100 Million iPods Sold

CUPERTINO, California—April 9, 2007—Apple® today announced that the 100 millionth iPod® has been sold, making the iPod the fastest selling music player in history. The first iPod was sold five and a half years ago, in November 2001, and since then Apple has introduced more than 10 new iPod models, including five generations of iPod, two generations of iPod mini, two generations of iPod nano and two generations of iPod shuffle. Along with iTunes® and the iTunes online music store, the iPod has transformed how tens of millions of music lovers acquire, manage and listen to their music.

“At this historic milestone, we want to thank music lovers everywhere for making iPod such an incredible success,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “iPod has helped millions of people around the world rekindle their passion for music, and we’re thrilled to be a part of that.”

“It’s hard to remember what I did before the iPod,” said Mary J. Blige, GRAMMY Award-winning singer. “iPod is more than just a music player, it’s an extension of your personality and a great way to take your favorite music with you everywhere you go.”

“Without the iPod, the digital music age would have been defined by files and folders instead of songs and albums,” said John Mayer, GRAMMY Award-winning singer-songwriter and guitarist. “Though the medium of music has changed, the iPod experience has kept the spirit of what it means to be a music lover alive."

The iPod has also sparked an unprecedented ecosystem of over 4,000 accessories made specifically for the iPod that range from fashionable cases to speaker systems, and more than 70 percent of 2007-model US automobiles currently offer iPod connectivity.

“I take my running shoes and my iPod with me everywhere,” said Lance Armstrong, seven-time Tour de France champion. “I listen to music when I run. Having my music with me is really motivating.”

Every iPod features seamless integration with iTunes 7. The iTunes Store (www.itunes.com) features the world’s largest catalog with over five million songs, 350 television shows and over 400 movies. The iTunes Store has sold over 2.5 billion songs, 50 million TV shows and over 1.3 million movies, making it the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store.

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and will enter the mobile phone market this year with its revolutionary iPhone.

Wedding planners pit iPods against live deejays

BERKELEY, Calif. -- If video killed the radio star, will the iPod take out the DJ? Not quite, but if wedding-planning message boards are any indication, more and more people are considering the cheap and convenient alternative to hired entertainment at weddings and other events.

Adam Love and his wife, Jennifer, were looking at trying to keep their costs down and their ceremony intimate when they decided to use an iPod for their reception in 2005. They created a five-hour playlist and found that the celebration turned more into a social affair than a dance party -- just the way they liked it.

"We had a lot of folks from out of town and there were those I went to college with, so it was more about getting together to talk and get reacquainted rather than highlighting a band or DJ," said Adam Love, who now lives in Berkeley.

"If the music isn't something you expect to be the centerpiece of the wedding, it's just an easy, less expensive way to handle (your event)."

Finances are a big part of the increasing popularity of MP3 players as a DJ alternative. Hired DJ services can come in anywhere between $600 to more than $1,000, depending on his or her experience and equipment. Even with an Apple iPod (ranging from $149 to $350 depending on the gigabytes), people have had to rent speaker equipment that can average $100. For a live band, costs can climb into the thousands.

Still, some say an iPod can't replace a human who has the ability to maintain pace and read a crowd's mood to keep the dance floor alive and know when to bust out the chicken dance. Couple that with other perks including a top-notch speaker system and a catalog of music outside of iTunes boundaries and you've gone from background music to a party.

"(IPods are) nice because it does save money and they're able to play songs they choose, but you don't have the DJ there to keep the flow of things, so it's almost like you need an emcee to direct the crowd and get people on the dance floor kind of thing," said Alanna Grossnickle, event coordinator at Garre Winery in Livermore.

Drax, executive director and president of the American DJ Association of the 1,500-member association, agrees.

"An iPod is music, and what brides really want is an eloquent spokesperson that can represent them at their event in front of family and friends to create a once-in-a-lifetime, memorable experience," Drax said "We work in harmony (with photographers) to craft deeply powerful, poignant memories for friends and family where they feel that they've experienced something that was unique," Drax said. "The Kodak catches the moment -- it's the DJ's job to create it."

Meanwhile, some businesses are working to make sure that prospective clients have an option. The sound system at Garre's event center has led to an increase in iPod use for special events such as company and holiday parties, and birthdays.

And it's not just happening at special receptions. Some bars and clubs have taken to using iPods in between jukebox sets to maintain an ambience, while hot spots such as Walnut Creek's Spoontonic Lounge hold special nights where patrons can create their own iPod playlists.

Walnut Creek native Erin Bristow and her husband, Marcus Roll, decided to take their music into their own hands. When they began planning their wedding in September, they initially considered hiring a DJ, but as the months passed and plans were set, they decided it would be easier to cut out as many vendors as possible, including a DJ.

"In the end, we decided that it would be fine to do it ourselves," said Bristow, 23. "It's been a fun project to make this playlist for us anyway, to think of songs we love and some songs that we haven't listened to in years, and we had fun doing this together."

Bristow, who married Saturday in a smaller ceremony in Berkeley, set up a Web site where guests recommended songs for the event. The bride said it helped bring guests into the fold more.

"We've had a really good time doing all the planning and I think that comes from not having to worry about so many things at one time," like juggling too many vendors, Bristow said. "Getting married is stressful, but planning a wedding should be fun."

Still, Spoontonic owner Jeffrey Sun admits that his iPod can never replace two turntables and a microphone.

"DJs still bring in the crowds," he said. "There's definitely an art to DJ-ing. There's an actual talent required for making music flow that only a DJ can do."
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The Many Moods of iTunes

iTunes has a mind of its own.

My default listening mode is to have it randomly shuffle through my entire library. This is fun because I have nearly 9000 songs, and over 2000 of them have a play count of zero - that is, I popped an old CD into the Mac and imported it but never actually went back and listened. So when I start it up, I usually scroll down to the stuff I've never heard, pick something randomly, and let it shuffle from there.

But here's what I notice - once I pick a song I haven't ever played in iTunes, I can almost guarantee that it will come up again in about a day or two - "randomly." Additionally, I will then start hearing that artist a lot more in the "random" shuffling.

Obviously there's a little gnome that lives inside of iTunes that is paying attention to what I listen to and shaping the "random" shuffle experience for me.

Flash! Shuffle! Play!

Interesting story from MacCentral about the reaction of competitive flash MP3 player makers to the iPod Shuffle.

I think they are missing the point. The players these folks have made are solid products, but they are geek products - heavy on the features, not so heavy on simplicity or coolness. Whereas Apple's no-screen, oh so primitively simple player will likely be popular because it's just so freakin' easy - plug it into the USB port and be done with it. And it's really tiny and looks really cool.

That said, Apple has yet to solve their biggest problem in the music space, the one that I think decides whether they are the initial big guy who fades away to being a sideshow, or actually stays in it for the long term. That's the whole digital rights management (DRM) issue. Apple is using a very nice DRM scheme that was better than anybody's when they first came out with it; you buy songs from their store, you can play them on up to 3 computers and associated iPods and pretty much burn to CDs at will (You can't burn the same playlist containing a protected track more than 10 times, which is not an issue for anyone not stealing music.)

Since then others have fallen in line with similar systems (notably the Microsoft music store) but... they are similar but different.

Eventually, if music bought at different stores can't be played on different players, there is a problem. What happens when some music is only available online from Microsoft, and other music is only available online from Apple? The whole thing becomes a headache for consumers.

At some point there needs to be some interoperable DRM scheme that lets consumers choose their software and portable players and still buy everything. Apple, dominating the market for now, may be tempted to keep things as they are, but in the long term I believe it's a big mistake. There would be a real advantage to making it possible for someone with a non-iPod player to buy music from them and play it on that device.

What's more, if they don't do it, eventually software to crack the DRM will just show up all over, and then you start to get a real mess.