... keep watching people, Apple has planned more announcements on a roughly-weekly basis to keep this store in the news for at least another month. More artists, labels, albums etc are coming. DO keep sending in feedback!

Apple Rocks!

Electra is...or at least was...owned by Sony

I love the store, and I love the fact that the byline for all of this is "ready for Windows by the end of the year".

Nice to see the other side have to "wait patiently" for a change. That's a switch! (No pun intended)

PC's Drool!

That may be true but rapshody has complete albums where apple only has the partial. Specific example, the band Mountain

Unlike many of you, I am hoping that the PC version will come out as soon as possible. I use a Mac myself, but with the incredible sales from 5% of PC users, imagine the windfall Apple will come into with other 95% taking part in this. With Apple behind such a huge, revolutionary success, they'll gain even more than just profits. If someone like, say, Microsoft, stepped in before then and stole some thunder, then that'd be a huge opportunity lost.

what sales would be like if people like myself were allowed to buy (outside USA). I've been chomping at the bit ...

I guess being Canadian will put us in the same boat as Windows peoples ... maybe Windows will even be able to buy sooner?

Where are they. This is perfect for more unknown music to emerge. Tired of seeing tracks that i've seen and heard already.

why are we talking about rocks biggest sell-out act of our lifetimes. this new cd is going to be c***, c'mon, a single with ja rule?

they will sell Music Video online, then other sort of videos, then movies, independent productions...

...of Apple's business model. Apple has obviously done something right and yet Apple has a very small minority when it comes to computer users.

It goes to show that if you treat people like people, and stop trying to treat them like criminals, maybe you would get some positive results.

Apple rules.

Can they back that up ? Don't mean to ruin your enjoyment here but I remain cautious. That's all. A far as these sales figures go, I hope they keep going up. What would they be if Apple could extend the offering to other countries ?

What about Europe ??? 50% of the market share of Apple is here...

The service is great, it just lacks Virgin label (Rolling Stones etc.) and also Atlantic (Led Zeppelin etc.)...

Why would anyone want to buy a music video? I mean, you can see them for free if you're that desparate to see some sort of "This is my view of the song" deal from some two-bit director and egomaniacal star. Plus, they started out as a new promotional medium for new songs (like trailers at the movies). You'd think they'd be paying us to view them, not the other way around. (Of course, you plunk down $9 or whatever at the movies and still have to sit through endless promotions for other movies. One of many reasons I don't visit the theaters anymore, along with most movies suck, people are just too freakin' rude, and you can't pause the damn thing if you have to hit the head).

And why would you want to get movies on-line? Either you get huge downloads, or lousy picture and sound. h***, just easier to rent a DVD.

this is piddley winks money for a company like apple. lets say they duplicate this success for an entire year - i.e. they sell a million songs every week. that is $52 million in revenue. that's nothing! apple typically makes 6 billion in revenue for the year. we are talking about less than one percent increase in revenue here folks! the figures i've heard say that apple only gets to keep 35 cents per song. so now we're down to $ 20 million or so. they probably spent that much just to get this off the ground. in otherwords, they would have to keep up this rate for an entire year in order to break even!!!!

if apple doesn't get the service rolled out for windows before anyone else does, then they have blown it. BIG TIME.

if apple doesn't get the service rolled out for windows before anyone else does, then they have blown it. BIG TIME.


First, they're never going to match their computer sales, because they make too much money. But consider that this can spur sales of Macs and/or iPods, and you see how it can help.

Plus, you make the assumption that they CAN do a windows version. For all we know, their licensing deal with the labels might say "Mac Only for the first 6 months". So they can see how the service works for them on a small sample, and then if they like it, let it expand to Windows (which, in turn, would also let the other sites do the same).

$1M of revenue is one week. Not too shabby. h***, they probably did more revenue in that week from music sales than they did in HW sales.

What about independent record companies? These are nowhere to be found on the Major Corporate Label only iTunes Music Store.
Could it be there is an agreement with the majors regarding this? I would think that the iTunes Music Store could do much to circumvent the distribution channels (controlled by the Big 5 record companies) and give independent labels and artists as much exposure and as much of a chance of being purchased as the the Majors.

Windows blows...

Don't worry. Microsoft doesn't have anything nearly as cool as this.


Macs are like rocks.

PC's are like eggs standing on their tips, just barely standing and extremely unstable at that.


- Buy a Mac and step in to Heaven.

- Buy a PC and dive into h***.


Mac's rock!


Throw away your PC's, you'd be doing anybody your thinking of selling it to a favor. They're all garbage.

PC Smashing Day!

Hahaha! Yes!

That would be music to my ears.

Heck, I'd even toss you .99¢

Well, 1 million songs at 10-20 cents profit each isn't anything to sneeze at, esp when you do it in a week. Assuming Apple sells 20 million tracks this quarter that's 2-4 million dollars cleared - when your profits are 14 million, 2-4 million more is nothing to sneeze at.

And they are working on a Windoze version - Apple posted a job for a senior engineer to work on iTunes for Windows.

... they're gonna p*ss off Windows iPod users who just got used to using MusicMatch software and make them switch to WINTunes which will be second rate as it's a first version piece of software...

In the meantime MusicMatch is going to change their service to match what Apple is doing, and then release it prior to Apple's offering and voila ... Apple looses again.

History repeats itself (keeps on).

Bottom Line is that the Mac is a nice platform, but they keep quoting

I luv this service alot! I get to check out songs to see if I want 'em or not very easily. Write down the title of tracks, then fire up the WinMX to get 'em! What a convinience!

Windows users would be more than happy to jump onto iTunes. Also how is musicmatch going to change their software to match Apple? Musicmatch can't get the licenses to the music in the first place. What? Will they just interface directly into Kazaa?

As for music videos I agree with the other person. Music video sales will start the video sales portion of the equation.
I bought a CD just because it also had a music video. Fat Boy Slim. The video with Christopher Walken dancing. That video rocks. I would buy other music videos too for the right price.
As for watching them on TV? Huh? MTV rarely plays music videos. Most cable providers don't offer MTV2. Does not mean I would buy each and every music video I liked, but I would buy some. Apple could do one better by selling the music video along with the song whereby you had the song to burn on CD as well.

Bottom line is yo momma ain't accounting for the bottom line considering how fat it is.

PC users will have to wait, it is only logical.
Apple needs to upgrade server strength and bandwidth.

damn I hate it when PC bean counters troll Apple boards.

Listen losers, this enterprise is NOT ABOUT THE MONEY. Let me repeat that: IT'S NOT ABOUT THE MONEY.

You people are *absolutely right* that the profit Apple makes off this (at present) is a drop in the bucket. But profit, while nice, is *not* what is motivating Apple to do this. It's not even about selling more Macs and iPods. Those are the ICING on the cake.

The "cake" is about CHANGING THE WORLD. About empowering artists and listeners to take control AWAY from the record companies. *That's* what this is about. If you don't get that, you don't "get it."

Oh, and for those of you who are bothered by the (minimal) DRM structure -- let's face reality, shall we? If they *don't* put DRM into these files, you steal them and don't pay for them at all, do you? That's what I thought. So DRM is a given, dudes. You brought it on yourselves.

Apple IS working on signing Independant Record labels. After the announcement, they were flooded with Indie labels calling and begging to be included.

C'mon Apple,

You sell plenty in the UK & rest of Europe. Where is our iTunes Music Store? We pay more for the hardware and get a second class deal. Poor.

Dear rest of the Apple users in the world,

Admittedly, Apple has not brought all products to you with the speed you like. However, let's remember several things. One: Apple is a business. They are in this to make money. They want your money as much as anyone else's. However, as they make computer products there are US laws restricting export in some cases (hardware or "technology") and language issues to deal with as well. Look at the video gaming industry for proof that this is not Apple out to get you. Games regularly come out in Japan first and are then released in the US months later (or vice versa). Notably, angry Japanese people do not write letters flaming Electronic Arts or whatever. Yes, it's just video games but the point is the same. The companies want money, but international dealings and preparing multiple-language software isn't simple.

Second, as has been said everyplace I've read, there is more to this than just software. International copywrite laws are not simple, and there are FIVE record companies involved who have to negotiate international distribution issues with Apple. CHILL OUT. They want your money, they're working on it. Not everything is a conspiracy, Mulder...

Poor indeed, but not on Apple's part. Take off the blinders and check out the big picture here. Poor.

is lack of selection.

So few of the songs I look for are there. And my tastes aren't way out of the main stream. They've got to get more stuff on. Like several times as much on - and quickly - before people get the impression that their unlikely to find what they're looking for, so why bother.

I love the idea, and the execution, but one way or another, whoever's "fault" it is, they've got to get more stuff on. It seems like most of the big names of more than a couple years old, are hardly represented.

Doors, Kinks, Pink Floyd, Beatles, Grateful Dead, are some big ones, but just about all small bands are just as missing.

They have a decent "range" of stuff, but only a thin surface.

Some of the responses re: international access to AMS remind me of a Bloom County cartoon where NASA is bragging how Politically Correct they are by sending up underrepresented minority groups like "Blind Mullato Touch-typists".... :-)

Apple is very hush-hush about announcing *ANYTHING* too early. If they say "we'll have new Powerbooks in the next few months" many complain about having to wait too long, others complain it is vaporware, and yet others end up holding off purchases they might make Right Now. It would be nice if Apple said that "Independent Labels are around the corner" or "we will have Canadian access to AMS in June". The best we get are vague comments and outlandish rumors of what might be.

Many records are released on different labels in different parts of the world, thus complicating licensing. A record could be released on Label A in the US, label B in France, and Label C in Japan, for instance. Royalties have to be tracked and distributed based on which label owns the ditribution rights in that territory. I imagine most modern deals include a worldwide license for online ditribution, but older records are going to be a bit more complicated.

just a test

another test