Give iTMS service to Canadians!!!! Increase your marketshare, and you'll do much better...

does anyone know how many songs have been downloaded since yesterday, or how many copies of iTunes for windows has been downloaded?

Other download music companies that have sprung up recently offer music for even less the Apple's .99 cent per song. What is the difference in these companies' structure that will make them money and Apple can at best break even? Sorry Apple I just don't believe you.

Some are subscription based. Some cost you to burn your music to CD. Oh, and who says any of them make money?

There was a recent story that said the record companies are getting 70-80 cents per sale. That means apple has to eke out profits from the remaining 20-30 cents, and this after paying for the bandwidth, the software, the conversion process, overhead.

Here's an idea. You think you can make money on this thing, you try it.

Apple and the artist each make 10 cents from a song sold while the record companies make 79 cents from each song sold through iTMS.

While Apple may not be making a profit at this time perhaps enough artists will see the benefit of NOT signing on with the greedy record companies and decide to make their own separate deals with Apple where the artist gets the 79 cents/song and Apple gets 20...

There is a lot more than simple downloads involved with the success of iTMS. Here's hoping this will eventually mean the end of the reign of greedy middlemen (and women) of the record companies that have consistently worked to squash musical diversity everywhere...

You are assuming that they ARE making money. I think that they will find that unless the volume goes up 100x that the infrastructure to support this is too great. I doubt the others make money on it either (at least yet)

While Apple may not be making a profit at this time perhaps enough artists will see the benefit of NOT signing on with the greedy record companies and decide to make their own separate deals with Apple where the artist gets the 79 cents/song and Apple gets 20...

Unfortunately, this is quite unlikely as Apple wants to ensure the quality of music on the store. There is no way for them to be the über-label for all artists that want to sell their music. They have go through the labels, just like you usually need an agent to get an audition for acting gigs.

For reference, check out the webcast of the Apple Music Event. (Fast forward to about 10:45)

- theMotor

"Unfortunately, this is quite unlikely ... There is no way for them to be the über-label for all artists ...."

Well perhaps that's only the "official" Apple line? Future reality in the music market may in fact eventually make $en$e to an established artist and their agent to NOT sign that renewing contract with XYGreedy Record Company when they see a majority of their music being sold via iTMS - or any (or all) of the other music download services.

I could see a time in the future when most music will be sold digitally and not on a CD. In my life as a music consumer this has already happened - and it's quickly happening for many others. Apple's iPod and iTMS is hastening that migration.

At that future point in time the record companies will basically become superfluous and artists could begin to command a majority of the profits (ie: they will get the 79 out of 99 cents for each song). It seems inevitable to me that artists will break the bonds of the "recording contract" and in essence become "free agents"...

I've heard estimates of 65 cents going to the record industry per song. However, those reports also indicate there is a minumum 25 cent charge for a credit card transaction. So if you buy a single song, Apple keeps 10 cents. Not enough to keep the servers running (power, support personal, replacement parts, high speed connections etc.).

So how do the others make money selling for less? Who says they do? Plus, if they're subscription based, they charge once a month.

However, those reports also indicate there is a minumum 25 cent charge for a credit card transaction.

True. This is why Apple charges once a day, rather than once a transaction, on purchases (at least I read that somewhere).

Apple's stock took a beating (-1.57) yesterday because the gross margins (profit) were something like 26 percent as opposed to 27.7 in previous quarters, and Apple answered the critics with "this is due to a stagnation of sales of our OS products due to customers waiting for the upcoming release of 10.3. With that release we expect the margins to return to previous levels."

That tells me that their profit margin on each boxed copy of Jag, Panther etc, it much higher than even their top dollar hardware (because they have to sell a lot more of them to move the same amount of cash.)

So they do make money on software ... and with them now proving that they can create viable Windows software that people want, I would imagine that they might eventually bring some for-profit titles to the Windows world in the future. (Like Keynote ... because it clearly kicks PPT in the teeth.)

I think Apple start out knowing iTMS is not a money maker. By setting the price at $.99 and others can't beat it without compromising to quality.

Now, with that in mind, we know competitors will not last because they can't survive a losing business since they're counting on the sales. Apple is playing a money losing game in selling digital music to win in the sales of iPod, branding and all these contribute to the Mac platform.

Whoever in this game to "compete" with iTMS believe they can win and make money, they're all fall into the trap. Not only they can't win, they lose before it even started.

That's why iTMS will keep at the top spot, they'll keep promoting it and even dump money into it just to stay on top, they keep pulling in top artists, make exclusive tracks, get the first hand music even before they release in CD format. Think how many people can keep up with this? When it grow to a certain point, then they'll see the rewards, iTMS will start to make money. At that time, may be only MS still have the money to be the rival.

What a game plan.