I thought I read on MacNN a few weeks ago that some analyst was saying that the digital music scene had plateaued. I thought they were saying that it was all downhill for Apple now that the market was saturated.

Maybe by plateaued they actually meant cliffs of Everest or something. It seems far more likely to me that the iTMS train has only just left the station. It's a bullet train only doing about 15 MPH.

The news not long ago was the download music sites had leveled off and no growth in sight. This most likely was the news or FUD created by the music labels to make an excuse to raise download music prices. Well now we have the truth that they were WRONG! Music prices should stay right where they are.

he news not long ago was the download music sites had leveled off and no growth in sight. This most likely was the news or FUD created by the music labels to make an excuse to raise download music prices. Well now we have the truth that they were WRONG! Music prices should stay right where they are.

Umm, actually you're wrong on the FUD part. Plateauing would favor apple, not the labels. If sales keep moving upward, it would show me that there's a market for higher-priced music. (h***, you've already got the "I'll never pay for music ever" group, the "I'll never pay for compressed music" group, and the "I'd pay like 30 cents, at most, for compressed music, but not $1" group. They ain't going anywhere. So apparently there's a market for music at $1. And if there's a market for $1, there's a market for $1.50, and $2 (just not as much of one).

And, as I love to point out, if people have no problem spending $2-$4 on a freakin' ringtone, you don't think they'd spend that kind of money on a full song?????

You're seeing a one time spike due to new purchases of iPods and ITMS gift cards. The key is sustainability. If the traffic stays this high, good. If it drops back down to the pre-Christmas levels, not as good. ITMS is just another retail establishment that sees increased sales at Christmastime.

--Mike

You're seeing a one time spike due to new purchases of iPods and ITMS gift cards. The key is sustainability. If the traffic stays this high, good. If it drops back down to the pre-Christmas levels, not as good. ITMS is just another retail establishment that sees increased sales at Christmastime.

Mike, who in the h*** do you think you are, coming here to a mac web board, and daring to pontificate logic and reason on anything pro-apple, in essence bashing apple. Don't you know that makes you a troll. Get lost troll! We have no room for people with views other than Apple is great. This isn't about a xmas spike. Its proof that Apple's iTMS is the bestest store ever and will ever increasingly do more business. To say otherwise just proves you use Windows and are part of that covert Windows-lovers camp that will do anything to see apple fail.

Oh, yes, I'm being sarcastic. (I put that in because too many people here can't seem to understand blatant sarcasm, irony, or over-the-top exageration for humor's sake).

But what you fail to realize, testudo, is that while you may only buy 3-4 ringtones a year, you might be purchasing 3-4 songs a month or a week. It's easy to justify spending $3 once on a ringtone. A little more difficult to justify $30 for ten songs.

That being said, I think ringtones are just one more "sucker" revenue streams for the cell phone companies. :)

I agree that there is the logic of Christmas spike for all retail outlets, but one demographic in iTunes favor is that there are two markets for online music - one legal and one illegal.

The illegal market is already saturated, the legal one is going to continue to grow as "normal" people buy iPods and don't want to or know how to get illegal music. Baby boomers will be buying music online. So I think the "plateau" pressures and the "Everest" pressures will cancel each other out to make good 15% increases for the foreseeable future and that is what we are seeing. Of course increases in markets outside the US will be greater than here.