Apple Draws Visitors with iTunes

[MacRumors]

Neilson/NetRatings released statistics on Monday about a surge in traffic at Apple..com in the week ending on October 19th.

This increase in traffic of 112% to more than one million unique visitors reflects interest and downloads of Apple's iTunes for Windows application.

Indeed, iTunes use appears to be on the rise, as both students at Stanford University and Columbia University seem to be taking advantage of Apple's jukebox offering. However, some behavior may be difficult to change.

Some Stanford students are primarily taking advantage of iTunes' ability to share music on local networks. One student admits:

"Once you get the program, you can access the MP3 music library of anyone on the local network (so it’s almost as good as downloading, but you don’t fill up your hard drive) and, oh yeah, it’s not illegal. Woohoo."

 

[pyrotoaster]

It's great that people are downloading iTunes and - more importantly - liking it.

As for the semi-legal sharing, I don't care if they do it, but I wish they'd just shut the hell up about it. The last thing we need is an iTunes 4.1.2 with no network sharing whatsoever.

 

[loneAzdgari]

I wonder whether this is just Mac users or actually curious PC people. Why doesn't Apple release figures showing what platform these visitors are on?

 

[shadowfax]

well, you can only access the library of users who share their libraries. it's not really much different from internet streaming radio--you can't download them, you can't access them when the other guy's server is down, and you can't put them on your iPod.

 

[pyrotoaster]

Originally posted by loneAzdgari
I wonder whether this is just Mac users or actually curious PC people.

It's PC people downloading iTunes. Apple's already reported over a million downloads of iTunes for Windows.

 

[JohnGillilan]

The sharing feature is definitely utilized by college students. On average, there are 100 shared libraries available at any given time on our network. (This number increased drastically after the Windows version was released).

 

[eyelikeart]

eh...again...it's the "Cat & Mouse" game...

there's always going to be a loophole someone will find...

 

[pyrotoaster]

Originally posted by shadowfax
well, you can only access the library of users who share their libraries. it's not really much different from internet streaming radio--you can't download them, you can't access them when the other guy's server is down, and you can't put them on your iPod.

True, but you can always use a little app like WireTap to record the song.

 

[Steven1621]

very incouarging information, especially in light of the new competition apple is facing in this field

 

[xtekdiver]

Bring it!

 

[Oats]

less purchases?

so this probably means these campuses will not be purchasing much music?

 

[arn]

well, you know... people don't stay in college forever.

When they leave college, they'll still be using iTunes. 😉

arn

 

[srobert]

Maybe while stopping at Apple to download iTunes, PC users will have a look at those sexy computers displayed here and there on the site.

 

[pyrotoaster]

Originally posted by arn
well, you know... people don't stay in college forever.

When they leave college, they'll still be using iTunes. 😉

arn

Lol. 😀
Well said, arn.

 

[hockeythug]

Originally posted by shadowfax
well, you can only access the library of users who share their libraries. it's not really much different from internet streaming radio--you can't download them, you can't access them when the other guy's server is down, and you can't put them on your iPod.

Yes, but unlike internet radio, you can choose exactly what songs you want to listen to. It's also useful for me, for example, if I go to the media lab to work, I have access to all my music from the G4 there.

 

[Rocketman]

Re: Apple Draws Visitors with iTunes

Some Stanford students are primarily taking advantage of iTunes' ability to share music on local networks. One student admits: [/B]

"Once you get the program, you can access the MP3 music library of anyone on the local network (so it’s almost as good as downloading, but you don’t fill up your hard drive) and, oh yeah, it’s not illegal. Woohoo."

There's an example of "compelled" viral marketing. You need iTunes to access your dorm music servers.

Rocketman

 

[dongmin]

Do you know of any shareware that let's you chat with other iTunes users, like you can on Carracho or Hotwire?

And what about something that combines the music of all the users on a net into a single database? Or is this starting to go into muddy legal territory?

 

[beefcake]

Stupid fragmented school network. I get a grand total of 1 library available as shared music.

I think the RIAA will have a hard time shutting this one down. It would be like prohibitting people from playing music loud becuase the guys two doors down might hear and enjoy the song.

 

[Mr. MacPhisto]

Originally posted by beefcake
Stupid fragmented school network. I get a grand total of 1 library available as shared music.

I think the RIAA will have a hard time shutting this one down. It would be like prohibitting people from playing music loud becuase the guys two doors down might hear and enjoy the song.

It's just like lending someone a CD. Since it is your property, you have the right to do it - you just can't give them a copy. I think the RIAA would encourage sharing this way because it may yield more sales if measures are taken to prevent copying.

 

[soosy]

Re: less purchases?

Originally posted by Oats
so this probably means these campuses will not be purchasing much music?

I don't think so at all.

I tend to think sharing music exposes people to more music that they'll want to buy for themselves. P2P programs don't particularly excel at downloading whole albums. The songs I've downloaded and love, I've eventually bought the cd for the whole album. For the songs I don't love, i don't listen to them and I wouldn't have bought them anyway. If I really like something, I don't want to have to connect to someone else and hope they are up, etc. I want it available for me any time. Plus, I think there is still a limit of 5 users being able to connect to one iTunes library.

I believe there was a British study a few months ago that indicated sharing actually increases music purchases. Unfortunately don't have the link handy.

At worse, I'd bet that the number of new purchases generated by people discovering new music just balances out the actual lost purchases due to downloading.

But maybe that's just my outlook 'cause I still buy real cds.

 

[CMillerERAU]

Re: less purchases?

Originally posted by Oats
so this probably means these campuses will not be purchasing much music?

I've been very irked by my college's IT department. They use a packet shaper to give certain websites lower priority than others. This is to tward online file swappers from soaking up all the bandwidth. However, so far they keep the iTMS on the lowest priority. I can't even load the store's website in iTunes! So far they haven't done anything about it and I know there are a lot of us on campus who want to use it.

 

[SiliconAddict]

Streaming music?

How do you access someone else’s music? I was at a friends house and plugged my laptop in. Poof. the title of my share showed up in my friends copy of iTunes but it kept prompting for my iTMS account user name / password. Do you have to associate the system as one of your 3 computers that can share your music?!!?! That some what sucks. 🙁 I was under the impression, or I had read somewhere, any computer on the same local network can stream the iTunes music. Did this change in 5.1 or is this a Windows only “feature”

 

[dho]

Re: Streaming music?

Originally posted by SiliconAddict
How do you access someone else’s music? I was at a friends house and plugged my laptop in. Poof. the title of my share showed up in my friends copy of iTunes but it kept prompting for my iTMS account user name / password. Do you have to associate the system as one of your 3 computers that can share your music?!!?! That some what sucks. 🙁 I was under the impression, or I had read somewhere, any computer on the same local network can stream the iTunes music. Did this change in 5.1 or is this a Windows only “feature”

I have had the same problem 🙁

Although it hasnt been that much of anissue because I am only streaming my music to 2 other computers

 

[supercres]

Re: fragmented college network.

I have the same problem. I can only access music from people in my House (dorm). Fortunately, it's a 24-story high rise (Hamilton at Penn), so there are always some libraries available-- sometimes as many as 5 or 6. I know it's not a lot, but the number's only going to go up.

Plus, it helps my pimp my website:
http://supercres.net/archives/000223.html

 

[bigdog]

Re: iTunes requesting a PW

If you are streaming iTunes to another computer then it will ask for a username and password in one of two instances:

1) Your playlist is made up of many purchased songs from the iTMS. You cannot stream these songs except to another computer authorized under your account.

2) You told iTunes to require a password whenever anyone wants to use your shared music. Go to Preferences > Sharing and look to see if the 'Require password' checkbox is on and the field is filled out.

I have a bunch of music on my dual G4 here at work and share it to a few co-workers who aren't in my office. It works great.