iTunes Music Store Downloads Top 150 Million Songs

iTunes Music Store - 150m Downloads and Growing...

A couple of weeks ago Apple announced they have currently had 150m downloaded songs off of their wildly successful iTunes Music Store. No other online music label has been able to acheive this. This is huge for the music industry, which was in a financial slup from late 2002 and 2003. People are starting to finally embrace the legal market of online music, and they are purchasing singles and albums in droves.

So here it is: do you people pay for your music these days? Since you basically have the whole world at your fingertips, do you just steal your music?

I'll be the first to say that I still download music. I don't own a credit card, and when I want music, I either download the single or go out and get the album. If I feel the artist is deserving of my money, THAT is when I go out of my way to purchase their album. I think that is fair, personally. It's my way of evaluating my purchases before I actually make them. I love music. I love listening to music. I want to support this industry, and I think the iTunes Music Store is a step in the right direction.

Do any of you use the ITMS and what are your feelings on it? Do you think .99 is too steep for a song, or $10.00 for an entire album? Input, people!

This is nice, but its sad that the RIAA is continuining to criminalize music fans. So I mean, what now? Ive been pirating music since day one and Ill tell you, its harder and more of a pain in the ass than ever. And more people are buying music online than ever. Yet they are still treating music fans like thugs and criminals.

Its kind of like how the MPAA is saying that Kazaa will kill their business and then 10 minutes later they talk about how the movie industry is making more money than ever.

The RIAA are the bad guys.

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Originally Posted by diffusionx

The RIAA are the bad guys.

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They're super intimidating to a guy like me. I'm a pussy. I don't like associations that need to be abbreviated.

The FBA
The RIAA
The MPAA
The RIA

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Originally Posted by iidx Nick

They're super intimidating to a guy like me. I'm a pussy. I don't like associations that need to be abbreviated.

The FBA
The RIAA
The MPAA
The RIA

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The BET...

Although I used to pirate music, all currently in my possession are legal. I really don't have time to pirate stuff.

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Originally Posted by iidx Nick

The FBA
The RIAA
The MPAA
The RIA

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The TNL
The NAMBLA

I still steal.

If I download something I'm most likely to buy it off itunes. Once in a great while ill try to nab it illegally, but that's usually just because itunes's selection is not so great.

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Originally Posted by diffx

This is nice, but its sad that the RIAA is continuining to criminalize music fans. So I mean, what now? Ive been pirating music since day one and Ill tell you, its harder and more of a pain in the ass than ever. And more people are buying music online than ever. Yet they are still treating music fans like thugs and criminals.

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There's about a lifetime's worth of irony in these sentences.

Still stealing. 90% of my music would be hard to find on most sites, plus I am poor so I just keep DLing. I want to actually purchase most of the music I get, I just cannot afford it, so I keep finding more music to spend my money on when ever I get it. It is a fucking vicious cycle.

I only "steal" music to see if I want to go out and buy whatever single/ep/lp I'm interested in. I buy everything I download and like, but not necessarily right away.

I never buy from online services like iTunes or Napster or anything. I prefer to own the actual music CD, rather then just a copy of a song I could get for free. I like having a large CD collection, versus a large music file.

I think that the RIAA was really effective with their huge scare legal battles. There are now a lot less people downloading illegally than their were 2-4 years ago.

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Originally Posted by Tones

I think that the RIAA was really effective with their huge scare legal battles. There are now a lot less people downloading illegally than their were 2-4 years ago.

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Not only that, but surveys conducted show that most people think the RIAA is actually a government organization. Of course, thats the image theyve been subtly trying to cultivate.

Seriously, theyre the bad guys. A few years ago people were predicting the end for them, considering they were taking the hardline stance and failing to embrace new technology. Then Apple came along and saved them with a sweetheart deal. Now the RIAA isnt gonna go anywhere because they can strong-arm online distributors the way they do brick and mortars (I think the only company to stand up to them wrt CD prices and win was, yep, Wal-Mart). But Apple claims they arent making any money off iTMS, and the artists certainly arent getting a bigger cut than they used to.

I just checked, and I have 46 songs downloaded from the iTunes Music Store. However, at least 1/3 of those were from the Pepsi promotion, thus were free. Could be as many as half were free, though, to be honest.

I feel really bad about it, but while I do purchase songs from the iTMS, I also purchase them from AllofMP3. My reason for purchasing from All isn't because of how much cheaper they are - it is because I can get 320kbps AAC files from there, while I get 128kbps AAC files from All. If Apple could offer different bitrates on their songs, I'd purchase more of them legally. Of course, I don't forsee the music industry being okay with that unless we get some serious DRM going on.

I still download songs but I've been buying actual CD in stores a lot now. I've been catching up with a lot of OLDER albums that I missed growing up.

I have not used iTUNES though. I've seen some of my friends use it and it seems interesting but I don't think I'd be paying for the singles...I I really like a song, I'll download it. I might end up liking it so much, that I'd buy the album...

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Originally Posted by EMAGDNIM

I have not used iTUNES though. I've seen some of my friends use it and it seems interesting but I don't think I'd be paying for the singles...I I really like a song, I'll download it. I might end up liking it so much, that I'd buy the album...

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BTW, iTunes is the music playing application. iTunes Music Store is the thing that lets you pay to download music.

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Originally Posted by lithium

If I download something I'm most likely to buy it off itunes. Once in a great while ill try to nab it illegally, but that's usually just because itunes's selection is not so great.

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Well really... iTunes Music Store's selection is the greatest out of all available music services. Unless of course you're looking for Macy Grays "Walk This Way" or Los Lonely Boys. :/

Seriously though, I know what you mean, iTunes doesn't have the greatest selection in the world, but it is the most CONVIENENT.


Convienent
Conveinent
Convenient

HOW THE HELL DO YOU SPELL THIS WORD?!

convenient...sound it out.

Personally, I could never see myself purchasing a single song, no matter how good it is.

New iPods just released. Color screen PhotoPod. Looks very nice.

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Originally Posted by Mman

Personally, I could never see myself purchasing a single song, no matter how good it is.

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Why not?

I people should get paid if you have and enjoy their song, unless they specifically are giving the song away. And, yes, I know that I already said that I purchase songs from Allofmp3, where the money doesn't go back to the artist. That's why I can't bitch at people for not downloading songs for free.

I do think, however, that people SHOULD be paying for downloading songs, and that people should be able to go online and purchase songs. I don't like that we still very much live in a world where your options are (a) buy a CD for one song or (b) pirate the music. The more and more option C becomes viable, the better off we are.

And while this is very optimistic, and maybe naive, maybe the way technology is working will allow us to get to the day where all artist just put their stuff up online directly, and when I pay my $1 for the song, a majority of it goes to them. I'd love for that to happen.

I also hope that when iTMS Japan comes out, that it features a lot of Japanese music, and that some way for us people not living in Japan to purchase music from it is found. The online J-pop scene is full of illegal downloading, because otherwise you're looking at paying $10 for a single (which could even only contain one song) or $30 for an album before shipping or whatnot. Legal online downloads would bring samples so that you aren't just buying CDs blind, far cheaper prices, and the ability to offer Japanese music to Americans where selling it in stores would never, ever work.

Why not? Well, I might be a snob, but if an artist cannot make an album that is at least somewhat enjoyable then why should I support them for their one song. Not to mention if it is popular I can just turn on my radio to hear it. I also like the idea of "albums" being a sum of their whole, not just a collection of songs. Downloading individual songs just fuels this idea.

I also do not like the idea of downloading music legally because I do not see how in anyway this is benefitting the artists. I might simply be confused here, but they are not being payed anymore through this means, right? But recording companies save on money because it is all digital. That really does not add up.

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Originally Posted by Mman

I also like the idea of "albums" being a sum of their whole, not just a collection of songs. Downloading individual songs just fuels this idea.

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Almost every album in itunes is available as a whole for $9.99 or less, and is often a good $3-4 cheaper than buying the album by the song. For many jazz albums where each song is too long to warrant a .99 price tag, they are only available as an entire album purchase.

The downside is some albums can only be purchased by getting the individual songs and even worse many albums are incomplete (like Jamiroquai's "A Funk Odyssey" which I just bought 5 minutes ago, it's missing the first 3 songs).

psst...im not talking 'bout downloading an entire album. I am talking about downloading an individual song.

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Originally Posted by child810

New iPods just released. Color screen PhotoPod. Looks very nice.

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I thought he was joking, but he's right.
http://www.apple.com/ipodphoto/

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Originally Posted by Mman

psst...im not talking 'bout downloading an entire album. I am talking about downloading an individual song.

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ummm, yeah. I can read. I'm pointing out entire albums are available at a discount for those who prefer that route.

I wish I had the money to buy all the games AND music that I would like to experience. I buy what I can. I pirate the rest and buy it later if I can.

As long as I'm putting all possible income towards the entertainment industry, I don't see what more they want from me.

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Originally Posted by child810

New iPods just released. Color screen PhotoPod. Looks very nice.

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Shut up, you don't know me. =[

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Originally Posted by shidoshi

BTW, iTunes is the music playing application. iTunes Music Store is the thing that lets you pay to download music.

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Ah sorry...I ment the download feature...I used iTunes when I had my Apple Powerbook...

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Originally Posted by Mman

Why not? Well, I might be a snob, but if an artist cannot make an album that is at least somewhat enjoyable then why should I support them for their one song. Not to mention if it is popular I can just turn on my radio to hear it. I also like the idea of "albums" being a sum of their whole, not just a collection of songs. Downloading individual songs just fuels this idea.

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Well, I agree - you're a snob. So you're saying that for every single CD you own, you love at least 75% of the songs on there? I'd be happy to be like that. There are times that I love a song but don't like a lot of the rest of the album. Paying $1 for that song is far, far better to me than paying $13+ for the CD just to get that one song. I'd rather own and enjoy that one or two songs from an artist than I like instead of boycott the CD entirely just because I don't like most of the rest of it.

And "concept" albums, 90% of the time, are just stupid ways for a musician or band to try to make themselves look "deep" or something. I'd rather each song stand on its own and be a good, solid song than have every song come together as some sort of theme and be brought down by that.

Plus, being into Japanese music like I am, 90% of music is released as singles. Thus, albums are really only good as collections of the songs if you haven't been picking up the singles, and the chance to hear a few new tracks.

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I also do not like the idea of downloading music legally because I do not see how in anyway this is benefitting the artists. I might simply be confused here, but they are not being payed anymore through this means, right? But recording companies save on money because it is all digital. That really does not add up.

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You buy a song online, the artist gets some money from it. You download it illegally, they don't. Simple as that. I will agree, though, that prices for digital downloads are a bit simple. $.99 is okay, but this talk about raising the price is absurd. Costs for digital music are far lower than putting music onto CDs and then putting those CDs into shops.