iTunes Music Store - 'Coolest Invention of 2003'

Pingsmoth writes "Time Magazine has just named the iTunes Music Store as their Top Coolest Invention of 2003. Also among this year's favorites are 'fish-skin bikinis, a new love drug, the car that parks itself, and the invisible man'."

Comments

Invention ?

[mirko]

Making some digital media available online is not new.
I remember having the possibility to purchase media online long before this.
Now, if, of course, having these integrated in iTunes is cool, I somehow doubt it is that "cutting edge" (even though I am a Mac enthusiast and I love OSX).

Re:Invention ?

[TheDredd]

The way the store is presented, easy and powerfull is the invention they are talking about; Making it easy to use for everybody

Re:Invention ?

[LordLucless]

It may not be new, but iTunes was the first one that worked. Say what you will about originality, in the end, it's not worth a hoot if nobody uses your product.

Re:Invention ?

[ncc74656]

Who exactly is everybody. I run Linux and I can't use this store.

There's a bunch of stuff you can't run. There's a bunch of stuff you can. Deal with it.

I also heard the windows client sucked pretty much breaking other programs and what not.

You heard incorrectly...no breakage here, at least.

It isn't exactly "windows native looking" either.

That much is true...unfortunately, it's also true about Winamp, Windows Media Player, and most other such programs. Why they all have their own non-native interfaces and widgets is anybody's guess.

It's also only works with Ipod.

Now we're back to falsehoods...while the downloaded files only play in an iPod at this time, converting them to other formats is trivial.

Invention?

[Realistic_Dragon]

A pocket nuclear fusion reactor is an invention, a biplane made out of recycled cheese is an invention, a new kind of breaking system for cars is an invention.

iTunes is a store. It happens to be on the internet. That's not an invention, no matter how well executed it is.

Whew...

[cdrudge]

Must have slept in longer this morning then I thought. Good thing 2003 is over. Those last 2 months went buy really quickly. Nothing significant must have been invented...

A New Love Drug?

[whig]

Sorry, but something that gives you a longer erection is hardly the successor to MDMA.

Re:Hardly an Invention

[Talez]

Much as I think Apple have created an amazing proof of concept in the Apple Music Store I am not convinced it qualifies as an invention.. Downloading music off the internet is not new and paying for it is not new either...

It's not that they did it. It's that they did it RIGHT. It's an elegant solution which people actually enjoy throwing money at.

Now if they radically opened up the distribution to bypass the majors... now that would be rather revolutionary... but we'll have to see how far they take it..

Hello, we're Apple and we want to sell your music

Re:Hardly an Invention

[Mononoke]

-No DRM. MP3
-Try before you buy
-Artists get 50% of the purchase price, artists keep the rights to their music.
-No RIAA connections.

-No inventory.

One unknown record label that seems to be a refuge for bands that aren't good enough for the big time isn't gonna cut it. Imagine a grocery store that only carried generic house-brand items. Wouldn't be very popular or successful, would it.

iTMS is successful because they've made the proper deals with the right product sources, much like any other successful retailer has to do.

Greed

[Talisman]

From the article:

"At most, Jobs is left with a dime per track, so even $500 million in annual sales would add up to a paltry $50 million profit. Why even bother?"

Excuse me? A paltry $50 MILLION dollar profit?!?

'Paltry' and '$50 million dollar profit' don't belong in the same sentence.

This mentality is what's screwing the entire downloadable music process. It's not about whether it's profitable, it's about whether it's profitable enough.

Just for them saying that, I'm going to download some MP3s tonight. WTF...

Tal

It just works!

[camperslo]

I can see people having trouble with Time's use of the word "invention". It's their language, not Apple's. So many have used patents in an abusive way, it's easy to get into a defensive posture on even hearing the word invention. In the context of the Time article, "creative consumer offering" would better fit what they are talking about.
A product is more than a list of features. It's also about philosophy. Fairness, paying attention to the overall experience, and caring about behind the scenes detail is all part of this. Most consumers aren't likely to know that Apple is paying for the high-quality Fraunhofer IIS MP3 codec to let them use it for free in iTunes. Don't expeect to see things like that from MS/Napster. As any Linux user can tell you, beauty is more than skin deep.

Re:What, not the Segway?

[Colonel Cholling]

I think all the Segway proves is that throwing lots of cutting-edge technology at something does not guarantee its success. Nobody wants to pay the price of a good used car for an electric scooter, no matter how hard it is to tip over. You can buy a bike for a whole lot less.

Re:What, not the Segway?

[localghost]

Notice how it says "Coolest Invention of 2003." The Segway was released in 2001.

Re:Hardly an Invention

[jtdubs]

So...

> 1. It's hardware dependant.

If by that you mean that it runs on hardware, then yes. It is dependent on you having a computer. It supports Windows on any supported platform. AMD or Intel. It supports any Mac capable of running OS X. Meaning, G3, G4 or G5.

If you mean iPod dependent then you are full of crap. Perhaps you haven't actually tried it?

> 2. Until recently it was Mac OS dependent too.

This is my favorite complaint. "They did it wrong cause it USED TO have a problem." Jesus, son.

> 3. Terms of licensing are high with the music
> labels...recent articles suggest iMusic is a
> loss-run enterprise intended to drive iPod sales
> (see #1).

And your final complaint is based on an unfounded rumor...

Congratulations! You win!

Justin Dubs

Re:Mac users are FUCKING RETARDS

[cjfoste]

Just because some of you prefer to use lower quality software and non-intuitive buggy crap does't mean that us Mac users are retards. I know fellow mac users that could run circles in unix knowledge and/or programming knowledges and I also know mac users who know nothing beyond clicking their icon in the dock. Truth is..you can go any way you want in the Mac world, even if you just want something that 'just works'.