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iTunes Music Store sells 275,000 Tracks in 18 Hours
physicsnerd writes "According to this article on Billboard.com, Apple's iTunes Music store sold 275,000 tracks in its first 18 hours of operation. The Register.com estimates that this netted Apple just under $100,000! Not too bad for a 99 cents store."
Impressive considering the connection problems people were having. Remains to be seen what usage will be after the hype settles down.
The Hurting is one of the best, most understated albums of all time IMHO. You really should give it a listen. It's timeless.
Good point. I actually think that the iTunes music service gives users a little more security to be able to buy an album without feeling like they're wasting their money. If you wanted to, you could preview every track off of The Hurting before deciding to buy.
Or another example: I've always wanted to get some of the bigger Tears for Fears hits, but never enough to actually pony up for Songs from the Big Chair. In the CD store, it looks like I'm paying a lot for some tracks that I'm not sure that I want.
But in iTunes, I have the per-track price as an option for comparison. I would definitely want 8 of the tracks, which would be $8. Or I could buy the entire album for $10. At that point, I just have to decide whether those extra 7 tracks are worth $2 to me. I eventually decided that they were, and bought the entire album. Yes, I could have done this with the CD, but I paid less at the iTunes store, and I felt more in control of the entire process. For that reason alone, I think that the iTunes store is fantastic.
Its funny to me how when Microsoft wants to design digital rights management into its products, people complain how it is unjust and how Microsoft is just plain evil. However, when Apple releases their new system of distributing music, it is considered revolutionary and ground breaking.
Big difference here. When Microsoft designs a DRM system that only plays on Windows machines, the chances of them allowing those files to be played on a Mac are slim to none. But when Apple designs a DRM system, they immediately state that they are working on a version for Windows. Microsoft has the luxury of not having to worry about the second-place software platform, because their market share is so large. Apple doesn't have the marketshare, so they can't afford to make a Mac-only solution for something that is so immensely desirable.
If you truely like the artist...
...you're going to get sick of those 3-4 songs eventually...
That's your mistake. Sometimes, you can really love a song, but not care about the artist. I could provide you with about a thousand examples, but I'm sure you can think of a few.
And there's your other mistake. Why do you think that people will get sick of songs eventually? History shows that that's not the case. How many times have you heard your favorite songs? 10? 100? 1000? How many people are still listening to American Pie after all these years? How many people bought "Like A Rolling Stone" from the Apple music store? In general, if you love a song, you'll love it for a long, long time. That's the reason the Apple music store is going to be so successful.
That sounds pretty cool. I may have to check this out.