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.
Details pulled (Score:1, Informative)
See Gnutella News (Score:5, Informative)
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."
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)
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
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: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 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 ever accept money for placement.
* Even what looks like a banner ad at the top of the screen is put there by App
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
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
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: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:No. Apple cuts a cheque... (Score:2, Informative)
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 there are no sub-genres, only big genres. (rock/jazz/etc.)
Re:Album sales [will quickly fall off] (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Appeasement of labels (Score:3, Informative)
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 don't think this is too hard to achieve.
Of course, my math could be horribly horribly wrong. I'm sure someone will point that out
Reasons for removal (Score:1, Informative)
Re:full article in case of dashslotting (Score:2, Informative)
Is that right? I've never heard they had that much cash in the bank. Doesn't that mean they have about as much cash as Microsoft? That just doesn't sound right to me.
Re:I'm a fan of what Apple is doing (Score:2, Informative)
Re:No independant artists (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I'm a fan of what Apple is doing (Score:2, Informative)
When Apple originally thunk up the iMac, the idea was to create a computer that could be out of the box and on the internet in something like ten minutes. In those days, broadband was unheard of. So they had to have a worldwide ISP partner so customers who bought iMacs could be up and running quickly and easily.
There were two choices. One: start their own ISP. (Bad idea. Been done. Failed.) Two: partner with a worldwide ISP. (Good idea.)
So now, when you start your new Mac, you're given four choices. One: sign up for an Earthlink account. Two: plug in the information about an existing dial-up ISP account. Three: use Ethernet instead. Four: skip networking altogether.
That's the last time you get asked about Earthlink.
Compare this to Windows, where every new computer comes with half a dozen third-party icons right on the desktop.
The point is valid.
Re:full article in case of dashslotting (Score:4, Informative)
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.
All this talk and it's MAC only? (Score:0, Informative)
The iTunes Music Store requires: * A Macintosh computer (iBook, PowerBook, iMac, eMac or Power Mac) * Mac OS X 10.1.5 or later. (version 10.2.5 or later recommended) * iTunes 4 must be installed * Internet connection (DSL, Cable or LAN connection recommended) * Apple ID or .Mac account. If you donâ(TM)t have one, itâ(TM)s easy to sign-up.
* The iTunes Music Store is only available in the U.S.
Re:Apple Policy (Score:3, Informative)
Re:full article in case of dashslotting (Score:4, Informative)
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: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 carefully crafted legal strategy ready in case they do.
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 hack that looks so absurd up next to DAAP and Rendezvous that you should be ashamed for even thinking of it.
Again... I was referring to the Wired article [wired.com] that Michael was linking to, and not anything that is a "Windows hack".
Sigh.
W
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:No independant artists (Score:2, Informative)
I hope this is informative!
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:Album sales (Score:2, Informative)
Slightly O/T, but, Informative too I hope :) I've got that problem too, half the CDs I own won't hardly play they're so scratched, (and I took good care of them too, 100cd caselogic book. I think the book scratched them up a good deal) Anyhow, I tried out that electric 'disc dr.' thing and it cleans up CDs -really- nicely. Anyhow, you could always burn yourself a new copy once you download it, but it's always nice to not waste a CD when you can salvage it y'know?
-matt
Re:No. Apple cuts a cheque... (Score:2, Informative)
Simple rule: "Check" is a verb. "Cheque" is a noun referring to a bank note used for transferring currenecy to another person or corporation.
It's correct in every English speaking country outside the USA, and is therefore correct. Check is wrong here.
Re:Album sales (Score:4, Informative)
They tend to bundle charges made in 48 hour periods together [rentzsch.com].
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
Re:mac problem (Score:5, Informative)
Re:No independant artists (Score:3, Informative)
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 report contained detailed information about the business model behind iTMS and the relationships between Apple and the music labels. This would be considered sensitive commercial information by Apple and the labels as its wide-spread dissemination could hurt future negotiations for any of the parties involved.
The technical and product innovations are less problematic because they are essentially public anyway - anyone can get an iTMS account and try out the product features for themselves. The business agreements behind the scenes are not public and are usually closely guarded secrets.
(copied from MacNN board) (Score:1, 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
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 their album to CD Baby could potentially ask for it to be sent on to iTunes. Anybody. Of course, there may be a higher setup fee for that, as its more work for CD Baby.
He didn't see a contract, so it's unclear how much money the "labels" are getting per song or album sold. CD Baby's current model is the artist sets the album retail price, and CD Baby takes a fixed cut per copy sold for their share of the retail price. I imagine in this case, of the $0.99/song, Apple will take a cut, and then CD Baby will take a cut, but who can tell how big those cuts will be?
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: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 processor, although I don't really know.
A 1GHz eMac with a 32MB Radeon 7500 is $999.
A 1GHz iMac with a 32MB GeForce4 MX is $1799.
A 1GHz PowerMac with 64MB GeForce4 MX is $1499 (plus monitor).
A dual 1.25GHz PowerMac with a 64MB Radeon 9000 Pro is $1999 (plus monitor).
Would the $1499 PowerMac be fast enough to make me happy playing that game? Maybe, I'm not sure. I bet the $999 eMac wouldn't be. I can build a 2.4GHz Athlon system with a nice video card for a hell of a lot less than that, even if you add the cost of Windows.
Of course this has nothing to do with iTunes, which works beautifully.
iBooks FROM APPLE for less than $800 (Score:2, Informative)
There are other models too - with combo drive and faster processors. Take a look at The Apple Store [slashdot.org] and click the link on the lower left bottom of the page to "Special Deals: great prices on limited offers".
It's a good way to get a Mac without blowing a lot of money and if you like it, eBay the one you bought and your Wintel/Linux box and get a more expensive new Mac.
Re:CD Baby (Score:2, Informative)