500,000 songs per week on iTunes

Though the BBC proclaims that “confidential Apple music details [have been] leaked”, I doubt Apple really cares if these details are confidential. It’s all good, from what I see.

The computer manufacturer is selling about 500,000 songs a week and about half of those are sold as albums, allaying fears that people would choose individual tracks instead of a whole record.

So, despite only being available to 3% of the computing public, iTunes is generating a not-inconsequential $26 million a year. Also of note:

The independent music representatives were told they would be offered the same terms as bigger labels and have the same team looking after their tracks.

This is a very savvy move. Apple is in a stronger position in online music than anyone at the moment, and it’s better for them to avoid ceding power to the major labels and possibly stunting their available collection of music. Sure, the majors count for 80% of current worldwide music sales, but that other 20% has a huge array of offerings and by giving everybody good terms for online music, Apple can aim for selling everything.