Slashdot references an ebullient press release from Apple that states that Germany, France and the UK have collectively purchase 800,000 songs in the first week of the European iTunes online store. The release quotes both Steve Jobs and the manager of the Pixies.
800,000 songs sounds impressive, until you do some math. That sales figure is going to cool off in a few weeks. If they sell an average of 800,000 songs for the year (unlikely, I think), then that’s the equivalent of 3.5 million CDs a year. That sounds impressive, until you consider that Germany, France and the UK bought about 725 million CDs (PDF) in 2001. With those numbers, the iTunes sales would represent a world-changing 0.4% of music sales in those three countries.
If the music industry thinks that that’s going to put a massive dent in file-trading, they’ve got another thing coming.
DarrenBarefoot.com 