Billboard Does The Math On iTunes - Idolator Comments

Billboard Does The Math On iTunes

revmatty — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 10:25:10 EDT

Distribution costs are not zero. Bandwidth is not free (and given the volume of browsing I do relative to every purchase I make I'm going to guess they spend a lot on bandwidth). Hosting is not free (hardware, power, cooling, administrators, etc). Certainly distribution costs are wildly lower than for physical media, but they are not zero.

revmatty

Billboard Does The Math On iTunes

Chris Molanphy — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 19:15:42 EDT

@SuperUnison: You mean, out of the 70¢ per download that goes to the label? I'd say it probably depends per each act's contract with that label.

Chris Molanphy

Billboard Does The Math On iTunes

SuperUnison — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 19:03:03 EDT

Does anyone know what kind of royalty itunes yields?

SuperUnison

Billboard Does The Math On iTunes

SneakingThroughTheAlleyWithLalley — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 16:42:56 EDT

I'd tap Feist

SneakingThroughTheAlleyWithLalley

Billboard Does The Math On iTunes

Al Shipley — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 16:27:31 EDT

Although this is all way out of my league of comprehension on an economic level, it kind of amazes me that it's up for debate whether even a music distributor with zero manafacturing or shipping costs can make a profit. I'd've assumed the iTunes store is like a license to print money.

Al Shipley