Over 1 million songs are downloaded everyday from the iTunes service provided by Apple Computer Inc. The Company has reported that its online music store, iTunes, has sold more than 250 million songs and Apple now sells legal download music at a rate of over one million per day. Each song from iTunes costs 99 cents and Apple is selling at least 1.25 million songs per day through its online store available in 15 countries.
According to research firm NPD Group, music sold from iTunes accounts up to 70% of legal music sold between December 2003 and July 2004. The tremendous success of this online music store is attributed to the immense popularity of Apple’s iPod. If and when the service increases coverage further still into other Countries and markets the figure is set to increase again.
Apple, based in Cupertino, Calif. has sold more than 4.5 million iPods in the fourth quarter and around 10 million since its launch in October 2001. iPod is designed to play songs that are downloaded from iTunes only.
Apple’s iPod shuffle 512MB model, which comes for $99 can hold up to 120 songs. One can store twice as much in the 1GB model that comes for $149. The elegant looking Apple, which has nothing more than the USB portal, a familiar iPod click wheel and a headphone jack, is not bigger than a pack of Trident gum. The music player stores downloaded songs on the flash memory instead of a hard drive. The music quality is excellent. The $99 model however lacks a display screen, which makes it difficult to navigate to a particular song, especially if you have not memorized the sequence.
The tremendous popularity of iPods and the online music store iTunes is reflected in the rise of Apple’s share from 27 cents to around $70.76 in Monday trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The stock has traded in a 52-week range of $21.70 to $74.42.
