Scott Blum (buymusic) eats crow

[Ambrose Chapel]

The first to take on Apple was BuyMusic.com in July. It expected 1 million daily song downloads. "We're not achieving that at all," says BuyMusic CEO Scott Blum. "I've spoken with my competitors, and we're nowhere near (Apple's) numbers."

http://www.technewsworld.com/perl/story/32389.html


hehe.

[kjottbein]

cool!

[thejoshu]

Love the good news. Makes Monday sweet.

[TwitchOSX]

Thats the EXACT same article as the USAtoday article thats a few posts down:

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/20...4-apple2_x.htm

HAHA WTF is that? Talk about lame reporting.

[CheekyGit]

25 million !!!! Keep rollin' everyone.

[jxyama]

while apple will need to keep iPod up, it will take two things to happen for iPod to get dethroned, i think...

1) some company makes an mp3 player that is cheaper, more feature rich and better designed than the iPod.

AND (this is important)

2) that company collaborates with M$ and a download service (could be M$) and makes the mp3 above to work "seamlessly" with Windows.

right now, apple is the only one with an elegant mp3 player AND an integrated music store/jukebox software...

[Bob Knob]

Originally posted by TwitchOSX
Thats the EXACT same article as the USAtoday article thats a few posts down:

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/20...4-apple2_x.htm

HAHA WTF is that? Talk about lame reporting.

Welcome to the world of syndicated journalism
What really sucks is when one reporter gets the story wrong. It gets put into several news reports, then the unwashed masses take it as gospel... "I read /heard it in ABC and XYZ, so it must be true"

[pgwalsh]

Originally posted by jxyama
2) that company collaborates with M$ and a download service (could be M$) and makes the mp3 above to work "seamlessly" with Windows.

I could see MS selling units at a loss just to gain market share. Just as they did with the xbox.

[strider42]

I wonder why there don't seem to be other music players that can use the AAC format. Surely there is a market out there for a cheaper alternative to the iPod that works with the most popular music service. AAC is an open standard is it not. Maybe the DRM is getting in the way.

[pjkelnhofer]

From Article
Adds analyst Leigh: "They've got to keep the mindshare of the public and keep them believing they have to have an iPod. That's the only way they can stay ahead."

Everyone repeat after me...
Must... have... iPod...
Must... have... iPod...
etc.
What I find interesting is that while I have been a Mac user from the beginning, I have yet to invest in an iPod (I still think it is too pricey). I do buy songs from iTunes convert them to mp3 and use my three year old Rio Player with it's colossal 64 MB of music.
However, I have four friends, all Windows users, who have purchased iPods. One of whom is now buying an iBook based on his Apple experience.
Has anyone look into if the iPod/iTunes success has increased Apples desktop/laptop market share?

[kuyu]

surprise, surprise... apple is the best at something else. The real story is their dominant market share in this arena.

They are always better, but this "leading the market" is a little new for apple. Congrats to Jobs and company.

[Mr.Hey]

I love Apple.....YES I DO!. Congrats!!. I'm slowly building my music collection and am enjoying the experiance 100%...iTunes+iTMS+iPod= user





Apple controls the DRM for the iTMS files so no other service or audio player can use it. Competitors can offer support for AAC but have choosen to go wma.



edit: added iTunes

[winmacguy]

Originally posted by TwitchOSX
Thats the EXACT same article as the USAtoday article thats a few posts down:

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/20...4-apple2_x.htm

HAHA WTF is that? Talk about lame reporting.

Agreed, I thought I had already read it somewhere

[winmacguy]

Originally posted by pjkelnhofer
Everyone repeat after me...
Must... have... iPod...
Must... have... iPod...
etc.
What I find interesting is that while I have been a Mac user from the beginning, I have yet to invest in an iPod (I still think it is too pricey). I do buy songs from iTunes convert them to mp3 and use my three year old Rio Player with it's colossal 64 MB of music.
However, I have four friends, all Windows users, who have purchased iPods. One of whom is now buying an iBook based on his Apple experience.
Has anyone look into if the iPod/iTunes success has increased Apples desktop/laptop market share?

Niot sure at this stage but it is bound to happen. I am planing on buying my iPod next year when/if the 5? Gig version comes out mainly because I am currently a full time graphic design student. A Mac is also in the medium to long term plans mainly because I am a Mac Op buy day and a PC user by night.

[the_mole1314]

Originally posted by strider42
I wonder why there don't seem to be other music players that can use the AAC format. Surely there is a market out there for a cheaper alternative to the iPod that works with the most popular music service. AAC is an open standard is it not. Maybe the DRM is getting in the way.

The new PSP from Sony will use AAC and MP3, no WMA. I bet that M$ has a deal with the players saying if they want to use WMA, they can't use AAC.

[rjstanford]

Originally posted by strider42
I wonder why there don't seem to be other music players that can use the AAC format. Surely there is a market out there for a cheaper alternative to the iPod that works with the most popular music service. AAC is an open standard is it not. Maybe the DRM is getting in the way.

Exactly correct. AAC is open, but the Fairplay extension is not - and there are very few people with extensive AAC-but-not-Fairplay collections out there. So supporting plain AAC is easy to do (costs a buck or two, no big deal) but pointless.

-Richard

[iGav]

Originally posted by pjkelnhofer
Everyone repeat after me...
Must... have... iPod...
Must... have... iPod...
etc.

could you add....

Must... Have... European iTunes Music Store
Must... Have... European iTunes Music Store
Must... Have... European iTunes Music Store

[rjstanford]

Originally posted by jxyama
while apple will need to keep iPod up, it will take two things to happen for iPod to get dethroned, i think...

1) some company makes an mp3 player that is cheaper, more feature rich and better designed than the iPod.

AND (this is important)

2) that company collaborates with M$ and a download service (could be M$) and makes the mp3 above to work "seamlessly" with Windows.

right now, apple is the only one with an elegant mp3 player AND an integrated music store/jukebox software...

A good point about the organization. Still, software will arrive, and (1) has already beeen met (debatebly). I've seen several full page ads for competitive products (Creative, etc) and they all list "Over $100 cheaper than the iPod" as one of their big features. The iPod is still cool, but its not going to be able to keep its ultra-premium pricing for much longer without seriously losing market share. And, conversely, once someone buys a non-iPod they can't ever use iTMS (but probably can use all of the other stores), which gives them an incentive to stay away from Apple... its a hard place for the company to be in.

-Richard

[ITR 81]

Originally posted by pgwalsh
I could see MS selling units at a loss just to gain market share. Just as they did with the xbox.

Did it really help them? No it didn't. They have now lost all that market share back to Nintendo which killed it in few months.

The only thing that keeps the Xbox alive now is hopes of Halo 2 and Gates knows it.

I figured we had reached 25 million by atleast last week. I'm glad to see I wasn't too far off.

[pbreit]

Decent article but misses the key reason iTunes is dominating: it's a superior customer experience!! Apple wasn't first. There were several services before it. The advertising campaign didn't hit until recently.

[ryanw]

I don't understand why everyone thinks they have a CLOSED MODEL. Steve Jobs wanted to go with the AAC/Mpeg4 format for several reasons... I'm sure the MAJOR reason was to not be stuck supporting microsoft with the WMA and be at their mercy. But the next major reason is cause it's a standardized format. ANYONE could implement an AAC/Mpeg4 player. I'm not sure if it would interface with iTunes, but I'd imagine there would be a way to get songs onto another parties AAC/Mpeg4 player.

[arn]

Originally posted by ryanw
ANYONE could implement an AAC/Mpeg4 player.

But can anyone implement a Protected AAC player?

(I don't know the answer to that... but no one has)
arn

[aldo]

Originally posted by strider42
I wonder why there don't seem to be other music players that can use the AAC format. Surely there is a market out there for a cheaper alternative to the iPod that works with the most popular music service. AAC is an open standard is it not. Maybe the DRM is getting in the way.

1) Ogg Vorbis is at least as good as AAC and it's completly open source and royalty free. (www.vorbis.com).

2) Windows mp3 players are usually designed to just play downloaded mp3s off kazaa. Nothing more, nothing less.

Apple is probably the only company that can do integration so damn well. If you have ever used M$ products you will know that they (software wise, i can't bear to think what ms hardware would integrate like) 'integrate' like crap. The best excel intergrates with word on windows is being able to edit the tables as OLE objects inside the page.

Apple, however, integrates its stuff like a complete dream. I can't think of anything that works better toghter than apple stuff...

[jayscheuerle]

Must have $300...

[Gymnut]

Let's hope Apple continues to capitalize by always having its foot through the door. Apple itself knows all to well of having its foot in the door only to have its competitors charge, knock it out of the way and lock the door.