3 Billion Songs on iTunes

According to Apple's latest press release, iTunes has sold over 3 billion songs. This is just one of many ways for you to get your music online. It is no wonder the recording industry is struggling with their hard music products. Record albums are reportedly having trouble going gold or higher. Don't get me wrong, I am not feeling sorry for the recording industry, they make their money as evidenced by the lifestyles of top recording artists.

This leads us to the illegal downloading of music from file sharing sites. Searchviews reports that, "A survey released today by Entertainment Media Research correlates social media sites to the growth of illegal music downloading. The 2007 Digital Media Survey credits social networking sites like MySpace and Bebo for allowing more people to discover music online rather than via television or the radio. Like other industries that deal with the 13 - 30 demographic, the music industry is inevitably changing with the growth of social networking online."

My thought on downloading of music are this: Pay for it! This is what these people are doing for a living, its their creative work and if you are a fan, you should want to support them.

This is just another example of how Social Media is having a HUGE impact on the way people interact online. From music and videos to social interaction sites, participation in social media will continue to grow exponentially. To put this growth trend into perspective, iTunes has 5 million songs online, they just hit the 3 billion download mark. This means, for example, that 10 million people have downloaded over 300 each. To give you an idea on how fast this is growing, iTunes surpassed its first billion in February 2006. January of this year they broke 2 billion and this week it is over 3.

Bottom Line? If you are not proactive in the way you market to this new generation of consumers, you may be out in the cold.


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iTunes Plus

Apple has just unveiled the new iTunes Plus. For you iPodders out there, iTunes Plus offers new features like DRM-free songs for only $1.29 each. Apple's CEO Steve Jobs was quoted saying, "We expect more than half of the songs on iTunes will be offered in iTunes Plus versions by the end of this year."

The downloadable tracks will be available as high quality 256 kbps in the AAC format. The cost of these new DRM-free tracks is about 30 cents more than the protected versions. I wonder if Metallica will be on board with this?