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New iPod Owner Onslaught Overwhelms iTunes
Billosaur writes "In the post-Christmas rush to power up and use their new iPods, an onslaught of downloaders brought iTunes to its knees, according to CNN. Monday and Tuesday saw users posting message after message about slow downloads and the iTunes site denying them entry. The heavy traffic was apparently more than the system could bear, what with the large numbers of people receiving iPods and iTunes gift cards. Perhaps Apple was underestimating just how successful they were going to be?"
I know three people who got them as gifts.
The Microsoft Zune store was working just fine.
Huh.
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
It's September on USENET all over again.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
iTunes got slashdoted, iDoted.
So they underestimated how successful they'd be, and will quickly throw money at the problem and correct the issue.
I don't see this as positive, or negative. It happened, if they fix it quickly we'll all move on.
http://use.perl.org
I never invested money in an ipod, due to some of the rantings and ravings about it. What would be its best competition out there on the market? Also, is the ipod store as populated with songs as they say it is?
Just me
2/3rds of the gifts I bought this year were iPods and iTunes music gift cards. I think I am not alone in this and the traffic shutdown on iTunes shows it. Apple has done a great job with their service and I don't mind paying for it. My wife did have to wait until yesterday to buy the rest of her Tunes though since the site was so hammered.
Laborare Est Orare
Somehow, I doubt that Apple feels too badly about this; and I'm sure they're scaling up their server farm to accomodate this, their most recent success.
Actually, most iPod owners could easily have a bumper sticker or wear a T-shirt that says "iDoted" with regard to the little music machines.
CNN confirms it! iTunes is dieing!
--fatboy
Well, I was using iTunes last night and it was as responsive as ever. Ripped a CD, listened to a podcast...
Oh, wait, did you mean the iTunes Music Store?
brought to you by Mr. Pedantic(TM)
#DeleteChrome
Quote: "Perhaps Apple was underestimating just how successful they were going to be?"
I thought the press was saying the iPod wave had crested and the sales were on a downward spiral....
What if Apple believed those reports and scaled back iTunes?... Naaw not likely. But it is nice to see Apple get suprised once in a while.
Apple sells a ton of iPods, and then gets press about how many iPods they sell. You can't just do a news story about Apple selling a lot of iPods for the holidays, that's the story we hear every year. You need a situation where they sell so many damn iPods that their service is overwhelmed. That's a story. And you're further reinforcing the idea that "everyone" owns an iPod and nobody owns a Zune. Yeah, it was a pain for people for a day or so. If I read a story about how many iPods were returned because people had trouble with the iTMS, that's something else. But do you think those iPods went back? Doubt it.
Creative's products are better. Especially if you want to play videos in a format people actually use (divx).
A couple anecdotes and an analyst who uses the technical term "blew up" are a pretty week foundation for a news story.
I have drawn these conclusions:
1. The iTunes service has operated just fine
2. It's a very, very slow news day
--Richard
Cwm, fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz
I bought my wife an IPod Nano and an I-Tunes gift card. I am so sorry.
I was gifted with an iPod shuffle for Christmas, and haven't even bothered to try out the iTunes store yet.
This post is about as useful as an alligator both on fire and LSD.
Doesn't Apple host the actual content with Akamai? I know their website did.
Yes, I've heard of the S/93-AOL stuff, but had filed it somewhere inaccessible.
I thought something actually happened this past September on the usenet and I somehow missed it. There are times I'm just too busy to get on and catch up. There was a bit of panic that my source for audio and video on the net might be somehow threatened. Luckily, it's just iTunes that's borked.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
I'd imagine only 10% of the tracks filling up all the new iPods are legal downloads. Everyone else is firing up their favorite P2P app to get tunes. I can tell you from experience that NOTHING is worse for routers than all the traffic from P2P connections. I wonder what kind of headaches major ISP's faced.
Remember the Forrester report just two weeks ago claiming that iTunes sales were collapsing? What ever happened to the Forrester that always seemed to predict hockey-stick growth for any and all online endeavors? Lately they just haven't been as upbeat, even when evidence indicates that they ought to be.
...they were talking of the FAILURE of iTunes just a month a go!
Dog is my co-pilot.
I love iTunes and my iPod. The iTunes Music Store... not so much. I just am surprised that so many pay good money for lossy, DRM-crippled music files. I know its about having the music on demand, but for crissakes, if you need that much music NOW you may want to take a look at general level of patience. My brother got an iPod and a card for the iTunes store. He got some music, but then had problems when the site went down. I think there is more worry about the fact that syncing libraries will only go one way (unless the music is bought through iTMS and you have access to your account), but I'm still not convinced that $.99 songs are worth it for lossy files, DRM, no cover art, etc. Just me?
http://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/Excerpt /0,7211,40858,00.html
If only Bernoff could find a rock, or maybe a pile of Zunes big enough to hide his pudgy bulk beneath.....
to get into the game. Simply put the iPod has had time to establish dominance. It has become part of culture. I know many people who refer to buying an iPod but don't consider it the same as an MP3 player. Being late to enter the market of any product which sparks public interest will leave all others behind, it doesn't hurt that most of the early competitors were trapped under MusicMatch (or whatever that horrid product was)
I think another thing the gave Microsoft issues, and it continues to hit the other players, is that there are too many competeing services for those machines whereas for an iPod the only thing most consumers will associate with it is iTunes.
Honestly it would not matter how good the Zune is, whether in features or price, I just cannot give someone any old MP3 player, kids want iPods and thats all they are going to settle for. With prices below $100 its hard to justify the little you save by not buying one. You would really just have to hate Apple not to buy one. Now when Apple can inspire this type of loyalty for their PC products it will be time for Microsoft to be wary. Right now I know of only 1 new MAC over out of dozens upon dozens of iPod users at work, new and old. The so called "halo" effect the iPod is claimed to have on this site and elsewhere doesn't seem to exist where I live.
PS: I am still waiting on a MacBook Pro is something similar to either the plain Macbook or smaller.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
I tried to register my ipod on christmas day. I just got the confirmation email today (Dec 28th). The site kept telling me over and over that they weren't accepting new registrations.
but right now, i'm wearing an iPood tshirt
p roductID=456
http://www.jinx.com/scripts/details.asp?affid=-1&
In the brick-and-morder storea if you suddenly had a spike in sales... no one blamed you if you didn't get a new store constructed in a day or two to meet the demand. Plus if the demand spike only lasted a day or two did anyone expect you to construct an extra store and have it just sit dormant until that one or two days next year when you had the sales to support using it? No. So part of me doesn't wonder if some of these big online applications don't kinda expect to have there hardware taxed for a day or two, and consider the cost of doubling there hardware costs to only handle one or two days of traffic spikes not worth it?
Guess I'm wondering if Apple suspected this would happen but considered the cost of increasing there server capasity to handle it (maybe even doubling it) not worth it?
To automatically download album artwork, it requires that you log into your itunes store account, which requires a credit card number to complete, even though there is no mention of any fees involved with doing so.
Idiotic, if you ask me.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
What was that about iTunes sales collapsing?
Hell, if they were to offer DRM-free tunes, even I would shop there.
It's a chance to tell somebody "I love you this many dollars worth"
Now in addition to being swamped, they are going to be slashdotted by everyone checking if they really are swamped.
The internet was overall extremely slow after XMas, mainly due to Taiwan going
offline for an earthquake. All the traffic to Asia had to go through the Atlantic cables instead of the Pacific cables.
It has evolved from a gadget toy to a veritable status symbol. Having a hanging iPod from your belt on in your pocket says "I am cool" and, no, no other mp3 player will do, unless it's a nifty phone that does both. Sad world, but this is why iPod will ALWAYS be the dominant player, no matter how much it sucks compared to so-and-so.
I don't understand the hub bub over iPods...I've used all forms of them from various people that I know...sure, the screen looks nice, but the interface is ATROCIOUS...not to mention the scroller is more like an infected nipple...finicky and ugly. The whole thing just looks like some candy-coated toy. Putting sugar on shit does not make it taste good.
No, for me my Rio Carbon (for work and general runnin around) and my Rio Karma (for my home network and my car) are still both pumping strong. The carbon uses a standard mini-USB cable and requires no software to put music on...it can also be used as a portable hard drive right outta the box. And lasts at LEAST 15 hours if not 20 hours on a single charge (25 if you keep the bass output and volume down)
The Karma comes with a docking station that allows it to be hookied up via your standard ethernet cable. In addition to the connection on the bottom for the dock, it too has a mini-usb connection. Granted, the Karma requires software to load music onto it, but that software also allows you to stream music to the web for free...
BOTH players can play a multitude of file formats, contain no DRM restrictions, and can be found for less than the cost of an iPod nano....
I dunno, I suppose I just don't see the purpose of buying an iPod. Sure, neither my Carbon or Karma can play video, but then again if I am in one place long enough to WATCH something, I would have a portable dvd player, or laptop, or home theater at hand...or I could just buy a PSP, which has MANY more uses if my needs require something more than JUST audio... It seems to me more like marketing superspeak more than anything else when it comes to people deciding to get an iPod; or maybe they just don't know what else is out there, who knows.
It is all a matter of opinion of course, and I don't look DOWN on people that own iPods...I feel sorry for them. Sure, they have all kinds of fun accessories or whatever, but still: they are buying a restrictive, overpriced, underprotected electronic device in which more money is spent in marketing than is spent on research.
I'm not anti-apple, nor am I even anti-iPod...I just think iPod's, while a marketing department's dream come true, are shit incarnate.
Living With a Nerd
Ever wondered what an iTunes store looks like while it burns? :-)
I wonder how much of a load this article is adding to those servers?
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
No, OP had a senior moment, but some moderator was kind enough to "laugh" at the "joke". ;-)
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Conformists..
I don't want to have to re-encode everything I download, though.
. . . Stevesy got his stock options in ITMS gift cards.
Every iPod includes a CD with iTunes on it.
now i just wish apple would sort out those darn sync-ing problems for us apple owners with non-US regional settings!!
Probably more of an indication instead of how much MSofters influence or outright control media content. C'mon we've been hearing for how long about iTunes Store and the iPod are on the way out and that Zune is sooooooo great. Then comes the wirebrush of reality for a visit to the soft foreskin of advertorial-land.
This is a good thing? In my world, when a web site crashes because of holiday traffic, I call them incompetent.
On the other hand, knowing Jobs' history, I wouldn't be surprised if he took half the servers offline to manufacture a "crisis" just for the publicity.
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
We experienced the slowdown, particularly whenever iTunes needed to access our account. Long pauses, and frequent fairly cryptic error messages ("the iTunes store cannot perform this function at this time. Please try again later." or something like that). We all said "It's probably slow because of millions of people who got iPods on Christmas day," tried repeatedly, eventually got through.
There were however some somewhat scary error situations in which it apparently rejected valid combinations of account names and passwords.
What I don't understand is why Apple wasn't able to post some kind of notice, visible in iTunes, saying that the store was slow because of high volume.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
Are there really that many people with Alexa installed (aka nerds) who don't already have an IPOD and would get there christmas present a day early? And I thought Itunes had it's own browser and wouldn't report to alexa anyway?
Interesting.
I jst made a few phone calls to people I know that work in places like that(all managers) and a VP I know of a certian large electronics chain, and they don't see anything like that wit the iPods. Sure there are returns but nothing on the scale you mention.
I am curious to see how this shakes out by the end of January.
I do know that on some of the older models, HP built them and those had HD problems.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Why doesn't apple leverage some bittorrent like technology? They have hundreds of thousands of people running their software with the content they need to distribute. It seems like such an obvious solution to problems like these. Maybe they could even incentivize leaving "upload mode" on by giving users a free song for every N (N = 100, 500?) their machine distributes.
They have this thing called a "load balancer" that they want to sell you.
Itunes crashes you!
Since I own stock in Apple, I sure hope this was because of tons of iPods being sold and overwhelming demand for ITMS downloads. However, it might have been caused by Apple's change in packaging. When I bought a Nano in October 2005, it came in a cardboard package, approximately the size of two CDs. It needed to be bigger than a CD because it contained a CD -- a CD with iTunes on it. If you buy a Nano or Shuffle (not sure about the video iPod) this year, they come in a clear plastic package that's a rectangular solid similar in size to a soda can. The packaging can be smaller because it does not contain a CD with iTunes on it. Instead, you have to download iTunes from Apple. So maybe that was the cause of the traffic in Christmas morning. Lots of first time iPod owners all trying to download iTunes. That's a 35 MB download, compared to the ~4 MB downloads for most songs on ITMS. Steve Jobs was touting that the smaller packaging was more environmentally friendly (maybe cheaper, too?)
The War on Downloaders
if you expected a 4 fold ncrease for 72 hours, then demand to drop to more moderate levels- you might decide to take the service hit rather than make a huge capital
investment that would cover your 'brownout'
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
"Or if they internally host, went cheap on setting up thier systems"
You are nuts. The Apple servers are always fast and reliable - As a card-carryin' Apple dude (since my first Apple II+) I have NEVER seen Apple servers get slammed, so this is telling me they really got hit - it's also very likely some of the reason for the meltdown lies with DVD Jon, and the perpetual stream of iTunes updates we need to download now to update the FairPlay DRM - it's likely all of the iPods and store interactions required people to download the latest iTunes software update to allow DRM'd song and movie downloads.
What's crazy is this is the way the industry wants us to go - and yet neither the Micrsoft LIVE servers or the Apple iTMS servers seem to be able to handle it when only a _fraction_ of the public opts to do it - I guess this will be the next decade's equivalent of a 'sold out item' - when the game or HD movie you wanted can't be downloaded for a day or two due to server overload.
ask the riaa
For encoding video to my PSP, I use pspvc http://pspvc.sourceforge.net/ which is ffmpeg based, but is easier to use and "just works" You could also use it to encode for your iPod.
We crashed your servers, What did they drop?
Starbucks, Harbuckle of Breath.
Well, that certainly explains why it took 40+ minutes to download an album, whereas normally it's 90 seconds tops.
Apple has purposely made the servers so they couldn't handle the influx thus creating the image that they are still a strong company in the eyes of the all important shareholders. It's all smoke and mirrors.
And by that I mean people who don't sit on slashdot all day wondering why everyone else isn't building robots.
That comment, sir, got you added to my friends list.
Your other observations about the importance of market research in determining a product's feature set are stating the obvious, but valuable nonetheless. Extremely granular market research that determines who will pay how much for this product over that product because of which features is what should have sent the Zune designers back to their drafting tables.
Seth
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
The Zen Vision:M plays the same files I'd play on my computer, or burn and play on my dvd player.
It isn't a dependable format. If I pack away a collection of iTunes encrypted music for 15 years, will I still be able to play it? Doubtful. Add to the fact that it locks me into one manufacturer if I want to listen to music I've purchased without cracking it, and it doesn't seem a very good deal to me. What if Apple starts producing things you don't like? Or someone else produces things you like much better? Lack of iTunes support in competing products isn't a deficiency in them, it's a deficiency in iTunes.
Also, I'm not American, and it's not illegal for me to pirate my music (and arguably not my video), so I really don't have any reason to put up with DRM in the first place.
Apple do seem to have a nasty little habit of denying that there are problems with their products. For instance
1) iPod Nano screens cracking and scratching
admitted after a long while. Also a class action law suit filed and won.
2) iBook batteries melting
batteries recalled.
3) iPod shuffle generation 1 and the dreaded error 1418
recently admitted with the release of a reset tool, after stoically denying a problem existed
And now they staunchly deny that there is a problem with the iTunes website. All a bit underhand methinks.
I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them. Isaac Asimov
It doesn't work with their DRM system -- every song is encrypted with the user's iTunes key, so every download is different.
h.264 certainly will give a smaller file size for similar quality, but it's also much more processor intensive to decode, and would eat the battery much faster. Further, why go to the trouble of re-encoding things to some esoteric format, when I've already got lots of stuff in divx that I can just throw on the device and use? And why would I want to keep two archive copies, one for the PMP and one for the DVD player?
There's also the fact that the Zen can output at 640x480 to an external display.
The iPod owns the market because of good marketing. Period. Apple would have to majorly screw up at this point to lose that. If an iPod meets your needs best, fine, that's nice. Have fun. But there's no need for a religious crusade against people who's needs are better met by other things.
My Zen is slightly thicker, but otherwise the same size as an iPod. It fits in my pocket, and that's all that matters from my perspective. 60GB is more than enough for me, so more isn't really much of a selling feature (again, to me. If it is to you, wonderful). The LCD on the Zen is much nicer for watching videos on, though not in the sunshine. However, if I'm out and about in the sunshine, I'll have other things I'll want to look at. It's a trade off, which works out in favour of the Zen for me.
I don't personally like iTunes very much, and have no intention of buying music from a DRM service, so that has no effect to me. I *do* bring my media player over to friends places to share music. This is perfectly legal in Canada, where I live, and I don't particularly like the idea of Apple trying to force American laws on me. I know it's possible to get at the music files in other ways, but why would I want to put up with that hassle if I don't have to?
i modded my ipod to look and works just like a v1.5 firmware PSP, it's amazingly slick and i don't have have to pay itunes when i wanna listen to music!
I had to fix a family member's Ipod mini on Xmas day and found that the ipod software updates were overwhelmed too. I wonder if many of the new pods were downloading updates too - it was nearly 20Mb I think. Seems like they come through the store now. Got it in the end though.
spoonerize "magic trackpad"
That's not actually true. All the files on Apple's servers are unencrypted, and stay that way until the iTunes client encrypts them. That's how DVD Jon was able to make a iTMS client that sent you unencrypted files.
Obviously it's a bummer to not be able to buy new music for a day, but with DRM, there's more at stake. On Chrismas, I wanted to transfer some songs and videos I already owned to my new iPod, but I was using my powerbook which I hadn't authorized to play the songs. Even though I had the files, iTunes wouldn't put unauthorized content on my new iPod. When I tried to authorize my computer, I couldn't because the iTunes music store was down.
Even if the iTunes store is too flooded to handle new purchases, Apple has an obligation to keep rights management up and running. It's very disheartening to lose access to content you made the deliberate choice to buy legally.
...for next Christmas.
cha-cha-cha chiapod!
It's a smash hit, just...ask...lesco!!!
Oliver.
::barf::
Worst AND most annoying song of 2006.
what's apples margin on itunes sales? I propose (and my original post was tapped out on a phone) that they may well have been aware of the likely result, and the beancounters decided it wasn't economically viable.
to rent a quadrupling of service is certainly possible, but when you arrange something like this, for a short duration- you pay out the nose.
the original slashdot post suggested apple was unaware of the onslaught to come- My thought was, they likely knew- but couldn't reasonably accomodate.
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
And really, nobody likes running with a large iPod either - if you expect to be actively exercising while listening to music you buy a mini version, like the Nano, Shuffle, Sansa, Rio, etc.
I fall squarely in the other camp - I carry a PDA (in a hardcase no less) which fills a wallet pocket pretty full, and I like it just fine. I use it primarily for reading ebooks, and I find the screen to be just big enough. I can load it with a subset of my music if I so desire, but I usually just carry the iPod too if I'm going to be away from a computer (where I would just use iTunes instead.)
Hmmm. Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
The iPod didn't get to where it's gotten solely on brilliant marketing; it had to actually have some real advantages to back it up. Go and look at iPod reviews from the beginning, and you'll see them talk about how good the battery life is (believe it or not, it was once a real advantage, though other players have caught up with that), how fast the transfer times were (remember, the iPods started out using FireWire back when most other players used USB, and I don't mean USB2), how small and light it was (even now, most other players of the same capacity are bulkier, and it's always been that way, and this isn't just a fashion thing - people who exercise with their players, for example, have real reason to want them as light as possible), and its utter simplicity (yeah, Ok, so the Zen may make more sense to you; just remember it doesn't necessarily make more sense to most normal people). Note also how, while Apple has added tons of features and whatnot since the iPod's inception, it's done so without changing the fundamentals of how it works as a music player; they've wisely chosen to keep it a gadget that does one thing really well and simply has additional features, rather than turning it into a jack of all trades, master of none. Further note that, for all the talk of zomgDRM!DRM!DRM! and lock-in and whatnot, it actually plays more formats than most other players (MP3, AAC, WAV, AIFF, Audible, and Apple Lossless, and that's just the audio formats, not the video or image ones).
Sorry your archnemesis' iPod ran over your dog, raped your sister and stole your Bible, but as we say on Earth, c'est la vie.
It is very much apparent from the rapid response to a simple query about options other than the iPod, that the Church of Jobs members do care very much that someone would dare to get something other than an iPod. I've said nothing about the relative intelligence of Apple's customers. All I've done is point out that there are options which are better for me. I don't have any beef against Apple. I'm just not particularly impressed by their products. The rabid and fanatical response of the fashionistas speaks for itself.
The Zen is just as simple, if not more so, than an iPod. Creative designed the interface the iPod uses. mp3, aac, wav, aiff, audible and apple lossless is a pretty anaemic list of supported formats, most players will support more. On the video side, it's important to note that the iPod Video does not support the most common file format: divx. H.264 is a nice, but it isn't very good for portable players. It's advantage is higher quality in smaller files, but it does this at the cost of greater processing requirements, which translates into more battery draw. Given that video capable portable players have storage to spare, divx is clearly the better choice. Further, any video downloaded from torrent sites is likely to be divx, and thus unusable on iPods.
As for ease of use, how do I easily go to a friends place to swap music with an iPod? Don't scream pirate at me; private copying has always been legal in Canada.
There's no reason for us to be yelling at each other. However, I stand by my statement that I get jumped on by fanatics whenever I make a negative comment about Apple here; regardless of whether you're one or not. A lot of people *do* form an emotional attachment to the Church of Jobs, and lash out at "heathens".
DivX support is a major issue for me. I'd be unlikely to use video features much, or at all, on a player that didn't support it. From my perspective, there's no reason to include video support if it won't play divx.
What makes iPods useless to me, though, is the ham-fisted attempts to modify my behaviour, by "locking" an iPod to a specific iTunes instance. 90% of the music I get introduced to is from friends grabbing my player and dropping stuff on it. Not being able to plug it into any random machine to copy music onto and off of makes the iPod largely useless in it's primary function to me.
The lack of DivX support feels like the same thing to me. There's no technical reason not to include it, in fact it's quite the opposite. H.264 is a horrible format for portable video, it's a huge processor hog, and thus it sucks back the battery power, while a divx decoder sips conservatively. The only sane reason I can think of for not supporting DivX is to mollify the copyright cartel.