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iTMS hits 200 Million

rdowns

rdowns

macrumors Penryn
Original poster
Jul 11, 2003
27,397
12,521
Apple(R) today announced that music fans have purchased and downloaded more than 200 million songs from the iTunes(R) Music Store. The 200 millionth song was part of "The Complete U2" and was purchased by Ryan Alekman from Belchertown, MA

iTunes has made it easy to give the gift of music this holiday season with iTunes prepaid cards that are available from retailers like Amazon.com, Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA, Kroger, RadioShack, 7-Eleven, Target, as well as Apple's online store and Apple's retail stores and offer $15 or $25 of music on the iTunes Music Store. Gift givers can also send iTunes gift certificates in amounts from $10 to $200 by email or regular mail, and can print out these gift certificates in color right on their computer for the perfect last minute stocking stuffer.

"iTunes has now sold over 200 million songs, making it the world's number one online music store by far," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "We're thrilled to be making music an even more popular gift this holiday season with iTunes and iPod."
 
I’m wondering why all the milestones are downloaded by US citizens. Are they downloading this much more than Europeans or Canadians?

And I think we’ll only get 1 billion songs before the end of 2005 when Apple opens their store in more countries (Japan, Australia, New Zealand).
 
wordmunger said:
Okay, now's the time to start thinking REALLY big: when do you think ITMS will hit 1 BILLION songs?

My prediction: before the end of 2005.
Click to expand...

I doubt that. Currently they are selling ~700k songs a day. If they can double that, then they will attain around ~700 million by this time next year.

If Apple manage to hit one billion by this time next year though, that will be an awesome feat.
 
wordmunger said:
Okay, now's the time to start thinking REALLY big: when do you think ITMS will hit 1 BILLION songs?

My prediction: before the end of 2005.
Click to expand...

Easy there, this isn't McDonalds, this is paid downloads which is in its infancy. As a stockholder, I hope you're right. As a realist, I din't see them increasing volume that dramatically.
 
mj_1903 said:
I doubt that. Currently they are selling ~700k songs a day. If they can double that, then they will attain around ~700 million by this time next year.

If Apple manage to hit one billion by this time next year though, that will be an awesome feat.
Click to expand...

What were they selling last year at this time? I think it was probably about 100k songs a day. So at that rate Apple might be selling 5 million a DAY by this time next year.

Also, do they count gift certificate sales when the certificates are sold, or when they are redeemed? If it's the latter, I expect we'll see a huge surge after Christmas as stocking-stuffer gift-certificates are redeemed.
 
rdowns said:
Easy there, this isn't McDonalds, this is paid downloads which is in its infancy. As a stockholder, I hope you're right. As a realist, I din't see them increasing volume that dramatically.
Click to expand...

But look at the huge surge of iPod sales -- many of them are Christmas gifts, which means the serious downloading won't start until after Christmas. When a new phenomenon erupts this fast, its pace can be staggering. I wouldn't be surprised if the 1 billion mark was hit even faster.
 
Veldek said:
I’m wondering why all the milestones are downloaded by US citizens. Are they downloading this much more than Europeans or Canadians?
Click to expand...

Possibly to do with the time when the 199,999,999 rolls around? With more timezones in North America than the EU iTMS, there's more people awake to download for longer.

Cynically, a European will hit a milestone when the iTMS in that country needs a publicity boost! :)

As for hitting a billion, the US billion will hit towards the end of 2005. The UK billion is probably still a decade off! ;) Remember that Apple has sold millions of iPods this quarter and to more mainstream consumers who may not be comfortable using p2p networks. If a proportion of those start using iTMS then the increase on this year will be huge.
 
800,000+ a day

The last report was 150 million on 10-14-04 so that means ~62 days have passed. That means 800,000+ per day. I can see that hitting a million soon. So, they will be guaranteed to be at 500 million by next year, if the rate stays the same. It will probably increase. Where are all the people with the graphs??
 
Well, if Apple ever decide to advertise in Europe it might help. I haven't seen one TV advert on German/Austrian/Swiss/Italian TV, yet MyCokeMusic is all over the place. They have a better product, and if they let other firms with bad products get to the people first, then people's attitude will be to ignore legal music downloads, because they are used to a crappy service (ever tried using MyCokeMusic? bleaghhh). Almost enough to put you off using the internet.

Still, the revolution will not be televised. It will be downloaded.

I'm hoping for 1 billion downloads by mid-2006, but I can't add my Euros into the pot until they OPEN THE IRISH iTUNES MUSIC STORE!!!!

And, I presume we're talking a US billion?
 
Colonel Panik said:
Well, if Apple ever decide to advertise in Europe it might help. I haven't seen one TV advert on German/Austrian/Swiss/Italian TV, yet MyCokeMusic is all over the place. They have a better product, and if they let other firms with bad products get to the people first, then people's attitude will be to ignore legal music downloads, because they are used to a crappy service (ever tried using MyCokeMusic? bleaghhh). Almost enough to put you off using the internet.
Click to expand...

In Germany, Apple has the U2 iPod spot on TV and in cinemas. A month ago, I saw the spot almost every day. Now, it’s only in cinemas, I think.

Ok, it’s not about the iTMS in the first place, but it does create mindshare.
 
Applespider said:
Possibly to do with the time when the 199,999,999 rolls around? With more timezones in North America than the EU iTMS, there's more people awake to download for longer.

Cynically, a European will hit a milestone when the iTMS in that country needs a publicity boost! :)
Click to expand...

Well, that’s a possibility. But I find it strange that when Apple had the contest to win an iPod for every 100.000 songs, that these iPods were all won by Americans. I think, there were a lot of Europeans, too, that wanted to win.
 
Veldek said:
In Germany, Apple has the U2 iPod spot on TV and in cinemas. A month ago, I saw the spot almost every day. Now, it’s only in cinemas, I think.

Ok, it’s not about the iTMS in the first place, but it does create mindshare.
Click to expand...

On which channels? I guess I just watch the wrong ones (BR etc.) ;-)
 
Colonel Panik said:
On which channels? I guess I just watch the wrong ones (BR etc.) ;-)
Click to expand...

I saw them on Pro 7, RTL and Sat.1, but they aren‘t broadcasted anymore. I think it was until the end of November. But when I was in a cinema in December, I saw the spot again, so maybe it’s still there.
 
Veldek said:
Well, that’s a possibility. But I find it strange that when Apple had the contest to win an iPod for every 100.000 songs, that these iPods were all won by Americans. I think, there were a lot of Europeans, too, that wanted to win.
Click to expand...

That would be an interesting conspiracy theory, if it was true. However, there were two European winners, one from England and one from Germany. One winner was from "Cambridge", so I'm not sure if that was Cambridge, England or Massachusetts.

http://www.apple.com/itunes/100million/

I suspect the difference is due to the fact that most downloads still come from America--and also perhaps because the contest was in the summer, when many Europeans take very long vacations.
 
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