Apple Selling Ads on iTunes?

Bring back AdCritic!

Apple should get ad agencies to provide commercials as free downloads onto your iPod / iTunes / iTV.

This, too, would encourage admakers to create commercials that people would actually WANT to watch.
 
Ads suck, but I might not mind so long as....

....people with .Mac memberships could enjoy an ad-free iTMS.

I think that would be reasonable.
 
Apple Shmapple said:
For a company that has built its following by courting those that don't like the Microsoft way of life, this is a strikingly Microsoft-like move.

These two companies are more similar than most here would care to believe.
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To be honest iTunes 7 feels like a microsoft product. It's a mess, system hog and ugly to boot. I bought a mac to get away from all this.
 
iSee said:
Oh, good!

That means I'll be getting my songs and videos for free, now...

Right?

Right!?!

RIGHT???!?!!?
Click to expand...

Sounds to me like Apple is a little bit worried about spiralfrog, so you may not be far off.
 
Okay, this is going a little too far. Apple is already doing great by selling billions of songs, and pretty soon millions of movies... but now they wanna get more money by throwing advertisers into the mix. Pretty soon, before you know it... they're going to sneak a firmware into our iPods that'll play advertisements before we get to play any freakin thing.

Apple, quit while you're ahead... focus on your iTv, get that True iPod Video out, stick more cores into the Macbook Pro, and everything will be ok. You dont need Tony the Tiger advertising cereal before I watch It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia on iTunes
 
Come on, people... you're jumping to conclusions.

Just look at how many people have commented on how messy the iTS is already. Now I ask you, what is the iTS?

The answer: a catalouge; i.e. one big advertisement.

So perhaps instead of selling out, as many of you were quick to accuse, Apple might just be bringing someone in to help reorganize the messy iTS, especially now as it has become more complex, what with the new forms of media and all. Plus, the iTS will only get bigger, so the time to streamline is now.

So quit freaking out. You don't even know what Apple is planning.

-Clive
 
I think this advertisment business is a double edged sword.

Swing it the right way, neat, subtle 'up market' ads to boost revenue keep the store moving forward, ahead of the relentless market pressure (remember early in the stores life it was brinking on break even), maybe lower prices a touch to counter this up-start spiral frog and its win win.

On the other hand over cook it, bring even a single pop-up, put an ad on the ipod and the song sales could crash. The rest of the world will catch up and here endeth the ipod halo effect, as I'm sure Steve is all too aware. He's too clever and smart to let that happen, I think he deserves a little faith.

I was thinking though what on earth would apple advertise? Pretty much all of technology etc is out. What is any way loosely related to the itunes store that apple don't already produce or would it just be brand advertising.
 
Gasu E. said:
More likely: when you do go to buy "The Office", an ad for Staples will pop up...
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You wouldn't care though, because now you have an episode of the office!
That will cure any anger from ads. WATCH THE OFFICE THURSDAYS ON NBC!
 
iSee said:
Oh, good!

That means I'll be getting my songs and videos for free, now...

Right?

Right!?!

RIGHT???!?!!?
Click to expand...

Perhaps cheaper at least. You never know.

I don't think much is going to come of this even if it is instituted. I doubt it will seriously affect the way I use iTunes. It's actually surprised me it's taken apple this long to really consider this.
 
I wouldn't mind if they'd. . .

lower the f***ing prices!

I pay to see a G-D movie and those mofos insist on sticking us with f***ing commercials! I'm as quiet as a mouse during the feature film, but I let my displeasure be loudly known during the pre-movie commercial. Ignatius J. Reilly is my inspiration!

Knock a couple of bucks off the movie ticket and I'll take it. Same with iTunes. Give us 80's music and older for $0.49 a track or so, and I'll grudgingly look at your damned ads!
 
great, as if there aren't enough ads on the internet anyway. I figured maybe apple wouldn't be the same as the others
 
erm, how come everyone is assuming that this is true? not saying that it neccesarily isnt, but...
 
Umm...isn't the entire iTunes store an ad? An ad for music, movies and TV shows?? Why do they need to advertise other stuff. Jeez.
 
The iTunes STORE is one big ad by definition. I don't care if non-Apple vendors get ad space there.

The iTunes JUKEBOX, separate from the Store stuff, should remain ad-free. I don't see Apple changing that. I'm not alarmed.

As for ads in PODCASTS, whether visible or audible, that's already possible. But they're from the podcast creator, not from Apple. I don't mind if a podcast owner needs to generate revenue that way. I am free to decide whether to listen or not.
 
I don't understand how AdSense will benefit iTunes. Google's method of advertising delivery focuses on delivering relevant ads to the content of the page. That being said, Eric Schmidt ascending to the board of AAPL definitely means that the Google way is the way Apple is going.

Looking at it from the other side, advertising sucks, but it does help to defray costs which is a good thing. If apple raises $3-500MM out of this venture, more power too them, maybe my next MBP will be $100 less thanks to it (unlikely, but a good thought), or maybe they can offer free time machine backups for all .mac subscribers.

If they can make it work (and non-intrusive) this could be a good thing.
 
Deimo said:
I don't understand how AdSense will benefit iTunes. Google's method of advertising delivery focuses on delivering relevant ads to the content of the page. That being said, Eric Schmidt ascending to the board of AAPL definitely means that the Google way is the way Apple is going.

Looking at it from the other side, advertising sucks, but it does help to defray costs which is a good thing. If apple raises $3-500MM out of this venture, more power too them, maybe my next MBP will be $100 less thanks to it (unlikely, but a good thought), or maybe they can offer free time machine backups for all .mac subscribers.

If they can make it work (and non-intrusive) this could be a good thing.
Click to expand...

If this is podcast specific...
Apple's current plans call for the ads to appear only in the lower-left corner of the iTunes library while users listen to podcasts from their computers rather than from portable devices.
Click to expand...

it does make sense if it is done the right way.
For example, if there is a way to show an add for some type of product if there is a podcast talking about it... then they can get users to click if they want.

and everyone should calm down about it messing up iTunes. If is only on the podcast page.. it is all for stuff you are getting for free anyway, and you will probably not even notice a difference if you listen to podcats because they are probably running in the background while you are working on something else.
 
jholzner said:
Umm...isn't the entire iTunes store an ad? An ad for music, movies and TV shows?? Why do they need to advertise other stuff. Jeez.
Click to expand...

Apple would be quick to point out that they are just a reseller of someone else's content with the iTunes Store, so in that sense it isn't an "ad" in and of itself. In fact, the iTunes Store could benefit from advertising itself on other websites, magazine ads, and so on.

As to the question of why advertise in the Store, the obvious answer is money. iTunes was considered up till this point to be primarily a loss leader for iPod sales and the iTunes Store itself was self-sustaining only as a break-even or modest profit venture. Advertising revenue could change that picture somewhat. And the door is still wide open regarding retailing on the internet, it doesn't need to be bound by what works or doesn't work in the terrestrial retail world.

alec said:
sell outs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Click to expand...

Wouldn't be the first time. Sherlock 2 delivered encapsulated ads as well, although luckily they were easily blocked with 3rd party modifications. And as I recall, those ads were mostly for Apple products.
 
Clive At Five said:
Come on, people... you're jumping to conclusions.

Just look at how many people have commented on how messy the iTS is already. Now I ask you, what is the iTS?

The answer: a catalouge; i.e. one big advertisement.

So perhaps instead of selling out, as many of you were quick to accuse, Apple might just be bringing someone in to help reorganize the messy iTS, especially now as it has become more complex, what with the new forms of media and all. Plus, the iTS will only get bigger, so the time to streamline is now.

So quit freaking out. You don't even know what Apple is planning.

-Clive
Click to expand...

Damn that was what I was about to post, to be honest it makes the most sense. Ad's in the store would just turn people off...

To answer other posts, apart from the bad scrollbars is anything really bad about iTunes 7? Does it really use more memory than iTunes 6 when not in Coverflow mode (where it clearly uses loads but it has to put all those album covers into RAM...)?
 
Oh goodie...

....hey, at least it'll give the third-party developers something to do; write ad-blocker plugins for iTMS! ;-)
 
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