iTunes downloads top 50 million

[nuckinfutz]

It is always nice to hear when Apple is doing well. I don't think Apple needs to make ITMS .wma compatible. They might want to make the iPod and mini .wma compatible. I am not an audio expert, but if .wma is so inferior to ACC, then let the people decide for themselves.

Either would involve Apple paying licensing fees to Microsoft. People keep acting like WMA is free or something. It's not. It's a proprietary Microsoft format. If WMA is so great and has liberal fair use then it should be trivial to burn a Redbook CD and rerip to whatever format you like. Who cares about the recompression. If you cared that much about the audio you'd have purchased the CD right?

 

[centauratlas]

Apple could either let other companies rebrand the store, licencense the AAC/Fairplay combo or open up to .wma. Doing nothing like this is foolish and will end just the way the closed Mac-Platform ended.

"Nothing"?

HP is re-branding the iPod *and* semi-rebranding the iTMS so far (http://www.hp.com/united-states/music/ and http://www.apple.com/itunes/hp/download/).

You can license AAC (http://www.iis.fraunhofer.de/amm/legal/index.html). Fairplay info is here: http://64.244.235.240/ and http://www.macobserver.com/comments/commentindivdisplay.shtml?id=39125. The only issue I see is whether Apple licenses FairPlay.

The better bet is license FairPlay, but do NOT do wma. Doing WMA plays into Microsoft's hands to promote a "standard" that can change on Redmond's whim and would only hurt Apple. If they have to follow Microsoft's lead, and always play catch-up on WMA (it will happen like MSIE on the Mac, Windows Media Player 9 etc) it will kill them eventually. They need to be the ones setting a standard, an open standard like AAC in fact.

 

[sethypoo]

Apple, don't be so arrogant. If you loose your imagination others will push you aside again and profit from your "insanly great idea".

Ha! Let them be arrogant! By all means they deserve it. Apple has started a trend that is turning the music industry around. If anything, the iTMS is kind of like a "lead by example" idea: it's showing the music the industry that suing file sharers is going to get them no where fast, and that they need a way (the iTMS) to better distribute their product.

 

[stoid]

I'm personally indifferent to the iTunes music store and whether or not Apple is selling enough songs, but I thought it was kind of funny to see how different news outlets are spinning this. As you might expect, the optimists are posting here, and then the BBC is spinning this as some kind of business calamity:

BBC's story

Well, I guess everyone's under producing then. I'll bet that Napster intended to make money and not suck. Looks like they didn't hit their goals either.

 

[johnnyjibbs]

The BBC's article is full of spin! The "misses sales target" headline is a little misleading because they would only have missed it had it been April 28th today! And yes, although Apple isn't going to reach this target, they are selling at an ever-increasing rate while the competitors are hardly getting anywhere near! They make Coke's 10 thousand a week is Europe-wide sound like a threat - how can you compare to iTunes' 2.5 million a week for US alone!?

 

[Doctor Q]

wow, 2.5 million a week after almost a year (for Mac users)/6 months (for Windows users) that would not be bought if not for iTMS...

...and the RIAA execs think their time is better spent on suing mp3 sharers rather than developing better ways to distribute their product...

I see that Apple legal isn't sitting on their hands either. An iPod lookalike software product named pPod, then pBop, is out of business.

link

StarBrite Solutions
Experts in Software Development for Mobile Devices.
Information on pPod / pBop.
Due to legal pressure from Apple we are no longer able to distribute this application.
Sorry for any inconvenience.

 

[centauratlas]

>arrogant

If they are arrogant they need to temper it with FEAR. Fear will motivate them to keep improving, take good licensing deals (like HP), and, I hope, keep them on top.

 

[corey]

Grrrrrrrrrrr I hate when people use this wrong. eSnow an Order of Magnitude is an exponent. Meaning LARGE jumps. like say 10 to 100. It absolutely makes no sense in the context you've chosen. Apple hasn't had a lead over the competition that is anywhere close to a magnitude.

i hate when people make incorrect technical corrections. exponents can be fractional, signifying smaller jumps.

for example, you chose 10^2=100, a large increase. but, 10^1.25=17.78, a small increase.

 

[eSnow]

"Nothing"?

HP is re-branding the iPod *and* semi-rebranding the iTMS so far (http://www.hp.com/united-states/music/ and http://www.apple.com/itunes/hp/download/).

Huh? this is just a customized iTunes download link, _not_ a customized iTMS. Teaming up with HP was indeed a good move, but it concerns no point of mine (open up AAC/Fairplay, rebrand the iTMS, adopt .wma).

You can license AAC (http://www.iis.fraunhofer.de/amm/legal/index.html). Fairplay info is here: http://64.244.235.240/ and http://www.macobserver.com/comments/commentindivdisplay.shtml?id=39125. The only issue I see is whether Apple licenses FairPlay.

Right. This is why I wrote about Apples failure to license out AAC/Fairplay
.

 

[PretendPCuser]

Let's hope that when the songs are counted...

No one can know until April 28, 2004 and all of the songs sold are counted.

...no one asks for a re-count.

 

[DeepIn2U]

I want in

There are doing pretty good!!

Just a little bothered that Canadians whom love music like the rest of the world cannot participate.

I wonder how many other sales could have been made if USA customers could setup their checking accounts for direct payment?? Since not everyone has a valid credit card.

Its good to see Steve was right in gambling that so many are annoyed with downloading off of Kazaa only to find out that the track is some DJs remix at a horrible basement party, let alone those HARRIBLE high-pitched screaming sounds in the middle/beginning/end of the song; that after the 3rd try.

 

[Lancetx]

There are doing pretty good!!

Just a little bothered that Canadians whom love music like the rest of the world cannot participate.

Well, people need to complain to the Canadian government or whomever it is up there causing the amount of red tape they're making Apple cut thru in order to bring the iTMS to Canada, not to Apple themselves. Same goes in Europe too, it's not like Apple wouldn't love to be selling in all of those markets, it's just that they're having to jump thru multiple legal hoops to get things going. Dealing with the RIAA seems like a piece of cake by comparison apparently seeing as it's taking them so long to branch out beyond the U.S.

 

[jxyama]

let's just settle the off-topic math issue...

"an order of magnitude" is a factor of ten.

the original post refered to the fact apple has now sold 50 million songs. the last updated number from napster was 5 million. hence an order of magnitude...

 

[jwhitnah]

wow, 2.5 million a week after almost a year (for Mac users)/6 months (for Windows users) that would not be bought if not for iTMS...

...and the RIAA execs think their time is better spent on suing mp3 sharers rather than developing better ways to distribute their product...

If the RIAA keeps it up, it will only help Apple's iTMS.

 

[dongmin]

Huh? this is just a customized iTunes download link, _not_ a customized iTMS. Teaming up with HP was indeed a good move, but it concerns no point of mine (open up AAC/Fairplay, rebrand the iTMS, adopt .wma).

Apple already has partnerships with:

HP (desktop link and rebranded iPod)
AOL (link from AOL music)
Pepsi (free songs)

and I suspect McDonalds will be on board as well as soon as the Pepsi deal expires. While Apple has traditionally been less-than-friendly about partnerships, they're doing a pretty good job this time around in expanding the market.

The Fairplay thing is moot, at this point. Apple is in a dominant position (near-monopoly); they have very little incentive to encourage other music services or portable players (which opening up their DRM would do). Sure it would help the adoption of AAC, but not by much.

As for Napster, they're really a non-issue. I don't see them lasting much longer. Apple's biggest threat will be Microsoft when they jump into the market. It'll be interesting to see how much Microsoft's legal troubles (antitrust) affect their strategy towards selling music. From today's NYT:

The greatest effect of a ruling against Microsoft would be evident in the way the company sells its music and video-playing software program Media Player. Instead of bundling the program into its Windows operating system as Microsoft does now, the European Commission is expected to demand that Microsoft sell two versions of Windows to manufacturers of personal computers — one of them with Media Player stripped out.

The commission has contended that by bundling Media Player into Windows, Microsoft is abusing the dominance of the operating system to the detriment of competitors like RealNetworks and QuickTime.

 

[jwhitnah]

Apple is trying to achieve the impossible:
- Dominating the mp3-player market (at least the market for premium players) AND
- dominating the music download market AND
- pushing AAC as the standard for compressed audio.

If they were good, they could hit one of the three. Two out of three if they are really good. But all three is impossible, there is too much money to be made that other companies would not attack sooner or later.
QUOTE]

Not a compelling argument. They dominate the MP3 market and the download market RIGHT NOW. Since they dominate these 2, you could argue AAC IS THE STANDARD ALREADY. One thing the new numbers do not reflect is the mini, which is flying off the shelves. The great thing is that with the mini, Apple is set to whoop a** on the "low end market'. Yes, big mo' is definately in Apple's favor!

 

[allpar]

Napster is the only one that has remotely successful numbers...The only way they are going to stay in business is if MS throws their marketing weight behind it, otherwise Apple is alone on the top of the pile by quite a bit.

Already happened. See how many media accounts talk about iTunes and iPod being tied to a proprietary format, "unlike WMA players." They could just as easily talk about how the iPod uses the universal MP3 and AAC formats along with the proprietary iTunes protected AAC format, right? And note that WMA is indeed proprietary! I assume MS gets royalties from WMA-using services?

The danger is Apple getting overconfident when Napster isn't the real danger - it's WalMart and all the other rebrands of Microsoft. Napster is a bunch of kids and MBAs. Microsoft is the gathering of sharks and criminals on the horizon.

 

[Wash!!]

Esnow sounds like...

like a pc user that is just really upset that he bought a bunch of music on napscrap site and he can't play it any more on his crappy pc anymore..... God I hate people that have to see everything from the "glass half enty"

 

[nuckinfutz]

i hate when people make incorrect technical corrections. exponents can be fractional, signifying smaller jumps.

for example, you chose 10^2=100, a large increase. but, 10^1.25=17.78, a small increase.

Congrats Corey you get an "A" for mathematics today...your golden star is on it's way! That doesn't change that fact that stating iTune store has been open an "Order of Magnitude" longer than Napster is out of context here because we're talking about less than 6 months. The statement was hyperbole and a poor rebuttal in my opinion. We may have to agree to disagree here.

 

[jwhitnah]

like a pc user that is just really upset that he bought a bunch of music on napscrap site and he can't play it any more on his crappy pc anymore..... God I hate people that have to see everything from the "glass half enty"

I have PC friends who are constantly ripping on Apple. So now the ipod and mini are popular. Will they buy it? No. They would be admitting apple could build something great at a reasonable price. When the other online music services start going belly up, I'll not shed a tear for their misinformed purchases.

 

[Wash!!]

I agree with you

I have PC friends who are constantly ripping on Apple. So now the ipod and mini are popular. Will they buy it? No. They would be admitting apple could build something great at a reasonable price. When the other online music services start going belly up, I'll not shed a tear for their misinformed purchases.

They can't bare that fact and drives them crazy that their beloved wincrapwmacrappydmr does not work any more and Apple and ipods are every where.

just as an example, yesterday i found a vending machine with the itunes promotion bottles it was almost enty the remaning bottles were all losers, people took all the winers already, now if that is not good marketing don't know what it is...

 

[stoid]

I assume MS gets royalties from WMA-using services?.

The only reason they wouldn't be is because they want to have the monopoly first. Once they get the monopoly, you can bet your **** they'll be charging a premium to license it.

 

[spinko]

Ha! Let them be arrogant! By all means they deserve it. Apple has started a trend that is turning the music industry around. If anything, the iTMS is kind of like a "lead by example" idea: it's showing the music the industry that suing file sharers is going to get them no where fast, and that they need a way (the iTMS) to better distribute their product.

I agree with that but arrogance won't get them anywhere in the long run. Apple has been arrogant about almost every new product they brought out so far (quote "G4, the Pentium toaster", "G5 the fastes chip around, etc.". Only to become the laughing stock two months later because the Winbox competition brings out something much faster while Apple struggles to get it's products out that where promised 4 months back at some expensive and overhyped show...

Please don't get me wrong. I've been using Apple computers since the first color Mac came out. I also think Steve J. has the vision needed to steer Apple in the right direction. But I'm getting tired of the current policy which consists of making loud announcements and then not delivering in a timely manner. Why not have regular updates ? Even if that means less spectacular ones. I feel it's essential for a computer company to keep the pipeline (and it's internet site) full of updated stuff. The Apple store hasn't changed much in weeks or even months. Why hold back the much rumored displays ? Or updated PB's ? Or better graphic capabilities ? etc...

The iPod is great but who in his/her right mind would want to carry 10000+ songs around and listen to them all ?? It would take weeks to do that ! And please, I don't know anyone who has 10000 leagal MP3/AAC songs.

Just letting of some steam and beeing of topic again ! Flame me if you want

 

[centauratlas]

Huh? this is just a customized iTunes download link, _not_ a customized iTMS..

I didn't say it was customized iTMS. I said "semi-rebranding". It is a step towards re-branding. Responding to a straw-man that you set up is meaningless. The point is that Apple is rebranding the iPod itself, and will no doubt do at least limited re-branding with HP. Just as they do iTunes with AOL etc.

 

[Wash!!]

I won't flame you but....

I agree with that but arrogance won't get them anywhere in the long run. Apple has been arrogant about almost every new product they brought out so far (quote "G4, the Pentium toaster", "G5 the fastes chip around, etc.". Only to become the laughing stock two months later because the Winbox competition brings out something much faster while Apple struggles to get it's products out that where promised 4 months back at some expensive and overhyped show...

Please don't get me wrong. I've been using Apple computers since the first color Mac came out. I also think Steve J. has the vision needed to steer Apple in the right direction. But I'm getting tired of the current policy which consists of making loud announcements and then not delivering in a timely manner. Why not have regular updates ? Even if that means less spectacular ones. I feel it's essential for a computer company to keep the pipeline (and it's internet site) full of updated stuff. The Apple store hasn't changed much in weeks or even months. Why hold back the much rumored displays ? Or updated PB's ? Or better graphic capabilities ? etc...

The iPod is great but who in his/her right mind would want to carry 10000+ songs around and listen to them all ?? It would take weeks to do that ! And please, I don't know anyone who has 10000 leagal MP3/AAC songs.

Just letting of some steam and beeing of topic again ! Flame me if you want

....must resist...can't stop it.... Oh ok I'm better now.

You make a good point, but you also have to understand the way apple does hardware, when they put something on the market they try to make 100% flaw free and that sometimes hurts them, I prefer wait another week for a better product than to get one half bake and full of bugs, Dell crapo palyer is like that even the PC experts label it as overprice beta unit that it was put it just for the sake of having one. Apple (Steve) learn the lesson of the newton, never again..