M aking iTunes and the iTunes Music Store available to Windows users was a smart, if not inevitable, move. iApple-izingi the way people buy music has created a groundswell of interest, from other computer makers to music artists. While there may be a lot of interest in Appleis way of buying music, Leander Kearney, of Wired News, asks if iTunes and the iTunes Music Store (iTMS) is enough to dissuade people from using illegal means of music acquisition. From the Wired News article:
So confident is Jobs of competing with the file-sharing networks, the store will sell 100 million songs before the end of next April, Jobs predicted.
But to Eric Garland, CEO of BigChampagne , a Beverly Hills, California-based research firm that tracks file-sharing networks, 100 million songs is the teeniest, weeniest drop in the bucket.
"100 million songs in a year sounds like a lot of songs," he said. "But itis 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."
Garland said on average, there are 700 million files being traded on Kazaa, and 900 million files at peak. Most of it is music, he said.
"When you look at the (Apple iTunes) numbers, they are very modest," he said. "Youire talking about a mom-and-pop business when compared to the millions in the file-sharing free-for-all.... Relative to the MP3 phenomenon, itis a small revolution."
The Wired News article makes some interesting points and is a good read; stop by for the full story.