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U2’s iPod deal with Apple hastens the end for Compact Discs

Friday, October 29, 2004 · 9:26 pm · 35 Comments

“The new album by the rock veterans U2 is called ‘How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb.’ An alternative could have been ‘How To Kill The Compact Disc And Make Two Billion Dollars.’ That may be what the Dublin quartet have achieved since Tuesday by signing an unprecedented joint marketing and licensing deal with Apple, the Silicon Valley firm behind the iTunes online music shop and the iPod digital music player,” Chris Ayres writes for The Times Online.

“Shares in Apple climbed vertiginously close to an all-time high yesterday after a week of excitement on Wall Street about the deal. That means Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jnr effectively added $2billion (

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35 Comments

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Sol

Friday, October 29, 2004 - 10:39 pm · Reply

The Beatles’ Apple must be wishing it had made a deal with Jobs’ Apple to make a Beattles iPod. I think the real Beatles should fire somebody because they missed out on a great opportunity.

Of course now they are welcome to sell the Beatles catalogue in the WMA format. Knowing Microsoft’s history of secure software, it would not take long for DRM WMA files to get cracked and traded freely.

U2 have a clue. Should have made the U2 iPod a mini though; it is a limited edition and their whole catalogue can fit in the 4 GB drive.
moiety5

Friday, October 29, 2004 - 11:41 pm · Reply

“. . .vertiginously close. . .”

Wow that was a real stretch to sound clever.
Oleg

Saturday, October 30, 2004 - 12:41 am · Reply

fgghi;otgho;tl;vnvmv
Jimbo von Winskinheimer

Saturday, October 30, 2004 - 1:23 am · Reply

I don’t think this is true. The percentage of the population that own iPods (or any other MP3 players) is currently very miniscule. It will take awhile before CDs go away. A long while.

The other thing to consider is that HDs fail. People want a backup of their music. Yeah, burn ‘em to DVD, but even a small percentage of the population has DVD burners also.
fandango

Saturday, October 30, 2004 - 1:50 am · Reply

I think that Chris is just trying to sound prophetic.

I totally disargee with his conclusions, and agree with Jimbo. Personally, I had stopped buying CD for several years, until I got an iPod. Then, I wanted to buy (and am still buying) CD’s to rip and put on my ‘pod. My CD purchases have *increased* since buying an iPod. I do not use the ITMS as a *replacement* for CD purchases, but rather to supplement them.

I was once a starving college student who didn’t have a whole lot of disposable income, but am now in my 40′s, have a steady job (income) and am interested in a *wide* variety of music (not boy-band or gangsta c-rap). I can now afford to have both CD’s and online downloads and Apple has made this possible (and legal, Mr. Ballmer).

I think that many people will be buying ‘hard copies’ of their music for quite a while yet, and that the musings Mr. Ayres’ & Paul McGuinness, the band�s manager, are way off the mark.
Charko

Saturday, October 30, 2004 - 2:20 am · Reply

Likewise Jimbo and fandango.

I’m 56 and don’t own an iPod
– but have started buying CD’s again to listen to in ‘Apple Lossless’ quality over two good speakers attatched to a G4 iMac.
MacJack

Saturday, October 30, 2004 - 2:29 am · Reply

Broadband Internet penetration may never reach 100% (hell, some people don’t even have a computer) so there will always be a place for CDs.

And until lossless downloads are available I’ll want to own the CD as an original master copy.
Malice

Saturday, October 30, 2004 - 3:16 am · Reply

I think a Beatles iPod would be the coolest and hottest selling iPod ever! The U2 iPod is cool in itself and with the Digital Boxset will help get boxsets into the iTMS more.

I totally agree with MacJack, I use Apple Lossless (AL) for any CD I have a physical copy of. It just sounds better and I like knowing I have the same sound as on the CD I bought. It sounds waaay better then MP3 and somewhat better than AAC when burned to a CD for my car. Seriously, low bitrate encoded music gives me a headache after a while. I’m also partial of owning a real CD. Although, AL takes up alot of my 10GB iPod G3 and uses the battery faster it’s worth the better sound quality. Now I just need a 40 or 60GB iPod!

Give us Lossless music on iTMS!!!….Umm, please?
One guy from Finland

Saturday, October 30, 2004 - 3:30 am · Reply

CD? what is that?
Is it like floppy disk?
NightOwl

Saturday, October 30, 2004 - 4:59 am · Reply

This “How To Kill The Compact Disc..” is complete FUD

Online sales of legitimate music is only a fraction of music tansfered online, which is a fraction of cd sales.

Sorry, unless a cheap iStereo with cheap fast interent access becomes a reality, most people still will be buying cd’s.

They won’t be buying a $600 iPod and a $800 computer to listen to music.

They will buy a $50 cheap cd player, a cheap $50 car stereo and a $20 cd from Walmart.

If they get rich and can buy a computer (they have to like them first) then they will transfer their existing cd collection.

Good tips here
MCCFR

Saturday, October 30, 2004 - 5:16 am · Reply

I wrote something similar to JvW earlier in the week on another topic.

iTMS sales: Around 4.2 million a week
Remainder of the market: Around 1.8 million/week

6 million @ week = $5,940,000 in sales, annualised to around $310 million/year.

Global music market is $32 [B]billion[/B]/year.

Less than 1%.

It will take the remainder of the decade to get to a point where ‘virtual’ has a 50% share of the legal global market, simply because the music industry resists change and won’t license quickly enough, and even if they did broadband (and even reliable telephone) penetration in some territories is so woeful that its quicker to get on your bicycle, ride for 10 miles to the nearest town, and pick up a pirate copy of a CD than it is to behave responsibly and legally.
Macaday

Saturday, October 30, 2004 - 7:23 am · Reply

He’s saying it’s is a step on the way which I think is right. May take another million or two steps though..

It hacks me off that everyone is saying Apple is only iPod/iTunes. Calling itself “Apple Entertainment” is just naff stupidity.

One day they will all wake up to the fact that Apple is actually the computer they all thought they could never have. The iPod is just another great item in the range…
Mac Convert

Saturday, October 30, 2004 - 8:08 am · Reply

CD’s will be gone within 10 years. Look around you. iTunes may only hold 1% of the music business revenue, but what about the other online services. There are those gullible enough to use them instead of iTunes. Not to mention the fact that all of the major retailers offer online purchasing of CD’s and several of those retailers are also offering the option of downloads. Here’s an example: 2 years ago, my local mall had 4 music stores. Today there’s only 1. CD’s will hold on for a few more years, but there days as the main medium of music sales are numbered.
Jump

Saturday, October 30, 2004 - 8:11 am · Reply

No way. Until they start offering music in a lossless format and provide complete liner notes in a usable format, CD’s still get my money.
mike

Saturday, October 30, 2004 - 9:23 am · Reply

Jump.. Apple will respond that 128k is CD quality.. or else neither they nor the record companies would go for it.. you think the record companies would let apple sell a format/bitrate that makes their content sound like utter shite?

So lossless is, in theory, redundant
G-Spank

Saturday, October 30, 2004 - 9:34 am · Reply

oh yeah, an iPod filled with the Beatles catalougue would be huge.
Hurry up and _______

Saturday, October 30, 2004 - 10:30 am · Reply

It’s Zooropa…U2, Beatles, or UB40…it’s music. So much for the British Invasion. Apple has really
leveled the playing field with the iPod.

As we all know…Rock is rolling and Disco is dead. It could be the other way around, you know(in case you didn’t). Seems to me, that Apple will have a long lasting hit with thier device, no doubt…but they won’t have it all.

When we fly, we move mountains…REALLY!

Polly want a cracker?

CT
Hold on to ______ hat!

Saturday, October 30, 2004 - 10:43 am · Reply

Frankly my dear, i don’t give a _______!

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MCCFR

Saturday, October 30, 2004 - 10:43 am · Reply

No, Apple holds around 0.7% of the market and you have to stop thinking of the USA as being the market or indeed Western Europe.

Even if ‘virtual’ doubles in share every year, the ‘virtual’ market will only be worth around $10 billion by the end of the decade, which still only represents around a third of the total market.

Admittedly, to get to 50% ‘only’ requires 112% compund growth for the rest of the decade but that still requires�

a) The music industry to stop sticking its head in the sand.
b) The growth of mature consumer markets in high-population territories like China, India, Indonesia and Brazil.
c) The recognition of WTO copyright rules in Russia and China
d) The growth of first-world telecommunications into the second-world and beyond. In some cities in India, it’s still not unusual for a telephone exchange to go ‘off-line’ for a few days.
e) The opening of Internet access in some countries where the idea of the population getting its ideas from an unregulated source is still regarded with horror by the authorities

And if you really think all of that is going to happen in the next five years, you really have to come back to Planet Earth and live with the rest of us.
Consumer

Saturday, October 30, 2004 - 12:30 pm · Reply

Dumb Donald knows the score.

#44…your da best!

Point?

Mother
Lover
Brother

Major League Baseball

Fingers crossed?

Mel King
Jesus Jones
Madonna

More News at 7-Eleven. Need New Shoes? Fast Food Friends. But seriously folks…I’d like to listen to this message from our friends at efferdent.

CT