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iTunes Anniversary Conference Call

Contract

Isn't the contract that Apple has with the industry only for one year? Could we see a change in the pricing structure, as rumored?

(tig)
 
fpnc said:
I wonder if Steve will be "smoothing the waters" for possible price increases. I suspect that Apple had a one to two year contract with the major music labels and with all of the recent talk about music download price increases I can only assume that the days of 99 cent downloads will probably end within the next year. Unfortunately, I think price increases are probably inevitable. I'd say that they will likely end up at something like $1.50 to $2.00 per song with a discount for an entire album. One certain way to kill this entire industry is for the music labels to price downloads at over $2 per song. I suspect that some in the music industry are already thinking that they'll be able to do that and in fact some reports suggest prices as high as $2.50.

As for the total Music Store download number, I'd guess 79 million.
Click to expand...

I say NO way will there be a price increase! THink about it - Apple doesn't reach the 100 million mark it predicted and that was by giving songs away! How will increasing the price make more people purchase songs?

99 cents is still TOO much..if anything, they need to go down.

..That and the iMS Europe coming aboard soon..
 
fpnc said:
I wonder if Steve will be "smoothing the waters" for possible price increases. I suspect that Apple had a one to two year contract with the major music labels and with all of the recent talk about music download price increases I can only assume that the days of 99 cent downloads will probably end within the next year. Unfortunately, I think price increases are probably inevitable. I'd say that they will likely end up at something like $1.50 to $2.00 per song with a discount for an entire album. One certain way to kill this entire industry is for the music labels to price downloads at over $2 per song. I suspect that some in the music industry are already thinking that they'll be able to do that and in fact some reports suggest prices as high as $2.50.

As for the total Music Store download number, I'd guess 79 million.
Click to expand...

God I hope not. Anything over a buck and it just couldn't compete. 99 cents is the perfect price point. If the music industry raises the prices, all they're doing is selling losing those sales. Convenience is not worth the price. That would majorly suck. But, maybe it would increase contracts with indie labels?
 
I heard the 4'rth gen ipod may be released. 50 gig top end, 40 gig medium end, and 20 or 30 gig low end.
 
Don't see a price increase. What I do see is more PR with good sales numbers and additional songs. iTunes has provided me with an opportunity to easily purchase songs. Since its introduction I have spent well over $150. What keeps iTunes popular are not the new PC users but loyal mac fans. :D
 
JohnGillilan said:
Any guesses as to how many Pepsi songs were actually redeemed?
Click to expand...

generally speaking with contests that involve typing codes in online, generally only 30-50% of the people actually type in the code, so id say around 10-30 mil
 
Another thing I want to know. Anybody know how many songs are now for sale on itms? Seems like th 500,000 mark was a good while ago....wouldn't it be nice to have a million sometime soon? Or better yet, how many continuous years worth of music they have. Hi, we now have enough music to be played from jesus' birth to your death. And, we're adding 10 years worth, every day. Happy eternity!
 
NusuniAdmin said:
I heard the 4'rth gen ipod may be released. 50 gig top end, 40 gig medium end, and 20 or 30 gig low end.
Click to expand...

If so, they need to release this with a new mini. 16 gigs is way too big of a gap. I'd imagine the majority of the market would be between the mini's 4 gigs and the possible low end 20 gigs. It sure would be stupid to leave such a gap. Maybe that, in combination wth the 4 GB mini dropping by 75 bucks, and a 10 mini at 249? Only.... what to do about all those customers who still haven't had their mini's shipped...bad press there. Man.
 
I just want some confirmation and details about itms europe. like what countries will it spread to and such.

I really don't think they're gonna raise the prices.. the idea is to sell cheap (and easy) music. if it's $2 a piece, it'll be just as expensive as the physical copies (referring to CDs).
 
Prediction

"Hi, this is Steve Jobs, thanks for joining us. iTunes has gone bananas since we launched it a year ago. We are approaching 100 million songs sold. Going to Europe with the iTMS in June. Since record execs are evil, we have to raise the price on some of the songs, but not all of them. We still think sales will keep booming. Look for some significant product announcements in the upcoming months. See you at WWDC."

That's my prediction.

-Piker
 
I agree that it would be a bad idea to raise prices…99¢/song has such a nice ring to it. Apple should have 2 minis - a small one (like the 4GB) that would have a dell-like price (close to cost to get people in the door) and then a not so mini (8GB maybe?) at a better (for Apple) price. I suppose the problem there is the cost of the drives. The 4GB drive retails for more than the mini, correct?
 
I hope that Apple has made their goal of 100 million songs. I suppose it is possible that they reached it, with the publicity from the Pepsi promotion. But I'm skeptical since I don't think the free songs they were giving away were going to count on their total songs number, though I could be wrong.

It's been a great year for iTunes. Hopefully it will continue to be just as successful as it has been.
 
NusuniAdmin said:
generally speaking with contests that involve typing codes in online, generally only 30-50% of the people actually type in the code, so id say around 10-30 mil
Click to expand...


Didn't I read somewhere that Apple was NOT counting the promo songs in this?

And I believe they actually estimate 15-20% actually using the codes, on the high end.
 
NusuniAdmin said:
generally speaking with contests that involve typing codes in online, generally only 30-50% of the people actually type in the code, so id say around 10-30 mil
Click to expand...

iTMS hit 50 mil on 3/15, not counting the Pepsi giveaway. So another 10-12 mil with regular sales (they were doing 2.5 mil a week in March) and say 20-25 mil from Pepsi, we get about 80-85 mil I'm guessin.

Since this is only a conference call, I doubt Steve will make any product announcements. They usually hold special media events for new products. Maybe Jobs will give a hint about iTMS Europe.
 
fpnc said:
I wonder if Steve will be "smoothing the waters" for possible price increases. I suspect that Apple had a one to two year contract with the major music labels and with all of the recent talk about music download price increases I can only assume that the days of 99 cent downloads will probably end within the next year. Unfortunately, I think price increases are probably inevitable. I'd say that they will likely end up at something like $1.50 to $2.00 per song with a discount for an entire album. One certain way to kill this entire industry is for the music labels to price downloads at over $2 per song. I suspect that some in the music industry are already thinking that they'll be able to do that and in fact some reports suggest prices as high as $2.50.

As for the total Music Store download number, I'd guess 79 million.
Click to expand...

And see, this is total crap. I can't imagine prices being any higher. They are making a higher percent PER DOWNLOADED song than each album sold. they don't have to do CD duplication with the digital media. On album that they sell for $12 in the retail stores $3 goes to retail store, $1.50 - $3.00 goes to duplication and printed art work depending on colors/quality/etc, and the rest goes to the record label. So they make $6 on an album sold in retail stores, and about $9 off an album sold off iTMS. Pretty good deal if you ask me.

They're just whining because people can buy just the good songs and not buy the fluff songs. Good bands sell all their songs. Take a percentage of singles:albums ratio and that would show you the ratio of lamebands:goodbands.
 
I only plan on hearing things on reaffirming plans to take iTMS international and celebrating its anniversary. I'm glad that it's at least getting a conference call for some recognition.

I doubt to hear about any price changes except for maybe lowering them. I would like to hear a drop in the iPod Mini price, but I doubt they resolved the static problem and this would probably create unreachable demand and slow the chances for iPod Minis going international.
 
Ipod Predictions

I believe Steve Jobs will disclose he is really Satan and is tempting us all with earthly pleasures. Think about the second coming of Steve Jobs..?
 
JohnGillilan said:
Any guesses as to how many Pepsi songs were actually redeemed?
Click to expand...

I bet its not as many as there could have been, I have seen more yelllow itunes caps after the promo then during, atleast in my area.
 
I don't recall Apple ever holding an conference call like this before - isn't this type of event normally reserved for their financials?

Since this is a new type of event, its hard to predict whether there will be announcements, athough the fact that they're not having a fully-fledged media event would perhaps indicate that there are not going to be big US announcements - perhaps a European announcement?
 
Don't panic said:
so we'll finally know how many tunes they sold
any guess (including pepsi)?
I'll go first: 87 millions
Click to expand...

I say 71 million. I wound up winning 120 songs myself. Doing all that shopping I did notice a few problems with the iTMS.

1. Some artists greatest works are not available. The Rolling Stones studio version of 'satisfaction' is not available. There are many more instances of this as well. Who decides what gets listed on the service?

2. Disparity between songs listed in the information about the group and available songs. They have information about groups saying how important this album was and how that a certain song makes the whole album. Then the album is only partial and the songs mentioned are missing.

3. iTMS needs to have bookmarking and one button link send built into the iTunes application. Bookmarks are really needed for when you find that jewel of a song or album you are interested in but you wish to hold off on buying until you research it or other reasons. It would also be nice to just click one button and have it send the link to the current album you are viewing to someone in your address book.

4. The new pricing they have been using recently sucks the big one! Who wants to pay more for a downloaded version of an album that it does to buy the real thing. Also some songs now are over .99, I have seen some as high as 2.49, this is way too much.


As far as the iTunes app goes it should support ogg and wma, so should the iPod.
 
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