iTunes Indie Meeting Notes 454
BWJones writes "The CD baby! site contains notes taken from the indie music meeting recently held at Apple. Interesting statistics revealed were that there are about 500k songs/week being downloaded from the iTunes Music store and that 45% of songs are being purchased as albums. Other interesting items of note are that Apple is treating everyone as equvalents in that all labels receive equal treatment with the same deal, the same agreements and you work with the same team of people. What's more is that Apple cuts a check EVERY MONTH which is huge for the smaller labels." Wired has another story about iTunes which notes that what Jobs taketh away, the community is bringing back.
I don't know which was faster... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:I don't know which was faster... (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, that was a surprise. I did not think that any of the information was proprietary or "secret", thus my submission of the story. I guess someone must have objected which is unfortunate because the story made Apple look like a real good guy for the smaller indie labels.
See Gnutella News (Score:5, Informative)
Appeasement of labels (Score:4, Interesting)
What with all the fuss about internet radio and royalty fees, it's not too far fetched that the record companies didn't like people legitimately streaming the songs they had legitimately purchased.
IIRC, Tivo & others have similar hidden features that the masses are unaware of that would probably annoy the TV companies if it were publicised.
Re:Appeasement of labels (Score:2, Insightful)
Keeping honest people honest and not worrying about pirates seems to be their strategy.
Re:Appeasement of labels (Score:2)
Re:Appeasement of labels (Score:4, Informative)
There is a 30 second comercial skip. If you do some more serious work (30 second skip is "press the right 3 magic buttons...possiabbly after searching for a show with the right magic name") you can get to the login shell on the TiVo & do all manner of stuff...including putting your own web or e-mail interface on the "record stuff" feature, or extracting video, or inserting it. It is a whole lot more work to do that though, way way more on anything other then the old series 1 stand alone models.
Re:Appeasement of labels (Score:3, Informative)
Cool! (Score:5, Funny)
I saw a similar story yesterday on a popular community-driven geek news website. [slashdot.org]
You should check it out sometime!
DONT BOTHER (Score:4, Informative)
"And yes, sorry, there used to be more details here. I didn't realize yesterday's presentation was supposed to be confidential. When I found out, I pulled the details. Honest mistake."
details have been pulled (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:details have been pulled (Score:4, Interesting)
Domain name: applemusic.com
Registrant Contact:
Apple Computer, Inc.
NOC Apple (Apple-NOC@APPLE.COM)
+1.4089961010
FAX: +1.4089741560
1 Infinite Loop
M/S 60-DR
Cupertino, CA 95014
US
Created: 11/19/97 00:00:00
Re:details have been pulled (Score:3, Informative)
The Beatles will look at it and might or might not sue but I'm sure that there is a very ca
Album sales (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Album sales (Score:2)
Re:Album sales (Score:4, Informative)
They tend to bundle charges made in 48 hour periods together [rentzsch.com].
Re:Album sales (Score:3, Insightful)
That's on of the points of the iTMS. I don't need to buy the entire album just to hear the 1 or 2 songs I like.
Re:Album sales (Score:2)
Re:Album sales (Score:5, Insightful)
It *is* something to be proud of. It is a legitimate, measurable proof with the sales figures to back it up that the traditional channels of music distribution are obsolete and the RIAA should get its head out of the sand and stop trying to prevent evolution.
I'm too young to remember it, but I'm told that the music industry went ape when DAT came out and cassette tapes as well because they would cause rampant piracy resulting in an industry collapse. The fact that most songs are purchased as SINGLE ITEMS makes it very easy to prove what we have known all along: The RIAA was wrong once again. Per-song media-less distribution will not cause industry collapse. People want to be able to get the one track for a small price over the internet - not a whole CD with 12 filler tracks and one good track.
Re:Album sales (Score:3, Insightful)
Not that that's a bad thing.
Re:Album sales (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Album sales (Score:3, Insightful)
Not to be a naysayer or anything, but where did this meme come from? It's certainly not how I see things. Maybe it's just the genres of music I like (indie rock, old jazz, etc), but for most of the albums I like (which would include hundreds of albums in this context), I don't see them as "one good song and 12 filler songs".
Maybe it's different if you're into crap lik
Re:Album sales (Score:3, Interesting)
The idea is that any transparent, gel-like substance you happen to have laying around the house ought to be workable, as long as it can fill in the gaps in the plastic while not screwing up how the laserbeam hits the aluminum. Deodorant is probably just one of many exampl
Re:Album sales [will quickly fall off] (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Album sales [will quickly fall off] (Score:3, Interesting)
Actually, I have a number of albums (yes, vinyl) that I haven't replaced with the CD version. When iTMS was up, those were the first I looked for. I've taken "ripped" some of the vinyl to mp3 or ogg but considering what my time is worth iTMS is much cheaper.
Most of my vinyl is available as CD but now I doubt that I'll ever buy it as that. I can buy the AAC's from iTMS and then burn a CD from my playlist (which I have done). The sound -- while admittedly not CD quality -- is better than my ears are and
I suppose all we could hope for now is (Score:5, Interesting)
While the CD Baby page has not been taken down, its been neutered - all relevant info has been removed and I think its obvious why.
Apple only gets about 6-12 months to have their innovations be innovations before someone else copies them.. putting out the info now, instead of in the 90ish days when the details will all be public, only gives MS and Real a head-start on their idea copying.
I'm perfectly willing to wait and see.... tho other sources have already noted that Apple has mentioned a iTMS Compression tool to allow Indie's the ability to compress their own music on their own machines to make their music ready for sale on the iTMS.
and if that's true.. that kicks fscking ass.
Go Apple, you guys r0x0r. (note: i'm not bashing their copying of Apple's ideas, i'm only stating fact)
Re:I suppose all we could hope for now is (Score:2, Informative)
I got an invitation to go to Apple's office for a presentation/meeting today (June 5, 2003) about how to get independent artists into the iTunes Music Store. There were about 150 people there, representatives from the best independent record labels and music services, in this invitation-only conference room. Steve Jobs came out and started a two and a half hour presentation/seminar/Q&A about iTunes and the benefits of independent labels making their music available there. I type
Re:I suppose all we could hope for now is (Score:3, Informative)
Apple only gets about 6-12 months to have their innovations be innovations before someone else copies them.. putting out the info now, instead of in the 90ish days when the details will all be public, only gives MS and Real a head-start on their idea copying.
Although that may be part of it, I doubt that's why Apple had them take down the information. I think its because the r
The now-yanked Full Text (Score:5, Informative)
NOTE: I've skipped the super-basic introduction to iTunes and what it does, because that can be found so many other places. This is the stuff that I felt was most important to musicians:
The basics
* The basics of iTunes Music Store are covered in many places, so if you haven't used iTunes Music store yet, read these links first:
* Apple's iTunes Music Store website.
* Great video showing the service.
* NOTE: iTunes is not a website! It can only be accessed from the iTunes software run on Mac OS X (now) and Windows (by the end of the year.)
* I highly suggest trying it for yourself. If you don't have a Mac, use a friend's. Enter your credit card info and actually buy a song. Tell it to store your info for future purchases. Buy a few more songs with the one-click system. I'm serious. You should try it yourself to really experience how amazingly cool it is.
* They're using a DRM called Fairplay to make sure you can't put these songs on the internet and have them play on another player.
Current Stats:
* There are 6-7 million copies of iTunes in use.
* 3.5 million songs sold so far. Selling about 500,000 songs a week now.
* More than 75% of songs have sold at least once. There is a wide breadth in purchasing. This is not only fueled by hits.
* 45% of all songs have been bought as an album. In other words: don't worry about the death of the album format. 45% of people prefer to buy as an album anyway, even though they always have the option to only buy per-song.
* 90% of sales are 1-click downloads. (1-click is where customer has credit card stored on file, so that as soon as they click a song title, it starts downloading and their credit card is automatically charged.)
* 10 previews (free 30 second listen) for every purchase. Meaning: 10 listens per buy.
Price of music on iTunes
* Songs must be 99 cents each.
* Full albums are recommended to be $9.99 or lower.
* Album price must be less than or equal to the sum of their tracks. So if you have a 5-song album, it can't be more than $4.95 to buy the full-length album.
* Apple strongly recommends going even lower than $9.99. They'd like to see that price drop to make the full-album purchase even more desirable.
* Only exception: if a song is over 7 minutes long, they won't offer it as a separate download. It will be available as part of the album only.
* There is no cost to put your music on iTunes.
* There will be no up-front advance from Apple.
* Details on the wholesale price to the label will be mailed to us, later.
Sales report to SoundScan
* Apple is reporting all iTunes sales to SoundScan!
* SoundScan measures per-song not per-album.
* So if someone buys your whole album, each track on the album is reported as a song sale.
* SoundScan requested to do it that way. It was their idea, not Apple's.
About positioning and getting attention on iTunes
* Apple has hired an editorial staff with backgrounds in music to decide what gets featured.
* Editorial team makes decisions every day as to what goes where.
* Big labels don't get preferential treatment.
* "We pick music we like, and we think everyone else is going to like."
* "We've had a lot of people offer money", but A
Re:The now-yanked Full Text (Score:4, Funny)
This is a good thing! (Score:4, Informative)
As for the paradox, the quote from the article says that you can't insist that your album be sold album-only. However, I assume that in the case of an album with over-7-minute songs only, it would be sold as album-only.
This is a good thing, though, when you think about it... We're all pissed at the big labels for their game of one or two singles and tons of filler and then insisting we buy the whole album. Steve stepped up and said no, you can not make an album to be sold album-only (although, you could simply make all the songs really long... but the labels aren't going to do that - they still want radio airplay, which means shorter songs). The no-album-only sales simply prevents 'filler' albums.
-T
Go suggest it then... (Score:3, Insightful)
It's still a brand new service. So open up iTunes, go to the music store and click "Requests and Feedback" link and tell them you'd like a gift feature.
CD Baby (Score:4, Interesting)
Small labels will benefit from the ignorant giants (Score:5, Interesting)
Thanks to companies like Apple, the smaller labels will really reap the benefits of getting their music out there without heavy tampering to 'prevent' piracy.
I work for a music publication, and it's interesting to see which companies ignore the 'threat' of piracy, and which ones try to fight it.
For example, the new Cradle of Filth arrived with a hand-signed number on the CD, and a b/w CD case with a skull and cross bones on it, warning me (the music critic) that "this disc is watermark protected" whatever that means.
Meanwhile, the new Type O Negative arrived with a 10 second commericial attached (i.e. spliced into) each song ("Your listening to the new Type O Negative, in stores next month"). This CD will NOT get press in our publication, since it's hard to get into a CD when every 3-4 minutes some recorded message comes on; nice job, record executives. Way to prevent piracy!
Re:Small labels will benefit from the ignorant gia (Score:5, Insightful)
So Apple has come along with the open hand approach. They aren't insulting the music fans. They aren't insulting the technologically advanced community. They're co-existing. Download what you want. Hell, burn it if you want. Get the entire CD cheaper than it will cost you at any store. You can still love your music, download what you want, keep it, and support the musicians. And hell, now they're even saying they aren't playing favorites. IF you're telling me that the RIAA aligned groups get the same cashflow program as small indie labels, then I'm buying.
We've been waiting awhile for a new "music delivery model" that pundits have been pushing for. I'm not saying Apple has the whole thing nailed down. But they're soooo close. They figured out the key of existing without being a slap in the face to the people they want to use their service. And now the RIAA has their tail tucked between their legs, trying to figure out why a bunch of hippies at Apple figured out something their teams of lawyers and PR consultants couldn't: Don't insult your customer.
Re:Small labels will benefit from the ignorant gia (Score:3, Insightful)
it should get in your magazine.. mention it that you threw it in the trash because of that and if they want you to actually review it then send you something that is listen-able.
you actually have the power to get these nut-heads attention... but being silent is not the way to do it.
DRM (Score:5, Interesting)
Of course I expect most of them to want the DRM, but some may not.
Re:DRM (Score:2)
That'd work, wouldn't it? Personally, I'd love to see this for things like the Greatful Dead's concert recordings, which are largely available for free anyway.
Re:DRM (Score:2, Informative)
Nope.
Quoted from the original article:
What you CAN'T do
* You can not sell an album as album-only format without allowing the purchase of single-songs.
* Can't search by record label, although you can see the record label on the album info page.
* There will be no links from iTunes to your website, or to buy the physical CD.
* Right now t
Re:DRM (Score:3, Insightful)
The meeting was between apple and independent record labels, in case you missed it.
So sorry, no conspiracy for you today.
Re:DRM (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:DRM (Score:3, Insightful)
I think a lot of artists are open to this idea. It is the one advantage that I have over the big players: I'm not a greedy bastard. I make music for fun, and I'd be happy if just the people who wanted to pay for it did.
Apple Policy (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Apple Policy (Score:2)
What are you talking about? AFAIK LAN streaming is still working. Internet streaming has been neutered.
(However, 4.0 won't open streams originating from 4.0.1 machines.)
Re:Apple Policy (Score:3, Informative)
It's almost there (Score:2)
Re:It's almost there (Score:2, Informative)
Apple stated you MUST use a lable to sell music and it would not support people posting their own tracks on iTMS.
Further, the FA says participation by a lable in the iTMS is invitation only.
RTFA
Re:It's almost there (Score:3, Interesting)
It also states at the bottom of the page, that CDBaby would be interested in working with independent musicians to get them a spot on iTMS.
I'm sure CDBaby would like some sort of cut, but they do this with their CD sales already, so they've already worked out the contract issues.
Re:It's almost there (Score:3, Informative)
He was invited to this invitation-only meeting, where Apple was pitching their indie-contract to indie lables. Obviously, Apple thinks that CD Baby would qualify as a "label" or a "partner", and act as a gateway for Apple.
If that's the case, then anybody who submits
regarding iTunes streaming (Score:5, Insightful)
Go ahead, flame away. Mod me down. I have the karma to burn.
Details pulled but.. (Score:4, Informative)
--------------
It wasn't wrath or lawyers that asked me to pull it. It was a friend of mine that works there.
I sincerely didn't know yesterday's presentation was supposed to be confidential. In fact I thought it was like an indie-music press conference.
Nobody's mad, though. Honest mistake.
Sorry guys!
--
Derek Sivers, CD Baby
http://www.cdbaby.com
--------------
But.... here it is anyhow...
I got an invitation to go to Apple's office for a presentation/meeting today (June 5, 2003) about how to get independent artists into the iTunes Music Store. There were about 150 people there, representatives from the best independent record labels and music services, in this invitation-only conference room. Steve Jobs came out and started a two and a half hour presentation/seminar/Q&A about iTunes and the benefits of independent labels making their music available there. I type fast and had my laptop, so I wrote down all the major points of their presentation as they went.
NOTE: I've skipped the super-basic introduction to iTunes and what it does, because that can be found so many other places. This is the stuff that I felt was most important to musicians:
The basics
* The basics of iTunes Music Store are covered in many places, so if you haven't used iTunes Music store yet, read these links first:
* Apple's iTunes Music Store website.
* Great video showing the service.
* NOTE: iTunes is not a website! It can only be accessed from the iTunes software run on Mac OS X (now) and Windows (by the end of the year.)
* I highly suggest trying it for yourself. If you don't have a Mac, use a friend's. Enter your credit card info and actually buy a song. Tell it to store your info for future purchases. Buy a few more songs with the one-click system. I'm serious. You should try it yourself to really experience how amazingly cool it is.
* They're using a DRM called Fairplay to make sure you can't put these songs on the internet and have them play on another player.
Current Stats:
* There are 6-7 million copies of iTunes in use.
* 3.5 million songs sold so far. Selling about 500,000 songs a week now.
* More than 75% of songs have sold at least once. There is a wide breadth in purchasing. This is not only fueled by hits.
* 45% of all songs have been bought as an album. In other words: don't worry about the death of the album format. 45% of people prefer to buy as an album anyway, even though they always have the option to only buy per-song.
* 90% of sales are 1-click downloads. (1-click is where customer has credit card stored on file, so that as soon as they click a song title, it starts downloading and their credit card is automatically charged.)
* 10 previews (free 30 second listen) for every purchase. Meaning: 10 listens per buy.
Price of music on iTunes
* Songs must be 99 cents each.
* Full albums are recommended to be $9.99 or lower.
* Album price must be less than or equal to the sum of their tracks. So if you have a 5-song album, it can't be more than $4.95 to buy the full-length album.
* Apple strongly recommends going even lower than $9.99. They'd like to see that price drop to make the full-album purchase even more desirable.
* Only exception: if a song is over 7 minutes long, they won't offer it as a separate download. It will be available as part of the album only.
* There is no cost to put your music on iTunes.
* There will be no up-front advance from Apple.
* Details on the wholesale price to the label will be mailed to us, later.
Sales report to SoundScan
* Apple is reporting all iTunes sales to SoundScan!
* SoundScan measures per-song not per-album.
* So if someone buys your whole album, each track on the album is reported as a song sale.
* SoundScan requested to do it that way. It was their idea
No Consipiracy Theory Here Folks... (Score:4, Informative)
Sorry - I took the details down from that page. It wasn't wrath or lawyers that asked me to pull it. It was a friend of mine that works there. I sincerely didn't know yesterday's presentation was supposed to be confidential. In fact I thought it was like an indie-music press conference. Nobody's mad, though. Honest mistake. Sorry guys!
-- Derek Sivers, CD Baby http://www.cdbaby.com
I'm a fan of what Apple is doing (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I'm a fan of what Apple is doing (Score:5, Insightful)
The alternative of Apple negotiating & interfacing with multiple providers, for each of these services, just so that you can have a choice ("I'd like my prints from Fuji this time, please.") is simply not going to happen. Apple is an underdog in the larger PC market. Exclusive arrangements are one of the few carrots they have to offer (and allow them to negotiate good rates for their users).
-renard
Free Andromeda Alternatives (Score:5, Informative)
There is a free GPL'd alternative, ZINA [pancake.org] (Zina Is Not Andromeda) as well as other solutions [sourceforge.net]. A search of freshmeat.net [freshmeat.net] for "jukebox" will reveal even more...
W
Re:Free Andromeda Alternatives (Score:3, Informative)
Umm. What makes you think that Andromeda and the other streaming applications have anything to do with Windows? They all run w/ Apache (cross-platform, including OS X), PHP (cross-platform, including OS X), and stream to any mp3 player (including iTunes)
The "what Jobs taketh away" crack is nothing more or less than Michael being his normal idiot self. It doesn't actually refer to anything, much less some piece of shit Windows ha
Just "equal" among the indies? (Score:2)
All the independent labels, you mean?
This clearly isn't true for the big labels. Some "hits" can only be bought if you take the whole album -- they won't sell Don MacLean's "American Pie" for $0.99 -- and exceptionally long tracks (>7 mins) often have the same restriction. Some albums also stick to the $0.99-per rule past the $9.95-per-o
Where are these numbers coming from? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Where are these numbers coming from? (Score:3, Informative)
So, if Apple says there are 3 million OS X users (I don't have the exact number), let's take a conservative estimate of maybe 6 or 7 songs per user. That's 19.5 million songs. The iTunes music store was started on 28 April, and if 500,000 songs a day are sold (on average), then you end up with the numbers stated above. I
Re:Where are these numbers coming from? (Score:5, Insightful)
Assume Apple has 3 million OS X computers with iTunes installed. I'm guessing that number is larger, but lets go with that.
They are averaging 500k songs a month. That means 1 in 6 users is willing to spend
The reason the iTMS is doing so well is that it's very easy to get into, and very non-binding. You don't need a monthly contract, there's almost no barrier to entry, you just pick up a $.99 song and you're done, with no hassle. You come back, or you don't, but because your information is all ready to go, and the store is built into your player, it is very easy....tempting even, to return and get another song for just $.99 later on.
Also, this caters to impulse buying big time. If I hear a song that's good on my way home from work, I can fight traffic and get to the CD store and plop down $12-$15, or I can wait til I get home, get the song I liked, and preview the other songs to make sure it's worthwhile.
Honestly, maybe its hard to believe how easy it is to get lured in until you've actually used the service and seen how easy it is to use, but 1 in 6 buying a song a month seems very believable to me, and I bet it goes up once the selection gets a little bit deeper.
-SC
Re:Where are these numbers coming from? (Score:3, Funny)
I just found it to be humorous that the quote at the bottom of the page said, "The bogosity meter just pegged," when I read your post.
I just had to share that, at the risk of loging karma.
Re:Where are these numbers coming from? (Score:3, Interesting)
1.5 million highly intelligent, mostly creative people who love things like music and movies and art.
I don't find it at all surprising that 1.5 million people can buy a three million songs a month. That's only two songs
Re:Where are these numbers coming from? (Score:5, Insightful)
To me, iTunes is like the 7-11 -- CONVENIENT. I have two sons (aged 2 and 4) and a full-time job, so I don't often have time to go wandering around a store browsing for music usually not able to find what I want. I can count half a dozen purchases (maybe half of all the 94 songs) since I started buying music from iTunes that I never would've bought if I didn't have access to iTunes -- I'm stuck at home with the sick kids because my wife has to work, I'm watching a music awards show or music video at 8pm on a weeknight, I see during lunch at work that a hot new artist just released a new album I can get without leaving work, and on and on and on...
I think this is just a revolution of convenience that the music industry needed very badly. Or maybe this is just proof that the Mac market IS actually viable -- you know some people will just refuse to like or accept THAT!
The most interesting statement to me (Score:2)
I knew they had money, but sheesh. Though I'm leaning towards it being a typo, and it should read "4.1 billion", as that would be more in line with what I last heard.
Still, they are clearly on solid ground for a computer maker these days. Or for any product manufacturer, for that matter.
I wonder if that's enough to buy SCO....
Money, money, money... (Score:3, Insightful)
What is the Big Deal (Score:4, Insightful)
Apple makes a freely available "QuickTime Streaming Server". Download it, install it. And stream your music through it. Its not that hard. Anyone with quicktime can then connect and listen to the music stream. Its not like apple really "forced fed anyone shit."
They just made it slightly harder for the RIAA to hold them accountable.
I think I see a new opponent to the public domain. (Score:3, Interesting)
Apple Computer, the newest music distribution company? Let's not forget that with Apple's newly acquired library of music they will (if they haven't already) be financially encouraged to join those who want everlasting copyright power. So, as someone should remind the /. audience who is quick to react to shiny new objects and services, don't be so quick to get warm fuzzies when you think of Apple Computer. There is a more important bargain with society that still needs to be addressed anytime we're talking about matters of copyright.
Re:Details pulled (Score:4, Informative)
As always, good old MacSurfer [macsurfer.com] toi the rescue with a link to the Gnutella News story [gnutellanews.com].
Lots of interesting details; it looks like Apple is being fair and genuinely trying to help out independent artists as much as possible.
No independant artists (Score:5, Informative)
Re:No independant artists (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:No independant artists (Score:3, Insightful)
I think I'll go register as a corporation this afternoon
Re:No independant artists (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:No independant artists (Score:3, Informative)
Re:No independant artists (Score:3, Informative)
Re:No independant artists (Score:4, Informative)
1. It's a business and so the expenses are deductible. 2. Limited liability.
If there is more than one shareholder, you divy up the income by percentage. I have tons of small-business type clients that are S-corps and LLCs. Their financial statements and tax returns
are really easy to read, moreso than personal returns.
Re:No independant artists (Score:4, Insightful)
In any case, baby steps. And they've got a lot of other shit going on too -- iTunes for Windows and getting the labels onboard for that (whole different ballgame), international store and all the licensing issues, etc. This is a big, big job but so far Apple is doing everything right. Let's see where this thing is in another year or so. It won't happen overnight.
full article in case of dashslotting (Score:4, Informative)
Posted by leflaw on June 6, 2003 at 7:44 AM EDT
Apple iTunes + independent music
I got an invitation to go to Apple's office for a presentation/meeting today (June 5, 2003) about how to get independent artists into the iTunes Music Store. There were about 150 people there, representatives from the best independent record labels and music services, in this invitation-only conference room. Steve Jobs came out and started a two and a half hour presentation/seminar/Q&A about iTunes and the benefits of independent labels making their music available there. I type fast and had my laptop, so I wrote down all the major points of their presentation as they went.
NOTE: I've skipped the super-basic introduction to iTunes and what it does, because that can be found so many other places. This is the stuff that I felt was most important to musicians:
The basics
* The basics of iTunes Music Store are covered in many places, so if you haven't used iTunes Music store yet, read these links first:
* Apple's iTunes Music Store website.
* Great video showing the service.
* NOTE: iTunes is not a website! It can only be accessed from the iTunes software run on Mac OS X (now) and Windows (by the end of the year.)
* I highly suggest trying it for yourself. If you don't have a Mac, use a friend's. Enter your credit card info and actually buy a song. Tell it to store your info for future purchases. Buy a few more songs with the one-click system. I'm serious. You should try it yourself to really experience how amazingly cool it is.
* They're using a DRM called Fairplay to make sure you can't put these songs on the internet and have them play on another player.
Current Stats:
* There are 6-7 million copies of iTunes in use.
* 3.5 million songs sold so far. Selling about 500,000 songs a week now.
* More than 75% of songs have sold at least once. There is a wide breadth in purchasing. This is not only fueled by hits.
* 45% of all songs have been bought as an album. In other words: don't worry about the death of the album format. 45% of people prefer to buy as an album anyway, even though they always have the option to only buy per-song.
* 90% of sales are 1-click downloads. (1-click is where customer has credit card stored on file, so that as soon as they click a song title, it starts downloading and their credit card is automatically charged.)
* 10 previews (free 30 second listen) for every purchase. Meaning: 10 listens per buy.
Price of music on iTunes
* Songs must be 99 cents each.
* Full albums are recommended to be $9.99 or lower.
* Album price must be less than or equal to the sum of their tracks. So if you have a 5-song album, it can't be more than $4.95 to buy the full-length album.
* Apple strongly recommends going even lower than $9.99. They'd like to see that price drop to make the full-album purchase even more desirable.
* Only exception: if a song is over 7 minutes long, they won't offer it as a separate download. It will be available as part of the album only.
* There is no cost to put your music on iTunes.
* There will be no up-front advance from Apple.
* Details on the wholesale price to the label will be mailed to us, later.
Sales report to SoundScan
* Apple is reporting all iTunes sales to SoundScan!
* SoundScan measures per-song not per-album.
* So if someone buys your whole album, each track on the album is reported as a song sale.
* SoundScan requested to do it that way. It was their idea, not Apple's.
About positioning and getting attention on iTunes
* Apple has hired an editorial staff with backgrounds in music to decide what gets featured.
* Editorial team makes decisions every day as to what goes where.
* Big labels don't get preferential treatment.
* "We pick music we like, and we think everyone else is going to like."
* "We've had a lot of people offer money", but Apple refuses money, and has no plan to ev
Re:full article in case of dashslotting (Score:4, Informative)
Re:full article in case of dashslotting (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Details pulled (Score:2, Interesting)
Shamelessly copied and pasted from MacSlash [macslash.org]:
Derek Sivers, president of CD Baby and Hostbaby, attended yesterday's meeting between Apple representatives and about 150 indie label produces and executives and has posted his notes online from the meeting. Some of the highlights include a link to the fairplay website, which apple has said it's using for DRM, and the fact that Apple reports iTunes Music Store sales to SoundScan. Apple also told producers that they would not sell ad space to record labels and t
Overall that's a troll (Score:2, Interesting)
OS9 and below sucked - They had an ancient core, I'm not surprised you had multitasking issues. OS X is lightyears ahead. OSX is one good reason that some people might choose a Mac.
And this article isn't about their hardware, it's about Apple's iTunes Music Store service. Which is currently Mac-only, and is enough to push some people "over the edge" and get a Mac. I know I've been VERY tempted to buy a used Mac just to be able to use the
Re:mac problem (Score:5, Informative)
You are running an OS that was written 13 years before you bought your Mac and was updated with more and more features, meaning in many cases unoptimized bloat. I am guessing you are running MacOS 9, and this does not have many of the low-level features of a modern OS. The multi-tasking used by the OS is cooperative, so if one process hogs the CPU no other app gets a chance. Other things to take into account is that the OS has virtual memory (the OS doesn't differentiate between what is real and what isn't, when allocating memory) and not swap space, so this can also affect performance if you are trying to do a lot at once.
Windows NT on the other hand had a lot of new code and was essentially a new OS and was written with many of the modern features you would expect from an OS. I am not so sure Windows 95/98 would be performing as well on this machine. One thing you don't say is how much memory you have on that PC, since memory make a LOT of differnce.
MacOS X is the Apple's new OS and has plenty of modern facilities, which should make it fly. The problem is the eye candy and all the other GUI stuff which adds an extra load to the CPU. The OS is improving and is getting faster. In theory if MacOS X had the same GUI as MacOS 9 (in other words one which requires less processing), I am sure that you find it running fast ion the 8600.
Re:mac problem (Score:5, Informative)
Re:mac problem (Score:3, Informative)
Case in point: it sure would be nice if I could play Unreal Tournament 2003. My 700MHz eMac will sort of attempt to run it, but at the lowest settings it's too slow to be playable. I'm told this is largely due to the video card (32MB GeForce2 MX) rather than the p
Re:No. Apple cuts a cheque... (Score:2)
Re:No. Apple cuts a cheque... (Score:2, Funny)
Middle English chek, from Middle French eschec
Seems to suggest that "check" is the correct modern spelling and that people writing "cheque [m-w.com]" are just weird, or "chiefly British."
Besides, incorrect spelling is one of the cornerstones of Slashdot, like incorrect grammer. (How many people will catch that, I wonder?) Complaining about it is so passé.
Re:No. Apple cuts a cheque... (Score:4, Informative)
"Check" (the noun) in this instance is an incorrect spelling of the word that has become so ubiquitous it is now considered an alternate spelling. For Americans, it is becoming the only recognized correct spelling.
"Seems to suggest that "check" is the correct modern spelling and that people writing "cheque" are just weird, or "chiefly British"
Case in point (your link to Merriam-Webster is an American dictionary). Along with the weird "cheifly British" folk you can also include Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders, Indians, South Africans, etc... almost the entire English-speaking world outside the US.
Re:[OT] Re:No. Apple cuts a cheque... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:No. Apple cuts a cheque... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Ho hum (Score:3, Interesting)
It doesn't look that way. It looks like the author misunderstood the purpose of the meeting according to this [macrumors.com].
I also believe a mirror of the original text on CD baby lives here [gnutellanews.com].
Re:Ho hum (Score:3, Insightful)
You're missing the point here. The meeting wasn't about sales figures or proprietary information. The important thing is that this shows Apple is now actively courting independent artists for iTMS, and apparently giving them the same deal that the big 5 labels get. As much as this can be feasibly done, at any rate: iTMS should not be a free-for-all where anyone with a garage band can upload songs in the hope that they take off. Probably Apple's preference for having a (independent) label represent artis
Re:Ho hum (Score:4, Informative)
It also mean fewer checks that need to be cut every month, fewer reports to be generated, etc.
Obviously, if they wanted to deal with CD Baby (who does all the essential services of a label, but will work for anyone for $35 plus $4/album), they aren't trying to shut people out.
Re:Apple the first, but ... (Score:3, Funny)
Going broke on the difference between the 35 cent retail and the 65 cents label royalty per track is a fairly predictable first consequence, one would think
The funny thing is that they wont. (Score:4, Interesting)
And meanwhile Apple cleans up on all of the online music business because they are the only ones trying to build something the customer will want to use instead of the music companies. So even though another company could come along and undercut Apple (like RealMedia is trying to do) they always present some aspect to their system that screws things up and makes the service unappealing to consumers.
Also, the secret spice in Apple's store is that it's not web based and uses a custom interface. So you get not only easy searching and purchasing, but management of your songs all at once. Kind of the way IE came into being as the dominant web browser, it was just there with the OS... and the player you use for music has more music waiting to be bought and enjoyed right there.
Re:Apple the first, but ... (Score:4, Interesting)
There's a great value added benefit to dealing with a technology company that is headed by an entertainment company CEO (Steve Jobs, of course, runs his own movie studio called Pixar). As long as Steve continues in his post, Apple will continue to be able to extract a few pennies extra in profit versus any deal MS will be able to make.
Re:Exclusivity required? (Score:5, Informative)
From the notes:
"Rights are a 3 year term. For iTunes only, of course. This is totally non-exclusive."
Apple apparently asks that you license them to sell your song for 3 year stints, but non-exclusivity means you can also sell your music wherever and however else you want.
Re:Exclusivity required? (Score:3, Interesting)
Consider: The major labels all have their own craptastic internet music stores. And they are all on iTunes.
So...
I think they're content being, by far, the absolute best on-line music store.
: )
Re:All this talk and it's MAC only? (Score:5, Interesting)
I'd also love to see iTunes on setup top boxes. God, the thought of a big white multimedia box with a few hundred gigs of space and a high def display, digital output and a friendly engraved apple gets me all excited about my sound system again.
Re:UPC Barcode (Score:3, Interesting)
The really cool, really good thing Derek is doing is that he is providing an early path for everyone to get their music onto iTunes.
I totally understand Apple's position on this. They don't want to get swamped by tens of thousands of indie labels seeking individual co
Re:Interesting... (Score:4, Insightful)