iLounge

1

I would gladly pay more for music download if they have them in Apple Lossless, but I just cannot stand 128k AAC tracks.

Posted by foo on September 1, 2004 at 6:34 AM (PST)

2

This is pretty huge for iTunes/iPod.

ANYWHERE that can show a URL, from application windows to blogs to forum signatures to banner ads to extensive sites like this one… now has an incentive to give advertising to Apple. This may eat into Apple profits but it’s a big blow to anyone trying to catch up with iTunes’ lead.

Yet another Apple first.

(I don’t like the “idea” of lossy compression—I’m the same way about a really high-quality print JPEG—but in reality I can’t hear the difference, and blind tests show that I’m far from alone.)

Posted by Nagromme on September 1, 2004 at 6:54 AM (PST)

3

How long before iPodLounge has an “Album of the Day” link?  I have my money on 3 days.

Posted by Alden on September 1, 2004 at 2:03 PM (PST)

4

Good idea for Apple, but it’s not as if others won’t get in on this, too.

Who is Google going to link to?

Who is MSN going to link to?

Who is Yahoo! going to link to?

Hell, microsoft.com is one of the most visited sites on the web…I bet they’ll link to their own music store when it starts.

I think what’s really going on here is that companies/universities are not satisfied with funneling all their traffic/sales to Apple and they want a cut.

If I was UCLA and I started hooking up my student body with iTunes and they were downloading thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of songs, I wouldn’t think Apple was doing me a favor…I would think I was doing Apple a favor and would want my share.

Apple is always fixated on what you can do for them…pay high prices for their computers and iPods…but, ultimately this tide will turn and universities will ask what can Apple do for us.  They don’t want a discount on songs for their student body, they want Apple to pay to supply their student body.

Economics 101

Posted by Big Sid on September 1, 2004 at 5:26 PM (PST)

5

how can you find out if your campus is part of this program?  Is there a listing somewhere?

Posted by campus on September 1, 2004 at 5:50 PM (PST)

6

This isn’t something you need your campus to be a part of. Anyone can download from iTunes, and anyone can be an affiliate and make some money by adding iTunes links to your site.

An affiliate link program isn’t how universities would get paid—although something similar might well be offered to them. But universities aren’t signing up with music services to make money anyway—there’s just not much money to be made. They’re signing up to protect themselves legally, by offering at least a token alternative to illegal downloading. (Frankly, it’s an absurd twist of the law to consider universities responsible for that anyway!)

Posted by Nagromme on September 1, 2004 at 7:48 PM (PST)

7

Nagromme-

You’re right it is absurd to place a university responsible for what its students are doing online.

I know iniversities are not seeing it as a money making opportunity yet, but soon they will wake up and smell the coffee.

Apple and the Record Labels have scared institutions into thinking they will be responsible for downloading that takes place on their campus.  Soon, schools will call Apple’s and the Label’s bluff by saying…you want access to my buyers, then we get a commission.

You may think it’s silly for a university to quibble over what may not seem like much money, but look at a student’s bill for college…the school charges for everything under the sun.  Hell, the don’t even give you a free ScanTron to take a test on.

Posted by Big Sid on September 1, 2004 at 10:08 PM (PST)

8

Does anyone actually buy music from iTunes?  If you do, man I feel sorry for you.  Really, has there ever been anyone who filled up a 40 gig iPod all with one dollar per song mp3s?  Talk about a waste of money….

If you know where to look, music is available for free and without having to pony up one dollar per track.  And no, I’m not talking about Kazaa, which is a steaming pile of dung.

Bottom line, most people that decry file-sharing programs have only used Kazaa.  There are _much_ better programs out there.  By the way, no one downloads track-by-track anymore.  The way it is now is to bundle every track from an album in a zip or rar file.

Posted by hank on September 2, 2004 at 9:22 AM (PST)

9

Hank,

Thanks for letting the cat out of the bag.  This is a secret that should’ve been kept between me and you!

Posted by Talking Madness on September 2, 2004 at 10:38 AM (PST)