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Apple sells one million songs through iTunes Japan

updated 11:15 pm EDT, Sun August 7, 2005

iTunes Japan hits 1M songs

Apple today announced it has sold more than one million songs from the iTunes Music Store in Japan. The announcement comes just four days after the company of its market-leading music service. "iTunes has become Japan's number one online music store in just four days," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "iTunes has sold twice as many songs in just four days as all the other online music services in Japan sell in one month." Apple also said that more than 90 percent of the songs priced are priced �150 per song (about $1.35) and that the new service features a mix of local favorites and popular international artists, with Japanese artists claiming both the number one song (Def Tech) and the number one album (Ulfuls).

by MacNN Staff

(16)

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industry, digital music/video

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mugwump
Junior Member

Joined: Feb 2000

0

08/07, 11:36pm | report spam | close Reply |
hehe

Good times.

This should help iPod sales in Japan, and once the iTunes store mania hits the streets, it's gonna be nuts.

But unlike other fads that quickly fizzle, this one has some legs.

I believe there's even a Japanese podcast in the top 100 in the US.

iomatic
Mac Elite

Joined: Oct 1999

0

08/07, 11:38pm | report spam | close Reply |
DOOM!

Apple is doomed!!!!

heh.

...

avfolk
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Feb 2005

0

08/08, 12:36am | report spam | close Reply |
Sony

You can bet that Sony is listening (watching). This will give much greater credibility to Apple's digital vision... and greater collaboration between two great companies. You can also be sure that others (Microsoft, Dell, Real) are also beginning to see the writing on the tablet....

aristotles
Grizzled Veteran

Joined: Jul 2004

0

08/08, 01:12am | report spam | close Reply |
RE:Sony

Apparently, Sony did not make it into this launch because they were trying to thrust their own format on Apple.

I think Sony Execs are probably begging Apple to be able to join iTMS Japan on Apple's terms.

Makosuke
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2001

0

08/08, 06:11am | report spam | close Reply |
Music vs Hardware

Interesting position that Sony's in as a result of being involved in so many different business areas: They can either shoot their music division in the foot by continuing to hold back their music catalog from the iTMS in favor of their own online store, or they can shoot their hardware division in the foot by joining the iTMS.

If Sony were big enough in either area to leverage their power it'd be a different story, but this time out Apple is obviously in a much better position.

It's also interesting to note that the JiTMS has managed these sales with a paltry domestic catalog; there's plenty of foreign music on there, but Sony has a whole heap of very popular artists that they're holding back, and there's very little older music--my wife and a friend spent two hours looking stuff up tonight, and probably less than a quarter of what they searched for wasn't on there (no Sony artists, and almost nothing more than a few years old). I expect the latter issue will be resolved as stuff is added over time.

Still, good to see that iPod fever is just as strong in Japan as in the US.

resuna
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Joined: Jan 2005

0

08/08, 08:34am | report spam | close Reply |
ObTroll

"Apparently in tests, it took iTMS Japan 20 minutes to copy a 17Mb file from one folder to another. The copy, apparently, causes Netscape to hang, and puts a lot of strain on editors like BBEdit lite."

HTH, HAND.

Zaren
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2001

0

08/08, 08:58am | report spam | close Reply |
Access from != Japan?

What I want to know is: is there a way a gaijin like myself can access the .jp iTMS? I'm a fan of J-pop (anime geek, whatever) and would love to be able to get cheap / legit access to songs here in the States.

niji
Forum Regular

Joined: Jul 2001

0

08/08, 09:10am | report spam | close Reply |
1 million

1 million tunes.

whackjob
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2005

0

08/08, 11:58am | report spam | close Reply |
Naturally

as though it would have been a flop? Apple is the future of legal downloads and the odds of any one catching up anytime soon is minimal.

The only way is if others offered MUCH cheaper downloads and not making a profit and in fact a loss.

Until then, Apple and the iTMS is king and will be for a while.

testudo
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Joined: Aug 2001

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08/08, 12:26pm | report spam | close Reply |
Re: sony

I think Sony Execs are probably begging Apple to be able to join iTMS Japan on Apple's terms.

Oh, please, what makes you think that. A freakin' million songs? They probably easily made 10 times that in CD sales in the same time period. And you think the Sony guys are complete idiots that they thought no one would be buying music through the iTMS? They knew/know, and a million songs in a week isn't going to magically make them think they were wrong.

Apple is the future of legal downloads and the odds of any one catching up anytime soon is minimal.

The only way is if others offered MUCH cheaper downloads and not making a profit and in fact a loss.

This kind of thinking is what drives companies out of business. The iTMS is only #1 because the iPod is #1. Once the iPod fad dies out (yes, and it will), or people start buying more and more competitor products that aren't compatible with the iTMS, the iTMS will quickly fall in terms of sales and such. It has nothing to do with it being king of the hill. The only thing that makes it popular over the others is the fact the iPod is more popular then the others. And I seem to recall that Apple's computers were more popular, and better, then the competition, at one point too. How'd well they hold on to those numbers?

Of course, considering what I've read as the price of music in Japan, compared to the US, this isn't that surprising. But all you fanboys really need to cut down on the rhetoric like "as though it would have been a flop?" or "Apple and the iTMS is king and will be for a while" or "But unlike other fads that quickly fizzle, this one has some legs." or any of the other stuff that implies Apple can do no wrong, and will always be king of the hill. It just becomes pointless rhetoric that people just ignore after a while (sort of like all the whining people do whenever someone dares say something bad about Apple).

tuscmat
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Joined: Mar 2004

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08/08, 12:51pm | report spam | close Reply |
Response to Testudo

Testudo, since you have placed yourself in the role of prophet over the future of digital music, where do you think it's headed? And, when you post here, you are somewhat critical of Apple, what do you think they should be doing?

benhur
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jan 2001

0

08/08, 01:04pm | report spam | close Reply |
slow down there

"as though it would have been a flop? Apple is the future of legal downloads and the odds of any one catching up anytime soon is minimal. "

I hope Apple doesn't have that mindset. I think the competition is only getting started. I still think there is room for subscription services if done right and MSN and the Xbox 360 and PS3 have yet to put their full weight in.

Apple is on top, but it will take more innovation to stay there.

testudo
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Joined: Aug 2001

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08/08, 03:08pm | report spam | close Reply |
Re: Response to me!

Testudo, since you have placed yourself in the role of prophet over the future of digital music, where do you think it's headed? And, when you post here, you are somewhat critical of Apple, what do you think they should be doing?

I'm not placing my role as prophet. All I'm saying is "The iPod is a fad" and "It can't last forever, no matter how much you all think it will."

The Sony Walkman was a fad, and while it still sold many years later, it was also met with hundreds of competitors that basically made it a commodity. When you said "I need to get my walkman", you didn't necessarily have a walkman, just a portable radio/tape deck, like my Emerson POS that's 20 years old if a day, is huge and clunky, but still works - as I was using it yesterday. But I've never called it an Emerson so-and-so. Its either a 'radio' or a 'walkman'.) Once the iPod fad wears off (where its no longer the 'it' product), then the consumer space will be filled with more non-iPods then iPods, because people just want a music player, cheap. And at that point, Apple and the iTMS are in for some serious problems unless they decide to license fairplay out to iPod competitors (to keep iTMS sales going) or license WMA formats for use in the iPod/iTunes (to try to forestall iPod sales' drops).

Not to mention the fact that at some point, the populace as a whole may finally demand a set standard for DRM (or no DRM, as it all may be), rather then having to fight through the logjam of "what player will play my music?" and the more infuriating "What do you mean that if I want to buy this great new player from Rio, I can't play any of my legally purchased music on it that I got from iTMS?" [And don't give me the stupid "Well, you can burn it to a CD and re-rip it." because no one I know wants to spend their days burning and ripping music (If I wanted to do that, I would've just bought the CD)]. All this DRM (Apple, MS, RIAA, etc) is going to come to a head at some point (oh, wait, I said I wasn't a prophet....).

And I have no idea what Apple should be doing. Never claimed I knew. I would like to see them agressively create, update, and price their computers (PowerMac G5s are a joke in terms of a 'pro' machine, all other lines are a joke on their inflexibilities and their impressions on being overpriced). But then, since Apple has generally been moving away from being a computer company, I guess we should just be happy they bother to sell us a compute at all, right. Who needs four drive bays, or a couple of optical drives, or 5 or 6 PCI slots, or 5.1 surround sound, or USB ports (3 USB ports on any computer is a huge joke, esp. in this world of peripherals - one for the keyboard, one for the UPS, one for the printer, damn, where's the scanner get plugged into? What about the flash drive, or external hard drive?)

But that's all just me being completely unrealistic to think Apple should

Todd Madson
Mac Elite

Joined: Apr 2000

0

08/08, 03:25pm | report spam | close Reply |
But....wait a second.....

When the Sony Walkman TPS-L2 first came out, I jumped on it. It was about $229 if I remember right back in '79 or so and I used it to death until such time as it fell out of its case and fell down the stairway at the Minneapolis/St. Paul International airport a few years later. It got replaced with another Sony after that. Looking around the house a few days ago, there is a water resistant Sony Walkman Sport, an AM/FM Walkman, and just a cassette Walkman. There are no clones. Why? My guess is that when I buy things I use them to DEATH and the cheap stuff doesn't last. My wife is the same way, the cheap imitation stuff is generally not of a quality nature. This might explain why there are at least three iPods in the house - they just work.

Not saying that another brand might have some desirable features or be cheaper, but its the integration and user interface that people buy the iPod for and the fact that it is the IT product now.

There will be a backlash but the sales will still be high enough that it will be popular for many years.

By then they will no doubt come up with something else new and stylist and interesting.

Peter Bonte
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2001

0

08/08, 03:50pm | report spam | close Reply |
point of no return

iPod and the music store have reached a point of no return, if apple keeps up the good work they will grow past Sony or even MS. I wish :)

People tend to stick with there known good working brands and apple is now among them, apple can release anything living-room orientated and it will sell (according to price and function). There's no stopping this unless they'll produce total c*** like Philips, Philips in europe totally lost consumer trust on anything but CRT TV's and is now in fast pace going downhill. I see a good future for Apple :)

resuna
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jan 2005

0

08/08, 10:22pm | report spam | close Reply |
iPod user interface?

The iPod user interface isn't so great. The shuffle's simpler controls are actually better than the finicky click-wheel design, and the iPod only looks good because nobody's really pad any attention to the MP3 player user interface they way they have to things like casette decks, CDs, and radios.

That is, the click wheel isn't great, it's just that everyone's so terrible that the click wheel looks good in comparison.

I spent way too much time fiddling with the controls on my iPod, accidentally brushing the oversensitive clickwheel because I'd forgotten to flip the "disable" switch, and so on. I gave my iPod to my daughter and got the so much more practical shuffle.

For something you're going to control by feel (I can do that with a CD player, why not an MP3 player?), here are the design principles you need to follow:

1. No more than one function per common control. 2. Controls organised in common groups.

The d-pad style in the shuffle is great, much better than joysticks. The on/straight/shuffle switch is a mistake, it's to hard to reliably settle on linear order. For navigation through menus, a 3-button or jog-wheel side controller is fine, you don't need separate forward/back buttons if you don't need to use the menu to select things like shuffle or step through songs.

You need back, play-pause, next, volume-up, volume-down, mode, power-sleep, menu controls, and maybe balance... though that's rarely something you need to tweak frequently.

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Apple sells one million songs through iTunes Japan

updated 11:15 pm EDT, Sun August 7, 2005

iTunes Japan hits 1M songs

hehe

DOOM!

Sony

RE:Sony

Music vs Hardware

ObTroll

Access from != Japan?

1 million

Naturally

Re: sony

Response to Testudo

slow down there

Re: Response to me!

But....wait a second.....

point of no return

iPod user interface?

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Apple sells one million songs through iTunes Japan

updated 11:15 pm EDT, Sun August 7, 2005

iTunes Japan hits 1M songs

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hehe

DOOM!

Sony

RE:Sony

Music vs Hardware

ObTroll

Access from != Japan?

1 million

Naturally

Re: sony

Response to Testudo

slow down there

Re: Response to me!

But....wait a second.....

point of no return

iPod user interface?

Login Here

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