Apple today announced that iTunes Music Store customers have purchased and downloaded more than one million videos since they debuted on October 12. Customers can choose from over 2,000 music videos, Pixar short films and hit TV shows for just $1.99. Top downloads include music videos from Michael Jackson, Fatboy Slim and Kanye West; Pixar’s “For the Birds” and “Boundin'”; and episodes of ABC’s hit TV shows “Lost” and “Desperate Housewives.”
“Selling one million videos in less than 20 days strongly suggests there is a market for legal video downloads,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO in a statement. “Our next challenge is to broaden our content offerings, so that customers can enjoy watching more videos on their computers and new iPods.”
Music videos are available from artists including Madonna, U2, Eurythmics, Coldplay and Kanye West, and animated shorts are available from Academy Award-winning Pixar Animation Studios. In a landmark deal with ABC Disney, the iTunes Music Store also offers current and past episodes from the two most popular shows on television, “Desperate Housewives” and “Lost” as well as the new drama series “Night Stalker” and the two most popular shows from Disney Channel, “That’s So Raven” and “The Suite Life of Zack and Cody.”
With Apple’s legendary ease of use, pioneering features such as integrated Podcasting support, iMix playlist sharing, seamless integration with iPod and groundbreaking personal use rights, the iTunes Music Store is the best way for Mac and PC users to legally discover, purchase and download music online. The iTunes Music Store features more than two million songs from the major music companies and over 1,000 independent record labels, 11,000 audiobooks, gift certificates and exclusive music not found anywhere else online.
Advertisements: The New iPod with Video. The ultimate music + video experience on the go. Buy it now at the Apple Store. From $299. Free shipping.
Apple iPod nano. 1,000 songs. Impossibly small. From $199. Free shipping.
That’s approximately $2 million in gross revenue in around 20 days. As more iPods are sold, iTunes 6 downloads increase, and Front Row-equipped iMac G5s (and other Macs?) come online, and other countries’ iTunes Music Stores add video content for sale, Apple’s iTunes Music Store video sales are going to increase. Apple just generated millions of dollars directly from music videos, five TV shows and some Pixar shorts in under 20 days!
A very nice result for Apple’s proof of concept. Expect more content soon. A lot more content.
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So iTMS sells more videos in 20 days than most music sites sell tracks in a month.
Ah, the faint glow of victory.
“Our next challenge is to broaden our content offerings, so that customers can enjoy watching more videos on their computers and new iPods.”
Maybe bringing it to other countries as well?
Oh Yeah! Bring on more content and watch Apple turn into a media giant in the distribution of television and eventually movie content as well.
Andy
We have ways to make you download our stuff instead, Yankee iTunes boy.
Game. Set. Match.
Now if they only had shows like Family Guy, and Scrubs, I would be buying too. Since I missed recording a few episodes with my PVR. I have most of the episodes ready for when I get an video iPod, I just need to fill in the gaps.
More TV Shows will really get this going!
TVHarmony’s AutoPilot Brings TiVo Content To The iPod
TVHarmony.com has greatly expanded the potential of the new video-capable iPod with a recent update to its AutoPilot software. The new version is capable of converting video recoded on a TiVo to a format compatible with the 5G iPod.
To work this magic, you need a networked TiVo with TiVoToGo capability, a PC running Windows XP or 2000, and v2.1 or better of the TiVo Desktop software. The software automatically grabs chosen content from the TiVo, converts it to an iPod-friendly format, and stores it on the PC. The AutoPilot software allows for automatic, scheduled content conversion and maintains a catalog of what content has already been converted, etc.
This really is a killer app for TiVo-equipped PC users looking to get the most out of their new iPod.
Ballmer just shat himself ..
“I thought we beat them to video… WTF..”
Wow, $2 million in 20 days? That’s what, like $30 million a year? That’s like how much they would make if they sold all their iPods in a year for $1.50.
This doesn’t seem like proof of concept to me just yet. But it seems like a decent start.
Content, content, content. That’s the key.
I can’t wait for old shows to appear.
MDN Word= physical. Goodbye physical distribution.
Considering the small selection of videos on offer, this is a good result. I just wish that more shows were available for download. Where are The Simpsons, King Of The Hill, Seinfeld, The Daily Show, Chappelle’s Show, South Park, etc? iTunes needs more comedy.
And not every iPod user has one that can do video yet … that’s impressive. Lets see … when everyone updates their thingy … and more shows come on line … and movies … faarrkkk!
Anyone thinks the iTVS annual awards should be called a “Steve” as in “Oscar”? Methinks it should be a white silhouette holding that little white … uh, thingy that every digital media player manufacturer wants to kill.
No one will want to watch video on their iPod.
No one! Do you hear me!
Oh, fsck I missed LOST! Well, if I just could download it to my…
BG
This isn’t a victory yet, as a lot of people downloaded videos (like me) that have no intention of buying more because of the low resolution and lack of burnability. Instead of increasing, I think the purchase rate dramatically decreases until at least more content is available.
@ Russell>
What you need to bear in mind is that, when iTMS launched with well over 100,000 tracks (my memory says 500,000, but sadly the press release has long gone), it took seven days to reach 1 million downloads.
The video download service has a miniscule fraction of the variety of content that iTMS had available on Day One, and yet it has taken only three times as long to reach that initial milestone.
Imagine what would be possible if 100,000 videos were available as well as mining the rich seam of classic TV serials from the Sixties to the Nineties.
“Apple’s iTunes Music Store sells over one million videos in under 20 days”
That sounds un-Real! (pun intended)
This isn’t a victory yet, as a lot of people downloaded videos (like me) that have no intention of buying more because of the low resolution and lack of burnability. Instead of increasing, I think the purchase rate dramatically decreases until at least more content is available
—
*choke choke!!!!
LOW RESOLUTION?! ARE YOU MAD?!
The resolution on iTMS is great, even on a 30″ tv set.. furthermore, the DLs will be much faster, and the quality on most downloaded content from p2p varies from sterling to blotchy shite.
How much is $2 where you live, because it sure beats waiting for 3 days to get a flick through bittorrent
I downloaded one episode of Lost that I missed, after ABC stopped re-airing them this season either the hour before new episodes or on Saturdays.
Although I don’t have a new iPod, I played it from my Powerbook via DVI connection to my Samsung 50″ DLP and from 12′ away it looked pretty damn good on that screen. There were some artifacts and it’s pretty pixelated when you get really close, but I was very impressed with the quality.
I think this is only the beginning…
Uh Russell, isn’t that exactly what “proof of concept” means? Is this the finality of unbeatable success? No, just proof that it can work, i.e., proof of concept.
Here’s the question. 20 days ago Steve announced the new video capable ipod. How many of these do you think have sold in that 20 days? 50,000, 100,000? more? At 100,000 that’s 10 videos or $20 per person. I think there is a differential between those who are buying them intending to play them on their new ipod and those who are simply viewing them with their computer (either on it or through it). This means that anyone who can download the free ITMS, and can use Quicktime, can view downloadable videos. It wouldn’t take much to offer two levels of resolution now that the proof of concept is there. One for the ipod (faster download, smaller file) and one for your computer or television (better resolution, larger file) and in a later generation of the ipod make it capable of playing those larger files. Apple HAD to prove to the studios that people would pay to download files. So, let’s think again about what Jobs has done here. He’s taken two hit TV shows (TWO!)…a group of short Pixar films, and some previously FREE music videos, launched a fairly low rez player (that still looks good enough) that is still in it’s initial shipment and sold a MILLION VIDEOS in less than a month. Any content creator that doesn’t get it after this demonstration is simply going to lose money. The content is just about to bang real hard on Steve’s door.
<<I think the purchase rate dramatically decreases until at least more content is available.>>
Duhh.
What you need to bear in mind is that, when iTMS launched with well over 100,000 tracks (my memory says 500,000, but sadly the press release has long gone), it took seven days to reach 1 million downloads.
The initial library for iTMS was 200,000 songs. That’s 10X more than the initial video library. All things being equal, then its possible that Apple could have generated 3 Million downloads in 20 days.
The initial library for iTMS was 200,000 songs. That’s 10X more than the initial video library. All things being equal, then its possible that Apple could have generated 3 Million downloads in 20 days.
My bad, That should have read…its possible that Apple could have generated 100,000,000 downloads in 20 days.
Somehow, I think Hollywood/Burbank is going to take notice. Look for another announcement shortly. Steve: “We’re pleased to announce that Fox, NBC and CBS has joined the iTMS team and will be offering 15 current TV programs via iTMS, and, along with ABC, will be making over 5,000 archived programs available within the next 12 months.”.
Ka-ching.
Sounds like a damn good start to me. It’s at least 990,000 more than anyone else has sold during that same time period…