AfterDawn: News

iPod users avoiding iTunes Store

In spite of the fact that the Apple's iTunes Store dominates the market for legally downloaded music, only a fraction of iPod owners actually use the store for their audio needs, according to Jupiter Research.

A report by the research firm reveals that, on average, only 20 of the tracks on an iPod will be from the iTunes Store. The study also shows that users of the device much prefer to rip CD's they own, or download content from filesharing sites.



The report's authors estimate that during 2006, Europeans will fork out more than 385m euros (£260m) on digital music, most of which will be spent at Apple's iTunes Store. However, the study shows 83% of iPod owners don't regularly purchase digital music, if at all. Only a mere 17% buy and download music often, usually single tracks, at least once a month.

According to the study, only 5% of the music on an iPod will be bought from online music stores on average. The remainder will ripped from CD's or downloaded from peer-to-peer networks.

The report also warns that the importance of "free" to digital music fans should not be swept aside. Some firms have already made inroads towards a future of free digital music such as SpiralFrog, which has announced that it will use an ad-supported business model rather than charge consumers.

Source:
BBC

Written by: Ben Reid @ 17 Sep 2006 4:16

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• 13 comments

• dkorben

  After shelling out over mad cash for a 30 gb nano and extra for a car fm transmitter/ charger. Its the fourth ipod I have had luckily two other battery failure covered by extended warranty. I always get a good chuckle when removing the sticker off an ipod, If I used the i tunes and all the content was from them, I would not be able to own the over priced device made a la wal mart style using under paid over worked chinese factory laborers. If the microsoft zune has good hardware and is not inherihantly so DRM ladden, which is doubtful, I would switch. Come to think about it someone in another article was speaking of another handheld device that does video and audio and is not DRM crippled. When my nano battery dies as it no doubt will sooner than later, I will replace out may be archos or something where I can easily move what I want on and off the device. Had a hdd crash and did not bother to put back itunes as it will attack and erase my filled ipod and all my playlists and >4000 mps as it wont recognize it. For all the loot, I should have been given removable replacable battery fm tuner, digital mp3 recording, and wi fi. specially when it cost them over head of just 85 us d per device that sells for close to three hundred.

  17.9.2006 06:10 #1

• Venom5880

  I've never bought anything off iTunes...
  
  And dkorben, if you want something that isn't DRM crippled, get a Creative Zen Vision:M. I would have gotten one had I known it was coming out the day after I bought my iPod video... While it doesn't have WiFi, the Zen Vision:M doesn't have any DRM, so you don't have to worry about iTunes style attacks on your data.

  17.9.2006 11:08 #2

• jazo132

  I've bought some things for my iPod before I got Limewire. I wouldn't pay for music again with Limewire. It's just so much money per song that it's cheaper just to go buy the CD.

  17.9.2006 11:15 #3

• neurokasm

  The only time I've ever d/l'd anything from the iTunes Store is when I won a couple free songs from the lids of my Mountain Dew bottles, lol. Otherwise, I would've never gone there. They can take their DRM ridden tunes and... ...well, you know.

  17.9.2006 12:35 #4

• borhan9

  Quote:The study also shows that users of the device much prefer to rip CD's they own, or download content from filesharing sites.That is exactly what i use it for. If i could transfer the files using the windows on its own i would not put itunes on my computer in the first place :)

  17.9.2006 14:33 #5

• jmaestro

  Use Yamipod as an Itunes alternative. It is an exe, so you don't have to install anything.

  18.9.2006 01:00 #6

• gogochar

  Ummmm... would you if they controlled what you did and didn't do legally with your music?

  19.9.2006 08:01 #7

• djgizmo

  from jazo132 Quote:I've bought some things for my iPod before I got Limewire. I wouldn't pay for music again with Limewire. It's just so much money per song that it's cheaper just to go buy the CD. See this is why artists / and the RIAA goes full tilt. Granted, many record labels the RIAA rarely recover money for the artist, but I can understand SOME of their point of view.
  
  If you were asked to build a house, and it took you 4 weeks, 40-50 hours a week and were supposed to be paid $1000 a week. After the end of the 4 weeks, the that person hired you only paid you 1/4 of what you agreed upon. You'd be pretty pissed. Imagine thats what happens when an artist 'build' an album.
  
  Granted I don't think DRM is what the world needs, but I believe in supporting the groups we enjoy and not caring about the ones we don't enjoy. Limewire is crap, has been for a long azz time. AOL users and pedophiles use limewire.
  
  Spend $10, go by a cd or purchase some non DRM music.

  20.9.2006 12:16 #8

• GernBlan

  I simply record XM radio on my computer (I have a Roady2 receiver with a home kit). I record about 2-4 hour blocks of the Top 20 on Ch. 20, and that will give me just about every current, popular song I want. I then use a freeware app called Audacity to separate out the individual songs, enhance them several different filters, fade-in/out the beginning or end if necessary, and then save it as a MP3. Whether it's on my Creative Zen, iPod Video, Palm PDA, or CD-ROM, it works just fine and sounds great. I'm already paying the monthly service for XM, I'm definitely not going to shell out even more money to a stupid download service like iTunes, which isn't compatible with my Palm or Creative device. All I have to say to this iTunes "revelation" that people are avoiding iTunes is "No, duh." When iTunes can't even handle a simple task like automatically downloading album information and cover art for my video iPod, why would I want to pay for that? No thanks. It's bad enough I have to use it to sync files over to my iPod.

  22.9.2006 16:42 #9

• georgeluv

  just get one of those asian nano knockoffs. they are built well, they only cost like 40 bucks, they play VIDEOS (without modding) and you can just drag and drop. granted, it definatly aint no ipod in terms of ease of use or warenty, but a 2 gb (almost) nano for 40 bucks that plays videos? come on, thats a steal. but ipods and mp3 players are going the way of the dinosour, i bet in a year every phone will be a mp3/video player. whos going to want to carry around both? right now only about 1/4 of phones sold are mp3 ready and probably less for video. i cant wait till itunes becomes a laughable footnote in the digital media history book. shareaza kicks itunes, and the rest of the worlds copywrite holders, square in the balls. and to that guy who sympathizes with copywrite holders: if they charged a fair price and didnt bribe/force the government into indefinatly extending there copyrite protection i might feel diferently but as it stands music is still a dollar a song and movies are still $18 for a new dvd. ill stop pirating when music hits a penny a song and movies are a buck.

  23.9.2006 09:32 #10

• boyshanks

  New member and my first post, sorry to ask such an entry level question but here goes.
  
  Very new to downloading music from the internet. Have done it but it seems lots has changed.
  
  Can someone please explain how DRM affects me and what I download? I purchased 2 DRM tunes and couldn't load them onto my mp3 player. I don't know if that was a function of an old device or DRM.
  
  I am about to purchase a Zen Vision M. What do you mean when you say 'it doesn't have any DRM'? What is an iTunes style attack?
  
  Last question, can Itunes songs be downloaded onto a non-Apple (RCA Lyra) device? I am having problems doing this. When I plug in the device (mp3 player) it does not register/show under 'Devices' on Itunes.
  
  Thanks in advance!

  24.9.2006 04:17 #11

• GernBlan

  Okay, first of all, "Boyshanks", I admit you're scaring me a bit with your choice of username, but I'll overlook it for now.... ;)
  
  No, you cannot directly play iTunes downloads on a RCA Lyra. You can pretty much assume that iTunes music is for iPods only. There are ways around that, but they're not very time or cost effective. The easiest way is to use iTunes to burn the songs to a CD-RW and then use one of the freeware CD rippers (or even just Windows Media Player) to rip (convert) the song off the CD-ROM and back to you hard drive in regular ol' MP3 format. This is getting around the DRM (copy protection) of iTunes, but technically that's illegal and even looking at it from a more liberal "fair use" standpoint, it's a rather gray area. It also raises the question of "Why buy downloads from the most expensive music download source when you have to jump through hoops to get it play on a generic MP3 player?" FYI, you can also do the same thing from Walmart.com to get around their DRM'ed Windows Media format songs.
  
  Basically, DRM is copy protection for the song you've downloaded. Because of the very nature of DRM, it also usually limits you on the device compatibility. Using an older MP3 player in these days of DRM can be a bit more difficult because chances are that your older MP3 player is not an approved device for copying DRM songs from Windows Media Player, iTunes, etc. If you don't want to jump through hoops for putting downloaded songs on your RCA player, then you may want to consider buying a cheap, newer player that is supported by Windows Media Player. I've seen 1GB players that support DRM WMA files for as cheap as $19.
  
  If you don't want to buy a new player, search the net (or AfterDawn forums) for how-tos on converting iTunes or other DRM files to regular MP3 format. There are plenty of how-tos which include links to usually freeware apps that will do the job for you.

  24.9.2006 08:20 #12

• IndigoAK

  I keep hearing that it costs more to buy a CD on iTunes than it does to go out and buy it at the store, and I'm wondering where you all go and buy your music. Where I live, we have Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Fred Meyer, the Post Exchange, and Circuit City. At all of these locations, the average price for an album is $15.99.
  
  Most albums available on iTunes are $9.99; with no shipping or sales tax, which means that I'm getting a flat charge. $10 is less money than $16; there's no two ways around it.
  
  DRM is nothing more than a matter of laziness. Companies need to protect their investments; it's the same as you making sure that you don't put a dent in your car because you don't want to have to get it repaired. The more that we steal music, the less money that these companies have to pay their employees, which means eventually, people lose jobs, homes, etc.
  
  If you don't want to have to deal with DRM, the solution is simple: don't steal music. Buy it. Convince your friends to buy it. If everyone stopped stealing intellectual property, in five years, we wouldn't have DRM because companies wouldn't be worried about losing their investments.
  
  You have to stop and put yourself in their shoes. They have families to feed and houses to pay rent on. You steal their products, they can't do that. Treat others as you would want to be treated.

  27.1.2007 22:33 #13