From: Gary Britt 

I wonder if that Apple staff gets a lot of free dinners and trips and
invites to industry special events??

Gary

Rich Gauszka wrote:
>  "All suggestions are made by the staff at Apple."
>
> I didn't know that.
>
> "Glenn Meadows"  wrote in message
> news:4645f45a$1{at}w3.nls.net...
>> Also, with that sales volume I would suspect and even lower credit
>> processing fee, in the 2-3% range, possibly 1%.
>>
>> I think there are only 20-30 total people in the iTunes store staff as
>> well.
>>
>> Also remember, they take NO advertising from labels for
"placement" in the
>> store websites.  All suggestions are made by the staff at Apple.
>>
>> --
>>
>> Glenn M.
>> "Rich Gauszka"  wrote
in message
>> news:4645dc2b$1{at}w3.nls.net...
>>> Apple has stated that the iTunes store operates around break-even but
>>> some analysts have questioned that
>>>
>>>
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/07/04/23/itunes_store_a_greater_cash_c
rop_than_apple_implies.html
>>>
>>> iTunes Store a greater cash crop than Apple implies?
>>>
>>> "For each $0.99 song, we estimate that Apple pays $0.70
to major labels,
>>> which own over 85 percent of the market, and $0.60 to $0.65 to
>>> independent labels, which drives an average price per song of
>>> approximately $0.69," he explained. On top of that, of course, are
>>> Apple's network fees, transaction fees, and general administrative
>>> expenses associated with operating the iTunes Store.
>>>
>>> Hargreaves calculated the network fees at $0.05 per song, which includes
>>> the delivery fee, and the hardware and software to facilitate delivery.
>>> "Operating expenses are likely less than $0.05 per song,
based on the
>>> relatively small number of employees we believe work on iTunes," he
>>> wrote.
>>>
>>> Then, of course, there's the transaction fee -- or royalty
paid to credit
>>> card companies each time a sale is processed -- which Hargreaves argues
>>> is "the primary reason iTunes profitability has not been higher
>>> historically." However, he notes hat Apple has recently
adopted a number
>>> of measures to limit those fees, such as managing a weekly sweep of its
>>> credit card transactions, broadly distributing gift cards, and by
>>> encouraging larger transactions through services such as
"Allowance."
>>>
>>> Therefore, the analyst believes the iPod maker is now forfeiting only
>>> around $0.10 per song per song to credit card firms, compared to as much
>>> as $0.25 per song when iTunes first launched. "Going
forward, we expect
>>> Apple to continue improving its payment schemes to cut down on
>>> transaction fees and improve the profitability of
iTunes," he added.
>>>
>>> Based on those cost estimates per song, Hargreaves arrived at the 10
>>> percent margin estimate. Applying that estimate to the $1.2 billion in
>>> revenue that iTunes is expected to generation in fiscal 2007,
he believes
>>> the service will generate $0.09 to $0.14 in earnings-per-share
for Apple.
>>>
>>> "Glenn Meadows"  wrote in message
>>> news:4645d59b$1{at}w3.nls.net...
>>>> Part of what that label exec is comparing, is not
"Apples" to "Oranges".
>>>>
>>>> The micro payments form Real are for RENTAL/SUBSCRIPTION
downloads, NOT
>>>> sales.  We see the exact same, but in USD's.
>>>>
>>>> What the REAL situation is, is that virtually ALL of the
other services
>>>> sell NOTHING!!!!!!! They're wastes of time and resources,
as they have
>>>> NO MARKET SHARE!!!
>>>>
>>>> There are 2 services that are #1 and #2.  Apple, and
eMusic.  Between
>>>> the two of them they provide 92+% of all online revenues, period.
>>>>
>>>> The rental/subscription model may have a bunch of people,
but as far as
>>>> ANYONE making revenue from it, it's ONLY the services that
are making
>>>> the money.
>>>>
>>>> This is true for SONY, WEA, MCA, EMI.  They make virtually
NOTHING from
>>>> all of the other services that handle their content.
>>>>
>>>> eMusic is a non-factor for the big four, since at this
point, they only
>>>> have contracts with DRM based services.
>>>>
>>>> And as a proportion of all music shared (limewire, etc),
the total sold
>>>> number of tracks is probably only 10% of what's going on.
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>>
>>>> Glenn M.
>>>> "Rich Gauszka"
 wrote in message
>>>> news:46447de4{at}w3.nls.net...
>>>>> http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/index.cfm?RSS&newsID=17997
>>>>>
>>>>> Apple's iTunes service dominates online music retail, the latest
>>>>> figures from aggregator Digital Music Group (DMG) confirm.
>>>>>
>>>>> The figures emerge as UK labels have begun
articulating their compaints
>>>>> at the level of payment they receive from online music
services other
>>>>> than iTunes.
>>>>>
>>>>> Speaking on condition of anonymity, one independent
label owner praised
>>>>> iTunes because the service hands over the most of the
79-pence per
>>>>> track sale price directly to the label - but is
furious at the kind of
>>>>> revenue he's generating through other online services.
>>>>>
>>>>> The label head's comments don't consider the slice of
income that's
>>>>> handed across to music publishers, but he's pretty
clear that iTunes
>>>>> offers his acts the better deal.
>>>>>
>>>>> "For everything sold on iTunes, we get the
majority of the 70-79p per
>>>>> unit sale price," he said, then added: "But
for everything sold on the
>>>>> Ruckus Network we receive the princely sum of œ0.005
per unit. That's
>>>>> half a pence. My distributor then takes their 25 per
cent off of that,
>>>>> leaving myself and the artists to dish up the
remaining fractions of a
>>>>> penny between us."
>>>>>
>>>>> It's not much better through Real Networks, he
informed - for sales
>>>>> through that service, his label receives a penny per
track, he claimed.
>>>>> The thousand tracks sold so far have accrued œ10 to
the label (to share
>>>>> with the artists) rather than, "the œ790 or so
we'd have got for the
>>>>> same amount of sales through iTunes."
>>>>>
>>>>> iTunes also drives business at international distributor of
>>>>> independently-owned music and video catalogues, DMG.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>
>

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