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05/14/2003, 8:50am, EDT

Wednesday, May 14th

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Apple sells 2 million songs via iTunes

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Apple today announced that over two million songs have been purchased and downloaded from its iTunes Music Store since its debut 16 days ago: "Continuing the trend set during the first week, over half of the songs purchased to date were purchased as albums, further dispelling concerns that selling music on a per-track basis will destroy album sales....Over 4,300 new songs were added to the iTunes Music Store yesterday..."

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"....including five albums from The Doors; new featured artist Fischerspooner's album '#1' plus an exclusive remix of their hit 'Emerge;' new albums from Cold, Lizz Wright, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs; pre-release tracks from upcoming albums by Michelle Branch, Da Brat, Jesse Harris and Kenna; and, completing her catalog of music now available on the store, Alanis Morissette's albums 'Under Rug Swept' and 'Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie.' Additionally, albums representing diverse genres of music -- from rock and alternative to jazz and classical -- were added from artists including John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Nina Simone, Paul Oakenfold and Staind."

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112706 05/14, 8:53am, EDT nice
I wish I had money and didn't have to pay for summer school...damnit

posted by MacNN.com Reader

112707 05/14, 8:56am, EDT The numbers look good...
...but you would expect a spike in the beginning as people take the service for a test drive. How will the numbers look in a month or two after the service has been around for a while and isn't quite as new and shiny? Don't get me wrong-I think this is going to contribute to the company bottom line and is a no-brainer for Apple. But I don't think at this time next year we'll be looking at sales of 300-400 million unless the iTunes for PC comes out during that time.

posted by MacNN.com Reader

112708 05/14, 8:56am, EDT US only still
I wonder how many more songs will be sold when this thing goes world wide, considering it is mac only at the moment this is quite impressive.

m@

posted by m@

112709 05/14, 9:00am, EDT To do...
The next thing we need to do is get a Windows version out. Then we'll really be in this thing!

Phase one: Sell music online to Macs
Phase two:
Phase three: Profit!

posted by MacNN.com Reader

112711 05/14, 9:03am, EDT Booyah!
OK, assuming a *bit* of a dropoff...figure 800,000/wk avg...figure about $700,000 in actual rev./wk (since songs bought as albums cost a bit less than $0.99 on average), minus 65% to the labels, minus another 15% for costs/overhead, that'd be over $7 million/year in net profit.

Not terribly impressive, except that this is for only 25% (OS X-users) of 60% (U.S. Mac users) of about 5% (Mac users total)--or, say, around 3.5 million users (?), or around 1% of the potential market.

Of course it's not a direct correlation--lots of those Windows machines are in corporate locations (no personal downloads allowed, etc.), some aren't online, etc. so it's not a direct 99:1 ratio, but even assuming 10:1 that'd still be $70 million pure profit per year--and that's just with 200,000 songs or so out of around a theoretical recorded music library of around 5 million tracks (according to a Wired mag article from last week).

posted by MacNN.com Reader

112712 05/14, 9:06am, EDT more music fast
apple needs to put up something from other than the big 5 fast. i never seen so much crap for sale! well, except for social distortion, and the ramones. lol

posted by MacNN.com Reader

112713 05/14, 9:08am, EDT Is the stock price...
... a direct correlation to iTunes??
Get the Windows version out ... NOW ... this is far better Apple branding than the new Apple stores.

It also helps when the stock price rises, then you don't get that stupid 'Apple's Dying/Dead' stuff and my preferred platform keeps on chuggin....

posted by MacNN.com Reader

112715 05/14, 9:23am, EDT Patience, patience.
It has only been two weeks, Apple has added several thousand songs, competitors are still in the "just a fluke" stage and not ready to copy, err.. innovate a Windoze music store. I would like to see iTunes for PCs sooner rather than later but even if Apple is not first to PCs with iTunes all other comptetors will be compared to Apple's version hence another round of great press.

posted by MacNN.com Reader

112716 05/14, 9:26am, EDT Well...
So far, the word's really only gone out to well connected Mac users. There will be a long introductory phase, and I suspect the Windows version will be out before it's over. In the meantime, they'll be beefing up the infrastructure, working out the bugs, etc. By the time they're ready for the EU and Windows, things should be working much more smoothly than they are now, the badly recorded songs will have been replaced, and the independents will have signed on and provided their music (remember, it's not just Apple signing a contract, it's also the independent supplying the music and conversion into AAC and updating the database).

As far as Mac users' share, well, you have to consider that (a) Windows boxes are often used not only for corporations, where the music store may be outside the firewall, but also as cash registers, servers, etc.; (b) the average Windows computer, in my experience, is in service for half as long as Macs, effectively doubling the Mac's desktop presence from its market share - and that's not counting point (a); and (c) "Windows" PCs are sometimes Linux and UNIX boxes, you need to subtract them from the Windows market share. Admittedly there aren't many. Is that market share calculated including or without flat servers / blades?

posted by MacNN.com Reader

112717 05/14, 9:29am, EDT Hoping
Here's to hoping they add my favorite album: Yanni's Greatest Hits

posted by MacNN.com Reader

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