Requim for DRM: Apple music sells one million in less than a week

Ian Grigg iang at systemics.com
Thu May 8 10:34:33 EDT 2003


As a postscript to the troubled and tortured life
of DRM, Apple showed how to do it last week.  With
a combination of ease of use and easy licensing,
they have just sold a million songs in one week,
right into the market that DRM fans had hoped to
"control".

   "Copy protection is kept to a minimum. People
   can keep the songs indefinitely, play them on
   up to three Macs and on an unlimited number
   of Apple iPod music players."

FTR,

iang

PS:  this puts Apple in the same "Hall of Fame"
as the other Apple, which also achieved selling
a million records in one week.


-------- Original Message --------

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3003279.stm

BBC NEWS, 2003/05/06

Apple music service hits right note

Apple has sold more than a million songs since the launch of its online 
music service a week ago.

The figure is much higher than record industry executives had 
predicted, who had expected Apple to reach the million milestone in a 
month.

"In less than one week we've broken every record and become the largest 
online music company in the world," said Apple boss Steve Jobs.

The success of Apple's music venture contrasts with other 
industry-backed, subscription-based music services which have been slow 
to take off.

Easy to use

Apple's iTunes Music Store is widely seen as one of the most consumer 
friendly methods of buying music online.

Copy protection is kept to a minimum. People can keep the songs 
indefinitely, play them on up to three Macs and on an unlimited  number 
of Apple iPod music players.

Customers can also can burn unlimited copies of the songs onto CDs.

"Apple has created the first complete solution for the digital music 
age," said Mr Jobs.

In contrast to other legal music services, there is no subscription 
fee.  Instead songs cost 99 cents (62 pence) per download.

Apple said more than half of the songs were purchased as albums, 
countering fears that selling music on a per-track basis would 
undermine album sales.

And more than half of the 200,000 songs offered by Apple were purchased 
at least once.

Forrester Research analyst Josh Bernoff said Apple's service marked 
"the beginning of a torrent of innovation" as others moved away from 
current subscription-based models.

He said that services like Apple's would attract people who currently 
use file-sharing programs as they would be "unwilling to put up with 
the questionable software installs and audio quality of free services".

Good week

"Our internal measure of success was having the iTunes Music Store sell 
one million songs in the first month. To do this in one week is an 
over-the-top success," said Doug Morris, Chief Executive Officer of 
record label Universal.

Apple is planning to add a further 3,200 tracks to the 200,000 already 
available, including new albums such as Andrea Bocelli's Tosca and 
Fleetwood Mac's Say You Will.

The online music service is currently only available in the US for Mac 
computer users. A Windows version is due by the end of the year.

To cap a good week for the computer maker, the company said it had also 
received 110,000 orders for its new iPods.

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