Apple to fight piracy by competing
updated 06:00 pm EDT, Tue July 29, 2003
The way to go after illegal file sharing services is to , says Peter Lowe, Apple's Director of Marketing for Applications and Services. This can be done by offering quality and speed that is greater than that of file-swapping services, Lowe says. In the view of Apple, people use these services because they are quick, not because they are free. Lowe also stated that "we fundamentally believe subscriptions are the wrong path," because "that's not what consumers are doing offline [when they buy music]."










Partly right
07/29, 07:01pm reply
Apple is right that quick, accurate and easy is worth a small amount of $$ over free but difficult.
But "quick" does not necessarily trump "free" all the time, particularly if you are a teenager with loads of free time. I mean, people are spending HOURS upon HOURS ripping, transcoding, uploading or downloading mainstream movies they could buy at OmniBlobCorp for $10-15. This makes NO SENSE -- unless you make less than $5/hour.
I think Apple's strategy will work well with people who have any level of discretionary income, some ethics, and taste.
But that still leaves about 50% of America unaccounted for. :)
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I agree
07/29, 07:19pm reply
I think they are right on track. The quality issue alone is worth a measly $.99 per song. Plus, as long as you can still do the same stuff with your music as you can a CD you buy in the store, I'm all for it. Actually, I already buy music from iTMS.
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First Poster's got it
07/29, 07:27pm reply
As the first poster said, in some cases the amount of time people spend ripping stuff illegally is downright stupid when you compare it to the cost of doing it legally.
Heck, say you're only going to watch the movie once; then you might as well rent it for a dollar or so--even at my relatively low wage, that's only 5 minutes of time.
That said, if you get that much of a kick out of theivery, then iTMS or anything else isn't going to stop you. The business iTMS wants is mine--I download songs occasionally, simply because if there's something I want to hear it's worth the few minutes of hunting to save myself $15 on a CD I don't want, and the week of waiting for the CD to be delivered or the time to go to a store and buy it.
But let me find the song in 30 seconds and buy it for a buck, and why not--it's easier than a fileswapping network, the quality is better, and it's legal.
What Apple hasn't addressed (yet) are the situations where file swapping is essentially the ONLY choice; I'm an anime fan, so let's say I want an obscure foreign soundtrack that isn't available in the US. If, on the off chance I can even find it here, it's going to cost me upwards of $30 for a legal import CD. Give me the chance to buy THAT for a dollar, and I'll be spending piles of cash willingly.
Apple's nowhere near that level of ultimate selection yet, but I can dream, and hope.
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re: imports and such
07/29, 07:48pm reply
I'm an anime fan, so let's say I want an obscure foreign soundtrack that isn't available in the US. If, on the off chance I can even find it here, it's going to cost me upwards of $30 for a legal import CD. Give me the chance to buy THAT for a dollar, and I'll be spending piles of cash willingly.
absolutely. if i could download import albums (anime or otherwise) for $10-15, instead of going to places like cdjapan.co.jp and paying $30+ that would be fantastic...
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you cant compete...
07/29, 07:54pm reply
with free. d*** head.
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Right idea, wrong price.
07/29, 08:12pm reply
I think Apple is on the right track, but the price is just wrong. Downloaded songs need to be between twenty-five cents and fifty cents a pop. A buck a song, while not outlandish, is just a bit too expensive to justify a purchase over "free".
Think about it. Even the entry level iPod holds 2,500 songs. So to fill it up (legally) with music from the iTunes store would cost an astounding $2500. That's a lot of money to spend on music.
And this is exactly why people steal the music. They either don't have the money or don't want to part with the money to get it legally. Make it easy and cheap and people will use it.
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But you can...
07/29, 08:58pm reply
You can get free food, if your willing to do some dumpster diving, and from the SAME kitchens people pay $50-$100 a plate for food!
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What good is free,
07/29, 09:15pm reply
if what I want is not available? If I want to listen to The Latest And Most Groovy Boy Band Out There (tm), I can find 10,000 copies of their songs. But finding jazz or blues that's decent quality? Forget it. I gladly pay the price iTunes charges for a good quality, garaunteed copy that is instantly available versus the hit or miss world of p2p.
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They Know What's Up
07/29, 09:16pm reply
Compete and beat them at their own game. All that's worth something. How much, $1.00 works for me.
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stop
07/29, 09:42pm reply
stealing you bunch of kazaa theives.
stop it.
its a slow tax on the rest of us.
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