But Apple *did* come late to the "real" online music business...

[Jeffrey Watts]

"Big" versus "small" in the business world is measured in dollars and cents,
not in number of labels.  Subscription services have always been a small
part of the music business.

Before iTunes, the online market was a tiny fraction of what it it is now.
iTunes is now the largest music retailer.  Most online music retail outlets
until very recently only offered DRMed tracks.  MP3 players from different
vendors were everywhere when iTunes was launched, and were selling well.

In other words, it's silly to say that Apple's DRM and iPod somehow squeezed
out the competition because of _monopoly power_.  When both started they
weren't the dominant force they are today.  They are dominant _today_
because Apple made a superior product and offered a superior service.  If
you can't see that there's no hope for you, Leo.

Jeffrey.

On Mon, Nov 3, 2008 at 12:40 AM, Leo Mauler <webgiant at yahoo.com> wrote:

> I could say the same about you.  You sat there claiming that in order to
> qualify as a "real" online music business, a business had to sign on all the
> major record labels, and now that I've pointed out that Rhapsody signed on
> all the major record labels 9 months before iTunes did, you're *moving the
> goalposts* and pretending that they were in their new positions the whole
> time.
>
> > The online music market was tiny until Apple
> > built the industry.
>
> Correction: until Rhapsody created an online music industry with the music
> catalogs of all five of the biggest record labels.  Apple merely added its
> own online business to the existing online music industry created by
> Rhapsody.
>
> As for "tiny", Apple's iTunes service launch in April 2003 had 200,000
> tracks from all five major record labels, but prior to iTunes Rhapsody had
> 175,000 tracks and 14,000 albums from the same five major record labels.
>  There was no "giant increase" in the online music market (an increase from
> 175,000 to 200,000 is only 12.5%), as Apple merely offered the *same* music
> catalogs that Rhapsody had already offered for nine months.
>
> > Just because some small companies
>
> Correction: a big company.  Signing on all five major record companies made
> Rhapsody a big company.
>
>
-- 

"He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from
oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that
will reach to himself." -- Thomas Paine
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