ZDnet FUD about iTMS

[rageous]

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/ecommerce/0,39020372,39149276,00.htm

Apple falls far short of iTunes goal

Ina Fried
CNET News.com
March 15, 2004, 16:40 GMT

The online music store has sold 50 million songs, only half the number that Apple had expected

Apple Computer said Monday that it has sold 50 million songs from its iTunes Music Store -- far below its goal, which was to sell 100 million songs by April.

Apple says the 50 million figure excludes the number of unspecified songs downloaded through a Pepsi giveaway, which itself was designed to account for 100 million songs. It has been reported that the specially marked Pepsi bottles that contain iTunes codes have been slow to reach store shelves in some areas. Customers have also found a way to determine which bottles are winners, by tilting the bottles at a particular angle.

Apple chief executive Steve Jobs announced the goal of 100 million songs in October, when the company expanded the iTunes Music Store to work with Windows-based computers. Apple reiterated the goal in December when it announced that it had sold 25 million songs up to that point.

Although Apple did not reach the goal it set for itself in October, it did note that iTunes users are now downloading 2.5 million songs per week, which means the company is now selling songs at a rate of 130 million songs per year.

"With over 50 million songs already downloaded and an additional 2.5 million songs being downloaded every week, it's increasingly difficult to imagine others ever catching up with iTunes," Jobs said in a statement.

Apple, while the leader in online music stores, faces increasing competition from existing stores such as Roxio's Napster and MusicMatch, as well as a host of others looking to join the fray, including ones from Microsoft and Virgin.

Meanwhile, Roxio said on Monday that strong demand for Napster was leading the company to raise its sales forecast. The company said it now expects revenue for its Napster division to increase to approximately $5.5m (£3.06m) for the three months ending 31 March. That compares with $3.6m in the preceding quarter.

[Defiant]

Content, my dear rageous? I'll provide some for you.

Apple said in October 2003 that they would sell 100 million songs in a year. Calculate that, and you end up with October 2004.

They mixed the facts. The Music Store was opened in april, and they thought that the 100 million song barrier was set to be reached a year after the original opening of the Music Store. Instead, Jobs set the 100 million song barrier in october, and announced then that they would sell 100 million songs in a year, from that point on.

Look again when you're in October 2004.

[Edit: Small clarification with date]

[rageous]

Actually, Jobs said he wanted to have 100 million songs sold by the 1 year anniversary of iTMS, which is April 28. Not the anniversary of iTMS for Windows.

[johnq]

Prudential too. Aholes.

http://www.macnn.com/news/23828

Apple is good for a lot more if only people don't FUD it up.

[Defiant]

Well, then it wouldn't be really FUD, would it, rageous?

I mean, yes, a small bit certainly, because now we only have the 15th of March, but still… hmm.

Okay, checked with MacMinute here (http://www.macminute.com/2003/10/16/specialmusic/), and as it looks, Steve said: "New goal: We want to sell 100 million songs before April 2004".

Okay :) I shut up now. :p

But remember, they said they wanted to get their 100 million songs through various streams: iTMS for Mac, iTMS for Windows, Pepsi promotion and AOL. That's not just one single drop of money.

[Arnel]

Hmmm... I don't know about FUD, but that article does seem to go out of its way to be negative.

Firstly, yes, the current goal is 100m songs downloaded by the iTMS' first anniversary at the end of April - some six weeks away still. Why the article is using past tense is beyond me ("Although Apple did not reach the goal it set for itself in October..."). At the current rate of sales, Apple should be on around 65m sales by then. Add onto that the number of tracks given away, whilst unlikely to hit their target, they're going to be healthily above "only half" as figured in the article.

Secondly, the article makes it sound like the store is performing well below Apple's expectations, but the 100m songs target is the third such target Apple set for the iTMS. According to the presentation that launched the Windows version of the iTMS, the same presentation where the target was set, the iTMS had blazed through the first two targets:

Target 1: 1m songs in the first six months (reached in the first week)
Target 2: 10m songs in the first six months (reached in the first four months)

So I don't think you can paint it as a disappointment. On a related note, Napster is claiming that their 5m songs in five months figure shows them to be the first service of their kind to reach such a figure. "Of their kind" meaning Windows-Only in their case, thereby neatly ignoring the fact that the iTMS had reached such a figure in around half the time, when it was still Mac-only. Don't you just love spin?

Neil.
a.k.a. Arnel

[Chris Cuilla]

Look...I'm FAIRLY certain of this...I watched the video stream of the event...I SWEAR that the 100M "goal" was thrown out kind of like "Hey, let's go for 100M songs in 1 year." More like a challenge than a specific goal.

Oh, and besides...Apple HAS sold TEN TIMES as many songs as its nearest competitor.

Sheesh.

[Chris Cuilla]

This is a war folks. That is becoming ever more clear now.

[BuonRotto]

If it's a war, then who is ZD Net backing? Oh, nevermind...

[Flounder]

It mentions in the press release that the current rate of 2.5 million per week translates into 130 million per year.

[Francisco_G]

You know, we have about 14,000 members here at AI. Maybe if we pooled for powerball tickets we could raise the $50,000,000 ourselves...
Or we could each buy 3600 songs.
Or plan a DDoS attack on napster.com?

Ah screw it. Worse comes to worse Steve could purchase the difference himself.