Apple has now sold over 250 million songs off its iTunes music store. Although this sounds impressive it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the number of songs being traded on p2p networks. I’d like to know two other numbers:
- Of the $248 million (~99 cents a song) what % did Apple hand over to the record labels?
- Of the amount paid out to the record labels, was % made it into the hands of the artists?
Apple created iTunes obviously to support it’s highly profitable iPod which makes sense. Just like MusicMatch uses its online music store to push users to upgrade to MusicMatch Jukebox Plus. One can only hope that eventually the record labels and the RIAA will see the light and drop prices to more reasonable levels and lessen the use restrictions. Until that happens I won’t be purchasing tracks/albums from any online music store.
Are iPod owners more likely to puchase from an online music store than those who buy more advanced mp3 players like the Rio Karma or iRiver models that have more features but are less user friendly? I’ve owned an iPod and, compared with my iRiver H-120, it was easier to use once the songs were on the device. But, at least on a Windows XP machine, the iRiver is much easier to use when it comes to moving songs on and off the device. For how I use my mp3 player the iRiver runs circles around the iPod, but I know I’m in the minority. Maybe iPod users value simplicity over features and don’t like the idea of searching the p2p networks along with dealing with fake files and slow downloads. Whatever the reason it’s very clear that iPods are driving strong iTune sales.
Nordquist Blog 