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BuyMusic (don't
bother following the link unless you're using IE 5.0 or higher on a
Windows PC - others are not welcome at the site. ed) has reached the
end of its second week of operation, and things seem to be going,
well, less than swimmingly for the PC upstart. Let's put this in
perspective, shall we.
After 16 days of operation, the iTunes Music Store had sold
2
million songs. Industry analysts continued to swoon over the
service, and everyone seemed happy.
On the BuyMusic front, things are looking decidedly less rosy. The
service has, however, clearly sold a song or two. "Not millions,"
though, according to the company megaphone/lampshade on his head and
life of the 1999 party Scott Blum. This statement is even sadder
considering the sheer size of the Windows market.
Somehow Apple managed to sell 2 million songs to a very small
percentage of personal computer users. But BuyMusic can't sell
millions to a market more than ten times the size? Not good. In any
event, if BuyMusic intends to be the king of the pay-per-download
hill, it has a ways to go.
Not that Apple first two weeks were picture perfect. The fly in
the ointment was a "flaw" in iTunes that allowed users to share their
playlists over the Net. Shades of Napster! Things were quickly sorted
out with a new version of iTunes, and the love-in continued.
Now let's see how BuyMusic fared in its first two weeks of
operation.
The list could go on, I'm sure. Not exactly an auspicious
beginning. And Apple should be grateful that a company of such
ineptitude was the first out of the gate. With all the bad press
being generated by BuyMusic, the iTunes Music Store comes across as a
stroke of genius rather than just a great service. It's becoming
clear that any BuyMusic customer will likely come to the conclusion
that, while buying music online is a great idea, they'd rather wait
for the Windows version of iTunes.
People also seem to be much more jaded about startups than they
used to be (surprise, surprise). While BuyMusic managed to generate
some good old-fashioned hype, folks were quick to see the crud. Any
bets on when BuyMusic will launch an IPO? Anyone? C'mon, Scott Blum
will throw in the Brooklyn Bridge for nothing.
The way things are going for BuyMusic, Apple will obliterate them
when the iTunes Music Store comes to Windows. And if Apple doesn't,
you can bet that someone else will.
Stephen Van
Esch is the founder and president of
the
E-learning Foundry, an online training
resource for Mac users. Steve loves the Mac and is doubly bilingual,
since he's also fluent in Windows and French.
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