Apple officially says it's the #1 music retailer in the US
By Nilay Patel 
posted Apr 3rd 2008 3:29PM
posted Apr 3rd 2008 3:29PM
Based on today's earlier leak of some weekly NPD marketshare data, we had our doubts that Apple had actually overtaken Wal-Mart as the number one music retailer in the US, but it looks like that January surge of iTunes gift cards and new iPod owners pushed it over the top for good -- and now we've got the PR to prove it. Apple's giving out the same "4 billion songs to 50 million customers" numbers as it has for a while now, but it says iTunes was the biggest game in town in January and February. Of course, there's a lot of 2008 left to go, so Wally might make a comeback -- it was the overall champ last year -- but Apple's achievement is still a major milestone for digitally distributed content, and we hope to see a lot more iTunes-like services on that list soon.
Apple, is there anything you can't do????
make me buy their fascist products.
Give the artists a fairer percentage of the .99 cents rip-off?
@ w
Do you even know what fascism is? Because I have a feeling that if you did, you wouldn't throw it around so freely while describing a hardware/software manufacturer.
Alright Apple, the consumers did their part to make you #1. Be responsible and use your new status to get the labels to remove DRM from all songs on iTunes.
Why would apple remove DRM? They could have done it a long time ago. Amazon did it.
If they released their DRM they wouldn't be number 1.
How would releasing their DRM make them no longer number one? As far as I'm concerned the only reason I don't buy from Apple is because they have a DRM.
agree with Jordan. i'll bet they'd get a 10%+ sales boost if they killed DRM. from there word of mouth would push it even further.
Duscrom - it's not up to Apple, nor is it up to Amazon. It's up to the record labels, who own the content. It's their content, they determine whether it's sold with or without DRM. If you don't like DRM, talk to the record labels, not Apple.
They can't remove the DRM because Apple's contracts dictate how they sell music. Amazon had the benefit of iTunes going partially DRM free, so when they went to negotiations they demanded everything be DRM free. The labels were happy to oblige because they secretly hate iTunes. When Apple goes in for another round of contracts everything should become DRM free; if not at that point we can bitch at Apple.
@ Duscrom,
Amazon didn't remove the DRM. The labels allowed Amazon to do it to bring down Apple's monopoly. Apple was calling for DRM-free music long before iTunes Store was a major player. Warner's CEO even called Jobs a fool for suggesting such a thing, just to give DRM-free tracks to Amazon months later.
Maybe not. The labels are afraid to give Apple any more market, since they could then use their advancing power to commoditize the music industry even more than it is already.
I won't buy my tracks online because of DRM... though I haven't used iTunes (Puretracks.ca) - spent about $500 on tracks. DRM usage rights backed up; computer crashes and I download the MP3's again. Backup refuses to work, instead I am greeted with an "acquiring license" window... End result: hosed.
yeh they cant stop with their ridiculous PR.
have you seen their latest mac ads, their a joke. nothing but vista bashing yet again.
baby jeebus weeps for you
"and we hope to see a lot more iTunes-like services on that list soon."
So long as it's not crappily encoded, low bit-rate garbage.
mmmm, low bit-rate garbage...
If a normal audio CD is, say, ~500MB at $14, then buying 4MB of song data from Apple should be.... 11.2 cents!!
Why are people paying 99 cents?? Apple, stop taking artists' bits!!
hmmm.. let's see.. 1980's compression technology vs. 2008 tech. luddite-ism FTW!
I didn't particularly mean iTunes. I meant that it's cool digital music is selling well. But I won't it to be decently encoded, in varying codecs, and DRM free. Whether that be iTunes, Amazon, eMusic, yada yada yada..
So no, Jobites. I wasn't bashing Apple. In fact I credit them for pioneering the digital download store for the mainstream the way they have.
Let's look again... "1980s compression technology" is actually UNcompressed PCM. If Apple wants to go to a lossless compression, hey, I won't argue at all. The best you get from lossless is about half the size of uncompressed PCM, which means you should pay 22.4 cents for an mp3 (still not 99 cents).
The mp3 KILLS the sound quality of the treble. I won't argue that most people aren't listening on crappy speakers; I know they are. But if Apple wants to be involved in the music industry, it should offer AT LEAST the quality that was available with "1980s compression technology".
Record companies have hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of dollars invested in equipment which is used to make original recordings. What's the point if no one ever plays-back that sound?
Well, I'm no expert on PCM specs, but I was always under the impression that CDs themselves are highly compressed audio. Several musician friends of mine have lamented the "flat" sounds of compressed digital audio in general vs. analog for a while.
Anyway, color me skeptical that you or (almost) anyone else could pass a blind listening test between 256k AAC and a CD.
@phanbouy
They could be referring to how compressed the tonal range is on today's CDs. ie. the range of difference between the quietist part of a song vs the loudest.
Music isn't my field either but from what I hear, most songs are mastered now with much less range, so they sound louder and 'better'.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war
I empathize with everyone who likes having an original "master" disc of an album or movie, but I've found for a long time, even before every grandma's toast-R-oven played MP3's, that most of that pretty album artwork and jewel cases were just taking up lots of space and collecting lots of dust. I hate DRM as much as the next bloke, but aside from that whole issue (beyond the scope of my post), 256k AAC is more than enough for me. Hell, with the hardware I have 128k AAC sounds plenty fine to my ears.
In fact, even if it's something I really like, I still rip and reencode it just so I won't scratch the thing to death. Pretty soon I'll have reencoded all my 5GB DVDs down to 700MB h264's that look just as good and boot up from my HTPC easily.
Agreed, except for classical music, which I still buy on CD and rip lossless...
yeah with all the low fi indie stuff i've had on rotation lately, i'll bet it sounds 'better' at lower bitrates!
still... there's something kinda spiffy to, say, vinyl, for having an analog source, master, and album. course that master's prolly digital these days 99.99% of the time. d'oh!
Apple: You made the ALAC format and prevented the open FLAC format from running in your music software so........howzabout offering ALAC music in the store?
Just a thought.
Jerks.
Because of bandwidth issues, I'm guessing. Same reason Amazon only offers 256mbps MP3s.
April Fool's Day was 2 days ago.
But srsly, u guyz, "Hey, can you autograph my digital download?"
I lament the decline of CDs. Not so much because I care about the means that other use to get their music, but because it could mean that it pushes my preference for CDs to the brink of abandonment for distribution.
That brings up a new biz idea! Digital Signatures for downloaded content. Been going dig sigs for 9 years and we've still been barely able to find a 'real' use for them. Here we go! We issue digital sigs to celebrities and have them digitally sign the tracks. Then users can ebay them...brillian (except for the ability to copy them bit-for-bit and redistribute :) )
If I have a burned cd of a band that I love, and a real cd of a band i like. I'll listen to the one I like over the one I love. Why? I don't know.
they could still sign posters and flyers =D
but i guess that $10 CD at shows thing would be in danger. still, it's hard for upcoming/unsigned bands to make money off those. maybe digital distribution one way or the other could help them too (i mean, besides the usual myspace thing)
I agree, digital makes it cheaper and easier to distribute content for small bands. However, in general I think they would make more money selling CDs at shows. Why? Because half the fanbase won't have a credit card they can use. So at shows CDs will sell to everyone. While online distribution only those with credit cards will be able to purchase content.
while music companies may not like the direction that downloads are taking over physical media - they really need a wake up call regarding the quality of music people demand.
Lets stop pointing fingers at downloads as being bad but lets look at ourselves and be edgy - sign new music artists - and american idol doesnt count.
meh
Love Apple or hate Apple, you can't deny this is an impressive achievement. I've never bought a single song from the store because I refuse to purchase anything with DRM - but obviously I'm in the minority here.
i've purchased plenty of $0.00 downloads linked from their facebook group =)
Not everything on iTunes is shackled by DRM.
Pwned by Apple!
Y'All Want a Single?
Man, I thought I accidentally landed on page 3 of Engadget. Then I realized this is the same Apple story with a new "twist." One thing that hasn't changed is that it's completely irrelevant, as long as consumers have several good options for obtaining music online. I don't give a damn if Apple is #1.
apparently you do.
Love Apple!!
The rate of compression and pricing of iTunes files means I won't be contributing to their #1 status for a long time. Long, long, long time.
I hope that means you're not buying anything from Amazon either, because their compression is worse, and "variable pricing" doesn't mean "always cheaper". You won't pay $2 per song on iTunes, but you will for some songs on Amazon.
I also hope you're not stealing music, because that just hurts the artists.
Most iTunes gift cards are sold at Wal-Mart...
I thought PirateBay was the largest distributor of mp3's.
My God!!! How biased is this reporting?...and how blind is everyone here for giving credit to apple just by reading this small post? This information of them being #1 is solely based on one week's data!!!! I have nothing against apple, but you need to base being # 1 on more data than that!!!
I take it you guys are going to update the previous post to acknowledge that you were in fact totally full of shit, right?
#1 or not, you have to admit that they are a-holes when it comes to customer satisfaction.
vs. who? they get the highest rankings in Consumer Report's cust. service polls every year. personally, i hate dealing with tech support anywhere regardless of how 'friendly' they are, but we can't all be geeks.
I wonder how much you have to sell to get in the top 5 on that chart? I'm thinking that the Rock band music store has the potential to sell 20 million tracks a month by end of this year (meaning $40M/ month sales). I suspect that will make a splash in the music industry
Obviously people don't care about quality, but then again Walmart was in first before... so the switch really changes nothing in the long run.
Similarly, i am now announcing that i'm the #1 lover in the US.
@ Shane
Do you even know what a joke is? Because I have a feeling that if you did, you wouldn't be bashing W on the head with your hollow remarks.
God damn engadgets reply system.
good point. on a related note, actually my car stereo plays AAC. but itunes wouldnt let me burn my 'free' itunes store songs. i had to rip them using "Audio Hijack" to apple lossless then reencode. quite the PITA. i wonder if it lose much quality that way.
As per the posts above, Steve Jobs was calling for the end of music DRM before Amazon even came on the scene (http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughtsonmusic/). Most of the music labels have refused to give Apple DRM free music, instead giving it to Amazon, in order to try and make a competitor. Apple does sell DRM free music from labels that have provided it: at 256 kbps AAC, that can be played on almost any media device.
@ Shane
Do you even know what a joke is? Because I have a feeling that if you did, you wouldn't be bashing W on the head with your hollow remarks.
arrghh!!! reply system pwns me
Zak,
I have to disagree with you; I don't think it's solely up to the labels. I find some of the same DRM-free mp3s on Amazon's site as on the iTunes store.
I'm an Apple guy at heart, but I've started buying from Amazon when I can't find the music with iTunes Plus.
I don't give a damn if Apple is number one; however, I will take the time to click on the link and read the story that I already know I won't give a shit about. Then I will take the time to post a comment about how much I don't care about Apple being number one. Whatever dude. Why don't you go find a story that you DO care about and comment on that one?
Now excuse me while I go find some "completely irrelevant" stories to read and comment on.
Because the quality of the CD that I bought at Wal-Mart is completely worse than if I had bought it anywhere else. Just like the 256 kbps, DRM free files at Amazon are so much better than the 256 kbps, DRM free files at iTunes. You are SO right on this one.
That is because Amazon negotiated with record companies after Apple's contracts were already in place. Eventually it will all be DRM free.
"zargon
@ Apr 3rd 2008 4:30PM
Obviously people don't care about quality, but then again Walmart was in first before... so the switch really changes nothing in the long run."
Obviously people don't care about quality or they wouldn't be buying all that cheap Chinese garbage from Walmart.
Right, all songs from EMI are DRM-free on both Amazon and iTunes. And believe me I don't blame you for buying DRM-free when you have the option, but it is the record labels that determine who gets to sell DRM free music (or sell music at all.) Amazon was able to cut a deal with all 4 labels to sell music DRM-free, and Apple wasn't. I suspect it's for two reasons:
One, Amazon's variable pricing. Amazon actually charges more for popular songs than Apple does, because Apple has refused to raise their prices. Note that Amazon's cheap price is only 10 cents cheaper than Apple's standard price per track, but their high price is a full dollar more than Apple's price. Two, the record labels don't like Apple. They don't like Apple's market dominance and they don't like Apple's continuous pressure to let people buy music online, DRM free - despite the obvious success Apple has had selling their music.
It is entirely up to the record labels whether Apple can sell music DRM-free or not, and the record labels are afraid of losing control - despite the fact that DRM really only hurts the people who buy music, not people who steal it.
@Shane Lloyd
fascist
adj. 1. [common] Said of a computer system with excessive or annoying security barriers, usage limits, or access policies.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fascist
and if you really wanna know, my country lived in a dictatorial fascist regime for more than 30 years, so yeah, i think i know what fascism means.
@Shane Lloyd
fascist
adj. 1. [common] Said of a computer system with excessive or annoying security barriers, usage limits, or access policies.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fascist
and if you really wanna know, my country lived in a dictatorial fascist regime for more than 30 years, so yeah, i think i know what fascism means.
@w O rly? then you of all people shouldn't be so cavalier in its usage. last i checked being closed-source software doesn't make you a far-right tyrant. puhlease.
Sell all their songs without DRM like Amazon?
Is the reply system broken again?
They also make the best laptops on the market! blurberbba
Sorry - I just threw-up in my mouth
i am so confused reading this thing without replies in their proper place. it's like reading a choose your own adventure book straight through.
@phanbouy
i already explained the context in which i used that word using a dictionary source.
if you want to pretend that you understand it, go ahead with the rant.
i couldnt care less.
huh? your dictionary source is irrelevant. just because it covers a meme that never shoulda been mad
Right-click, make software that isn't a closed box, and make price-effective hardware...
"...it looks like that January surge of iTunes gift cards and new iPod owners..."
Coincidentally, I'm a factor there. For Valentines day, I bought my [now ex-]girlfriend a $50 iTunes card and an iPod nano.
damn! AHEM. anyway, just cuz there's a meme that never shoulda been made doesn't mean i can't rail against its frivolous use. but go on, keep being as hyperbolic as possible.
Sell lossless over the internet.
@HD-DVDsucsmyballs:
my $50 xbox HD DVD player eats your testicles for breakfast and then throws up on you. in soviet russia.
Actually, the funny thing is it isn't even based on that. It is an article solely based on an Apple press release. The really ironic thing is the article on this site based on the one week of sales was skeptical about the claim. However, now that Apple has made an official press release, it MUST be true, because everyone knows that whatever Apple says in their press releases is completely devoid of bias or misrepresentation, and is God's own truth.
@Shane,
No, I think W is right. My iPod forcibly detained me without charges for several hours this morning, and my Macbook has locked my family in the basement in the interest of "state security." I wonder what that bastard Airport Express Base Station is up to right now...probably broadcasting propaganda for any WiFi receiver in my home to hear.
So much for the "reply" link.
The record companies are the ones who take 70%
The record companies are the ones who love the DRM - let's make that very clear.
Well I understood his argument perfectly...
Steve Jobs = Nazi
Sorted!
usedHONDA, i have a logitech mouse on my MBP. OS X has right click context menus. geez.. the haters are really foaming at the mouth today. freakin a. but way to push the 1990's memes there. very provocative and stuff.
man, the windows fanboys are always screaming about "TEH BIAS!!!" anytime Apple is mentioned in any sort of light whatsoever and yet most of their manufactured 'backlashes' are filled with vile hate and nonstop flame baiting. double-standards FTL.
Gah, replying's broken again
An interview with the president of Nettwork (several months ago) discussed DRM - they never asked for it, Apple just put it on. If you have some EVIDENCE that Apple is being required by the labels to put DRM on music that isn't DRMed anywhere else, please post.
@BB do your own homework. and cite your sources.
According to Webster, fascism means:
1:often capitalized : a political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition
2: a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control
I think that could fit into Apple's dictatorial control over their products.
Well it's good to see the "reply" button is not doing anything anymore. Might want to fix that engadget.
Just so you know, my last comment was towards Shane Lloyd on the first page.
That's the point. The labels want Amazon to have an advantage over iTunes to try to reduce some of Apple's power.
Damn that reply button!
@Daze.. so what you're saying is that OS X just wants to be free from big brother so it can screw whenever it wants and not be subjected to 5 minutes of hate and always being at war with Oceania, right? now, when Linux fans make this argument i can kinda understand. but in PC vs Mac? GTFO. ok ok.. so, so, like the xbox 360 dude, it's like totally fascist and stuff! i mean microsoft makes ALL the decisions about what goes in it!
give it up already, Freedom Fighters(tm)
Hmmmm, I thought torrent was the #1 music retailer...
Distributor perhaps. Illegal distributor... Not retailer.
Well according to The Best Page in the Universe, the iTunes EULA has you agree not to use iTunes to unleash biological/nuclear/chemical warfare on the world.
Fuckin' fascists indeed!
Come-fuckin'-on, bastard-ass reply system. My OP above was meant as a reply to Shane on the first page.
er.... it's based on 2 months of data.
which would be ALL of the data available for this year so far.
Sell lossless files. I'll continue to buy CDs and rip them to codecs of my own choosing (inluding ALAC), thanks.
Peppie, I don't think you have a good grasp on what the word "retailer" means.
@DT, who said:
***"No, I think W is right. My iPod forcibly detained me without charges for several hours this morning, and my Macbook has locked my family in the basement in the interest of "state security." I wonder what that bastard Airport Express Base Station is up to right now...probably broadcasting propaganda for any WiFi receiver in my home to hear."***
You actually made me laugh out loud. Thanks for recognizing the ridiculousness of this whole debate. I was just trying to comment on the rampant use of that word to describe things in culture, politics, or technology (of all things) where it is a horrible misnomer. If we keep using "fascism" out of context, we're not going to recognize it when it really rears its head again.