Euro iTMS users not as keen as US ones?

[Applespider]

Apple announced that they sold 50 million tracks in the first year of iTMS Europe and that they're very happy with that.

In the same time period, the Register reckon that the US store sold 280 million tracks

So it is because Apple still isn't as well known in Europe as it is in the US?

Because they haven't particularly advertised iTMS since it opened over here and there's no incentive to try it even when you buy an iPod because you don't get a sampler here.

Or because mainstream European musiclovers were a year or so behind on P2P and still don't believe in paying for music? The first fines over here for downloading music have just started to hit so many people still think it's fine. I get lots of odd looks when I say I buy my downloads.

 

[Savage Henry]

I think, culturally, the UK are more luddite and the US or Japanese. Round here Blackberrys are small fruits that go on slices of cheesecake. A guy here (grad scheme background so one would have assumed he had reasonable intelligence) saw a Macworld magasine on my desk, asked what it was, and said he didn't know Apple still made computers. I've seen organisations that invest in new technology and only get the same stuff out of it that their old technology gave them, just slightly faster in a different font.

I too download as much of my music, all through iTunes, and I am more than happy with it. The low European download proportion does still surprise me.

 

[crap freakboy]

Isn't it simply that Europeans would rather walk around record stores unlike the Yanks who'd rather stuff their faces with BigMacs and Coke while surfing sat on their big round behinds?? Joking aside, larger market in US, more travel required to get to Malls? Perhaps the threat of being sued for downloading illegally? Personally I'd rather use iTunes to browse music, listen to the full cd samples and if I like 80% of them buy the actual CD online for less than the Apple price. Thats just me though.

 

[orkle]

I still can't get over the price & quality thing. Plus I've always been a bit of a music geek and like to own something physical to put on the shelf to gather dust after it's been ripped into iTunes!

 

[Savage Henry]

I still can't get over the price & quality thing.

So you only have vinyl and have never bought a CD in your life?

I think the snubbing that iTunes get is totally out of proportion to the service it can offer. I tend to only listen to my music in the car, when there is already enough background noise that interferes with the sound quality.

CD Wow,: Pink Floyd - The Wall €17.99
iTunes €11.99 ... stuff aint always cheaper elsewhere.

 

[MentalFabric]

Isn't it simply that Europeans would rather walk around record stores unlike the Yanks who'd rather stuff their faces with BigMacs and Coke while surfing sat on their big round behinds?? Joking aside, larger market in US, more travel required to get to Malls? Perhaps the threat of being sued for downloading illegally? Personally I'd rather use iTunes to browse music, listen to the full cd samples and if I like 80% of them buy the actual CD online for less than the Apple price. Thats just me though.

I wouldn't be surprised if the first thing had something to do with it, I'm sure it factors in there somewhere… I'd guess it's generally quicker to get to malls in the US than europe, too.

 

[Loge]

I agree with much of the above posts, but several other factors -

It may be more relevant to compare with the US first year, which was I think just short of 100m (though the US was Mac only for some of that). But it takes time to gather momentum - customers need to be convinced to open an account in the first place.

The European store covered only three countries for a fairly large part of the year.

The initial selection of songs in the EU stores was restricted. For example, independent labels were under-represented and they make a significant proportion of sales in the UK.

US has higher concentration of broadband, perhaps.

 

[snowdog]

I think the Swedish store is lagging a bit behind.
We're missing tons of stuff.
And we are also supposed to buy differently.

I'm so angry that we can't buy a whole album, Garbage latest, as a whole album like the Americans can.
We have to buy each song individually, making it more expensive.

 

[Applespider]

I do think the iPod sampler is a valid reason.

In the US, you plug in your new (restored) iPod and you get an album sampler of music and, presumably, create an account to do so. You get to find out exactly how easy it is to use the store, download music and transfer it to your new iPod without risking any cash. Apple start sending you 'New Music Tuesday' lists and it's easy to start buying.

In Europe, although when you plug a new iPod in, it takes you to the front store of the music site, there's no real incentive to create an account and try it out. Yeah, it tells you there's a free song that week (at least in the UK store) but since it's usually a new artist, most people probably don't bother opening an account just to do that.