iTunes has now served over 100 million songs since its launch May last year. The 100 millionth song was downloaded by aUS user Keven Britten of Hays, Kansas (a midwestern US state). As the 100 millionth downloader, he has won a new 17" Powerbook Mac computer, a 40GB iPod and a voucher for 10,000 free iTunes' songs.
iTunes is still the market leader in the US and is also very popular in the three European countries it launched in just a few weeks ago. iTunes currently accounts for over 70% of the market share for legal music downloads. However despite its successful European launch, it has failed to win support from most UK Independent Music Labels. Quakester2000 submitted the following news via our news submit :
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It said US user Kevin Britten of Hays, Kansas, had downloaded the 100 millionth song, a version of dance act Zero 7's Somersault. The service started its European operations last month. The site makes songs available for download for 79p per song. Since its launch it has gained more than 70% of the market share for legal downloads, it said. Read the full article here. |
Despite all the various legal services that started up over the last year including added features such as pay-per-stream, unlimited downloads for a subscription, bulk discount and so on, iTunes still manages to do exceptionally well as a simple fixed price per song service.
As Microsoft is really anxious to make its Windows Media technology part of every home entertainment system, it will be interesting to how Microsoft's upcoming video player competes. Then again unlike the iPod Microsoft's Portable Media Center based players are more 'closed' and restricted than the iPod such as requiring Windows XP and Windows Media Player 10 before any content can be transferred.
Feel free to discuss and find out more about iTunes and other online music services on our Music Downloads, P2P & Legal Issues Forum.
Source: BBC News - Entertainment
