Free Music Downloads
The iTunes Music Store is an online music service run by Apple Computer with its iTunes application. Introduced on April 28, 2003, the store, which uses DRM, has since been a dominant online music service and has proven the viability of online music sales. By far the most popular legal music download service, as of February 2006 it had sold over 1 billion songs worldwide which accounts for over 80% of digital music sales.
Features and restrictions
Pricing: One set price for songs (e.g. 99¢ in the US, $1.69 in Australia, €0.99
in the EU or 79 pence in the UK) with the exception of the Japanese store, which
sells songs for either ¥150 or ¥200; most albums cost $9.99 in the US. Prices
vary depending on the country where the user is registered. Apple offers volume
discounts of up to 20% for bulk purchases over 25,000 songs (10,000 for
educational institutions).
Platform(s): Mac OS X (not Mac OS Classic), Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows
Server 2003 only.
Downloading: Yes.
Burning/Copying: Yes.
Streaming: Only for 30-second previews (not for purchase).
Format: Protected AAC music (extension: .m4p whereas regular AAC files have the
extension .m4a) at 128 kbit/s, Audible audiobooks at 32 kbit/s.
Digital restrictions: Streaming to five computers every 24 hours, unlimited CDs
(seven with an unchanged playlist), unlimited iPods. (Formerly: three – then
five – computers per 24 hours; and 10 unchanged playlist burns.)
Preview: 30 seconds.
Trial: N/A
Protocol: iTunes Music Store Protocol (itms://) for opening the iTunes
application and the requested store page to buy music. Example: itms://ax.phobos.apple.com.edgesuite.net/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum.
itms:// is not a real protocol, but refers to HTTP URLs that need to open in
iTunes.
It has sold more than 1,000,000,000 songs since it was launched.
Catalog: More than 2,000,000 files; includes audio books; (originally iTMS
contained about 200,000 files).
Features: Allowance, gift certificates and gift cards, iMix (user-submitted
playlists), Podcasts, Billboard charts, radio charts, advanced search, music
videos and movie trailers.
Global availability: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland,
France, Germany, Greece, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, the
Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom,
United States and Puerto Rico addressed credit-card holders as well as pre-paid
status. Other countries can download podcasts and previews only.
Customer Support: Apple provides no customer support for the iTunes Music Store
over the phone (Slate attempted to uncover one). All customer service inquiries
are done over the web.
Background
Debuting on April 28, 2003, the iTunes Music Store was the first of now many
online music stores to gain widespread media attention, opening up the path for
many other companies to start-up similar services. Fans and some executives in
the music industry say that the Music Store has more attractive characteristics
than previous services such as Rhapsody and MusicNet: it allows the user to
purchase songs and transfer them to the iPod, and is comparatively simple and
easy to use because it is closely integrated into the iPod and iTunes product
lines. Currently, the iPod is the only digital music player that works with the
iTunes Music Store (however some cell phones from Motorola can play iTMS songs
and other players work with iTunes), but is able to play non-DRM audio files
(such as MP3) from other on-line music stores, such as Emusic.
The store was the result of a deal with all four major record labels, EMI, Sony
BMG, Universal and Warner Bros. It also includes over 600 independent labels,
with a total offering of over 2,000,000 songs, including exclusive tracks from
more than 20 artists such as Bob Dylan, U2, Eminem, Sheryl Crow and Sting. Each
song can be downloaded for 99 US cents. Free 30-second previews are available of
every song. Most albums are priced at 9.99 US dollars, although recently the
price of some albums has been raised depending on the length of the album
itself. Additionally, some albums are offered for less than 9.99, regardless of
length. The user can burn songs to an unlimited number of compact discs, and
specific playlists up to seven discs, after download.
Catalog content
Currently, several dozen new songs are added each Tuesday, and beginning with
Moby on July 29, 2003, independent artists are now included. Apple also releases
a 'Single of the Week' and usually a 'Discovery Download,' on Tuesdays, which
are available at a no cost download for one week. It has recently launched
albums on pre-order status, the first one to become available was X&Y by
Coldplay.
The iTunes Music Store also includes over 9,000 audio books, encoded at 32 kbit/s.
90 second previews are offered for every book.
There are no tracks from The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Metallica or
Radiohead in the iTunes online catalogue (with the exception of an album
collaboration between Tony Sheridan and the Beatles, and two Radiohead songs).
Led Zeppelin and Radiohead are not included due to a belief (by the bands) that
their songs should not be available outside of albums, while The Beatles' record
company Apple Records is currently in a legal battle with Apple Computer over
the name "Apple". There are, however, biographies within the Music Store for
both Led Zeppelin and The Beatles.
As of August 2005, the Japanese store offers no songs from Sony Music
Entertainment. However, some musicians like Motoharu Sano are trying to sign
with Apple independently. On September 6, 2005, SME announced its plan to sell
songs in iTMS but did not say when.
Similarly, the Australian store didn't offer any songs from Sony BMG until
January 17, 2006, when Sony and Apple finally reached an agreement.
In 2004, CDBaby (an online music store which features more than 100,000
independent artists) signed a deal with Apple and managed to get every artist
(who wanted digital music distribution) on iTunes.
As of December 2005 the iTunes Music Store includes more than 3,000 videos and 2
million songs.
Video
In October 2005, Apple announced the latest iPod would be capable of playing
video files, which would be sold online through iTunes. These videos included
2000 music videos and episodes of popular television programs. Working a deal
with Disney to be the first supplier of TV shows, the first shows available
included all the episodes of Lost and Desperate Housewives with each episode
becoming available the day following its original airing on broadcast TV.
Several short animated films by Pixar are also available.
The selling of videos on iTunes sparked considerable debate as to whether there
was a paying audience for programming available for free on TV. As MP3 Newswire
pointed out, users are not so much paying for the TV programs themselves.
Instead they are really paying for a service that offers the convenience of
someone else digitizing free broadcast episodes for them for their portable
device, each episode in commercial-free form, and a convenient place to select
and download individual shows. Through an updated version of QuickTime, users
can create their own videos for the iPod, including digitized versions of
programs recorded on their VCR if they wish to take the time and effort and save
the cost. As of November 2005, 3 out of the top 5 podcasts in the Dutch iTunes
Music Store were VODcasts.
On December 6, 2005, Apple added additional shows from NBC Universal (which
includes NBC, the Sci Fi Channel and USA Network). Initial offerings were NBC's
Law & Order, Surface, and The Office, and segments from The Tonight Show and
Late Night with Conan O'Brien; USA's Monk; Sci Fi's Battlestar Galactica (and
the miniseries preceding it); and "vintage" NBC series Alfred Hitchcock
Presents, the 1969 Dragnet, Adam-12 and Knight Rider. Apple announced that
future NBC Universal content would be made available, including Saturday Night
Live sketches and shows from its Bravo channel.
On January 3, 2006, more content from ABC, ABC Sports and ESPN was added to the
store, including BCS Bowl Games, SportsCentury interviews, This is SportsCenter
commercials, Wildfire, Kim Possible, The Proud Family, America's Funniest Home
Videos, Schoolhouse Rock!, Ebert & Roeper. Some Disney animated short movies
were also added, including the Academy Award-winning The Three Little Pigs and
The Ugly Duckling.
On January 26, 2006, Apple added additional shows from Comedy Central, MTV,
Nickelodeon, and The N. Added shows included Comedy Central's South Park, Drawn
Together, and Best of Comedy Central's Stand Up, MTV's Beavis and Butt-head,
Laguna Beach, Wonder Showzen, Gauntlet 2, My Super Sweet 16, Jackass, and Punk'd,
Nickelodeon's SpongeBob SquarePants, Dora the Explorer, and Zoey 101, and The
N's South of Nowhere.
On February 14, 2006, Apple added exclusive Swimsuit videos from Sports
Illustrated Magazine. On February 21, 2006, the pilot of upcoming NBC drama
Conviction was released for free exclusively on iTunes.
Television shows currently available
The A-Team
Adam-12
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Battlestar Galactica
Beavis and Butt-Head
The Biggest Loser
Comedy Central Stand-Up
Commander in Chief
Conviction
Desperate Housewives
Dora the Explorer
Dragnet
Drawn Together
Fat Actress
The Gauntlet 2
Jackass
Kim Possible
Knight Rider
Laguna Beach
Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Law & Order
Lost
Monk
The Munsters
My Super Sweet Sixteen
Night Stalker
The Office
The Proud Family
Punk’d
Saturday Night Live
Sleeper Cell
Soapography
South of Nowhere
South Park
SpongeBob SquarePants
Sports Century
SportsCenter Ads
Street Ball
The Suite Life of Zack & Cody
Surface
That’s So Raven
The Tonight Show With Jay Leno
Weeds
Wildfire
Wonder Showzen
X Games
Zoey 101
Market share and milestones
The store sold about 275,000 tracks in its first 18 hours and more than
1,000,000 tracks in its first 5 days. When released for Windows, iTunes was
downloaded more than 1,000,000 times in the first 3 days and more than 1,000,000
songs were sold in that period.
On December 15, 2003 Apple announced that it had sold 25 million songs since the
launch in April.
In January 2004 at the Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco, Steve Jobs
announced (as cited in Sellers, 2004) that an unnamed person had purchased
$29,500 USD worth of music.
On March 15, 2004, Apple announced that iTunes Music Store customers had
purchased and downloaded 50 million songs from the iTunes Music Store. They also
reported that customers were purchasing 2.5 million songs a week which
translates to a projected annual run rate of 130 million songs a year. The 50
millionth song was "The Path of Thorns" by Sarah McLachlan.
On April 28, 2004, the iTunes Music Store marked its one year anniversary with
70 million songs sold, the clear dominance in the paid online music market and
the slight profit. The store also offers hundreds of movie trailers and music
videos, in an attempt to boost soundtrack sales. In the conference, Steve Jobs
reiterated that a subscription service is still not the interest of customers
and reported that only 5 million of the 100 million songs offered in the Pepsi
giveaway campaign were redeemed, which he blamed on technical problems in Pepsi
distribution.
According to an Apple Press Release released on August 10, 2004, the iTunes
Music Store is the first store to have a catalog of more than one million songs.
Also, the iTunes Music Store at that point maintained an over 70% market share
of legal music downloads.
On September 1, 2004 the iTunes Music Store had surpassed 125 million songs
sold.
On October 14, 2004 the iTunes Music Store had surpassed 150 million songs sold.
On December 16, 2004 the iTunes Music Store had surpassed 200 million songs
sold. Ryan Alekman of Belchertown, Massachusetts, USA, bought the 200 millionth
song, which was one of the tracks on U2's digital box set "The Complete U2".
On January 24, 2005 the iTunes Music Store sold a quarter of a billion songs
worldwide.
As of March 2, 2005, the iTunes Music Store had surpassed 300 million songs
sold.
On May 10, 2005 Apple announced that it had sold over 400 million songs.
On July 5, 2005 Apple announced that the countdown to half a billion songs had
begun.
On July 18, 2005 Apple announced that it had sold 500 million songs. Amy Greer
of Lafayette, Indiana, USA, bought the 500 millionth song, "Mississippi Girl" by
Faith Hill.
On October 31, 2005 Apple announced that iTunes Music Store customers had
purchased and downloaded 1 million videos since the launch of video support on
October 12, 2005.
On December 6, 2005 Apple announced that iTunes Music Store customers had
purchased and downloaded over 3 million videos.
On January 10, 2006 Apple announced that the iTunes Music Store had sold 850
million songs and 8 million videos.
On February 23, 2006 Apple announced that the iTunes Music Store had sold 1
billion songs and 15 million videos. The billionth song was “Speed of Sound” by
Coldplay.
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