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iTunes Share of U.S. Music Sales Reaches 25%

I know I shied away from buying music from iTunes except in one-off cases where I only wanted one or two songs from an album. I'm still more inclined to buy CDs, but I find I'm a lot more willing to buy certain albums from iTunes when they are priced aggressively compared to the physical CD. Especially now that all the music comes DRM-free. I've probably tripled or quadrupled my iTunes purchases since FairPlay went away.

(Yes there's the Amazon.com MP3 store, but searching there sucks and I've had some issues with some of their downloads that don't start playing for several seconds.)
 
Should Apple have this power?

shiseiryu1 said:
I'm glad to see that iTunes is dominating. Overall it's a great service...plenty of variety and great ease-of-use.

One bad thing that I've noticed about iTunes recently though is if you buy an App from the App Store and then it is later revoked/removed, you do not automatically receive your money back. I think this is a serious flaw and if Apple is going remove Apps they need to auto-refund customers as well. If they don't fix this, it will erode consumer confidence in the App Store. I've had several apps removed from my phone now that I've had to email apple support about to get my refund. That's just unacceptable and there is no excuse for it.
Click to expand...


You have mentioned the reason that I have been staying away from the iPod Touch/iPhone area. I believe that no company, Apple included, should have any control on what I legally loaded onto that computer device. The ability of Apple to take Apps off of my Apple equipment is more power than they should have.

Having only one source of software for any device is not in my normal way of doing business. This sounds like a recreated Microsoft. Many people here will do anything that they can to do away with the control that Microsoft wields, but they fall in lock step when Apple does the same thing. They say it is not the same. It probably isn't really as in most cases Microsoft allows third parties to write & sell software without their approval or consent.

Regardless of how good or bad that one believes that the iTunes App Store is, it should only be one source of applications for any device.

I have been a Mac User for over 25 years now & have never bought a MS-DOS or Windows computer other than my Intel Mac Pro. So I am a long time die hard Mac User & purchaser. I just do not like Apple taking 100% control of "MY" computer. If this hapens then it becomes "APPLE'S" computer, but just located at my house.
 
shiseiryu1 said:
I'm glad to see that iTunes is dominating. Overall it's a great service...plenty of variety and great ease-of-use.

One bad thing that I've noticed about iTunes recently though is if you buy an App from the App Store and then it is later revoked/removed, you do not automatically receive your money back. I think this is a serious flaw and if Apple is going remove Apps they need to auto-refund customers as well. If they don't fix this, it will erode consumer confidence in the App Store. I've had several apps removed from my phone now that I've had to email apple support about to get my refund. That's just unacceptable and there is no excuse for it.
Click to expand...

Could you expand upon that?
There was the furor over Amazon's yanking of content for the Kindle App, but I've never heard of Apple removing an app from a user's phone. Pulling an app from the store doesn't pull it from a phone to which it's been downloaded.
If you've experience otherwise, you have a scoop.

(Yes, I understand that ability to yank apps from a device is possible in order to control rogue apps, but I've yet to hear of it actually being done.)
 
Sorry to spoil some peoples fun here, but this so called research is worthless!

Yes Apple is growing, but no the US is not representing the rest of the world, not to mention this snippet: "registered participants in NPD’s consumer panel". Again worthless.
 
heisetax said:
You have mentioned the reason that I have been staying away from the iPod Touch/iPhone area. I believe that no company, Apple included, should have any control on what I legally loaded onto that computer device. The ability of Apple to take Apps off of my Apple equipment is more power than they should have.
Click to expand...
Apple != Amazon.

Apple doesn't remove software from the iPhone or Touch.

shiseiryu1 is either mistaken or he just made that up.
 
heisetax said:
Having only one source of software for any device is not in my normal way of doing business.
Click to expand...

I have dozens of devices in my home that contain computers. ONLY my Mac has the ability for me to control the software in the way you're describing.

Other devices where I do not have total freedom (without hacking):
Cable Company DVR
Apple TV
iPhone
Nintendo Wii
Nintendo DS
Honda Civic
Thermostat Heating/Cooling system
Dishwasher
DVD Player

So that's 1/10

Clearly "normal" is to not have that control, the opposite of what you think normal is.

John.B said:
Apple doesn't remove software from the iPhone or Touch.
Click to expand...

They do have the ability to do it and the right to do it. So it is a concern.

But as far as I know, they've never actually done it so yes, I think that poster was confused.
 
shiseiryu1 said:
I'm glad to see that iTunes is dominating. Overall it's a great service...plenty of variety and great ease-of-use.

One bad thing that I've noticed about iTunes recently though is if you buy an App from the App Store and then it is later revoked/removed, you do not automatically receive your money back. I think this is a serious flaw and if Apple is going remove Apps they need to auto-refund customers as well. If they don't fix this, it will erode consumer confidence in the App Store. I've had several apps removed from my phone now that I've had to email apple support about to get my refund. That's just unacceptable and there is no excuse for it.
Click to expand...

i don't know about Mac's, but on windows all the apps are downloaded as .ipa files in your profile folder and you can back them up to another location and between computers. to restore just point itunes to the files and it will add all the apps back. no need to download apps again if you restore your phone
 
John.B said:
Apple doesn't remove software from the iPhone or Touch.

shiseiryu1 is either mistaken or he just made that up.
Click to expand...
I really hope so! I personally have never had any of my apps/albums removed from my iPhone. Heck, not even from iTunes.
 
When Apple starts offering lossless files I'll be happy to join in and buy all my music from iTunes. Until then I'll keep buying CD's as long as they make them.
 
Rodimus Prime said:
but it cost extra. You have to pay 30 cents extra for that right.
Click to expand...

Or spend $0.30 on a CD-RW and burn them as audio CD and re-rip. A little time consuming, but something I've done with my favorite 100-200 tracks I've purchased, by reburning 10-15 CD's. Something I was able to do passively while surfing the web.
 
Cynicalone said:
When Apple starts offering lossless files I'll be happy to join in and buy all my music from iTunes. Until then I'll keep buying CD's as long as they make them.
Click to expand...

I'm assuming you've bought DVDs in your life?

I find that most folks who would never, ever buy compressed music are the same folks who are perfecly happy with DVDs. I kind of find that amusing.

If you've rejected DVDs too, then I take it back.
 
czachorski said:
Or spend $0.30 on a CD-RW and burn them as audio CD and re-rip. A little time consuming, but something I've done with my favorite 100-200 tracks I've purchased, by reburning 10-15 CD's. Something I was able to do passively while surfing the web.
Click to expand...

and get a huge drop in quality? No thanks.
 
I would love to see a side-by-side comparison of the iTunes sales figures and the sales figures in an alternate universe where Apple didn't drop DRM. Perhaps it would reveal the extent to which DRM was hampering sales.
 
mkrishnan said:
I think a potential downside is that there's no evidence that the three-tier pricing system (which I hate) is stifling sales.... :(
Click to expand...
I preferred the 99 cent price for all songs.

But if the three-tier pricing system is helping to improve sales, then I'm all for it. I'm tired of the RIAA, who are a non-value added organization IMHO, and DRM.

I would venture speculate that increased sales are probably due to DRM free option which leads to Dr. Q's question:

Doctor Q said:
I would love to see a side-by-side comparison of the iTunes sales figures and the sales figures in an alternate universe where Apple didn't drop DRM. Perhaps it would reveal the extent to which DRM was hampering sales.
Click to expand...
Likewise.

DRM free is so much nicer, but has it helped to increase sales? Darn good question. :)
 
Small White Car said:
I'm assuming you've bought DVDs in your life?

I find that most folks who would never, ever buy compressed music are the same folks who are perfecly happy with DVDs. I kind of find that amusing.

If you've rejected DVDs too, then I take it back.
Click to expand...

Movies are not the same as music to me.

I see no reason to pay Apple $9.99+ for an album when I can get it for the same or less from Best Buy and import it at higher quality settings.
 
Cynicalone said:
Movies are not the same as music to me.
Click to expand...

And that's the answer, which is the part I find interesting.

Music people are always looking for the best quality, no matter what.
Movie people have been complaining that Blu-Ray is not needed since DVDs are good enough for them.

I'm not critisizing you, I just find the difference very, very strange.

And I'm a movie person, by the way. I can't see paying anyone for an album. So I find your arguments strange, like listening to a conversation in a language I don't understand.
 
Even with a $1.29 per song? hmm I think thats the stupidest thing they have even done.. I refuse to pay that much for a song. I think that was a bad move on itunes but next year they will probably account for 50% :confused:
 
I think I spend over $2000 in iTunes in the past 3 years.

Cynicalone said:
I see no reason to pay Apple $9.99+ for an album when I can get it for the same or less from Best Buy and import it at higher quality settings.
Click to expand...

But sadly, some artists have an extended albums (extra songs) only offered on iTunes. :mad:

So I buy, make a playlist of the extra songs and burn for friends who prefer to buy the hard-copy CD.
 
likemyorbs said:
I wonder what Limewire's share in the music industry is...
Click to expand...

Equate it to the number of PCs compromised by the malware infections every single installation of Limewire causes ...

All those poor, ignorant, Windows users and their free music. :cool: Isn't quite as free when you need to reformat your computer once a month or more often than this, is it?

Congratulations, iTunes. We love you (especially since you went DRM-free) but you need to lose some weight, please. You taste great, but need less bloat filling. :D

EDIT: Oh, and you Mac Limewire users are idiots too. The Darwin code won't protect you forever.
 
Sky Blue said:
Thanks, Captain Obvious. He didn't say it should be free, he said they should do it. They already have.
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I think what he was pointing out is if only apple would open it up so you would not have to pay extra for the privilege to do it.

I do not consider the DRM free songs in the same area as DRM.

Also not all of the iTunes songs can be bought with out DRM.
 
If I ran a music label I would be scared. Since the Apple vs. Apple Corps. lawsuit is over, Apple could theoretically decide to start their own in-house music label. What would be interesting would be to find out how much of iTunes' marketshare has been due to Apple's retail presence in the form of physical gift cards at their biggest competitors like Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy, etc.
 
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