On April 28 , 2003 , I found myself sitting in a average - sized hall in San Francisco ’s Moscone West group discussion heart in response to a cryptic invitation I ’d received from Apple a few days earlier . As Steve Jobs took the stage , the Apple CEO shed a dud — Apple was go into the music business with thelaunchof the iTunes Music Store . With more than 200,000 songs from the major record labels , Apple sell 1 million track to curious music lover in the U.S. in the first week of the Store .
tight fore about two - and - a - one-half year , and the iTunes Music Store overtop more than 80 percent of de jure purchased music ( and is actually make money from the venture ) ; carries more than 1.5 million tracks from the big labels and indie ( with young release and back - catalog fabric added every Tuesday ) ; recently pass along 500 million tracks sell ; include audiobooks , podcasts , and music video recording ; and work in 19 countries .
Oh wait … make that20 . On August 3 , Apple finally added Japan to its horse barn of iTMS country and , four days later , passed the 1 million song scar for sales in Japan . How ? Apple is big in Japan , introduced the Store with very competitive pricing for that marketplace , and include both western content as well as music , audiobooks , and podcasts in Japanese or by Nipponese author . But it will be interesting to see how well the Store does in Japan , since Sony wo n’t take Apple ’s success lie in down .
People often demand why it takes so long to open up an iTunes Music Store in a particular land . A mutual online stake ( even on our own Macworld Forums ) is “ Why does Apple hate / not want money from us ? ” The answer is , the companionship does n’t detest you , and it most assuredly want your money . If Apple could sell you euphony , it would . It ’s just that for each new store , Apple need to negotiate raw deals with record recording label and artists , explore the securities industry , set prices , and so on . It ’s not as elementary as Steve Jobs flip a switch and suppose “ Let there be medicine ! ” ( Although the complete depth of his powers has not been sounded quite yet . )
So where will ( or should ) Apple open up the next storage ? What are the heavy , untapped market out there ? What can Apple add together to the iTMS to keep its position strong in the market ? Will Apple start selling digital picture files to go along with a retentive - rumoredVideo iPod ? Your guess is as good as mine , so go forward and share yours .
