that the winner may have bought that entire album and that song just happened to be the 97,700,000th song...either way, the coincidence is staggering...

Looking closer at the list, that couldn't be either, since winners that downloaded entire albums have the album listed instead of the individual song (such as Three Dog Night: The Complete Hit Singles). Hmm...

autrefois

Jul 12, 2004, 03:40 PM

Looking closer at the list, that couldn't be either, since winners that downloaded entire albums have the album listed instead of the individual song (such as Three Dog Night: The Complete Hit Singles). Hmm...

We have yet to determine what time zone these times and dates correspond to (the 100 million winner's listed time obviously isn't any US time zone), but the free single appeared a day later than normal, as previously noted. And if I recall did not appear until pm, not the morning like it usually is, so a lot of unknowns right now.

<>
EDIT: added a little for clarity's sake

Whyren

Jul 12, 2004, 03:48 PM

We have yet to determine what time zone these times and dates correspond to, but the free single appeared a day later and if I recall did not appear until pm, not the morning.

Both true, which is why I'm not overly concerned. It's just an interesting coincidence.

shamino

Jul 12, 2004, 03:51 PM

They must have paid someone at Apple legal to work on a Sunday night just to be ready to verify everything was in order and get the announcement out quickly.
Not necessarily. It could easily have been an automated script - everything on the page is available to a script with access to the ITMS purchase/customer database.

Not much validation is necessary - the server probably tracks and counts purchases as a part of its normal audit trail. All the script has to do is wait for a confirmed purchase with invoice no. 100,000,000 to appear, which would be a short time after the charge goes through.

shamino

Jul 12, 2004, 03:53 PM

after analyzing Kevin's iPod, the back looks like all the others, no 4th gen iPods in my opinion.
Since the prize was supposed to be a 40G iPod, I wouldn't expect it to be a new model.

ITR 81

Jul 12, 2004, 03:57 PM

like it was said previously there are gaps in the list, probably because of european winners, which will - presumably - be added later.

Yeah it's around 10-11pm in most European countries now. So it probably won't get updated until the following morning.

jessefoxperry

Jul 12, 2004, 03:59 PM

autrefois

Jul 12, 2004, 04:01 PM

Not necessarily. It could easily have been an automated script - everything on the page is available to a script with access to the ITMS purchase/customer database.

Not much validation is necessary - the server probably tracks and counts purchases as a part of its normal audit trail. All the script has to do is wait for a confirmed purchase with invoice no. 100,000,000 to appear, which would be a short time after the charge goes through.

I agree it's technically possible. But they very quickly posted the winner's name and hometown on the website, posted the personalized iPod image, etc. I would think before publicizing anything, they'd need someone (if not a lawyer, someone high up) to give the go ahead.

Since Steve Jobs called the winner, I wonder if he was notified and when he called Britten—maybe last night even?

shamino

Jul 12, 2004, 04:04 PM

One guy named Kevin Britten posted an advice about 68k Macs in one newsgroup this year. Then again, 2 years earlier another Kevin Britten (or the same?) posted a question about Xp...

Maybe he's one of the few "reverse-switcher" that went from a 68k to a Wintel PC. I guess he'll switch back now! :)
Or someone like me who uses (and has always used) a bit of everything. Apple ][+, ][e, //c, and IIgs. Mac Plus, SE, IIci, Centris, Quadra, G3, G4. Lots of PC's based on 8088, 286, 386, 486, Pentium, PentiumPro, P-II, P-III and Athlon-64. Assorted workstations and mainframes from IBM, Sun, HP, SGI, MIPS, DG and DEC. TRS-80 model III and CoCo. Commodore-64/128, Atari 400/800/1200, TI 99/4a.

(No, I do not own all of the above. Some belonged to friends/family some belonged to my college, and some belonged to various employers. My personal collection currently consists of a Mac SE, Quadra 840av, Dual 1GHz QuickSilver G4, 486 PC, Pentium Pro PC, Athlon-64 PC, Apple //c and IIgs.)

madrobby

Jul 12, 2004, 04:32 PM

Yeah it's around 10-11pm in most European countries now. So it probably won't get updated until the following morning.

it's the old world, and things are a bit slower over here. (Did i mention when the Music Store openend over here? Wait - not in all of Europe yet? Damn...) :)

JGowan

Jul 12, 2004, 04:32 PM

They were free entries into the contest, that's all, nothing more. That's not the same thing as inflating the count of sold songs. I don't understand why people keep thinking this. Odd.I guess because we're just clueless idiots. Thanks for hipping us to our ODDNESS.

JGowan

Jul 12, 2004, 04:37 PM

my corrupt disc was the "O'Brother Where Art Thou" soundtrack put out by Universal Music. it had no warning on it that it wasn't compatible w/ a MacThat's strange. I own that CD and have it ripped to my HD... never had any problems.

Adurbe

Jul 12, 2004, 05:30 PM

i think its odd that no eupoeans won anything...

jenniff

Jul 12, 2004, 05:34 PM

i think its odd that no eupoeans won anything...

Well, if you count the winners, it does not add up to fifty. Thus, not all of the winners are listed yet. Perhaps one (or more) European did win, and has not replied to his email yet.

Links

Jul 12, 2004, 05:39 PM

i think its odd that no eupoeans won anything...
Could it be that those are only winners at the US ITMS (and therefore American) and the winners in Germany, France, and the UK will be listed soon on their respective ITMS?
Only the Grand Prize winner is listed on the French site
with a notice that the other winners will be announced soon.

applemacdude

Jul 12, 2004, 05:42 PM

Congrats to:

Chris Thomas
Oakland, CA

yay oakland

jenniff

Jul 12, 2004, 05:45 PM

What!!

Check out winner for song #97,700,000

They downloaded "Combat Baby" by Metric — A FREE SONG!

Interestingly enough, the free Single of the Week WAS delayed a day that week, released on Wednesday instead of Tuesday (possibly because of the Independence Day Weekend)...so there's a small chance that the winner could've downloaded that song before it became the Free Single. What would the odds be of that! The only other possibility I see is that the winner may have bought that entire album and that song just happened to be the 97,700,000th song...either way, the coincidence is staggering...

Edit: and yes, "Combat Baby" by Metric was the Free Single for that week, becoming thus on July 7th.

That's so uncool. I'm entirely embittered.

Perhaps some of the unlisted winners were "Tell A Friend" emails. In that case, I'm even more embittered. I'm just a bitter, bitter person. I gone done spent ten bucks when these people get stuff for free. Blah on them.

There are only 23 winners listed. The others will probably be listed on www.apple.com/uk , de and fr.

I'd be writhing in my seat if I were in the UK. Their winners still haven't been posted!

autrefois

Jul 12, 2004, 05:48 PM

For discussions about whether there are European winners and whether the free song was free when it was downloaded, please read the rest of the thread.

Armsreach

Jul 12, 2004, 06:20 PM

comparing www.apple.com/itunes/100million and http://ym.muda.org/kurt/apple/hist.php (which is in eastern time) - shows that the data on apple's page is 3 hours earlier, which makes it california time. not surprising. but the only thing wrong is, how could the 100 millionth song be bought at 20:22 which is 11:22 PM EDT?? (it's 4:57 PM EDT right now). also, according to apple's page, the Metric song was dl'ed 8:23 PM EDT and i remember downloading the free single in the afternoon. strange.

oh well.

Have any of you considered that he or she (haven't looked at the list yet) bought the song even if it was the free single? Or possibly that it was a tell a friend entry?

mojohanna

Jul 12, 2004, 06:27 PM

Just a thought here, (and I did not read the rules too closely), but in most contests and give aways, the winner is responsible for paying taxes on the value of the prize and or winnings. I realize that he just won a PB and IP, but the value of the 10k songs is the kicker. Assuming my tax rate, he owes someone $950.

Actually, I did read the rules:
Taxes. All taxes associated with the receipt or use of the prizes are the sole responsibility of each winner. Apple reserves the right to withhold any taxes as required by applicable law. All prizes will be awarded (other than prizes withheld for tax purposes as required by applicable law) and are not transferable. No substitutions (including for cash) are permitted, but Apple reserves the right to substitute a prize of equal or greater monetary value to the prizes if for any reason any prize cannot be awarded as contemplated in these rules.

He better get out his check book!!

Armsreach

Jul 12, 2004, 06:29 PM

mojohanna

Jul 12, 2004, 06:31 PM

I don't know about you, but I have yet to pay any tax on any purchased music, nor did I have to pay tax on any music credits I had.

If you buy individual songs, you dont pay sales tax. If you purchase more than one song you pay sales tax.

AirUncleP

Jul 12, 2004, 06:35 PM

Make a playlist out of the winners winning download and you have one seriously bad playlist.

Yes. I am jealous.

lmasanti

Jul 12, 2004, 06:35 PM

iTMS began on April 28th, 2003.
It reaches its first 100th millions downloads in July 11th, 2004.

If you use Excel to calculate the difference in days it will give 440.

I am not a musician but this is the frecuency of one fundamental note, expressed in Hz. I think it is Fa or F (help, please!).

The tuned iTunes' 100th millons!

Armsreach

Jul 12, 2004, 06:35 PM

If you buy individual songs, you dont pay sales tax. If you purchase more than one song you pay sales tax.

I'm not sure where you are, but in the US, nope. I purchased a combination of complete albums AND single songs and there was NO tax on the reciept.

mojohanna

Jul 12, 2004, 06:41 PM

Links

Jul 12, 2004, 06:44 PM

[...
If you use Excel to calculate the difference in days it will give 440.

I am not a musician but this is the frecuency of one fundamental note, expressed in Hz. I think it is Fa or F (help, please!)....]
That's the "A" (440 Hz) above middle C on a piano.

jenniff

Jul 12, 2004, 06:45 PM

I stand corrected. I went back and looked at some of my old receipts. No sales tax. Sorry about that, I could have sworn that I had paid sales tax. How long b4 the govt comes a calling on that one. hmm 6% tax on 99,000,000. Thats a lot of cash.

How often do you pay tax on anything you buy online? I know when I buy Lancôme makeup online, it's always tax free. When I buy music at cdbaby.com and other places, it's tax free. If there isn't a store or HQ in the state you are in, isn't it tax-free when you buy it online?

mojohanna

Jul 12, 2004, 06:57 PM

just recently paid sales tax on a cam corder purchased on line at dell. They are in Tx, and Im in OH. The shipped from PA, so even the dist. center was not in state for me.(don't anyone shoot me, but they had the best price going). Who knows. I've also been charged tax on things purchased from MacMall etc.

ITR 81

Jul 12, 2004, 06:58 PM

How often do you pay tax on anything you buy online? I know when I buy Lancôme makeup, it's always tax free. When I buy music at cdbaby.com and other places, it's tax free. If there isn't a store or HQ in the state you are in, isn't it tax-free when you buy it online?

Same way here.

musicpyrite

Jul 12, 2004, 07:04 PM

DAMN IT!!!

I download the free song of the week over 200 times last night.

And I still didn't win!

:p

lmasanti

Jul 12, 2004, 07:05 PM

That's the "A" (440 Hz) above middle C on a piano.

Thanks. It´s "La" in Europe/Latinoamericana's used notation.

MarcelV

Jul 12, 2004, 07:26 PM

I stand corrected. I went back and looked at some of my old receipts. No sales tax. Sorry about that, I could have sworn that I had paid sales tax. How long b4 the govt comes a calling on that one. hmm 6% tax on 99,000,000. Thats a lot of cash.

I am sooo jealous. I am in KY and pay the 6% sales tax on the iTMS downloads. Apple must have a distribution center here. That can be the only explanation. I doubt they are headquartered here. Cupertino, KY; yes that's it! :)

But I am paying this for a week or two. Wonder why....

AoWolf

Jul 12, 2004, 08:00 PM

Yeah, it takes a special breed to go into innovation withdrawals like that :D I see you are from Orlando (I am too) so let me ask you: Weren't you just a tad disappointed with the size and layout of the Apple Store at Millenia? I sure was. I realize the Millenia Mall is probably expensive retail space for this area but damn! The store is tiny.

I live in daytona but the funny thing is that the people at millennia know me when I come in. It may be small but the people their are great...

morkintosh

Jul 12, 2004, 08:24 PM

She's a keeper then!

My wife has learned to not even talk to me during such events. (Although I didn't even try for this one.)

I have to feel very very bad for your poor wife ...

shadowband

Jul 12, 2004, 08:30 PM

Originally Posted by mojohanna
Actually, I did read the rules:
Taxes. All taxes associated with the receipt or use of the prizes are the sole responsibility of each winner. Apple reserves the right to withhold any taxes as required by applicable law. All prizes will be awarded (other than prizes withheld for tax purposes as required by applicable law) and are not transferable. No substitutions (including for cash) are permitted, but Apple reserves the right to substitute a prize of equal or greater monetary value to the prizes if for any reason any prize cannot be awarded as contemplated in these rules.

He better get out his check book!!
Originally Posted by Armsreach
I don't know about you, but I have yet to pay any tax on any purchased music, nor did I have to pay tax on any music credits I had.
Mojohanna is referring to income tax, not sales tax. Good thing the winner is just a college student - he'll probably get most of the tax withholdings back after he files his 2004 tax return.

thirteen1031

Jul 12, 2004, 09:40 PM

HA! Look at that! #98,200,000! Disneyland Children's Sing-Along Chorus! I KNEW it! In an early post of mine I predicted that a song by D.C.S.A.C. would be a winner just because that would be too awful--and I wasn't far wrong.

It was "John-Jacob-Jinglehimer-Schmid" rather than "Swanee River" as I feared it might be, but there you go. :p

CyberB0b

Jul 12, 2004, 10:06 PM

Well I hope nobody relied on my countdown calculations. I guess too many people purchased near the winning times.

My alert level final results:

http://ym.muda.org/itunes/

Also notice at 95,800,000 apple proved their own counter wasn't precise.

shenanigans?

jenniff

Jul 12, 2004, 10:12 PM

Also notice at 95,800,000 apple proved their own counter wasn't precise.

shenanigans?

I don't get it. How did they prove their own counter wasn't precise?

CyberB0b

Jul 12, 2004, 10:21 PM

I don't get it. How did they prove their own counter wasn't precise?

because apple.com showed this number:

Jul. 3 19:10:00 EDT 95,799,366

yet the winners page shows this:

2004-07-03 16:09 (PDT) 95,800,000

And since 7:10 is after 7:09 this means either they un-sold a bunch of songs in-between the two readings or the counter was a little behind.

nagromme

Jul 12, 2004, 11:02 PM

That just means that Apple.com's counter was delayed rather than up-to-the second tracking at the moment of each sale (which the iTunes Store itself does know, for the contest). No surprise there. (Or even with no delay in the process at all, Apple.com would still have been up to 5 minutes old info just because it only changed every 5.)

Jackal05

Jul 12, 2004, 11:53 PM

I feel bad that I didnt contribute... stupid lack of a credit card...
I wished they had alternative methods of payment like sending them a check and being credited for it ot allowing the use of PayPal because not all of us have a credit card and others don't really wanna have one.

jenniff

Jul 12, 2004, 11:58 PM

I wished they had alternative methods of payment like sending them a check and being credited for it ot allowing the use of PayPal because not all of us have a credit card and others don't really wanna have one.

Go to Target and buy a Prepaid card, it's $15. You scratch off the silvery stuff on the back, and type the code into the iTunes "Redeem" section. Shazam, you have yourself $15 credit on the iTunes Music Store.

Oh, but I suppose that wouldn't do you any good if you need a credit card to open an account in the first place. But, I don't think you do. I don't recall, it's been such a long time since I registered.

Wardofsky

Jul 13, 2004, 12:02 AM

Well, Australia's still iTMS deprived :(
But it's good anyways.

The plan is to have a credit card holder in the US/Europe and then just pay them over PayPal or something.

dontmatter

Jul 13, 2004, 01:47 AM

nice graph:

http://itunescount.tijdweb.nl/?action=plotcountday

To all those suggesting keeping this up very regularly.... see that drop right before the rise? That's why apple doesn't want to keep doing this. It doesn't increase sales, but lumps them togeather. In fact, they could lower sales if it was regular, b/c people would go, hmm, do I want to buy this, or do I want to wait and take a stab at an ipod? And then they would forget or miss it or pick up the phone instead of looking online, and go, OK, I'll wait on this. And waiting, here, actually means non-sales, because it's a lot harder to justify spending some ammount in one chunk than it is in manageable bits. This only increased sales because people used it to justify buying things now that they were going to wait on or not buy. And even then, the only reason it's worth apple's time is because it got publicity and new users.

So, next 100 mill mark? Maybe. Every 100,000? No.

Hey an odd note-I just got magnetic fields, "I thought you were my boyfriend" EP (3 songs on it) for $.49... weird. Each song on it is listed as 99 cents, too. If your interested, get it before it's fixed...

rdowns

Jul 13, 2004, 03:30 AM

I wished they had alternative methods of payment like sending them a check and being credited for it ot allowing the use of PayPal because not all of us have a credit card and others don't really wanna have one.

How can one live without a credit card in this day? Checks are so 90s. I write one per month, to the paper boy. If you have a checking account, get a debit card. The benefits of a credit card linked to your checking account.

aptmunich

Jul 13, 2004, 05:11 AM

caveman_uk

Jul 13, 2004, 06:41 AM

Because every time you use your credit card, you pay the company for the convenience...

So i can either enter my bank details to pay for a book on amazon.de and pay 7,99 for it. OR I enter a credit card number and pay 7,99 + a percentage for my cc company.

I think both varients have their uses, but credit cards aren't so gret either.
In the UK it is common practice for the retailer to absorb the cost of the customer using a credit card so you pay the same amount regardless of how you pay. The main exceptions to the rule I can think of right know are budget airlines - especially Ryanair who charge you £4 for a credit card or £2 for a debit card on-line ticket sale. How the hell else are you going to pay? It's just a con.

martijnvandijk

Jul 13, 2004, 07:56 AM

there's not a single woman in the list. What should this tell us...? :confused:

PDubNYC

Jul 13, 2004, 10:15 AM

there's not a single woman in the list. What should this tell us...? :confused:

that you didn't read where this was brought up eariler in the thread?

martijnvandijk

Jul 13, 2004, 10:21 AM

that you didn't read where this was brought up eariler in the thread?

guess not... sorry :rolleyes:

shamino

Jul 13, 2004, 11:04 AM

How often do you pay tax on anything you buy online? I know when I buy Lancôme makeup online, it's always tax free. When I buy music at cdbaby.com and other places, it's tax free. If there isn't a store or HQ in the state you are in, isn't it tax-free when you buy it online?
It's not tax free. A merchant isn't required to collect sales tax if he doesn't have an incorporated point of presence in your state. But the tax is still owed. You are expected, by law, to pay that sales tax on your own (typically via a form included with your state income tax.)

I realize that most people do not pay this tax (either because they don't realize they should or because they choose not to) and prosecutions for non-payment are extremely rare (due to the difficulty of gathering proof and the relatively small amounts typically involved) but this doesn't change the fact that the tax is still owed.

3-22

Jul 13, 2004, 11:06 AM

Go to Target and buy a Prepaid card, it's $15. You scratch off the silvery stuff on the back, and type the code into the iTunes "Redeem" section. Shazam, you have yourself $15 credit on the iTunes Music Store.

Oh, but I suppose that wouldn't do you any good if you need a credit card to open an account in the first place. But, I don't think you do. I don't recall, it's been such a long time since I registered.

Perhaps a person could use one of those pre-paid Visa/Mastercards. It's like a regular Visa/MC but has a balance on it, when it's depleted you get a new one. They are usually targetted for students in college, parents sending them money type of thing.

But really, how can people live without a credit card these days. Even just a debit/credit card type....

jenniff

Jul 13, 2004, 05:03 PM

But really, how can people live without a credit card these days. Even just a debit/credit card type....
I know plenty of people who don't have a card. I couldn't get one for the longest time. I still can't get one, I have a card with my name on it that is a joint account with someone else.

People I know who do not have credit cards have a lot of cash on hand. Or, they write checks if they expect to make a large purchase. They don't spend nearly as much money as me, solely because of the fact that they don't have a credit card. Take the iTMS, for instance. They wouldn't buy anything from there. They'd go buy the actual CD. Me, I'll go buy a few songs, and then later go buy the actual CD. Sad, but true.

Credit cards are just a convenience, not a necessity. Just like laptops, wireless internet, TiVo, and cell phones.

mojohanna

Jul 13, 2004, 06:03 PM

"How can one live without a credit card in this day? Checks are so 90s. I write one per month, to the paper boy. If you have a checking account, get a debit card. The benefits of a credit card linked to your checking account.
Today 08:47 AM "

Actually many europeans also make do without credit cards and simply use direct money transfers instead. Sure it's more hassle, so why do we do it?

Because every time you use your credit card, you pay the company for the convenience...

So i can either enter my bank details to pay for a book on amazon.de and pay 7,99 for it. OR I enter a credit card number and pay 7,99 + a percentage for my cc company.

I think both varients have their uses, but credit cards aren't so gret either.

Banks are getting you guys over there. Here the VENDOR pays a merchant fee to process the credit card. I would assume that in 99.9% of the cases, the vendor has bumped their margins a tad to offset this, but the consumer does not see an addtional charge just for using the credit card.
Then again, american consumers probably carry the highest debt load in the world due to the ease of use.

groovebuster

Jul 14, 2004, 02:08 AM

there's not a single woman in the list. What should this tell us...? :confused:

I find it even more strange that not one european is in the list of winners. The iTMS is up since a while now. But only american winners. But the "contest" was also advertised on the european Apple websites. I find that very odd. Considering that the european iTMS makes at least 10% of the iTunes sales, statistically at least ONE person should have been from outside the US...

Looks like as if the european iTMS users were just used for the marketing hype...

groovebuster

Links

Jul 14, 2004, 02:29 AM

I find it even more strange that not one european is in the list of winners. ...]
If you go to each of the European ITMS sites, they say
that the list of winners will be available shortly...
but they've said that for a least two days now.
Can't guess what the problem is.

CyberB0b

Jul 14, 2004, 12:06 PM

comparing www.apple.com/itunes/100million and http://ym.muda.org/kurt/apple/hist.php (which is in eastern time) - shows that the data on apple's page is 3 hours earlier, which makes it california time. not surprising. but the only thing wrong is, how could the 100 millionth song be bought at 20:22 which is 11:22 PM EDT?? (it's 4:57 PM EDT right now). also, according to apple's page, the Metric song was dl'ed 8:23 PM EDT and i remember downloading the free single in the afternoon. strange.

oh well.

The big winner is listed as 22:21 PDT (Did they change it?) which is 1:21 AM EDT, matching the trackers.

Also, anyone else notice the "FREE SONG OF THE WEEK" winner at 97,700,000 has been removed from the winners list?!?! Sucks to be him.

mac-er

Jul 18, 2004, 08:14 PM

That's so cool. His own call from Steve. I wonder what they said?
–Chase

From Newsweek:

At around 10:15, 20-year-old Kevin Britten of Hays, Kans., bought a song by the electronica band Zero 7, and Jobs himself got on the phone to tell him that he'd won. Then Jobs asked a potentially embarrassing question: "Do you have a Mac or PC?"

"I have a Macintosh... duh!" said Britten.