Apple Holding Back the Music Business?

conq writes "With average weekly download as of Nov. 27 sales down 0.44% vs. the third quart, BusinessWeek speculates that Apple might in fact be holding back the music industry." From the article: "As has been true since the start, iPod owners mostly fill up their players from their own CD collections or swipe tunes from file-sharing sites. Now legal downloads may be losing their luster. According to Nielsen SoundScan, average weekly download sales as of Nov. 27 fell 0.44% vs. the third quarter. Says independent media analyst Richard Greenfield: 'We're not seeing the kind of dramatic growth we should given the surge in sales of iPods and other MP3 players.'"

Comments

You're kidding, right?

[daeley]

The second "critic" expert they decided to ask said this:

"The villain in the story is the iPod. You have this device consumers love, but they're being restricted from buying anything other than downloads from Apple. People are bored with that."

Who was this expert?

None other than Chris Gorog, CEO of Napster Inc.

Yeah, Chris, people are *real* bored. And by people, you mean you and your cronies, and by bored, you mean not making enough money for your tastes.

I would expect more out of BusinessWeek.

Re:You're kidding, right?

[Phanatic1a]

What fucking lock-in scheme?

iPod plays mp3s. Anyone who's willing to sell me an mp3, or something I can turn into an mp3, can provide me with a product that plays on my iPod. Where's the lock-in?

Incorrect

[Prien715]

That's why the statistic is quarter over quarter. Every sales statistic in existance uses quarter over quarter sales to account for the routine seasonal fluctuation, since after all, it was almost Christmas this time last year as well.