ITunes Becomes Third Largest Music Retailer
According to market research company NPD Group, in the first quarter of 2007, Apple's iTunes Store has overtaken Amazon.com and Target to become the US's third largest music retailer with 9.8% of all music sales. Apple counts 12 track sales as equivalent to one CD sale, meaning that the company is responsible for nearly 21 million of the quarter's 212 million CD sales.
iTunes Fixes
Last week, we passed along some observations from Benchmark Media Systems' John Siau about iTunes forcing an unnecessary sample-rate">http://stereophile.com/news/120307samplerateconversion/">sample-rate conversion in its 7.5 incarnation. We received a lot of mail on the subject during the week, including some helpful suggestions from Wavelength Audio's Gordon">http://www.stereophile.com/interviews/196rankin">Gordon Rankin, who has much experience designing USB">http://www.stereophile.com/digitalprocessors/905listen">USB audio devices.
ITunes Pluses and Minuses?
On May 30, Apple officially launched iTunes Plus, billed as "DRM-free music tracks featuring high-quality 256kbps AAC encoding for audio quality virtually indistinguishable from the original recordings." The initial material available from the iTunes Plus section of the iTunes Media Store is, for the moment, limited to EMI artists, although other labels have announced pending deals with Apple. The "improved" songs sell for $1.29 rather than the standard 99¢.
iTunes Won't Reach Forecast
Launched with a bang last April, Apple">http://apple.com">Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store has steadily gained popularity with music fans, but it won't reach its projected goal of selling 100 million songs online within its first year.
iTunes, uTunes—We All Swoon For iTunes
On July 11, Kevin Britten of Hays, Kansas downloaded the 100 millionth song purchased from Apple's iTunes">http://www.apple.com/itunes/store/">iTunes music store. Britten spent 99¢ for "Somersault (Dangermouse remix)" by Zero 7 and, in exchange, won a 17" PowerBook, a 40GB iPod, and a gift certificate entitling him to 10,000 iTunes songs (the approximate capacity of a 40Gb iPod). As Apple counted down to 100 million, it also gave "special 20GB iPods" to the consumers who downloaded each 100,000th song between 95 million and 100 million.
iTunes: Music Biz Panacea?
Apple's unexpected initial success with its iTunes subscription music service shocked and pleased many in the music industry—and appears likely to prompt a rash of imitators.
IUMA Acquired and Re-Launched
The prognosis was looking dim for yet another Internet music business, but last week the Internet">http://www.iuma.com/">Internet Underground Music Archive (IUMA), revealed that it has signed an agreement to be acquired by Vitaminic, a European digital platform for the promotion and distribution of music over the Internet. IUMA had recently run out of cash and says that the acquisition will allow it to relaunch all suspended services within the week.
J. Gordon Holt resigns from Stereophile to go freelance
J. Gordon Holt founded Stereophile in the fall of 1962 in order to promote the idea that the optimal way to judge audio components was to do what end users did: listen to them. Since then, Gordon has had an unbroken relationship with Stereophile, through its sale to Larry Archibald in 1982, my coming on board as editor in 1986, the sale of the magazine to Petersen Publishing in 1998, and the subsequent sale of Petersen to Emap in 1999. Through all this time he has been listed on the magazine's masthead as "Founder & Chief Tester." (A fascinating">http://www.stereophile.com//interviews/66/">fascinating interview with Gordon, conducted by his associate and friend Steven Stone, can be found in this website's "Archives.")
J. Gordon Holt 1930–2009
It is with immense sadness that I heard of Gordon's passing, in an announcement from his long-time friend, Bob O'Neill: "A few minutes after 12 noon mtn time, July 20, 2009, J. Gordon Holt passed away in his home in Boulder, Colorado. A memorial service will be held in a week or two. There will be, of course, martinis and the music of Ralph Vaughan Williams." According to his son Charles, Gordon had suffered a long fight with COPD/Emphysema and he died in his home with his family around him.
JA To Appear at Long Island's Audio Den Saturday
Retailer Audio Den (2845 Middle Country Rd, Lake Grove, NY 11755) is holding an evening with John Atkinson, Editor-in Chief of Stereophile magazine, on Saturday, October 15, starting at 5pm. Not only has John been writing about audio for 40 years, he has engineered, produced, mastered, and played on more than 40 commercially released recordings. He will be discussing how recordings are made and how this affects what you hear on your own system.