iTunes breaks the 100 millionth tune download barrier
Posted on 13/07/04 00:23 by Seán Byrne                             
iTunes breaks the 100 millionth tune download barrier

iTunes has now served over 100 million songs since its launch May last year.  The 100 millionth song was downloaded by aUS user Keven Britten of Hays, Kansas (a midwestern US state).  As the 100 millionth downloader, he has won a new 17" Powerbook Mac computer, a 40GB iPod and a voucher for 10,000 free iTunes' songs. 

 

iTunes is still the market leader in the US and is also very popular in the three European countries it launched in just a few weeks ago.  iTunes currently accounts for over 70% of the market share for legal music downloads.  However despite its successful European launch, it has failed to win support from most UK Independent Music Labels.  Quakester2000 submitted the following news via our  news submit :

Apple's iTunes Music Store has marked its 100 millionth legal download since its launch in the US in May last year.
The music site, which features more than 700,000 songs available for download, says it is now the biggest legal music site in the world.

It said US user Kevin Britten of Hays, Kansas, had downloaded the 100 millionth song, a version of dance act Zero 7's Somersault.

The service started its European operations last month.

The site makes songs available for download for 79p per song. Since its launch it has gained more than 70% of the market share for legal downloads, it said.

Read the full article here.

 

Despite all the various legal services that started up over the last year including added features such as pay-per-stream, unlimited downloads for a subscription, bulk discount and so on, iTunes still manages to do exceptionally well as a simple fixed price per song service. 

 

As Microsoft is really anxious to make its Windows Media technology part of every home entertainment system, it will be interesting to how Microsoft's upcoming video player competes.  Then again unlike the iPod Microsoft's Portable Media Center based players are more 'closed' and restricted than the iPod such as requiring Windows XP and Windows Media Player 10 before any content can be transferred.

 

Feel free to discuss and find out more about iTunes and other online music services on our Music Downloads, P2P & Legal Issues Forum.

Source: BBC News - Entertainment

Reactions
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By richlee91, Tue 13 Jul 2004 00:32
They are both completely closed systems. One is not more or less closed than the other. They both require a particular version of their closed media player. If you are saying that Microsoft's solution will not be able to be run on a Mac then you are correct. Fans of the Mac are not going to be using this service. (Big shocker there) Microsoft would be stupid to write a Mac client. Just not enough bang for the buck...
By Seán, Tue 13 Jul 2004 01:14
SeánSorry, I meant 'more' closed rather than 'move' closed (darn MS Word's auto-correction). While both are closed to specific software, it will be a pain that one must have both Windows XP and upgrade to the upcoming Windows Media Player 10 just to use it. I doubt the high population of 98/ME/2000 users are going to fork out for Windows XP (and a PC upgrade to run this beast) just to use their new shiny Janus based player. Stick Out Tongue
By petera, Tue 13 Jul 2004 03:02
peteraI think that the figures speak from themselves. No matter what you think about iTunes, it's a good business model that shows if you keep things simple, people will use it. You have to remember that probabally a large majority of their user base are novices at PC's (or Mac's), and Apple know this and monopolise it better than any other online MP3 store. A simple "This tune will cost you XXX" and "Push this button to download it to your iPod" is a lot better than "Buy 10 and get the next 1 free, as long as it's from this limited selection, oh and you need to download this, this and this to be able to play it and this, this and this to get it on your MP3 player"

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