Is Apple biting the hands that feeds it, i.e., itself? This very question was posed to me the other day by a colleague who was trying to figure out Apple's strategy of offering iPods with massive capacities, yet iTunes songs as paltry 128 Kbps (or, in some cases, 256 Kbps), digital files. It's highly unlikely that the average consumer could fill an 80 GB iPod with tunes of such a small size (it would take approx. 20,000 128 Kbps 4-minute tracks to do so!), so what does Apple expect us to fill these nifty devices with?
The obvious answer is "other stuff". Higher-quality songs ripped from physical CDs, downloadable videos, including podcasts, TV shows, and full-length movies (much of which can be obtained from iTunes), and even photos. Let's face it: iPods aren't just for music anymore, which is why capacities are getting so huge. Not to mention that content loaded onto these portable players won't always be exclusively from iTunes, despite how this might be the ideal scenario in Apple's eyes.
Nevertheless, my colleague, who's a heavy iPod (and iTunes!) user, pointed out the obvious paradox between what's offered in the hardware and what's offered in the software, and how this can be perceived by dedicated music lovers. We'll give you massive storage capacities, like 80 and 160 GB, but the best quality tunes we can offer for you to load within these hard drives is 256 Kpbs ? "The last song I downloaded from iTunes sounded horrible," he told me. "I'm thinking of just going back to buying CDs and ripping the music onto my iPod."
Realistically, if most people thought this way, it would be the answer to the music industry's prayers! Is it all a conspiracy? A strategically concocted plan to offer semi-mediocre content online so that, once consumers get over the initial honeymoon phase of digital downloading, they go back to appreciating pristine audio quality again and buy CDs? I doubt it. But it does leave something to think about.
Going forward, my colleague predicts a significant drop in iTunes downloads as more and more consumers become fed up with the audio quality of digital tunes and move back to buying CDs that they can rip and load onto their iPods. After all, they have to fill those massive hard drives somehow! I tend to think the other way: that, rather than consumers moving away from downloadable sites like iTunes, the tracks offered by such sites will become better in quality as time goes on, and DRM (hopefully) becomes a thing of the past.
As for today, iTunes just surpassed Wal-Mart for the title of number-one music retailer in the U.S. The download site has more than 50 million members, and has sold more than four billion tunes since it launched back in 2003.
Which way will things go? Only time will tell. What's your prediction?
The obvious answer is "other stuff". Higher-quality songs ripped from physical CDs, downloadable videos, including podcasts, TV shows, and full-length movies (much of which can be obtained from iTunes), and even photos. Let's face it: iPods aren't just for music anymore, which is why capacities are getting so huge. Not to mention that content loaded onto these portable players won't always be exclusively from iTunes, despite how this might be the ideal scenario in Apple's eyes.
Nevertheless, my colleague, who's a heavy iPod (and iTunes!) user, pointed out the obvious paradox between what's offered in the hardware and what's offered in the software, and how this can be perceived by dedicated music lovers. We'll give you massive storage capacities, like 80 and 160 GB, but the best quality tunes we can offer for you to load within these hard drives is 256 Kpbs ? "The last song I downloaded from iTunes sounded horrible," he told me. "I'm thinking of just going back to buying CDs and ripping the music onto my iPod."
Realistically, if most people thought this way, it would be the answer to the music industry's prayers! Is it all a conspiracy? A strategically concocted plan to offer semi-mediocre content online so that, once consumers get over the initial honeymoon phase of digital downloading, they go back to appreciating pristine audio quality again and buy CDs? I doubt it. But it does leave something to think about.
Going forward, my colleague predicts a significant drop in iTunes downloads as more and more consumers become fed up with the audio quality of digital tunes and move back to buying CDs that they can rip and load onto their iPods. After all, they have to fill those massive hard drives somehow! I tend to think the other way: that, rather than consumers moving away from downloadable sites like iTunes, the tracks offered by such sites will become better in quality as time goes on, and DRM (hopefully) becomes a thing of the past.
As for today, iTunes just surpassed Wal-Mart for the title of number-one music retailer in the U.S. The download site has more than 50 million members, and has sold more than four billion tunes since it launched back in 2003.
Which way will things go? Only time will tell. What's your prediction?
