Apple officially says it's the #1 music retailer in the US
By Nilay Patel 
posted April 3rd 2008 3:29PM
posted April 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.
every time a closed source piece of software or hardware is called "Fascist" an angel gets its wings. true story.
i think this is determined by sales figures...sales.
I knew Ars wouldn't lie to me! Damn you for making me doubt them Engadget!!
Apple is my hot, hot sex
Am I the only one who is concerned by Apple being number one? Apple already tells you what you want or don't want in the computer world. They already make you buy an iPod to play their music.
What's to stop Apple from muscling the music industry the way they do their customers?
Big brother now controls the music you here.
Hey... wait a minute!, I thought the leading music retailer was LimeWire! Wait, no, thats where I steal my music, sorry you guys! Safe illegal downloading!
Apple (by proxy of NPD) is going off of the "12 tracks per CD" rule when calculating the number of Walmart tracks sold, but that's not really a valid way to do it. Since they don't have access to the actual per-CD sales, and real research would be "too hard" they held their thumb to the wind and said "CDs have about 12 tracks. Lets count them that way." While it is true that more CDs have 12 songs than any other track count, it is not the mean number of tracks - that's actually a bit over 13, and that doesn't weigh the fact that Walmart sells very few of the LPs that tend to drag the average down, I'd guess the real number is closer to 15 tracks per album. And since Apple's iTunes deals completely shrouded behind the White Plastic Curtain, even from investors, we have no way of knowing how much they actually made.
http://gonze.com/weblog/story/howmanysongs
But hey, what's honestly representing your company's earnings or position in the market when ADVERTISING! is on the line?
Yeah. I was under the impression he was referring to the fact that the majority of songs on iTunes are encoded at 128kbps in AAC. Whoever said that the treble was lost on such tracks has it right. If you look at the spectrum on any sound file encoded in AAC by iTunes (I don't have any iTunes store purchases to look at - all those that I own have been encoded as mp3's and the originals deleted - I won't have any of that DRM garbage in my box) you will see that above 17000hz is cut off. You will notice, however, that many people cannot hear pitches that high anymore (I, infact, was shocked and disturbed that my own hearing now only goes up to about 14000Hz due to being in a loud rock band and disregarding hearing protection - PSA: children, wear your earplugs). So, while what you say is technically true, many people cannot notice that specific difference.
Even so, I can hear the difference between a 128kbps AAC file and a good Lame "-V 3 --vbr-new" mp3. Even 192kbps CBR is good, but seriously - 128kbps? and the nerve to say that it sounds just like a CD!
Final note: while encoding in AAC might leave a bad taste in your mouth it can be nothing in comparison to using the iTunes mp3 encoder. It is often regarded as the worst available mp3 encoder.
You made me just search for test sound files to see what I could still hear. Well 20khz is silence, but at least 16khz is still annoying as ever.
Yeah. Leave it to the maker of one OS to bash its competition for releasing a poorly thought out and widely panned OS.
Yeah. Leave it to the maker of one OS to pan its poorly-thought-out and widely-panned competition. Sheeh.
okay. Well. Those were both responses to an earlier post. I'd vote the engadget comment system down if i could. Sorry. I'll settle for being (deservedly) voted down, myself.
iTunes offers 256kbps AAC files for a large number of their tracks.
And just so you know, a 128kbps AAC is roughly the equivalent of a 256kbps MP3 (or better) in terms of quality, compression, etc. That's why the MPEG group declared AAC/MP4 the successor to MP3 a few years ago. It's clearly better than MP3, which is over a decade old now.
So a 256kbps AAC is probably about equal to a 512kbps MP3, but with better highs and lows.
You're still thinking of the kbps in MP3 terms, when AAC sort of changed what's "good enough" when it came along.
@ w
Let's head on over to the dictionary, shall we?:
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fascism |ˈfaʃɪz(ə)m| |-sɪz(ə)m| (also Fascism)
noun
an authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization.
• (in general use) extreme right-wing, authoritarian, or intolerant views or practice.
The term Fascism was first used of the totalitarian right-wing nationalist regime of Mussolini in Italy (1922–43), and the regimes of the Nazis in Germany and Franco in Spain were also fascist. Fascism tends to include a belief in the supremacy of one national or ethnic group, a contempt for democracy, an insistence on obedience to a powerful leader, and a strong demagogic approach.
DERIVATIVES
fascist |ˈføʃəst| noun & adjective
fascistic |faˈ sh istik| |føˈʃɪstɪk| |-ˈʃɪstɪk| adjective
ORIGIN from Italian fascismo, from fascio ‘bundle, political group,’ from Latin fascis (see fasces ).
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You described their products as fascist, correct? Explain to me how they are 'right-wing', 'totalitarian', or 'intolerant'. As an organization, Apple does contain some elements of demagogy and deference to a supreme leader, in the form of Steve Jobs, but your argument implied that your qualm was with the /product/ and not the corporation. Even if we did accept that this was a simple slip-up, and you did mean to describe their products as fascists, you have made no effort to differentiate Apple from any other corporation (or, for that matter, any political entity). Perhaps the corporate idea is, in itself, fascistic. This is the argument of socialism, who argue that there is no difference from capitalism and fascism. In the end, however, I find that your argument lacks weight, and does not conform with the evidence available.
4/10
That is what I was thinking. It kinda defeats the purpose of this competition of who sells more than who. But than again, Walmart sells everything. So I am sure if all of those sells came from people who bought Itunes gift cards from them, they have also made their share of those sales.
That is what I was thinking. It kinda defeats the purpose of this competition of who sells more than who. But than again, Walmart sells everything. So I am sure if all of those sells came from people who bought Itunes gift cards from them, they have also made their share of those sales.
So wait, all you Apple haters out there like Walmart? You want to buy your music from Walmart?! Regardless of whether you like Apple or not, this is good news. I would much rather my money go to Apple than a crap company like Walmart. When was the last time that Walmart gave us any innovation? Walmart is just another feeding trough full of Chinese garbage. Yes, I know Apple has things made in China too, but all Apple's products are designed in Cupertino. We would not be having this discussion if weren't for Apple redesigning the MP3 player. And, of course, Al Gore inventing the internets.
Preventing iTunes to be the #1 store, I suppose?
@WII3
Right, because it's Apple that decides how the music industry pays its artists.
was "hear" the word you weer looking for?
What if I like my physical copy?
I'm actually doing research for a project at MIT on the digital music industry. We're giving away $5 in free Amie Street credit for everyone who completes the survey. Please click the link below.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=yMZ68cS96RyMXVqmSFGHNg_3d_3d