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iTMS Downloads Top 200 Million
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Stella said:
Spot on... and BTW... Apple NEEDS to promote MACS throughout the world... The only thing I see Apple promoting (just a little bit) here is the iPod (and it really isn't Apple, only it's "official representative"). How many times have I already said how I find weird that Apple has an iTMS store here in Portugal, however, there isn't such a thing as "Apple Portugal"? Dammit!
I could go on, and on, and on with the same old stuff: G5 supply issues, lack of advertising... The only things I really like about Apple is their products themselves, and their corporate culture. As for the rest... I think Apple is still very... how should I put this... immature?
And NO, even with the iPod's success, Apple isn't performing that much better in their supposedly *primary* business: COMPUTERS! The world would be a much better place if Apple was selling 5 million Macs a year instead of 5 million iPods, and even though I absolutely LOVE my iPod, I'd much rather NOT see my platform of choice being bashed by some users, and unsupported and ignored by lots of developers and hardware makers, even if that meant the non-existence of the iPod. If Apple can solve this Mac marketshare issue (which is relevant, IMHO) thanks to the iPod, great! We may be getting the best of both worlds... The best digital music players and computers at affordable prices, now that would be tech-heaven on earth!
Anyway, back on the advertisement issue: I have NEVER seen an Apple/iPod/iTunes/Mac ad here. I mean, NEVER EVER... However, iPods are really catching on, I'm now seeing at least one pair of white earbuds in Lisbon underground almost everyday. Sometimes I see two or three, so that makes a nice average.
And remember, this is WITHOUT advertising in the media, and only with some iPods in acrylic displays, some postcards beside them, and sometimes girls dressed in pink pseudo-official iPod shirts, giving information on the device.
I mean, heck, people probably find out about the iPod via the web, I suppose, or maybe, these people are just Mac users who are buying them in massive quantities (which AFAIK, of course, isn't true
)
Mechcozmo said:Yay!
I wonder how well the MS store is doing....
I wonder how any of the other Music stores are doing. It seems you never hear any news about how many sales they have had. At leas not since the first few months of them opening. The only one that ever makes major news is Apples iTunes store.
Downloaded songs per number of customers/stores?
Aren't we forgetting something? The iTMS now covers HUGE markets... Almost the entire EU, plus Canada, besides the US. It seems strange to me that iTMS downloads aren't surging EVEN more.
Just a bit of speculation: is everything happening here in the EU the same way it has happened in the US? First, the iTMS didn't sell that much songs (by today's standards), then, the download rate started climbing, and climbing, and climbing?
It's not very easy to understand how well the iTMS is doing by analising just the *TOTAL* download count or dowload rate, without taking into account the recent iTMS expansion. What if the donwload rate in the US has reached a plateau and is now increasing in the EU? Or what if it's still increasing in the US, and stagnant in the EU (higly unlikely because the iPod is selling very well, and Napster hasn't even reached other countries besides the UK and Canada; and remember, I'm just speculating).
Aren't we forgetting something? The iTMS now covers HUGE markets... Almost the entire EU, plus Canada, besides the US. It seems strange to me that iTMS downloads aren't surging EVEN more.
Just a bit of speculation: is everything happening here in the EU the same way it has happened in the US? First, the iTMS didn't sell that much songs (by today's standards), then, the download rate started climbing, and climbing, and climbing?
It's not very easy to understand how well the iTMS is doing by analising just the *TOTAL* download count or dowload rate, without taking into account the recent iTMS expansion. What if the donwload rate in the US has reached a plateau and is now increasing in the EU? Or what if it's still increasing in the US, and stagnant in the EU (higly unlikely because the iPod is selling very well, and Napster hasn't even reached other countries besides the UK and Canada; and remember, I'm just speculating).
Charts, charts, charts!
All of these charts are nice, and they are very positive for the short term. They are very possibly correct (within limits) as well.
Over the longer term, there are problems. Already, Apple's dominance in the player marker, and to a lesser extent, the music downloads market, is getting the cry of monopoly.
If Apple, as seems the case, does come out with a flash player soon, and then gets 80% or more of the total market, someone might take them to court. If that happens, then they will be restricted as to what they can do there.
The music companies are already getting antsy over Apple's 70% share in music download sales. If the flash player increases that to over 80%, which would seem likely (perhaps even to 85%), the music companies might want to do something about that. You can't blame them for not wanting one company to control that part of their business.
If Apple is declared a monopoly in either, or both, of these areas, they might have to license Fairplay after all. If this happened, perhaps WMA might be the loser, but Apple still wouldn't control the technology in the way they do now.
They might still dominate, but not with these overwhelming numbers. As other players continue to get better, and other music sites do as well, things will even out.
As industries, and technology, improves we see a leveling out. Remember how bad most online stores were a few years ago? Most of those problems have gone away Rarely do we see a really bad store site these days (the quality of the company is another thing).
The overall sales numbers will continue to increase. After all there are almost a billion CD's sold a year. That's about 10 billion songs. A long way to go from 200 million.
Apple's share will just be smaller. They have to improve some things, though. They need to get the artists that other sites have that they don't. They should improve the quality to 160K with variable-bit encoding. Every review now seems to say that the quality from iTunes isn't quite as good as the others. I can vouch for that when listening through higher quality playback.
We'll see. I hope for the best.
All of these charts are nice, and they are very positive for the short term. They are very possibly correct (within limits) as well.
Over the longer term, there are problems. Already, Apple's dominance in the player marker, and to a lesser extent, the music downloads market, is getting the cry of monopoly.
If Apple, as seems the case, does come out with a flash player soon, and then gets 80% or more of the total market, someone might take them to court. If that happens, then they will be restricted as to what they can do there.
The music companies are already getting antsy over Apple's 70% share in music download sales. If the flash player increases that to over 80%, which would seem likely (perhaps even to 85%), the music companies might want to do something about that. You can't blame them for not wanting one company to control that part of their business.
If Apple is declared a monopoly in either, or both, of these areas, they might have to license Fairplay after all. If this happened, perhaps WMA might be the loser, but Apple still wouldn't control the technology in the way they do now.
They might still dominate, but not with these overwhelming numbers. As other players continue to get better, and other music sites do as well, things will even out.
As industries, and technology, improves we see a leveling out. Remember how bad most online stores were a few years ago? Most of those problems have gone away Rarely do we see a really bad store site these days (the quality of the company is another thing).
The overall sales numbers will continue to increase. After all there are almost a billion CD's sold a year. That's about 10 billion songs. A long way to go from 200 million.
Apple's share will just be smaller. They have to improve some things, though. They need to get the artists that other sites have that they don't. They should improve the quality to 160K with variable-bit encoding. Every review now seems to say that the quality from iTunes isn't quite as good as the others. I can vouch for that when listening through higher quality playback.
We'll see. I hope for the best.
nagromme said:Overseas maybe... not in the US. Look at Microsoft! The Bush DOJ likes monopolies
Remember, MS was declared a monopoly HERE. The problem with being declared one, is that if it happens when the market share is at a level of, say, 80-90%, it is still considered to be one if that share slips to 60%. There is no point other than 51%, or so when the monopoly is no longer in effect.
The music companies might want to do something if they feel that they are losing control of the distribution of their product.
Virgin tried to sue Apple for this in France and it was thrown out.
http://news.com.com/French+court+wont+force+Apple+to+open+up+iTunes/2100-1027_3-5447124.html
http://news.com.com/French+court+wont+force+Apple+to+open+up+iTunes/2100-1027_3-5447124.html