From: "Glenn Meadows" 

Highly doubtful.  It's VERY hard to get thru to an given individual even
for tech support.  They are overwhelmed with content, being the top
service, EVERYONE wants their content on the site.  It's almost impossible
to get a physical phone number for anyone.

The whole store premise is to NOT be manipulated by the major labels,
making things more driven by the music itself.  At least that's the goal.

--

Glenn M.
"Gary Britt"  wrote in
message news:4646003e$1{at}w3.nls.net...
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.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>
>

--- BBBS/NT v4.01 Flag-5