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They say it in the headline for the press release but then they say something different in the text itself. It seems Apple may be playing with semantics here. Why include "and downloaded" with respect to an online store? What's the point of emphasizing that for an online store that only sells downloads? That's the only way you can buy. I have downloaded free songs but they show up as a "sale" for $0. Selling a song for $0 is not really selling in the traditional sense which is why it appears Apple clarifies with the "and downloaded" bit in the first paragraph.

There will always be someone who for whatever reason buys music and never downloads it. For example if your router dies just at the wrong moment. It seems that these purchases would not be counted in the 5bn.
 
Garth Brooks, AC/DC, ... Are you listening

This is great, both that Apple is #1 and so many have been sold.

There have been many holdouts such as Metallica, Red Hot Chili Peppers who initially refused digital music distribution with Apple's model (singles predominantly) but later gave in. Enriching themselves in the process.

However, for the hold outs

1. Garth Brooks
2. AC/DC
3. Aerosmith, Toys in the Attic, etc.
4. Kate Bush, Nik Kershaw available in UK but not in US

and of course the Beatles who should be coming soon (They're copying the bits on to scrolls of Papyrus using Hymn Chanting Monks).

For those artists, they're leaving a lot on the table.

People don't want plastic, they want singles and albums but on their hard drives, iPod or Computer. And many want to buy legally.

The 50,000 rentals or purchases a day on iTunes for movie rentals and purchases is a significant number but has a long way to go. The rental count is about 1200 with close to 400 HD. So it has a way to go. I have 2 Apple TV's and love them. When studios are smart and make their movies available immediately (See Semi-Pro, Fools Gold) they will rent/sell a significant number of them.

iTunes Rocks, Apple TV Rocks!
 
Where's the obligatory graph depicting the growth of iTMS sales figures from the press releases ? Has no one made it ? Really :confused:
 
Edit again - looks like some of the comments were removed and only the first page still exists. which gives a kind of broad overview of what people are thinking. One jerk even wrote the possibility of AIDS.
Strictly speaking all AIDS involves is a weak or dead immune system and associated diseases, some of which are not in themselves fatal. It doesn't imply anything else. That is, if you know what AIDS is. If you don't really know and just assume it's druggies and homosexual mean, you'll be assuming all sorts of wild ideas.

AIDS is reversible anyway, provided you get to it before too long. And completely preventable. More or less.
 
Strictly speaking all AIDS involves is a weak or dead immune system and associated diseases, some of which are not in themselves fatal. It doesn't imply anything else. That is, if you know what AIDS is. If you don't really know and just assume it's druggies and homosexual mean, you'll be assuming all sorts of wild ideas.

AIDS is reversible anyway, provided you get to it before too long. And completely preventable. More or less.

Now that's a clear thought...:rolleyes:
 
Good movie sales doesn't surprise me, i've been buying 3-4 a week. It really helped that the other studios signed on to selling movies instead of just renting them. The selection is still lacking though, and there are a lot of odd omissions such as only the 2nd movie of a series being available (examples: Beverly Hills Cop II, F/X II, and Revenge of the Nerds II).

I've also been buying TV shows, although only 1-2 complete seasons a week due to the price.

The one thing I haven't been buying a lot of is music. Only 3 songs total last week, one of which was an iTunes Plus upgrade. I don't like any of the mainstream music being released and the local college radio station hasn't been playing much of anything new lately.

My library of stuff bought on iTunes is already over 160GB, probably close to 200GB by now. Ended up having to un-sync movies from my AppleTV just to fit the TV Shows and music. I seem to recall my music alone is just over 16GB, meaning I've got close to 170GB of TV Shows and Movies almost all bought on iTunes this year.
 
I disagree. I've taught high school English and college journalism and made my life with words. IMHO, if the release is accurate, and 5B were bought AND downloaded, the conjunction "and" means 5B were bought and 5B were downloaded, not that some combination of purchases and downloads add up to 5B. So: 5B bought.

Not that I want to play trump-your-credentials, but I'm a published writer and I disagree with your analysis. In the context of a press release about an Internet-based music store, the addition of "...and downloaded" is meaningless in the way you describe. Of course, those songs were downloaded. That's the only way you can get iTunes music. You can't walk into a brick-and-mortar iTunes store so the addition of "downloaded" is unnecessary, unless it means something other than what you assume. Therefore, I submit that Apple is implying a differentiation between bought and downloaded. The only way that makes sense is if not all songs were bought.

And before anyone tries to deride this logic, someone later on in this thread defends the exact opposite--that Apple words it that way because all songs were bought but not necessarily downloaded (i.e., some customers failed to complete the download process.)

Also bear in mind that even the free downloads show up in iTunes as a $0 purchase so both of our interpretations could be technically correct.

This analysis assumes the press release was worded precisely and correctly.

So does mine. :)
 
betanews think this is a lie.
since apple has been using the same report claim 4B just two months ago. That would indicate 16Million /day....
 
betanews think this is a lie.
since apple has been using the same report claim 4B just two months ago. That would indicate 16Million /day....
Except it was a little more than just two months ago:

Apple Press Release from February 26, 2008: iTunes Now Number Two Music Retailer in the US

So, that would be: June 19 - February 26 = 113 days
1,000,000,000 ÷ 113 days = 8,849,557 songs / day on average

:)
 
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