I once read that McDonalds was really a big “real estate” company that sold hamburgers. Basically the hamburgers sold in the billions, paid for more and more real estate. With Apple iTunes Music Store reaching over one BILLION downloads, their business model does have some similarities, in that their .99 cent songs sell more and more Apple hardware. iPods of course, but Macs as well due the “halo-effect” that is much spoken about. Now with the recent addition of video content and the promise of new “fun” products coming on Feb 28, the sky is the limit.

Apple has sold over a billion downloads to users all over the globe in less than three years of opening the iTunes Music Store. This has surpassed all the competition. Let us remember when it first opened it was only available to Mac users. With competition mounting from the likes of Napster, Yahoo! Music, Real’s Rhapsody, and others using subscription models, it still seems that Apple is way out in front. McDonald’s has their “dollar menu” that works for them all these years.

And it seems Apple has created a “dollar menu” that works pretty well for them.

Microsoft has promised big competition to iTunes since its inception and has failed for the last three years to mount any. With all the talk against Apple DRM and the iPod by Apple competitors, the iPod and iTunes Music Store still has a very big lead in digital downloads.

I still maintain that the iPod and the iTunes Music Store has the lightest DRM (Digital Rights Management) scheme among the competition and the iPod plays more formats than most other music players. I recently heard a pundit on the TWIT podcast claim “he would not buy an iPod due to Apple’s DRM issues” and would buy a MP3 player from another maker and rip his CDs instead. Hopefully he doesn’t get CDs from Sony/BMG with the free included “rootkit.” He stated this as if the iPod did not play MP3s or AAC from CDs. My iPod has over 9000 tracks on it, mostly from my own CD collection. I buy music from iTunes Music Store and sometimes burn CDs from them removing DRM. So I wonder what he is talking about? A bit misleading to some TWIT listeners maybe?

As much as I hate DRM and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, I am afraid it is a fact of life in today’s digital lifestyle.

Anyway, congrats to Apple iTunes Music Store. I will be looking forward to the new “fun” products from Apple in the near future.

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