The Cult of Mac blog at Wired argues that recent stories about the small amount of music purchased on iTunes miss the point:
iTunes does not exist to be the only way for people to buy music, TV shows or movies. It’s there to be a security blanket and a sampler. I don’t buy much off of the store, but when I have bought, it was the only way I was going to get the song or show I wanted without grabbing a torrent.
iTunes does not exist to compete with record stores, really. It’s there to compete with illegitimate song downloads. Of more than a billion songs downloaded from iTunes, I would guess a good 2/3rds are people buying a hit single instead of downloading it without the label’s knowledge. It’s the only reason I bought “Hey Ya!” let me tell you. I’ll go to a record store every time if I can, but when I needed to hear M. Ward’s “Transfiguration of Vincent” the very same night, iTunes was there.
So much for the idea that Apple was going to take over the music distribution business.
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The Relationship Between iPods and iTunes
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