iTunes is Now the #1 Music Retailer

[admin]

We caught an article over at ArsTechnica today that showed Apple is on top of its game, according to a January 2008 NPD MusicWatch survey that was intercepted on its way through Apple's email system (that's a fancy way of saying someone forwarded it to them.) On top, with 19% of the marketshare is Apple's iTunes. What's so significant about this is that iTunes is an online download service being directly compared to brick and mortar (BAM) stores in the survey. For the comparison, 12 downloaded tracks was equated to a single unit sale at the BAM stores, regardless of whether or not those tracks appeared within a contiguous album or came from the same artist. And they smoked them. This does not bode well for disc media of any type in the future, including Blu-ray Disc.

Discuss "iTunes is Now the #1 Music Retailer" here. Read the article.

 

[gliz]

looks like the cd's life span is in its twilight years, sorry to say. I like having something in my hand for my money. I don't just want the file. I have been going on a CD buying spree lately for this very reason.

 

[Dezoris]

Video Downloads threatening video disk?
Audioholics you are WAY off.

Home networks, video download appliances, 10mb internet connections, video download services.

Before you guys continue making the claims about physical media dying off constantly, figure out the market share and penetration of that above.

People don't know how to restart their computers let along get all of that setup to support downloading movies.

 

[gliz]

Video Downloads threatening video disk?
Audioholics you are WAY off.

Home networks, video download appliances, 10mb internet connections, video download services.

Before you guys continue making the claims about physical media dying off constantly, figure out the market share and penetration of that above.

People don't know how to restart their computers let along get all of that setup to support downloading movies.

it is already happening and it is the younger gen that is driving it not the old onw and they FO know how to reboot their PC's. I have a two kinds6 and13 they have been raised on the PC and they are tech savy. I would say that in about 10 years for sure the CD, DVD will be dead ( dont really want that to happen though.)

 

[Audioholics]

Who said anything about using computers? And speaking of computers, that's essentially what a PS3, Blu-ray and HD DVD are.

 

[Pyrrho]

looks like the cd's life span is in its twilight years, sorry to say. I like having something in my hand for my money. I don't just want the file. I have been going on a CD buying spree lately for this very reason.

I think that there are a lot of people who feel as you do, so I do not expect CDs to go away any time soon. I, for one, have never bought a download, but I have well over a thousand CDs. I have no plans on ever buying a download, and continue to buy CDs when I want something new. I don't think you need to worry about CDs disappearing from stores or online any time soon. Think about how long cassette tapes hung on after CDs were available, and I think you will have a better feeling for CDs lasting a while. And in this case, CDs typically are capable of superior sound to what is downloaded, so there isn't the same incentive to move to the new format that there was for giving up cassette tapes.

Also, if you read the article, iTunes sells more than any ONE retailer for CDs. They are no where near selling as much as is sold on CD. Unfortunately, the chart in the article does not break down how much is sold by the other retailers as CDs versus downloads, as several companies sell both (e.g., Amazon.com, etc.).

 

[gliz]

Who said anything about using computers? And speaking of computers, that's essentially what a PS3, Blu-ray and HD DVD are.

"middle of the cort, nothing but net

 

[Dezoris]

Who said anything about using computers? And speaking of computers, that's essentially what a PS3, Blu-ray and HD DVD are.

You are talking about video download services.

These require home networks, a subscription based service, ISP with HIGH bandwidth and a piece of hardware to download movies onto.

This is a lot more complicated that just hooking up a BluRay player, a lot more costly and most importantly Clint, science fiction.

You guys talk about market penetration of BluRay how about trying to discuss how many people have home networks and fast internet, and those willing to adopt and take on the cost for hardware, networking, ISP and downloading service costs.


When I say fast internet, I mean 10mb or more. We can't even get broadband in half the country and you are talking about disk based formats being replaced.

 

[Dezoris]

EDITED. For CONTENT

 

[gliz]

You are talking about video download services.


When I say fast internet, I mean 10mb or more. We can't even get broadband in half the country and you are talking about disk based formats being replaced.

he does have a point about the broadband internet speeds but 1.54 Mbts (T-1) in a home would be enough down download a movie, not enough to stream it As far as speed goes we are behind other countries

 

[Dezoris]

he does have a point about the broadband internet speeds but 1.54 Mbts (T-1) in a home would be enough down download a movie, not enough to stream it As far as speed goes we are behind other countries

It goes well beyond that.
Let say peoples average broadband connection was 1.5Mb.

It would take 4 hours to download a compressed DVD quality movie.
Thats not a big deal, hey users might like setting up a queue of 6 downloads.

Now times that by 1000 people doing the same thing why not go 100,000 people. Current ISPs like Comcast are banning users for these types of downloading habits. Other ISPs are throttling bandwidth to prevent this.

My point being is we don't have an infrastructure in America to support mass downloading of hi quality, hi-def movies.

We have cable and satellite providers over compressing HD channels do to lack of bandwidth transmission capability.

It costs an extreme amount of money to lay fiber and high end networks in the USA, and its barely getting off the ground now.

So my point being of this whole thing is movie downloads are nothing like audio downloads. You cant compare, streaming or downloading of them and the market is totally different.

Downloading is the future, but so was high definition TV 20 years ago and we still are not there yet.

 

[abboudc]

It goes well beyond that.
Let say peoples average broadband connection was 1.5Mb.

It would take 4 hours to download a compressed DVD quality movie.
Thats not a big deal, hey users might like setting up a queue of 6 downloads.

Now times that by 1000 people doing the same thing why not go 100,000 people. Current ISPs like Comcast are banning users for these types of downloading habits. Other ISPs are throttling bandwidth to prevent this.

My point being is we don't have an infrastructure in America to support mass downloading of hi quality, hi-def movies.

We have cable and satellite providers over compressing HD channels do to lack of bandwidth transmission capability.

It costs an extreme amount of money to lay fiber and high end networks in the USA, and its barely getting off the ground now.

So my point being of this whole thing is movie downloads are nothing like audio downloads. You cant compare, streaming or downloading of them and the market is totally different.

Downloading is the future, but so was high definition TV 20 years ago and we still are not there yet.

We're not there, but it's fast approaching. Comcast is to begin offering higher bandwidth (read 50Mbps) residential speeds for about $150/mo. Broadband penetration in the US is over 50% and as everything goes digital - VoIP, TV tremendous profits are to be made for whoever can offer the one fat pipe to the consumer. It wouldn't have to priced like internet today, it'd be priced like internet+tv+phone+?, because that's what it'd be. Verizon and Comcast are already doing this. Granted, it's still compressed, but it won't be for long.

 

[MUDSHARK]

Here I thought Amazon would be number 1 from my purchases filling my music server alone. Never have downloaded likely never will.

 

[gliz]

It goes well beyond that.
Let say peoples average broadband connection was 1.5Mb.

It would take 4 hours to download a compressed DVD quality movie.
Thats not a big deal, hey users might like setting up a queue of 6 downloads.

How did you arrive at this figure?