iTunes rules. And don't forget it

Apple is very careful when it talks. And this week, it crowed about two things: 1. The iTunes store has sold 5 billion songs. 2. Every day, people go to iTunes to either buy or rent 50,000 movies, such as "Semi-Pro" (pictured above in a scene that looks remarkably like the audience during a Steve Jobs keynote). Both were milestones.

Debate raged in the blogs about whether iTunes' music sales were accelerating, as Fortune claimed, or slowing, as Silicon Alley Insider argued. They also wondered whether iTunes, now 5 years old, was still the cat's pajamas.

One boast in Apple's press release jumped out: "The iTunes Store is the world's most popular online music, TV and movie store." It is true that iTunes recently became the No. 1 seller of music in the U.S., according to the NPD Group. But it's early for iTunes to claim to be the top TV and movie store too, when the market for renting or buying video is in its infant stages, Mashable argued.

Still, it's a bold statement, one that will be examined and measured. NewTeevee does the quick math and says that Apple's projected 18 million movies this year is just a fraction of the industry's 215 million paid downloads projected by a research group. Who is going to sell or rent the remaining 197 million?

Apple is in an odd position when it comes to the media business. The company has lit the path for how entertainment can work on the Internet. Still, some TV and movie studios have tried to strengthen iTunes' competitors such as Amazon because of disputes with Apple over pricing. It seems to me that Apple's announcement was designed to remind everyone: iTunes rules.

Nah, said two entertainment executives I spoke with. If Apple chief Steve Jobs wanted to be like Tony Soprano and remind everyone that he owned North Jersey, they said, he would have used the milestones to talk about pricing (milk and gas have gone up but not singles on iTunes!). They suggested that maybe Jobs just wanted to give himself a pat on the back after getting beaten up a bit about the new iPhone 3G last week.

-- Michelle Quinn

Image courtesy of New Line Cinema

Comments

[Rich Seymour]

Certainly it rules the popular market. But for those of us who forsee moving our music collection with us past a limited number of computers without jumping through hoops, the new Amazon.com mp3 download service w/o Digital Rights Management (DRM) is awfully nice. The convoluted steps Apple has taken too try and protect the free copying of downloaded music will come back to haunt them as soon as the iTunes generation starts outgrowing their first few computers and starts realizing they can't just copy the files they paid for freely.

[Pustoolio]

Rich, tying your own shoes must be "jumping through hoops" since it is as easy as a single click to de-authorize a computer. Also, there has never been anything stopping someone from copying their files. And Apple is against DRM in case you haven't heard. It was the Music Industry who made its inclusion mandatory. Now go play with your Zune, just don't squirt me!

[DRThomson]

I have spent a lot of time surfing and downloading from iTunes, and yes, you can get past copy protection by writing to a CD and importing the CD elsewhere. I have done that plenty of times, but it is a real pain.

With Amazon, I can either download the CD, or individual songs as 390 bit MP3's or, if I am patient, wait for the CD to arrive in the mail. No comparison in my opinion. Just as large a selection, just as easy to preview. Yep, no comparison.

I pay for my music. I should be allowed to us it when and where I please.

[Vidura Barrios]

Don't forget that it is just not only EMI, but hundreds of small independent labels and thousands of independent artists currently offer their content protection DRM free via iTunes Plus.
And my guess would be that other big labels will eventually relent to iTunes and offer their content protection free.
Amazon has great potential with downloads but the interface is not yet as elegant and easy to use as iTunes. And the organizing and storage of the music--including keeping track of downloads bought--is much easier with iTunes. But Amazon will get there.
Whatever happens CD's will eventually be obsolete and the bulk of the purchases will be done via downloads--and hopefully they will be legal downloads.
Vidura Barrios
Founder
Inner Splendor Media LLC
www.innersplendor.com