TMO Reports - Jobs To Host iTMS Conference Call Wednesday; No Stream For Public

by , 3:00 PM EDT, April 26th, 2004

To commemorate the first anniversary of Apple's iTunes Music Store, Apple CEO Steve Jobs will participate in a media and analyst conference call this Wednesday beginning at 11:30 am EDT, the company announced Monday.

Unlike quarterly earnings conference calls that are available to everyone to listen to live and repeated, Apple will not be making Wednesday's iTunes event available in a streaming format for the general public, a company spokesperson told The Mac Observer.

The iTunes online music store has been a industry success as the number one paid online music service on both the Mac and Windows platforms, since its launch on April 28, 2003.

On March 15, Apple announced the online music store had sold over 50 million songs. On Apple's recent second-quarter conference call, analysts asked for further details on the progress of the iTunes Music Store, but were re-buffed by company executives who said Apple would have more facts closer to the services anniversary date.

In 2003, Mr. Jobs stated that the goal was for the company to sell 100 million songs in the first year of operation. Though the company has since said it will not meet that goal, Steve Jobs said in March that Apple was on track to sell 130 million songs a year going forward.

Nielsen SoundScan reports Apple has some 70% of the legal download market. According to The NPD Group, the iTunes service has over 4.9 million customers compared to its closest rival, Walmart.com with 2.7 million, as of March 2004.

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