iTunes Store sells three billion songs, keeps on truckin'

I used to be a very collector minded consumer. I wanted to own physical versions of everything I liked. The iPod changed that for me, and not just for music. Owning a physical DVD or CD seems so antiquated now that I can never imagine buying a Blu-Ray or HD DVD movie ever. I'm quite satisfied with waiting the day for a NetFlix movie to arrive or the few hours it takes to download a movie to my Tivo from Amazon Unbox.

I don't need iTunes to sell HD quality movies but I wouldn't mind if they'd at least start renting DVD quality (or close enough) quality movies.

Congrats to iTunes though, an amazing thing that Apple has done, I still remember the first day the store was available and looking for anything to buy just so I could buy something the first day.

#7
Ever heard of iTunes plus?

Well, for starter, there are stores for pretty much each and every developed country, and they all sell music. But only the US store sells film and/or TV shows. I'd happily buy some TV shows if I could, but not living in the US forbids me to do so. And as far as movies are concerned, maybe if the resolution they sell them at was the same as DVD, it would be more interesting. But with a price barely lower than a physical disk (and that's for recent release) and a resolution of just 640x480 (with black bars), it's really bad. I remember having seen Pirates of Caribbean on a big Sony LCD while testing an AppleTV at the 5th av. Apple store and there was nothing to brag about! I guess once they correct those two problems, there's a real potential for success. The technology's here, but, as usual, the problem lies in the content providers...

Apple and iTunes are going out of business. No one wants to buy DRM...

The reason movies aren't selling, is, I imagine, because people are like me.

I like the idea of buying a movie and instantly having it, but I don't want to be limited to just my computer or iPod.

I'd like to be able to take my DVD, go to someone else's house, and watch it there. I could always bring my iPod and hook it up, but that's an awful lot of work. It's worth the extra $5 because I get the physical disc (which I can always convert for iPod, if I feel like it), and I get all the bonus features.

I like iTunes, especially being a recent mac convert.. But, I'm in the camp that wishes i had more options. At last with Microsoft, I have more of the MS product line. So if I buy into the Urge/Zune Marketplace world, i have more options for players, and have me a good media center extender w/ the Xbox 360. But i have no plans for an iPod, nor Apple TV.

what, no competition for the 3 billionth download?

Dang. I wanted every mac ever made and 100,000 song credit to iTunes.

Lack of sufficient DRM is the reason you don't see more movies in iTunes. HD releases are waiting on HDCP in Apple's playback devices (their new monitors already support it).

Record labels don't make 'unprecedented profits' from sales on iTunes. The article you linked to is only about what TV studios receive. Bear in mind that TV shows still get purchased by networks and generate advertising revenue (as they always have), so the iTunes income is indeed incremental. But this is clearly not the case for the music industry. The vast majority of music industry costs are in marketing and A&R - distribution was only ever a small part of that. And with digital downloads, the labels now sell tracks for 99c (of which they receive about 70c), when before they were selling albums for $15 (of which they received $10-12). That is why the music industry continues to suffer, as CD sales decline and digital sales, while increasing, only make up a part of that shortfall. I'm not saying that you should have any great sympathy for the labels, but it's better to get your facts straight!