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Buck a Song, or Buccaneer?

Leander Kahney Email 10.21.03

Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store for Windows appears to be off to a grand start, but no matter how successful it may be, the online store will never, ever have the slightest impact on the file-sharing networks, experts say.

Launched last week, Apple's iTunes jukebox software and associated online store had attracted a million Windows users in just over three days, Apple said Monday.

In the same period, the iTunes store sold 1 million songs at a buck a pop -- twice as many as were sold in the store's first three days of existence this April, when it was open only to Mac users. To date the store has sold 14 million tunes, more than 70 percent of all the music sold online.

To hear Apple's CEO Steve Jobs tell it, the iTunes store is the beginning of the end for the file-sharing networks.

"This has been the birth of legal downloading," Jobs declared at last week's flashy launch event.

He added, "We're going to fight illegal downloading by competing with it. We're not going to sue it. We're not going to ignore it. We're going to compete with it."

According to Jobs, competing with file-sharing networks means providing things like reliable, one-click downloading, good-quality sound and liberal usage rights. Plus, buying songs from Apple is legal: No one is going to be sued by the Recording Industry Association of America for doing it.

"It's good karma," Jobs said. "You're supporting artists. You're not stealing."



"100 million songs in a year sounds like a lot of songs," he said. "But it's a tenth of all the songs available at any time on Kazaa. It represents a tiny fingernail, a sliver of a fraction of the downloads from Kazaa."


"When you look at the (Apple iTunes) numbers, they are very modest," he said. "You're talking about a mom-and-pop business when compared to the millions in the file-sharing free-for-all.... Relative to the MP3 phenomenon, it's a small revolution."

Garland compared the iTunes store to a business bottling water. Apple might be very successful selling bottled water, but most people still will get their water from the tap, he said.

"They might create a successful business, but they are not tackling the main point of consumption," Garland said. "It's like charging a premium for every thousandth (song) download, but most music is still being downloaded for free."

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