Apple sells 2 million songs via iTunes

I wish I had money and didn't have to pay for summer school...damnit

posted by MacNN.com Reader

...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

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@

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

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

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

... 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

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

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

Here's to hoping they add my favorite album: Yanni's Greatest Hits

posted by MacNN.com Reader