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Windows iTunes Sells A Million Songs In 3.5 Days
ajkst1 writes "According to an Apple press release, the iTunes Music Store has sold 1 million songs since its release on the Windows platform on October 16. Also of note is the 1 million downloads of the iTunes music program itself. When the iTMS was first released, it took a full week to sell a million songs. The store has now had 14 million songs purchased and downloaded since its original launch in April."
>> Windows iTunes Sells A Million Songs In 3.5 Days
Incorrect.
Fact: There were 1 million downloads of iTunes for Windows.
Fact: Between Windows and Mac there were one million songs in 3.5 days.
I downloaded iTunes on Wednesday and used it to buy an album that night. Even though I'm on 56k dial-up, it downloaded flawlessly (although it did take about 4 hours, as I expected). I have to say that I'm pretty impressed - for a free jukebox program, it's really high quality. It still has some issues and bugs that could be polished out of it, but overall it's a well designed and easy to use program that I have no major complaints about. It's heads and tails above Windows Media Player 9, and a better jukebox than Winamp (although I think Winamp is still a better standalone player). If Jobs can play his cards right, this could be big.
Check out Treesandthings.com for offbeat news
not sure what you're talking about...
I've found 5 albums
"Raising Hell", "King of Rock", "Back from Hell",
"Run-D.M.C.", "Run-DMC: Greatest Hits"
I hope every one isn't posted to the front page like when iTMS first came out.
Seriously, I think iTMS for WIndows is going to be much bigger than most people have given it credit for. M$ can dismiss is all they want, but unless they have something better to offer I'm not seeing much viable competition. It amazes me that after Apple overwhelmingly demonstrated to the marketplace that customers don't want subscription fees or cutthroat DRM, there are still companies out there trying to make those business models work. Oh well, meanwhile iTunes will rise to the top fast.
-You may license this sig for only $6.99.
Have you looked into CDBaby for electronic distribution?
I agree. This editorial at ars technica looks at some of the points you bring up.
Actually you can disable those services if you really want, also there is another serviced for CD burning galled "Gearsec.exe" you neglected to mention. This too can all be disabled if need be, at the expense of CD/DVD burning in iTunes. Admittedly I have no clue why apple couldnt just have these disabled by default and only enabled as needed. But if you are intelligent enough to know it is eating up memory you should be intelligent enough to disable it.
Akamai uses piles of linux boxen. There are 3 1U VA made machines at my ISP, and we have an entire rack of 2U machines at the U of MN.
you can do that without buying a thing, which is what I have been doing, which is why instead of buying 4 songs i bought 3 albums and one song.
"Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."
Eat crow, idiot:
m l
http://www.tidbits.com/tb-issues/TidBITS-678.ht
Tracks available via iTunes Music Store are not MP3 files: instead, they're encoded using AAC (Advanced Audio Codec), a technology from Dolby Labs which is also incorporated into the MPEG-4 standard. At bit rates of 128 Kbps and above, AAC offers greater audio quality than MP3 encoding, although AAC doesn't necessarily do as well at lower bit rates (such as those suitable for modems). Using AAC also enables Apple to tap into the digital rights management (DRM) technologies rolled into QuickTime 6.2, preventing the tracks from being swapped as easily as MP3 files. Users can transfer AAC files purchased on iTunes Music Service to another computer, but iTunes 4 and other AAC playback software will require the original purchaser's ID and password to play them.
The Ars Technica article missed the obvious other solutions, by presenting the closed choice of "either AAC or WMA" DRM.
1. No DRM on the stupid file at all.
2. Use an open standard DRM technology (existing, new, or open its own AAC DRM scheme M4P).
MORTAR COMBAT!
I haven't bought any music yet, but I have loaded iTunes on two of my Win XP boxes with no problems and used it for searches and playing music. I think the interface is very well thought out, and I love the feature set. Selection seems pretty good, although I have seen a few old favorites of mine that aren't available yet (Stan Kenton band doin' Hey Jude for example).
The interface is almost identical to iTunes for OSX (from what I can tell...the wife won't let me touch her Pismo). Way to go, Apple!
"It's a dog eat dog world out there, and I'm wearing Milk-Bone underwear."- Norm (from Cheers)
The appeal is that I can buy two good songs off of an otherwise crappy CD for $2, rather than being forced to buy the whole CD for $12+.
What possible advantage is there to this crippleware?
It's not so bad. Burn the AAC files to a CD, and rip them into MP3. Voila. (As for sound quality, I've done this and have zero complaints.)
-W
All unfair meta-mods are now being meta-meta-modded as retarded.
Since Apple, and all of the other pay services are contracting with the record labels for rights to sell their music, just like CD retailers do, I'm sure all they have to do is ask the LABEL for their royalty check, as they normally do.
At one point I heard Mr. Jobs discussing the backend, and yes... the Xserve, Xserve RAID and the venerable MacOS X Server are all the behind-the-scenes puppetmasters for iTunes Music Store.
:)
Of course, Apple also uses Quicktime (once again, their own product), likely coupled with some in-house custom app to do the encoding and maintenace of the store, so you could say that when using iTunes, you're using Apple software from end to end, save for your OS if you happen to be stuck on a Windows box.
Of course for me on this 17" PowerBook, it's Apple to Apple from a to Z.
From the encoding of the track, to the storage, to the serving of the data to the client that receives it and the playback engine that processes it... all Apple hardware and software.
Few other companies in the world build "the whole widget", and even fewer make it all work so wonderfully.
bash-3.00$ uname -a
SunOS panda 5.10 Generic sun4u sparc SUNW,Ultra-2
I read somewhere that s)ome artists have said that due to the way it's licensed, they make more money off of a single track sold through the iTMS, then they do through a hard copy sale of one of their older albums. (Sorry I don't have the link to back this up - search the mac rumor site archives if you're interested). Keep in mind that Apple's not responsible for paying the artists, the label is. You may be interested in researching how the music industry currently works, before spreading FUD about a new technology that goes about selling music.
On 8 November, the $9.99-a-month unlimited download service will be limited to a maximum of 40 downloads each month. Subscribers can increase that figure to 65 downloads a month, but that will cost them $14.99. A monthly payment of $50 will buy them 300 downloads each month.
That's under $.25 per track, for MP3s with NO DRM. A better (legal) deal cannot be had. Plus, it has lots of independent stuff not found elsewhere.
:wq
They certainly got me. I'm sitting in front of my work computer, happily listening to my _entire_ music collection with my new iPod. After downloading iTunes and reading some reviews/specs on the iPod, I went out and bought a 20gb one. I was looking for an mp3 player, and the idea of being able to store 20 gigs of music was what helped me make my decision :) Couldn't be happier.
And this is coming from somebody that hasn't touched an apple for > seven years.
Props to you, apple.
find / -name "*.sig" | xargs rm
yeah, the search engine is something apple needs to improve. --crappy on suggesting near hits. so, i search for partial names (e.g., run) and then sort the results by artist/song/album if need be.
Actually, yes, some probably will, but it's going to depend on the label, isn't it? I'm going to guess that artist-owned labels, a la Mailboat Records, are going to get a fair amount to the artists. In point of fact, Mailboat has some albums which have only been available through the iTunes music store so far, although they're going to be released on physical media by month's end.
I'm not dissing your point, but it's not Apple's fault--or for that matter, Tower Records' fault, or any other place selling songs on either digital or physical media--if artists aren't being paid very well by their publishers. Increasingly, artists are opting out of the broken major-label system, and while I'm sure most of them aren't doing substantially better, the chances are that most of them aren't doing any worse.
And that's one advantage that Apple does potentially give independent labels that places like Tower don't: equal footing.
I'm under no illusions about Apple doing this out of a sense of noble goodness, but so what? The entire recording industry "as we know it" may well be changing--but it's a sea change, not a sudden cataclysmic shift, as independent artist-owned labels find ways to get better distribution, taking advantage of new technology in ways the major labels can't or won't. If Apple remains open to independent labels and opens further (as they've clearly started to), they're going to be a force for this change, not an impediment to it.
Except for when iTMS doesn't let you buy the one "hit" on the album by itself. Quite a few "album only" tracks there.
Admittedly I have no clue why apple couldnt just have these disabled by default and only enabled as needed.
Your average joe probably never checks the options and just expects things to work. Activating an option while obvious to some, there is still a good number of people for whom it is not obvious and would probably get more people phoning Apple for help than needed.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
Heh.
:-)
It's listed as Run-DMC.
There are 9 Albums. You can find them by browsing.
Why "Run DMC" or "DMC" come up with nothing, when it's named Run-DMC, seems to be a limitation.
If you really care
If your an indy band without a label you can try CD-Baby they have cut a deal so that indy artists can go though them to seel on ITMS. You can read about it here and here.
You could contact CD-Baby to find out more.
I don't know where people are getting the idea that you need an iPod if you have iTunes. I've been using a Nomad IIc flash-player, and iTunes recognizes it and works with it through the USB interface just fine. Is this some FUD or what?
Check to see if you have other conflicting CD burn software... on my PC I get a message about iTunes CD recording software not loading because it conflicts with some other software... good luck.
If you never resolve the issue, call up Apple and explain, they should be able to credit your account or something.
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
From the Apple Q4 conference call:
137,000 iBooks shipped ($154 million)
336,000 iPods shipped ($121 million)
iPods represent almost as much income as iBooks!
Without iTMS for windows!
What will those numbers look like after this Xmas?
Hello?
The iTMS drives sales of iPods.
Apple need not turn a profit on the iTMS.
By Making-The-Whole-Widget (tm) Apple can compete against the likes of Napster, et al on completly different terms.
It fits in with their overall iApps strategy.
They are definitely making gross profit from iTunes. Assuming they spent shitloads of $$$ on R&D, they might have high depreciation costs and so their operating profit might be negative. Though even with $40 mln investment figure (crazy, isn't it?) that I heard somewhere and 5 year depreciation period they still need to depreciate about 650 thousand per month. And they sell 2.4 mln songs per month to Apple users only, which makes more than that if we ignore the operating costs for the moment (They can't be high, hosting/traffic is cheap, even with lots of free streaming, as Apple gets 1$ per song). In any case, that's simply a matter of time and increasing their sales. But with Windows they must immediately become profitable. And probably very profitable.
Future Wiki -- If you don't think about the future, you cannot have one.
Not to rain on the parade here, because the CD Baby deal is still awesome. Here's how it works. Artists are getting 91% of what CD Baby gets from the iTunes Music Store(iTMS). In general, Apple gets 34 cents from each 99 cent track, leaving CD Baby with 65 cents.
65 cents * 91% = 59 cents to the artist.
Now the artist has to pay CD Baby $40 up front to process a CD. So the artist starts out $40 in the hole. After selling 68 songs on iTMS the artist has made back the $40 and goes into the black. Since a CD probably has around 11 tracks on it, that is 6 CDs worth of songs. Not bad at all.
So iTMS and CD Baby absolutely rocks for an independent artist. It's almost definitely better than going the conventional route of getting a major label to press CDs and promote you.
Sapere aude!
Let's see what you got wrong. Let's start with your first point.
Here's the ACTUAL quote from the press release, "Apple(R) today announced that Windows users have downloaded more than one million copies of its new iTunes(TM) for Windows digital jukebox software in just three and a half days since its launch last Thursday, and over one million songs have been purchased and downloaded by iTunes users in the same period"
That also covers your second point. As for your third point, there was absolutely no mention in the story or press release saying X% of the downloads were from Windows users. So you should get YOUR facts straight before you go posting about a story was wrong.
No need for all that hassle, just convert AAC files to MP3s within iTunes:
1. Open iTunes (for Windows).
2. Click on the "Edit" menu and select "Preferences".
3. In the window that appears, click the "Importing" tab.
4. Select "MP3 encoder" from the "Import Using" menu. Select your desired MP3 quality. Click OK to close the window and save your changes.
Now you can right-click any file in your library and select "Convert Selection to MP3" from the contextual menu. Done!
Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, START
Well, I switched. The other week I was thinking about grabbing a copy of "Vincent" by Don McLean...and then I realized, "Hey, it's probably on iTMS". It ended up being the first song I purchased online. Then I bought a song I heard on a car commercial (hey, it's only $0.99)...and so on.
Several weeks later, I have spent about 2 times as much through iTunes as I had during the previous year on music. I'm still not crazy about the recording industry policies...but knowing that the artists are getting a slightly more significant share of these profits, and that I have the *opportunity* to actually *own* my downloaded files, it's a start. I just hope that 1) This diminishes the roll of the RIAA, and helps out independant labels, 2) Competition lowers prices, and 3) Selection goes up (so that I can start replacing some of the other songs I have downloaded that I haven't been able to find elsewhere).
Actually, you don't need a credit card to redeem the gift certificate. I gave gift certificates already to 3 of my children who don't have credit cards. They did need to open an account and in that window, the iTMS asks for a card. However, if you cancel out and go through the whole process a second time, you will see an option for 'None' in the credit card info pane. Definitely a bug in iTMS.
...albeit for iTunes 3: Article 75451 :-)
Looks like lots of Rio, Nomad, and psa]play devices. Oh, and apparently the iPod too
Thanks,
Peter