Tuesday, February 13, 2007

iTunes Rivals

In a recent article from CNN Money, more and more record companies are looking to alternatives to cd's as a source of revenue. This namely means turning to digital media, much like iTunes has done. And for iTunes this can only mean trouble.

eMusic has become the second leading online music store, selling nearly 100 million songs. And what has made this store more appealing than others? The answer lies in formatting. eMusic sells songs in MP3 format that is compatible with almost all digital music players, even iPods. This is where others have lacked, as other online stores have only sold songs in WMA, Window's copy-protected format.

eMusic also has a better value for costumers, as they allow 30 songs a month for $9.99. This beats Apple's $0.99 per song cost. And though eMusic might not be anywhere close to iTune's 2 billion songs sold, in the near future others, such as Yahoo!, might follow these leads and tap into Apple's market share.

So in the words of Stephen Colbert: Apple, you better watch out for others "riding your coattail!"

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