iTunes for PC... WOOHOOO!!!

[Sideswiped]

"Apple is NOT making a killing off the sales. They only make about 35¢ per 99¢ sale - the rest goes to the bands, the songwriters, but mostly, the F***ING LABELS!:| From their cut, Apple's got to cover the server and bandwidth costs, so they ain't getting rich other than from people buying iPods."

35% is a fairly large %

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: lookin4dlz
The songs cost WAY too much!

The NY Times just ran an article the other day stating that at $0.99 per track, when adjusted for inflation, this music costs 10 times as much as music did in the 50's (generally regarded as the heyday of popular music sales). I think the problem is that too many young people are accustomed to paying these outrageous prices for music and so they don't think anything of paying $0.99 per track. I'll never pay that much, but would pay $0.20 per track.

Ok, think about it. Typical CDs come with what? 12-15 songs? How much does a CD cost? $15-$20? That's ~$1 to $1.60 per song. Plus, you can download only the songs off of a CD that you like which will save you a couple of dollars. That's a good deal IMHO.

As someone else already mentioned, it is doubtful you'll see mainstream songs for $0.20 a track. There are too many different ways the money has to be paid out.

 

[vtqanh]

Originally posted by: lookin4dlz
The songs cost WAY too much!

The NY Times just ran an article the other day stating that at $0.99 per track, when adjusted for inflation, this music costs 10 times as much as music did in the 50's (generally regarded as the heyday of popular music sales). I think the problem is that too many young people are accustomed to paying these outrageous prices for music and so they don't think anything of paying $0.99 per track. I'll never pay that much, but would pay $0.20 per track.

hmm, how much did a gallon of milk cost in the 50s? How much did a gallon of gas cost in the 50s?

 

[Kipper]

Akamai is getting hammered...50k/sec on cable.

 

[zephyrprime]

hmm, how much did a gallon of milk cost in the 50s? How much did a gallon of gas cost in the 50s?

I know that gasoline is a lot cheaper now adjusted for inflation and I bet that milk is also.

 

[deejayshakur]

Originally posted by: a2k
Worth mentioning:

http://www.downhillbattle.org/itunes/

TTT

click the link, people. you'll be pleasantly surprised.

 

[TekDemon]

Originally posted by: zephyrprime

hmm, how much did a gallon of milk cost in the 50s? How much did a gallon of gas cost in the 50s?

I know that gasoline is a lot cheaper now adjusted for inflation and I bet that milk is also.

Is gas actually cheaper now adjusted for inflation? I thought the 50's had the cheap gas and the huge displacement engines...if gas is cheaper now it's time for me to go buy an SUV and wreck the environment too =P

 

[GrandVizor]

Originally posted by: zodder

Originally posted by: lotust
ohh how nice its installing quicktime 6.4 to load at start up!

I love when things do that! lol

especially gator......

 

[nosliw]

Originally posted by: a2k
Worth mentioning:

http://www.downhillbattle.org/itunes/

This link is worth a 2nd (or 3rd). These folks contend/suggest that Apple's cut could be as little as 3% (what eBay gets).

There are some VERY INTERESTING views on this page. Links to RIAA Radar and more.


WARNING: Reading this link can be a big time suck! I lost several hours by clicking on it and reading all of the associated stuff.

 

[DefRef]

Originally posted by: Sideswiped
"Apple is NOT making a killing off the sales. They only make about 35¢ per 99¢ sale - the rest goes to the bands, the songwriters, but mostly, the F***ING LABELS!:| From their cut, Apple's got to cover the server and bandwidth costs, so they ain't getting rich other than from people buying iPods."

35% is a fairly large %

What part of APPLE HAS TO PAY IT'S BILLS FROM THAT PART didn't you understand or are you one of those people who thinks that companies should sell below-cost otherwise you'll feel entitled to steal it online?

The songwriters are supposed to get 8¢ per song and what the artists gets is seriously YMMV dependant on contracts and how much the label screws them for. For the labels, it's free money cuz they don't have to actually press up anything - Apple does the work and passes them the cash.

 

[goblue420]

i think that it does a great job with my ipod compared to that piece of sh!t musicmatch, but for listening to music i think i like winamp2 better.

 

[Sideswiped]

Originally posted by: DefRef
What part of APPLE HAS TO PAY IT'S BILLS FROM THAT PART didn't you understand or are you one of those people who thinks that companies should sell below-cost otherwise you'll feel entitled to steal it online?

The songwriters are supposed to get 8¢ per song and what the artists gets is seriously YMMV dependant on contracts and how much the label screws them for. For the labels, it's free money cuz they don't have to actually press up anything - Apple does the work and passes them the cash.

Do you even understand what normal record stores get off of a cd(99% positive it's less than 30%, possibly a buck or 2)? Now understand that they have to have a PHYSCIAL storefront with employees, realestate, bills etc. There is no way a bunch of servers and bandwidth cost nearly as much. Also another major consideration you should think of is that there is NO physical transaction taking place here, thus no warehouses, etc(again less bills). I'm sure they could

I was merely stating that 35% is still a decent chunk of the money trading hands. Heck we don't even know if they are getting 35%, from the way it sounds they make their money off Ipod sales and get much lower cut of the AAC profits than the state 35%.

 

[Pretty Cool]

No chance in hell am I installing anything else that requires Quicktime. That crap software constantly nags me to upgrade before starting, dumps itself in startup every damn time a website requires it, and has the most annoying gui I have ever experienced. I use Real player almost everyday and to me it is just a simple player. Not like the almighty Quicktime which should be an inaugural member in the Software Hall of Shame.

 

[gsaldivar]

uninstalled it after 10 minutes...

move along people - nothing to see here :beer:

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: DefRef
A lot of mistaken impressions floating around that need to be straightened out before they mislead others:

1. Apple is NOT making a killing off the sales. They only make about 35¢ per 99¢ sale - the rest goes to the bands, the songwriters, but mostly, the F***ING LABELS!:| From their cut, Apple's got to cover the server and bandwidth costs, so they ain't getting rich other than from people buying iPods.

2. The "competition" - like Napster and Buymusic - are non-starters because they use WMA for the DRM that M$ has built in to keep people from trading or sometimes burning CDs. Unless your player supports WMA - and the iPod DOESN'T - you're SOL. Also, Buymusic is selling music that they've received from a distributor that rips off the supplying acts. (It's too long to explain here, but it's a fact because my band's label is one of those getting ganked.)

3. 2nd gen iPods CAN play AAC when updated to v.1.3 software. Look for it, it's been there since they brought out the 3rd gen units.

4. In a quick comparison, 128k AAC sounds as good as 160k MP3 and is 20% smaller, so I look forward to getting another 400 songs on top of the 2100 I have on my 10 gigger. DO NOT CONVERT MP3s TO AAC because you're working with lossy files already. It's a drag, but I'm reripping my CDs as I type this.

5. I was using CD-Ex to rip and EphPod to transfer and frankly, I hope to have ONE app to rip and manage the stuff. Haven't used it enough to get a feel for it as a jukebox, but it's better than MMJB, but that's like saying being slapped is better than getting kicked in the nuts. MMJB is teh suck!!!

6. You can disable the QT sys tray icon. The absolute WORST media app is RealOne which defaults to seizing EVERY file type imaginable. I'm surprised it doesn't try to open Word docs.

good info

i too thought the other companies were cutting themself off at the knees using wm and drm, no way in hell i'd pay for that cr@p, i'd rather buy cds to avoid drm. i ussually use lame/eac just fine.

so acc doesn't have drm?


and people complaining about the price, ever notice buying one soda costs more then buying a 12 pack???? you pay more when you don't buy bulk. 99cents is not unreasonable at alll.

 

[agent2099]

Can someone explain how this works.


Do you get a regular high-quality mp3?

Or is it some type of proprietary mp3 that tracks what you do with it so you can only download, burn it a few times.

 

[weepul]

i just itunes today also. seems great! 2 complaints, the small player wont stay on top (which winamp can; hopefully they'll fix this during the next release). another complaint is that i cant minimize to task tray.

i like this software better than ephpod because it supports unicode (japanese, chinese, korean, etc) which will display in the correct format on the ipod. when using ephpod, i had to use some hack (aibo) which became tedious in converting uniode to japanese.

i haven't tried their itune store yet, but this program is great. i cant wait to see future revisions.

//krunk (^_^x)

 

[hollowman]

Originally posted by: weepul
i just itunes today also. seems great! 2 complaints, the small player wont stay on top (which winamp can; hopefully they'll fix this during the next release). another complaint is that i cant minimize to task tray.

i like this software better than ephpod because it supports unicode (japanese, chinese, korean, etc) which will display in the correct format on the ipod. when using ephpod, i had to use some hack (aibo) which became tedious in converting uniode to japanese.

i haven't tried their itune store yet, but this program is great. i cant wait to see future revisions.

//krunk (^_^x)

this is why i was waiting for iTunes too. musicmatch does support unicode but we all know it is a piece of crap.

i love iTunes & iPod! =)

 

[IgoByte]

"The best Windows app ever"

Man, people should really boycott Apple...

 

[metalmania]

yeah, and Apple needs a babysitter for herself!

 

[vtqanh]

Originally posted by: agent2099
Can someone explain how this works.


Do you get a regular high-quality mp3?

Or is it some type of proprietary mp3 that tracks what you do with it so you can only download, burn it a few times.

If you rip your CD, then it's just a regular MP3, in which you can specify the birate (128->320).
If you buy the song and download, then it's in Apple's proprietary AAC format (right now only available as 128). I think allows you to burn it three times

 

[InlineFive]

Originally posted by: GrandVizor

Originally posted by: zodder

Originally posted by: lotust
ohh how nice its installing quicktime 6.4 to load at start up!

I love when things do that! lol

especially gator......

1. Download SpyBot: Search & Destroy, update spyware definitions and run a scan. Also enable the SpyWare Firewall and disable 3rd-Party Cookies.
2. Search your hard drive for a file called gator.exe and delete it. If you can find a program that overwrites all of a file's data (SpyBot can also do this).

-Por

 

[DefRef]

so acc doesn't have drm?

Not that I'm aware of. AAC means "Advanced Audio Compression" and it's merely a better compression algorhythm based on MPEG-4 from the same folks who created the MP3. They've got something else in the pipeline, of course.

Do you even understand what normal record stores get off of a cd(99% positive it's less than 30%, possibly a buck

Actually, I do - since I am an indie musician who follows the music biz closely and I've worked in record stores (both chain and independant) and know all about the spread between wholesale and retail prices.

The typical WHOLESALE cost of a CD that RETAILS for $17.99 is ~$11.50-$12.00. That means if a store, like a mall chain store such as Sam Goody or Camelot, sells at list, they're making about 33% profit. "Big box" stores like Beast Buy, etc. sell their CDs for only a couple of bucks over list (or as a loss leader for the new releases you see for $10) because they hope you'll pick up a TV while you're there. The make their money thru VOLUME, not high margins, on the correct assumption that more units will shift at $14 than $18. It's basic first-day ECON101 - you sell more when the price is less.

There's a lot of overhead and even more greed built into the major label cost pie: Starting with the $18 MSRP, the retailer keeps ~$6, the songwriters get ~75¢, the band (if it's recouped - another problem altogether) may get ~$1.50 or so, leaving nearly $10 in the labels/distributors hands to cover their bad bets and wasteful promo costs.

However, I don't think the prices will stay at a buck a song forever, hell, you should be rejoicing that they've come down from the $2.99/ea. the labels wanted a year ago. They've had no vision of the future and are being dragged into the present kicking and screaming. It's gonna take time for them to clue up a bit more. UMG's attempt to cut prices is a start, but more needs to be done by all labels. It's taken them 4 years to begin responding to customer demands.

P2P and Napster arose partly because some people are f*cking thieves who believe they're entitled to help themselves to what they want, when they want it, but the majority were people who when faced with the non-choices of paying $18 for a couple of songs or poaching lossy versions for free went with the cheaper option, legality notwithstanding. If only the labels had gotten smart and cost prices YEARS ago, they wouldn't be suing kids for downloading now. Morons.

Last night, from the tip here, I went to BMG's site and bought a DOZEN CDs for $6.99 each. I bought stuff that I'd NEVER buy even for a buck more - low prices sell music and as a musician, I want my music to sell to as many people as possible. At my level, you aren't gonna see me on MTV Cribs, but if I can sell enough to pay for the recording of the next record, I'm happy for now.

 

[Dealmunky]

Originally posted by: gsaldivar
uninstalled it after 10 minutes...

move along people - nothing to see here :beer:

ya... nothin great.. i'll stick to rippin and downloading the old fasioned way

 

[nero2]

I think it's a good thing that Windows users get a chance to use the Apple Music Store. HOWEVER, after using iTunes for the Mac at the lab where I work, I've decided that I personally don't like iTunes. It's good that it features integrated CD-burning, but other than that, it's bloated (best app ever pffft), its management of mp3/aac files is terrible, and in general it doesn't offer anything in terms of usability that would make most users choose it as their default music player.