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iTunes Music Store hits Billionth Download

Posted by CowboyNeal on Fri Feb 24, 2006 07:34 AM
from the hitting-the-bigtime dept.
Media Media (Apple) Businesses Music Apple
SirWraith writes "In case anyone hasn't realized Apple has had a counter going up to a billion for a few weeks now. Apparently last night, they hit the mark. From ABC News: 'Apple says Alex Ostrovsky from West Bloomfield, Mich., was the lucky audiophile who downloaded "Speed of Sound" by Brit pop band Coldplay, giving the Cupertino, Calif., company bragging rights to the 10-figure milestone. Thanks to a generous prize package from Apple, Ostrovsky will now use a $10,000 iTunes music card to keep those downloads flowing on his new 20-inch iMac computer, and listen to his favorite tunes on one of the 10 60GB iPods.'"
+ -
story

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Thomas Hawk writes "Apple is out hyping their one billionth iTunes download today, but is building your music library in a format that could be obsolete in the future really the best strategy? Will the consumer once again have to someday replace their iTunes track just like they had to replace their LP, cassette, and CD only to get their music on their hot new non Apple mp3 phone of the future? "
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Guinnessy writes "According to the New York Times, some music labels have deliberately stopped selling some new singles on online stories such as iTunes or Rhapsody while promoting songs on the radio, so that listeners will rush out to buy the CD album instead. The album appears in itunes at a later date. Not everyone seems to think this is a good idea. From the article: 'The labels are shooting themselves in the foot,' says Rhapsody's Tim Quirk. However, Ne-Yo's CD In My Own Words sold 301,000 copies using this method. Chris Brown's Run It, that was in the itunes store, sold 154,000 copies in its first week. Ne-Yo's So Sick was downloaded approximately 3.4 million times on the peer to peer networks during the week of his album release while the album Run It!"was downloaded approximately 5.3 million times in the same release period."
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iTunes Music Store hits Billionth Download 50 Comments More /

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  • what a scam (Score:5, Funny)

    by Yahweh Doesn't Exist (906833) on Friday February 24 2006, @07:42AM (#14791820)
    $10,000 / $0.99 = 10,101.01, so he's going to have to pay $0.98 of his OWN MONEY if he wants to actually claim that .01 of a song.

    DON'T BELIEVE APPLE, if they offer you $10,000 open your eyes and see it's a SCAM to get YOUR MONEY!

  • 40 Year Old Virgin (Score:4, Funny)

    by sgant (178166) <ksgant AT gmail DOT com> on Friday February 24 2006, @07:43AM (#14791823) Homepage Journal
    This leaps to mind when I found out that the Billionth song was a Coldplay song:

    David: You know how I know that you're gay?
    Cal: How? Cuz you're gay? and you can tell who other gay people are.
    David: You know how I know you're gay?
    Cal: How?
    David: You like Coldplay.
    • It would have been something REALLY embarrassing. Like a Britney song. Or some of that American Idle (no typo) crap.

      Or imagine him DLing some Boyband junk. Or Tokyo Hotel. Oh, the ways of f..ing up when DLing music today are so numerous, you could get ridiculed for pretty much anything there is in the charts today.

      At least by me! :)
      • Who *really* cares what you (or anyone else, for that matter) has to say about what someone downloads?

        I'm gunna keep downloading the tracks I like, no matter who "performs" them, whether you like it or not.

        Snob.

  • Anyone shooting for it (Score:3, Funny)

    by BigDogCH (760290) on Friday February 24 2006, @07:46AM (#14791830) Journal
    Do you think people were actually trying to be the 1 billionth? I mean, once it was a few thousand short were people buying a lot of songs to try and be the billionth? It seemed to pay off for one person if they were. Our local TV news agency said that the winner got "a 20 inch computer".
    • Hmm, our news agency also just stated that the $10,000 was a cash prize, but it appears to be wrong. I don't suppose apple bucks are usable at allofmp3.com ? That would buy a LOT of music!!!
  • So there were 1 billion instances of Apple's marketing machine working, who cares. Wake me when something really interesting happens.

  • The RIAA was right (Score:5, Funny)

    by TallMatthew (919136) on Friday February 24 2006, @07:51AM (#14791848)
    Downloadable music isn't a viable music model.
    • Downloadable music isn't a viable music model.

      It's not, for them, they aren't 100% in charge of how much Apple charges for the music. Steve is fighting the conglomorates to keep the prices on iTMS low. They want to raise the prices. Because they can't do as they wish it's not viable.
      • This is something I was thinking about the other day... The RIAA resisted any attempts to allow mp3s to be sold, initally (I think) because they thought it would compete with their CD business and later because of fears of piracy. They didn't want to lose control of their product. So iTunes came along and offered DRM. Unfortunately, iTines is the only online music store that works with the most popular brand of player (the iPod). This means Apple gets to call the shots.

        So, having avoided giving up co
      • Because they can't do as they wish it's not viable.

        Put like that, it rather looks like the business model is more about controlling the distribution of a product rather than the product itself.

        Sounds like organised crime - Prohibition era, organised crime distributes alcohol, makes money and gets very tetchy about someone else competing with them. Today, organised crime distributes music^H^H^H^H^Hdrugs, makes money and gets very tetchy about someone else competing with them.

  • Audiophile? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Götz (18854) <waschk@gFORTRANmx.net minus language> on Friday February 24 2006, @07:52AM (#14791855) Homepage
    I think the term 'audiophile' does not fit here. Audiophiles buy expensive HiFi equipment and don't listen to 128kbit AAC from the Apple store. Especially as many people can hear the encoding artefacts on good equipment. But I must admit that I cannot hear the difference with the crappy earbuds that came with my iPod.
    • You can play AIFF files and get yourself a good pair of Sennheiser headphones. That's about as good as you're going to get if you want to listen to music on the go.
    • I think the term 'audiophile' does not fit here. Audiophiles buy expensive HiFi equipment and don't listen to 128kbit AAC from the Apple store. Especially as many people can hear the encoding artefacts on good equipment. But I must admit that I cannot hear the difference with the crappy earbuds that came with my iPod.

      Of course you can't hear the artifacts. You're hearing is leaving you [slashdot.org]!
    • Maybe the word should be podiophile !?
    • Audiophiles buy expensive HiFi equipment and don't listen to 128kbit AAC from the Apple store.

      Audiophiles buy expensive equipment like record players but listen exclusively ... to the scratches.

      • Re:Audiophile? (Score:4, Funny)

        by Expert Determination (950523) on Friday February 24 2006, @10:33AM (#14793058)
        Yeah, but scratches are analog and hence have a warmer feeling that's less obtrusive. You don't get the sharp angular sound that you get from digital distortion and so it's truer to the original recording. They don't upset the relative phase and so keep the sonic field in a good state, and if your audio cable has a prime number of cores in it the eddy currents caused by the scratch signals cause destructive interference that actually cleans the audio, especially when the aspect ratio of your room is the golden ratio. And anyway, if you keep your vinyl under a pyramid ths scratches heal themselves over time.

  • Why does everyone focus on the iPods? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by TCQuad (537187) on Friday February 24 2006, @08:22AM (#14791953)
    Beyond the iTMS certificate, the iPods and iMac, the prize includes a 4 year scholarship created in the winner's name [apple.com] to a "world renowned institute of music" selected by Apple. So, while all the loot he gets is nice, he's not the only winner. Actually, given the price of tuition, he's not even the biggest winner.
  • It just so happens my billionth free music download was a Coldplay mashup. [hotstopthealbum.com]
  • What I would really like to see are these stats:

    How many people this represents ... how many unique users have downloaded these billion songs ... because I know people who have downloaded hundreds and some that have downloaded one.

    How many of these people are prize redemptions or giveaways?

    How how many of these songs are validated on more than one computer and one iPod --- that would be really interesting to learn if people are still sharing ...

  • Audiophile? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by QuietLagoon (813062) on Friday February 24 2006, @08:53AM (#14792100)
    the lucky audiophile

    No audiophile worthy of the appellation would download an overly-compressed pop tune.

    :)

  • 999,899,994 Ashlee Simpson & Cold Play... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by bodland (522967) on Friday February 24 2006, @09:08AM (#14792190) Homepage
    Everyone else - 100,000

    Soul Amp (My Band) 6

    Actually I am stoked about iTunes/Mp3 and iPods....as a indie musician, self producing with a home grown label, iTunes allows us to collect 65 cents per song. Direct to the the band...

    Unfortunately without the big money for PR and payola (yes Apple probably takes payola too...despite claims otherwise, I think they call them marketing fees or "services") We are relegated to being just 13 songs in a sea of millions. Thus sales have been slow. But...that can change in a heartbeat as anyone who listens to music can see.

    So...feel free to scope iTunes and search for Soul Amp...I need another guitar amplifier (VOX Ac-30 or Matchless) and a leslie for our 1958 Hammond M3 organ.

    Also for people who refuse to pay for music until guilt finally takes hold after scamming every song ever recorded, we have tracks of tunes we are working on for our next disk on our website. Hep yer self...I say whay wait until a rash breaks out from the guilt of free downloading...by indie music from iTunes. The bands actually get the bulk of the money. 65 cents of 99 is pretty damn good. Most bands that get mp3 blogged are on iTunes.

    http://soul-amp.com/ [soul-amp.com]

  • Apple says Alex Ostrovsky from West Bloomfield, Mich., was the lucky audiophile who downloaded "Speed of Sound" by Brit pop band Coldplay ...

    There are audiophiles using iTunes? When did this happen? ;-)
  • I recently made a series of unsatisfying purchases from iTMS. First it was the album "Winters Pageant" by The Softies. Most of the album was fine, but the first track was messed up, having a 1/2 second or so blank spot shortly after the song started. I tried playing the track on multiple computers and my vPod and they all showed it. I complained to them, and to their credit they not only refunded me for that one track, but for the entire album purchase. So I can't complain in that regard, but ultimately I j

  • Razorback (Score:3, Funny)

    by Tamerlan (817217) on Friday February 24 2006, @09:17AM (#14792238) Homepage
    Poor guys owning razorback servers probably hit the mark long ago. And instead of fame they got closed.

    Oh wait.

  • Call me cynical but... (Score:4, Funny)

    by trash eighty (457611) on Friday February 24 2006, @09:21AM (#14792266) Homepage
    the billionth song was Coldplay i.e. someone cool (i suppose still) and "hip", what a shame it wasn't Uncle Pete's Rog Tog Bimbo Rambo Band or some horrific 70s country music. I mean, that would not have looked as cool in the press release would it? ;)

  • Contribution of iTMS to iPod success seems small (Score:4, Insightful)

    by adam1101 (805240) on Friday February 24 2006, @09:27AM (#14792318)
    Jobs anounced last month that they've sold 42 million iPods, so they've sold on average less than 24 songs per iPod. Even the lowest capacity Shuffle holds 120 songs. If we assume an average capacity of 2GB (500 songs) per iPod (the majority of sales are probably the cheaper low capacity units), less than 5% of the aggregate iPod capacity is filled with iTMS songs.

    This seems to contradict the oft repeated claims that the iPod ties you to iTMS, or that iTMS is a major contributor to the iPod's success.
  • Is the idea to make a ring of iPods around your waist? How very Luke Skywalker-ish!
  • Word is that Mike Myers has been hired for the next macworld conference, presumably to appear onstage and exclaim

    "One BILLION DOWNLOADS"

    Or not.

  • It figures. (Score:3)

    by sammy baby (14909) on Friday February 24 2006, @09:41AM (#14792463) Journal
    "Speed of Sound," by Coldplay.

    Figures.

    Fucking Coldplay [everything...laynow.com].
    • he could always buy TV shows
    • Ignoring your poor math, there are several other major problems with your argument. Your argument assumes that the owner of the iPod doesn't pay for their music and is looking at how much it would cost to re-purchase their entire collection of mp3 files.

      The purpose of an iPod is not to be full, it is to carry the owner's entire music collection. When I bought my 20gb iPod, I only owned 10gb of music. I have no intention of attempting to fill it up. I'll just buy music when I feel like it. Assuming that
    • It's 99 cents, not 0.99 cents.

      990M is a nice bit of income, but most of it [1] is paid out again. Apple doesn't say how profitable the iTMS is, just that it's "above even".

      1: 10% of the cost of a song goes to the artist, 55% to the record company. Artists who do business with Apple directly, get 70%. Most of the remainder pays for the hardware and bandwidth.
      Rumor has it that Apple's profit is 8%, or $80M after 1 Gsongs.

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