iTunes Conference Call

In his iTunes 1-year Anniversary Conference Call, Apple CEO Steve Jobs highlighted the , which were first reported by MacNN early this morning. He also talked about expanded personal rights usage, subscription services, and highlighted the growing selection of music, featuring over 700,000 songs from all five major music labels and over 450 independent labels as well as noted that in last year, over 70 million songs have been purchased, with current sales averaging 2.7 million per week, or 140 million per year. (Click 'Continued' for more details from the Conference Call.)

Jobs today said that Apple has the largest online music catalog in the world, touting over 700,000 songs from over 450 independent labels as well as the big Five. Using this morning's early release as a showcase, Jobs said that over 1,000 users have already published their music via iMix and there have already been 5,000 votes on those. He said that the radio playlists will allow users to buy songs they've heard on the radio. Jobs discussed the new personal usage rights, which reduces the number of times for burning a single playlist (from 10 to 7), but expands the number of authorized computers to 5 (up from three). On the issue of pricing, Jobs said that Apple will push the $0.99 per song model and that the "vast majority" of albums are $9.99 below--contrary to circulating media reports (including the USA Today) and that he sees album prices going downward (rather than up). Jobs said that HP expects to ship 8 million copies of iTunes this year and that Apple expects to be in Europe later this year.



Jobs took aim at the subscription services, saying that neither content owners, labels, or customers want subscription services. He said that users want to "own" not "rent" their songs. Jobs also noted that some subscription services such as Microsoft "Janus" music service, do not work with all playback devices.



Jobs concluded by saying the iTunes Music Store made small profit last quarter and that "music revolution" is here with Apple now selling songs at a rate of more than 140 million a year (2.7 million per week), and although it did fall shy of its 100 million goal, the number is well ahead of what anyone would have predicted. Jobs said the complete experience (iPod, iTunes, and iTunes Music Store) experience is only available from Apple and that he hopes that the iTMS drives both iPod and Mac sales.

by MacNN Staff