“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,” Ina Fried writes for CNET News.com in the article entitled, ‘Apple falls far short of iTunes goal.’ “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.”
“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,” Fried writes.
“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,” Fried writes.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: This would all be very interesting, if it were true. However, unlike CNET, we are forced to let the facts get in the way. Fact number one is that until April 28, 2004, the one year anniversary of iTunes and the date Steve Jobs’ set for the 100 million song goal, Apple has not failed to hit its target. Fact number two, and this is the big one, is that Jobs plans to count the Pepsi redemptions toward the 100 million songs sold – after all they are actually songs sold. The songs redeemed are paid for by Pepsi.
Steve Jobs specifically stated, in explaining how Apple would hit the 100 million songs sold mark, “What are we going to do [to sell 100 million songs in a year]? We’re going to give away a hundred million songs. You heard me right. We are so proud to be partnering with Pepsi on this… So, a hundred million songs by April 28, 2004 – this is our goal – we’re going to Windows [with an iTunes version], partner with AOL, …and we’re going to give away 100 million songs with Pepsi… So, we think we’ve got a really good shot at selling 100 million legal downloads the first year.” See it for yourself during Jobs’ presentation from the Moscone Center in San Francisco during Apple’s “iTunes for Windows Introduction” on October 16, 2003 here. Jobs’ remarks on this 100 million song goal begin at 43:30 into the presentation.
Clearly, Jobs intends to count the Pepsi redemptions. These redemptions are not included in today’s announcement of over 50 million songs sold. And it is not yet April 28, 2004. Fried is wrong to pretend that Apple has not hit its goal. No one can know until April 28, 2004 and all of the songs sold are counted.
Related MacDailyNews article:
Apple’s iTunes Music Store milestone: over 50 million songs sold – March 15, 2004
Steve Jobs says Apple to sell 70-75 million songs by end of April – March 16, 2004
If MDNs’ facts are correct and CNET is wrong, then MacMinute is also incorrect for reiterating a factually incorrect story.
http://macminute.com/2004/03/15/itunes
MDN is correct. The others are wrong, of course. How can Apple have missed the goal if it’s not April 28th, yet. Answer: they haven’t missed the goal. Shoddy reporting. MDN is right.
Way to go, Mac Daily News. I’m glad you titled your article “CNET Incorrectly reports”, etc. Because that’s how Google is reporting it, and it really caught my eye. Fantastic!
I warned you all…too much of the press and all their good news about the ipod…
The pendulum is starting to swing the other way and the press is hungry to write the negative Apple news.
Next they will latch on that it has been almost a year and no new desktop computers….
The funny thing about that BBC article is that on that page is a link to the BBC’s coverage of the October event where Apple set this goal (Flying start for iTunes: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3207984.stm ). Clearly stated in that article:
“Mr Jobs hopes iTunes will have sold 100 million songs by its first anniversary at the end of April 2004.”
Apparently, the BBC does not even fact check against their own published reports!
finelinebob – it’s not so much that they don’t check, it’s that they update the site every minute in every territory. It is a huge site. Errors go uncorrected for hours. By and large they do a pretty good job considering.
Jimbo,
VERY well said, you beat me to it. I couldn’t agree more that most online “journalists” don’t know shit from caviar, and that it started with the clown Drudge. I remember what Keith Olberman said about him: “He used to be an idiot with a fax machine, now he’s an idiot with a modem.” Drudge is an insult to real journalists, and these online hacks are his bastard children.
2.5 X 6 weeks = 15
30% of 100 = 33
Current 50 Million
15 + 33 + 50 = 98 Million
It is going to be close. Pepsi screwing up the the delivery of promotion capped bottles was not cool. The 30% redemption rate is also optimistic, Pepsi was expecting 10-20% they said before the promotion started. However, the 2.5 million per week is expecting the download rate to stay the same and we have been seeing growth in this number all along so that number is actually quite conservative. I haven’t bought any music for a while. Perhaps I will go and check out a few more years in the Billboard charts
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” /> I am planning on buying them anyway eventually so if I can do it now it will be the same thing to me and could help Apple reach their goal.
Seems some things never change, I guess C|Not can’t get over their bad habit of being asshats. Time for me to redeem my free song i guess, and make some additional purchases right now, hopefully Apple can make the 100 million mark and make them eat crow.
cnet changed their story AGAIN, now it has the more benign “Apple’s iTunes sales hit 50 million”, and text is slightly less biased. Took them long enough, the stupid article already made their Afternoon Dispatch email.
Oh, and rageous, just because you’re ignorant and haven’t heard the name Ina before doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
Maybe Pepsi could add more ‘winners’ caps in the pipeline – in the following 6 weeks – to make up for THEIR screw up.
Otherwise, this is the same screwjob that 90% of the mail-in rebates are.
(Which by the way – unless it’s an instant, in-store rebate, I pass and buy a competitors product. No, really.)
(This is how those ‘Bait-N-Switch’ Artists like DELL and Gateway operate. Cripes, the hassle for a 5dollar RAM rebate.)
————————————-
(BTW, I have Safari crash on me as well, whenever I refresh or post.)
Ok, folks, I’ll admit it. I fess up. It’s all my fault.
I have 8 unredeemed songs. And one cap I need to do that mail-in thingy because iTunes couldn’t recognize the code.
I promise to cash mine in before the deadline — but I hope my public confession here will help the rest of you holding out, waiting for something worth purchasing to be released, to just give it up, help out the cause and buy some classic rock or Beethoven or something like that.
;^P
Wow, it is like someone kicked over an anthill at The Mac Observer. Here are some posts by the editorial staff which seem to be conflicting even with themselves:
Subject: Re: MacDailyNews
Poster: Bryan (3/15/2004, 06:11 pm EST)
MacDailyNews proved nothing except for their own ineptness. Apple touted downloads, not sales, and downloads do include Pepsi giveaways. This is as basic as it gets.
I stand behind our (accurate) version of the story.
Bryan
Editor
TMO
Subject: Setting the Record Straight
Poster: Brad Gibson (3/15/2004, 08:49 pm EST)
The report on MacDailyNews that TMO, CNET, Reuters and a variety of other sites got the story wrong and that Apple will meet their 100 million song goal is 100 percent incorrect.
The Pepsi program is NOT and will NOT be counted toward the overall goal. A number of reporters who were briefed by Apple executives after the January keynote specifically asked about the counting of Pepsi giveaways and were told point blank they would NOT count toward that goal.
This is setting the record straight. TMO stands by our story.
Brad Gibson
Subject: Re: MDN
Poster: Bryan (3/15/2004, 10:36 pm EST)
Brad and I obviously need to coordinate a bit better, but the point remains that the kids at MDN proved nothing with their lousy excuse for an article. Furthermore, the very idea of MDN being “right” when the BBC, CNet, and TMO are “wrong” is laughable.
Bryan
Editor
TMO
I just reread the MDN article above and I can’t find anything that does not seem to be 100% dot on.
This is being reported in quite a few places that “Apple misses target”. Jumping the gun slightly I would say.
No Euro iTunes store – I think that legal holdups have stopped Apple launching the iTunes store anywhere else in the world, and if Steve was counting on that to make up the 100M downloads then it’s no wonder they are a little short.
The BBC has since fixed their article
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3514178.stm
They DO mention that it’s “far less than the target of 100 million tracks that Apple set itself last year”, but that’s true. They also got rid of the fact that they ‘didn’t meet a goal’ based on a date which hasn’t even arrived yet.
In other news: CNET has also corrected their article. Even though the damage has probably already been done.
I think MDN and everyone here deserves praise for standing up for truth & accuracy. Our efforts got some big ‘news’ names to change their stories.
All the grief others got from just copying a CNET story will hopefully make them think twice before they simply copy & paste again.
Good Job!
Well, that’s the last time I read TMO. The “editors” sure do seem defensive, don’t they?
What exactly is The Mac Observer’s problem with MDN? MDN doesn’t even mention them in the article! Perhaps TMO are miffed that they also reported a company missing a goal when the deadline for the goal hasn’t even arrived yet? I’ll stick with MDN, thanks.
Dantes: Yeah, TMO seemed a little too defensive. I sense something more than this one issue. I think TMO and MDN have some history.
TMO could learn a little from MDN. The way MDN presents the posts is much better (easier to read) than TMO, and the posts are most of the experience for me. Sure, it’s a little more bandwidth-intensive, but it’s worth it.
the bbc have totally changed their article, including the following telling quote:
“At the launch of the Windows version of the store last October, he set the target of 100 million songs by April this year, including those given away in the Pepsi promotion.”
woo! hail the power of mdn readers!!
I think we all deserve a standing ovation. Looks we made the press change their positions and take worldwide.
CONGRATS US ALL
Good Job MDN!!!!!!!!! You really hit a home run on this one!!!
A great victory for Truth over FUD (or in this case blatant inaccuracy)
On a side note here is an an article on Columbia University�s Project for Excellence in Journalism which found a trend in U.S. news media of “less fact checking than in the past and less policing of journalistic standards.”
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040315/us_nm/life_journalism_dc_3
There is a bit of history with MDN and TMO, and it began with MDN people trolling our comments and accusing TMO of ripping off MDN’s content before I had even heard of this site.
I also loathe this site’s practice of presenting third-party articles with quotes around them, as if quoting the reporter. Said practice is remarkably unprofessional and *highly* unethical. That’s my biggest issue with MDN, as I am a sticker for ethics. The trolling is inconsequential in the grand scheme of things, but ethics are important.
If the editors here wish help addressing this issue, I would honestly and sincerely be pleased to help. My e-mail address is on our contact page.
So yes, there is a bit of history there, but even if there wasn’t, I would have been just as agitated that MDN readers (I have no idea if MDN staff was involved) were trolling our comments again, this time claiming that an accurate, original piece of reporting was inaccurate, and should be retracted. This, based on an observation of a comment taken out of context from a Stevenote.
As for this current hubbub, I am astounded that MDN readers are somehow claiming victory. MDN was wrong in its asertions: As we reported this morning, Apple has said it won’t meet its goal, and Pepsi downloads won’t be counted towards that goal. That is, give or take a bit, exactly the opposite of what MDN was opining. It doesn’t get any more cut and dry than that.
It’s MDN that needs to issue the retraction, and MDN readers that owe TMO an apology.
In the meanwhile, I was serious about my offer of help on the ethics of presentation.
Bryan Chaffin
Editor
TMO
“give or take a bit, EXACTLY (emphasis mine)”
What does that mean? Sort of exactly? Kind of exactly?
“of what MDN was opining?” Doesn’t that mean they were expressing their opinion, not a fact?
And I’m still trying to find where on this site the editors of MDN mentioned TMO. Can you point me to where you saw that? Or would you rather be unethical and infer that MDN’s editors are trolling your forms? I’d be glad to help with the ethics of all of this if you need.