1 Million Songs

By Sam Felder on May 5, 2003 5:12 PM | | Comments (0)

Apple Computer announced that 1 million songs have been sold over the new iTunes Music Store at 99 cents a piece. That generates a hefty $990,000. The retailer's take on such sales usually runs around 36.7% of price disregarding the fact that Apple has almost zero transaction cost increasing the take. All of this means that $363,300 was just added to Apple's Q3 revenue.

During the first 18 hours the new store was open approximately 275,000 tracks were sold averaging four a second!

This is a big deal because the iTunes store is currently only available to mac users. By the fall Apple will be releasing a PC version of their iTunes software with the ability to shop the iTunes music store. For those of you without a mac, Apple has, in concert with almost every music company, created a store where you can listen to the 30 seconds of any track instantly, watch free music videos and purchase music with one click a the set price of 99 cents a song.

The downside to the system is that a 10 second Lauren Hill intro sells for the same price as the 18 minute Alice's Restaurant but at 99 cents a song nobody is complaining. While you cannot share the music over a network because of built in Digital Rights Management, DRM, you can burn the MP-4 files as audio CD's and give them to your pals.

This is a big break for Apple and will most likely be imitated by competitors. Again, Apple is ahead of the curve (and the new iPod rocks!)

Categories:

Leave a comment

Who is this guy?

Sam Felder is a web designer and occasional writer in Los Angeles, CA.

Born in Washington, DC, Sam and his family moved to Peoria, IL, where he grew up and went to school. He returned to DC in 2003 and left for the west coast in late 2005.

See me speak at SXSW Interactive 2008

Find Me Elsewhere

Archives

Search


Categories

Recent Activity

Today

  • Sam tweeted, "I don't think tonight's presidential debate could possibly have had less substance: http://tinyurl.com/6arb64"
  • Sam is attending IxDA-SF Presents: Matt Jones, "Playfulness in Design" at odopod
  • Sam tweeted, "slowly getting better at making espresso. still terrible at foaming soymilk..."

April 15

  • Sam tweeted, "Glad that I filed my income tax last week. I had to pay but at least I don't have to spend today stressed out!"
  • Sam tweeted, "OH: I think the future of dolls is..."

April 12

  • Sam tweeted, "biking in SF makes me want terrain view in google maps on the iPhone. These hills are serious!"
  • Sam tweeted, "every time I see an airplane gracefully take off I'm impressed that we can do that. It really is amazing!"

April 10

  • Sam tweeted, "Making plans for a great weekend up in SF. The weather is going to be great and I plan to spend as much of it outside as possible."
  • Sam tweeted, "Loving the new season of Radiolab http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/"

April 9

  • Sam tweeted, "up late watching video from TED"
  • Sam saved the link NewsVisual

April 7

  • Sam tweeted, "Why does iTunes keep downloading partial podcasts? I don't want 18 minutes of This American Life. I want the full hour!"

April 4

April 3

  • Sam saved the link City songbirds are changing their tune
  • Sam tweeted, "I dreamt that it was suddenly May and I had forgotten to file my taxes. Is it a sign that I should stop procrastinating?"

April 2