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** Although you are encouraged to download any and all of the free music downloads offered on this site, you should realize that the artists who contribute their free mp3 downloads have created these music downloads at their own expense. You may show your support and appreciation to them by purchasing the cds that are available on their respective websites. Thank you.
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CreatorsWeb watches with increasing interest the development of digital on demand technology as it relates to music. The following article about the itunes music store was taken in part from Wikipedia and is offered here as part of CreatorsWeb commitment to provide relevant and current information about music including the music industry and music technology. For farther research on the subjects of music, the music industry, music downloads and digital music on demand, please refer to the numerous references provided in this article. Thank you.
The iTunes Music Store (iTMS) is an online music service run by Apple Computer with its iTunes application. Introduced on April 28, 2003, the store, which uses DRM restrictions, has since been a dominant online music service and has proven the viability of online music sales.
Debuting on April 28, 2003, the iTunes Music Store was the first of now many online music stores to gain widespread media attention, opening up the path for many other companies to start-up similar services. Fans and some executives in the music industry say that the Music Store has more attractive characteristics than previous services such as Rhapsody and MusicNet: it allows the user to purchase an unlimited number of songs and transfer them to the iPod, and is comparatively simple and easy to use because it is closely integrated into the iPod and iTunes product lines.
The store sold about 275,000 tracks in its first 18 hours and more than 1,000,000 tracks in its first week. When released for Windows, iTunes was downloaded more than 1,000,000 times in the first 3 days and more than 1,000,000 songs were sold in that period.
On April 28, 2004, the iTunes Music Store marked its one year anniversary with 70 million songs sold, the clear dominance in the paid online music market and the slight profit. [5] The store also offers hundreds of movie trailers and music videos, in an attempt to boost soundtrack sales. In the conference, Steve Jobs reiterated that a subscription service is still not the interest of customers and reported that only 5 million of the 100 million songs offered in the Pepsi giveaway campaign were redeemed, which he blamed on technical problems in Pepsi distribution.
On September 1, 2004 the iTunes Music Store had surpassed 125 million songs sold.
On July 18, 2005 Apple announced that it had sold 500 million songs. Amy Greer of Lafayette, Indiana, USA, bought the 500 millionth song, "Mississippi Girl" by Faith Hill.
On October 31, 2005 Apple announced that it had sold 1 million videos since the launch of video support on October 12, 2005.
In 15 June 2004, the iTunes Music Store was launched in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Songs were priced at 99 Euro cents ( €0.99) for France and Germany, and 79 pence (£0.79) for the United Kingdom. According to an Apple Press Release, the European iTunes Music Stores sold a combined total of 800,000 songs in one week, with 450,000 of those songs sold in the UK.
On 26 October 2004 nine countries were added to the iTunes Music Store in a large EU store expansion: Austria, Belgium, Finland, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain. This extended availability to all countries in the Eurozone except for the Republic of Ireland, where the iTMS became available on 6 January 2005. These countries also pay €0.99 for songs, and all these stores share the same catalog and are available only in English. The French, German, American, and British stores are localized for their respective countries and have different catalogs. On 3 December 2004 the British Office of Fair Trading referred the iTunes Music Store to the European Commission because it prevents consumers in one EU country from buying music from stores in other EU countries, in violation of EU free-trade legislation; the immediate cause of the referral was because the €0.99 price charged in the Eurozone equates to 68 pence in sterling, rather than the 79 pence actually charged there.
The iTunes Music Store was launched in Canada on December 3, 2004; Canadian customers pay $0.99 (CDN) per song.
On 10 May 2005, the iTunes Music Store "went live" for Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Denmark, after about two weeks of speculation about these countries (and Australia) receiving the store.
Apple officially launched the iTunes Music Store in Japan on 4 August 2005, with 1 million songs available; 90% of songs are priced at 150 yen (1.34 dollars) [17]. In the next four days the store had sold one million songs–the pace faster than that of the U.S. store [18]. This opening to the world's second largest music market, where iPod controls about 30% market share, came after a long delay. In addition, Apple failed to have one set price for singles. Pundits have speculated that this may indicate the introduction of new price structure to the rest of the stores in future, in favor of record labels who would like to see higher prices for new songs.
The iTunes Music Store was launched in Australia on 25 October 2005. Individual songs are priced at AUD$1.69 per track, album prices vary but are generally priced at $16.99. The recent release of video-capable iPods also saw the store launch with music videos and short films by Pixar available for $3.39 each, although TV episodes are not currently available. Failed negotiations with the Sony BMG label (which had delayed the launch of the Australian iTMS significantly) meant that none of that label's artists are available at the time of launch. Stores in the Coles Myer retail chain will sell iTunes Music Cards in denominations of $20, $50 and $100. Access was accidently given to people in New Zealand too.
On July 1, 2004, Apple announced that, starting with the sale of the 95 millionth song, an iPod would be given away to the buyer of each 100 thousandth song, for a total of 50 iPods. The buyer of the 100 millionth song would receive a PowerBook, iPod, and $10,000 gift certificate to the iTunes Music Store.
Ten days later, on July 11, Apple announced that 100 million songs had been sold through the iTunes Music Store. The 100 millionth song was titled "Somersault (Dangermouse Remix)" by Zero 7, purchased by Kevin Britten of Hays, Kansas. He then received a phone call from Steve Jobs personally, who offered his congratulations, as well as a 40GB 3rd Generation iPod laser-engraved with a message of thanks.
Inspired by Pepsi's marketing success with iTunes giveaways, Coca-Cola partnered with 7-Eleven to give away a free iTunes song with every 32 oz. Slurpee frozen beverage until July 31, 2005. Songs could be redeemed until August 31, 2005 by entering a code printed on the Slurpee cup into the iTunes Music Store application. Coca-Cola did this in spite of having its own music store, myCokeMusic.com, that competes with the iTunes Music Store in Europe.
On July 5, 2005 Apple announced that they were counting down to half a billion songs. The buyer of every 100 thousandth song up to 500 million would receive an iPod mini and a 50-song gift card. The grand prize for the person who downloads the 500 millionth song was 10 iPods of their choice, a 10,000-song gift card, 10 50-song gift cards and 4 tickets to the Coldplay world tour. Twelve days later, on July 17, Apple announced that 500 million songs had been sold through the iTunes Music Store. The 500 millionth song, purchased by Amy Greer of Lafayette, Indiana, was "Mississippi Girl" by Faith Hill.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License (see Copyrights for details).
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