by Playfuls Staff |
26th February 2006
Apple’s iTunes has registered a new landmark: 1 Billions songs downloaded by its customers. Apple awarded to Alex Ostrovsky from West Bloomfield, Michigan, the boy who downloaded the billionth song, a 20-inch iMac, 10 fifth generation iPods and a $10,000 gift card good for any item on the iTunes Music Store. Beside the celebration [more] one thing is clear: we are facing a new digital revolution.
"I hope that every customer, artist and music company executive takes a moment today to reflect on what we've achieved together during the past three years," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "Over one billion songs have now been legally purchased and downloaded around the globe, representing a major force against music piracy and the future of music distribution as we move from CDs to the Internet.”
But what do media think about Apple, iTunes and Steve Jobs success? “So Apple's announcement Thursday that it has sold one billion songs on its online iTunes Music Store less than three years after its premiere in the digital music business makes us think things have warmed up considerably” noted
Chris Noon for Forbes.
Apple’s success is also an indicator for a change in consumer behavior. "Apple has redefined the way digital entertainment is made available to consumers,"
said Frost & Sullivan analyst Zippy Aima, commenting the news for NewsFactor. "That iTunes has reached a hallmark of selling a billion songs is an indicator that the buying behavior of consumers is changing and they are ready to pay for good quality music."
AssociatedPress noted also the decline of CD sales in favour of digital downloads. “The growing popularity of purchasing songs by the track shows in declining CD sales. A total of 618.9 million CD albums were sold during 2005, down from the 762.8 million in 2001, according to Nielsen Soundscan”.
There are also some skeptics about the longevity of iTunes success. In its article
“How Long Can Apple's Billion-Download Baby Hold the Lead?” for MacNews World, Erika Morphy is quoting Yankee Group analyst Nitin Gupta who said that Microsoft’s URGE announced in December 2005, will be an important competitor. “It will be a powerful combination on many levels”, Gupta said, noting that "the reason why no online music service has been able to compete with iTunes is because of Apple's marketing muscle."
Also, Thomas Hawk, the man who publishes Thomas Hawk's Digital Connection and FlickrNation, is not impressed by iTunes success. “What happens when the killer phone is finally here?[…]What happens when this phone is out and you really want it and unfortunately Apple didn't make it?[...] You paid all that good money for your iTunes and now you can't put them on your new phone because your new phone threatens Apple's dominance. So who owns the music anyway? You or them? They do. You bought nothing. You bought the right to play their song on their product. It might work today. But I'm not about to bet that this will be the format du jour 10 years from now.”,
he wrote in his blog.
Maybe those critics are right, but Apple still has one billion counter-arguments.
