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iTMS Europe: 800,000 Tracks In A Week
no_demons writes "In a press release, Apple has announced that the "European" iTunes Music Store has sold 0.8 million tracks in a week, with around 450,000 being sold in the UK alone. According to Steve Jobs other services were shifting only 50,000 tracks a week in Europe before the launch."
The RIAA still doesn't understand why singles are selling so well, so sues 428 more people.
I stole this sig.
A lot of people on here were doubting that the UK has much of a Macintosh userbase.
Of the people I know who've used iTMS AND BOUGHT SOMETHING, about half are Mac users and half aren't.
I know a lot more Windows users who've installed it though.
Join the Free Software Foundation
Harumph. At least if I don't own an iPod I am still a part of this Personal Computer Revolution with an old Apple //c sitting on my shelf...
what they don't tell you is that 74% of those downloads were made by Sporty Spice. She d/l'ed thousands of copies of "tell me what you want, what you really, really want" in the hopes of reclaiming some of her former "glory". It's shameful for all Europeans.
not yet up to the 2.5 million a week from the US. Of course, this is the first week and demand ramps up as people sign up and get the tech down pat.
This is good news for Apple (obviously) but what will be more interesting is how this affects iPod sales. We all know the iTunes Music store is a pimp for the iPod, so now that we have a controlled environment that we can monitor closely, I guess we can prove if Apple's music model really works the way they planned.
So while inertia-bound Microsofattempts to shift itself toward its many stated directional goals and moribund music industry giants try to pedal their own wares, puny Apple Computer, with a less than perfect portfolio continues to run rings around these beasts. I'm not exactly a fan of Apple, and find it quite odd that they have branched into music distribution, but I do love these results. Apple is establishing itself well and by the time the competition sorts out its own problems iTunes will be ubiquitous.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
What this proves is that Apple is becoming less a computer vendor and more a consumer electronics company. Sure, they still sell computers (I have a 12" PB), but their new focus is becoming clear. The surging price of AAPL only reinforces this new direction.
Lack of competition is not necessarily a good thing. I'm glad that the model of physical-medialess music is taking off, but I'm concerned about how much power Apple/iTunes may end up having in the future if they absolutely dominate the market. Will it be any better than the record industry now? (and don't kid yourself, there may be several "major" labels, but through the RIAA they act as one).
Look at a correlary in the "real world". What if the only place to get music was at your local Best Buy and that just about every other outlet sold orders of magnitude less.
Let's just be careful what we wish for...
-S
--- What parts of "shall make no law", "shall not be infringed", and "shall not be violated" don't you understand?
AOL UK and Apple have a deal to promote to DSL customers throuhg Keyword: itunes, where customers can download itunes :-)
"WebTV: bringing the Internet into the shallow end of the gene pool since 1995" - Martin Bishop
Anybody knows if there was any announcement of iTunes coming to Canada eventually?
miniature American flags for others! If anything, the early success of the iTMS in selected european countries indicates a trend that global internet business models can work in selected markets. Yet the internet in its most basic sense is about bringing information (or data, in this case) to all. Rather than simply transplanting the store to countries with similar capitalstic structures, the true "revolution" will be marked by the universal ability to experience the global art of music. Apple has not forged a new beachead. yet.
Guess it didn't really matter that Napster beat Apple to launch there.
I wonder if the RIAA's listening?
As an Apple acolyte I must say, that the UK is doing well to embrace iTMS Europe. France and Germany should follow UKs example.
Only through iTMS will both countries reach the musical zen that UK is about to reach! France and Germany dont despair you need but open iTunes and download more.
Oh here's the obligatory tag for those who missed it...
.... ... }
int main (void) {
A bit off topic, but it will come up anyways, so mod me however you wish:
.ogg for use in UT2004 seemed unnecessarily complex (burn to cd, rip to wav, encode to ogg), and as such I am wondering if a DRM is really necessary. I haven't pirated music in over a year now, and indeed have no such music on my laptop (or iPod) currently: I am now more prone to buy music from iTMS.
I've used iTunes since its inception (on OS 9), and have bought around 30-40 songs since the release of iTMS US (and have also downloaded the countless weekly free tracks). The DRM, while not particularly inconvenient to me (I have a 20GB iPod) seems to be a great sticking point to others. I have never had the need to use my music on more than 3 computers simultaneously, and have never needed to burn a playlist so many times as to exceed the iTunes limit (and even then you can change the playlist and burn again)
That said, the steps necessary to convert my favorite fragging tracks to
I am proud of Apple's successes and hope they go far in the future, but DRM is a dangerous and narrow path, and I only hope that Steve Jobs doesn't take his penchant for control too far with this one. Until that time, the current implementation is sufficient for me, and with new technologies such as Airtunes connectivity and convergence are becoming more mainstream: the need for DRM-less files is becoming less.
However... Apple needs to open their format to other companies. I dont give a damn, Steve, if iPod comprises 50%, 75% or even 100% of the market, if another company wants to use your insanely great AAC Protected format, they should be able to. The fact that consumers cannot use other digital devices to play the product Apple is selling is a major sticking point with many, and the tools necessary to allow this are being intentionally broken with each successive iTunes release.
Yes, I'm a fervent Mac Evangelist, but while this works perfectly for me, getting a friend with another mp3 player to start using a Mac and/or the iTMS is going to be pretty hard if I have to explain to him that he has to break the user agreement to play the files by breaking the DRM.
The format needs to be opened, and it needs to happen soon.
Help a college student
I would not be so sure about that... I personally know a few PC peeps who have iTunes installed and absoluting raving about it to a degree that they admit theyr next purchase to be a Mac. In a year or so, when their current PC is outdated.
the iPods receive short term market share gain from th iTMS, but i think the other Apple hardware will benefit in a year or so.
I'll eat my hat if, over the next 2 years, Apple market share doesn't rise to 150% of what they have now.
When will I end this grieving ? When will my future begin ?
Probably has something to do with it. Bam Thwok is exclusive to iTMS, and got a mention in nearly all of the iTunes launch coverage. Considering that the Pixies are currently touring Europe, I'm sure that drove plenty of sales. I for one bought Bam Thwok on iTMS launch day.
On each $0.99 retail Apple charges per song, shares are taken by the copyright holder (artist/label/RIAAbot), the retail outlet (iTMS/Virgin/Songhut), the finance transactor (Visa/telco/Guido) and Apple. What's Apple's share per song, their profit on these huge sales? Do they take a loss, leading sales of iPods and some Macs?
--
make install -not war
Those are some pretty impressive numbers indeed. In one week iTMS is supposedly the most popular music service in Europe now. Here's my question: since there were already other services up and running in Europe, were the European users waiting for iTMS to arrive and then just went nuts when it opened? Or did everyone switch from the other services? Why the huge numbers, which are blowing the other services out of the water, when others were available?
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts...for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang
Here's what I've been wondering:
I'm in the US and at the bottom of the iTMS home pages, I can select which country's store I want to see (USA, UK, France, Germany). When I select one, I'm taken to the store.
Can I, from the US, purchase songs from the foreign stores? I know I could try this myself, but I've been a bit leery. Anyone else tried this and have it work or otherwise? Each country store has some unique music not found on the others, and I'd like to buy some of those tracks.
-- Fighting mediocrity one bad post at a time.
And the headline reads: All of Europe buys equivalent of 65,000 CDs this week. Europe buys roughly 3 billion recorded music units (PDF) (almost all of which are CDs) a year. Even if iTunes maintained that sales rate (which is extremely unlikely), they'd sell the rough equivalent of 3.4 million CDs a year, or roughly 0.1 % of the total CDs sold. Sure, that'll make a dent in this whole piracy thing.
When do they start selling your code without paying you for your work?
NetInfo connection failed for server 127.0.0.1/local
The billing address on your credit card.
As I understand, for a time at least, you could purchase gift certificates with a US credit card and sell/send those to people around the world who could then use them.
I don't now if Apple ever squashed that.
Article X: The powers not delegated... by the Constitution...are reserved...to the people
That's what Apple says, but be leery of claims like this. Sony and Nintendo said the same thing about their console hardware, just to scare others off of the market. In fact, they made money off their consoles, just not very much. MS then entered the market, and really lost money on the consoles. Successful FUD!
Companies say "loss leader" in an attempt to invalidate the business assumptions of competitors. If you think about it, it's unlikely that iTMS is losing money. It's more likely that they're not making much money.
That phrase is working, though. The "iTMS is not a money maker" is driving others in the industry crazy, because competitors think they need hardware/iPod equivalents. Plus it's being parroted by members of the general public (ie: right here).
I decided to try this myself, you can't buy from the foreign stores. It gives you a message stating that your account is only authorized for purchase in the US.
So, in case anyone else was wondering, there is your answer.
-- Fighting mediocrity one bad post at a time.
"from the but-are-those-metric-tracks dept."
yes, complete with iambic pentametres [sic]...
So why exactly would they want to open this up, and help other companies sell devices?
Folks have often argued that they should at least open it up in areas where Apple doesn't yet have a market. They key word people are forgetting when they make this argument is yet.
Again, how is it in Apple's interest to let other companies piggyback onto Apple's extremely difficult (legally, technically), barely-profitable venture that is the iTunes Music Store?
Russia has compulsory licensing and AllOfMP3 pays royalties to the collection agency.
And they've negotiated the relicensing necessary to be able to distribute those songs internationally?
That's a pretty impressive task. I would guess that Apple and Microsoft must be fighting over whoever pulled that one off, as both of them have been completely unable to manage the same task within a single continent, let alone for the whole world!
It's like the people who bitch about authorities going to the expense of building bicycle lanes because "I never see a bike using that lane when I drive past every morning."
Anecdotes do not trump statistics.
Drill baby drill - on Mars
I just wish iTunes was European, not "European". It's like I started some company on the southern shores of Florida and tell that I have an [U.S.] American service (well, poor example but you get the point). Nonetheless, true to a point, but that point is one I don't like.
:D
:P
/* well this is my first post, hooray, whatever */
I was very happy to hear that iTunes was coming to Europe. Than I was a bit worried about the possibly high prices (well, we've gotten used to that when things come across the ocean to us). Than, when that was cleared up, best of all, turned out Apple's vocabulary and/or geographical knowledge is fairly limited concerning European countries
But hey, I always try to be as positive as I can, so now I hope iTunes will arrive to us before I begin my pensionary years
I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I can think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do.
That's because Mac users will actually pay for music. PC users steal all of theirs. :D
(j/k, of course).
You know this is bullshit, right?
I mean, how can you compare Euro with Dollars? Tomorrow the Euro will sink at USD0.5, and it will look to you as if their price just dropped by half. But no, they didn't, because those people in the UK and Europe still make the same amount of money.
First you got to know what is the average cost of living down there, average income, etc... and then compare that to the US. Then you have a "conversion rate" between Euro and Dollars that would be representative of how much money 0.99EUR is compared to USD0.99.
Anyways....
Write boring code, not shiny code!
The facts are: US law does not universally apply, and Copyright is not some sort of divine right. If you will look around a bit you will see some of the countries with the least restrictive copyright laws have very outstanding artistic histories.
Once again you lot confuse commerce with art. Artists have traditionally sought benefactors and relied on individual sales and performance contracts to generate income. The people who benefit from US copyright law.. blah blah blah blah... we've heard it before
So I'll say it again: look around. Russia has a very loose copyright system and yet they are far from being devoid of artists - nor of plastic pop has-beens. And, in fact, some of the brightest artistic moments from that part of the world came when artists were most persecuted - nor have their very liberal policies cost them their share of post-modern innovation.
I'm not saying we should abuse artists (well, except mimes) but the simple fact is these russian (and Ukrainian - another FSU state that is slated to join the EU) websites are simply exploiting the weakness of the oppression existent in our own economy - no different than when we exploit the labors of those kids who work for a buck a day rolling beedies, assembling hundred dollar sneakers, or putting overpriced plastic dolls in boxes.
So... how does it feel to be exploited by the foibles of your own beliefs?
Just curious, does Apple deliver iTunes Europe purchases from servers in the U.S. or do they have a European server farm for that ? Is global connectivity now good enough that servers in California can deliver that volume of data around the globe to Europe at about the same throughput and latency as could servers located in Europe ?
Ceci n'est pas une signature.
Face facts. People who buy *can't* meaningfully tell that it is 128kbps, or don't care.
If they did, it wouldn't sell. It does sell; therefore the price and convenience outweight the quality and sound.
GPL Deconstructed
You are correct. The 128kbps AAC files that Apple sells are about equal in sound quality to a 160/192kbps MP3 file. The MP3 codec was designed to eliminate from the file certain music frequencies that the human ear CANNOT hear. People are always bitching about Ogg and how they like lossless formats, well here is a news flash, you cannot tell the difference between the Ogg and the same file encoded in MP3 on your 100$ speaker "system" or your 30$ headphones. Realistically, only a 3000$ Bose system or greater would show a clear difference. (In most cases, the player actually limits the audio quality more than the file, i.e. the analog audio out/headphone jack on your iPod/discman).
CD quality is a highly subjective thing. I have encoded a CD as AAC and played it on my iPod and a CD player (with the same amp and speakers) and found it sound better on the iPod (the CD player was from the '80s, and did not handle digital to analogue conversion as well as the iPod. These results are probably not repeatable with a modern CD player).
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Erm. That's not true.
Check the latest multiformat 128 kbps test. MP3 was tied with AAC (AAC only had a slight advantage, but technically they were tied, check the error margin). Here you can see the end results.
It's completely false that AAC 128 kbps delivers "CD quality" and this test also showed that. No lossy format can do this (yet?). And I'm not talking about problematic samples here. Try to do a simple ABX test (you don't need extra expensive hardware, just some decent sound card and headphones).
It's possible to achive transparency with lossy formats on more than 99.9% of the cases (or whatever), but not with 128 kbps.
Cya
This is incorrect in several ways.
First, none of the codecs you mentioned eliminate frequency ranges, inaudible or not. A CD master itself does eliminate some high frequencies, which were deemed inaudible (and which have subsequently been demonstrated through research *not* to be inaudible to a significant minority of people). Compression eliminates some descriptive information about the sound itself, and operates at all frequency levels (though it is designed to affect some more than others).
Second, the codec and the equipment may limit the ability to discern weakness in the file, but most people can discern a difference with relatively inexpensive equipment. In many cases, people must first be shown what to listen for, however. (I teach a class on this. With more than 600 participants over time, I can show about 18 out of every 20 people how to reliably discern a difference in double-blind tests between 192 kbps MP3's and 128 kpbs MP3's. We're not using the world's most expensive equipment, either.
Finally, I and nearly anyone else in the audio or music worlds would take strong issue with your implication that Bose systems are somehow superior to most comparably-priced systems. Bose uses off-the-rack components that are often only one step better than the absolute cheapest components made. That their prices don't reflect this is a victory of marketing, not design. Go to any serious audio discussion on the web and start asking around about Bose. They are an absolute sham.
elo
What your looking for is Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) The implied PPP from the Economist's Big Mac index is 1 Euro = 1.06$, so the song's are still priced higher.
Ok. Here is the thing. The 128Kbps ACC files on iTMS are not the same as 128Kbps AAC files ripped from a CD let alone crappy 128Kbps MP3. The songs on the iTMS are encoded with a professional quality encoder from the Studio masters. Encoding from a CD would mean you were encoding twice. Once to PCM and again to ACC or MP3.
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.