“If you pan back and look at how people are getting their music these days you see that the companies fighting for the people who pay for music are battling over an ever-smaller piece of the pie,” Saul Hansell blogs for The New York Times.
“NPD’s annual survey of Internet users, which is some 80 percent of the population these days, found that 10 percent of the music they acquired last year came from paid downloads. That is a big increase from 7 percent in 2006. But since the number of physical CDs they bought plummeted, the overall share of music they paid for fell to 42 percent from 48 percent,” Hansell reports.
“NPD’s data about how well Amazon.com’s five month old digital music store is doing made me wonder about the bigger picture of how Amazon and Apple fit into that overall music market,” Hansell reports. “The music industry has high hopes for Amazon. All four major labels are allowing it to sell their songs as MP3 files, without any protection against illegal copying. Their goal is to win over some people who may have been stealing music and also to create a counterbalance against Apple, which some in the music industry believe has too much power.”
“The NPD data for February show that so far Amazon has had a strong start, although it is still tiny. It now has one tenth the market share of Apple. Since Apple has largely dominated the per-track download sales, that makes Amazon the distant No.2 in the market, said Russ Crupnick, who runs NPD’s music service,” Hansell reports.
More in the full article, including a slide that puts into perspective how people are listening to music these days, here.
Pan is a term (both audio and video) referring to _side to side_ motion. Saying “pan back” is a ridiculous statement. Dolly back, zoom out, whatever, but not pan back.
I wouldn’t mind if this were in a blog, but in the NY Times?! Geez.
It’s COLLUSION pure and simple and Apple has a case.
Oh yeah, one more thing, the big “record labels” (more like mega-super-companies) will be irrelevant very soon, as far as NEW music goes.
More and more musicians will simple produce and sell their music on their own. It’s awesome.
I too prefer buying cheap CDs from Amazon, rip the songs at high quality 256 Kbps rate, and store the CDs away.
I think ChrissyOne is hot.
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Uh . . . 256 MHZ, Sarasota? That statement negates your opinion in and of itself there, buddy.
At least Amazon is in there, competing, and making it not just iPod compatible, but iTunes compatible as well. I think Apple has finally made the point that, if you want to compete with them it’s going to be on their turf from now on – Not MS, not Real, not et. al. If you want to sell music on the internet it’s going to have to be plug’nPlay iPod and iTunes.
Amused and amazed I am at the unceasing greed of the major labels. They should be spanked soundly and sent to bed to quietly think on their sins.
The most ironic part of this is that by not providing iTunes with DAM free music. They are insuring that the percent iTunes consumer will stick with Apple/iPod/iTunes or risk having to purchase all their music again if they decide to switch MP3 players. DRM dose not affect Apple, quite the contrary. These idiots thought that by selling DRM free music elsewhere people were all of a sudden going to drop iTunes. When in fact this very disparity will further lock users in to it.
I have no intention to buy digital music from Amazon until the music cartels allow Apple to sell DRM-free music too. What they’re doing amounts to sleazy business practices, and I won’t reward them for doing it.
@obtusegoose
I’m with you on that one!
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“Amazon music plays on iPods”
That’s true but it also plays on any media player unlike iTunes. I’m an iPod user now but I’ll never use iTunes because I realise that some time in the future I may want to buy a media player from somebody else.
Anyway I don’t think Apple will care that much. The days of them making huge profits from iPods are numbered, the iPhone is the future.
@me – You make no sense…
“I’m an iPod user now but I’ll never use iTunes because I realise that some time in the future I may want to buy a media player from somebody else.”
That’s like spiting your nose by cutting off your foot. What I think you mean is you don’t buy from the iTunes Store. Why would you not use iTunes (the program?)
then you hit the jackpot…
“The days of them making huge profits from iPods are numbered, the iPhone is the future.”
The iPhone IS an iPod, duh!
@limey
“I’m an iPod user now but I’ll never use iTunes because I realise that some time in the future I may want to buy a media player from somebody else.”
That’s exactly what I mean. There are a hundred programs out there that sync with an iPod and if you don’t use the iTunes store it’s just a matter of personal preference. Get out a little for gods sake and try something new, SJ will forgive you.
“The iPhone IS an iPod, duh!”
Eeek, you are lost. It’s in a completely different market and that’s why it has a chance at making some money.
Chrissy is hot especially at 25 Kbps. Sorry MHz – what was I thinking!
@me – WTF!?! Exactly which media player do YOU use to sync your songs with your iPod? I call BS
I use Amarok (Linux user) but I’m told Winamp works fine too.
Don’t get me wrong I do like Apple hardware, I have an iPod and am considering getting the next iMac (I like the all in one idea). I’m just not big on Apple software.
The NPD group doesn’t measure eMusic sales, so the claim that Amazon is #2 is probably wrong.