I would also say that as iTunes has stood up to the recording industry to protect consumers from price hikes, Apple has really come through as a company that wants to treat consumers fairly. The recording industry should pay close attention, not continue to fight its own consumers. Perhaps the subject of another story… but anyway, thanks Apple for saving consumers from the major record labels.

Source: http://www.macnewsworld.com/story/pW9…

I totally agree that iTunes has had a VERY positive impact on the amount of trash and pollution we generate. For anyone who disagrees, check out my post about this from September, 2006… LINK

Ryan, while I agree that iTunes has kept prices low, their practice of selling audio files that are compatible solely with Apple products (i.e. iPod) doesn’t ring true with all consumers who want to be treated fairly. I think it is a generalization to say that they have come through in that way. Rather, Apple treats the customer exactly the way they ought to make the most money.

Your source states, “Apple’s iTunes has the lion’s share of the market—about 80 percent, according to the company”. If this is accurate, 4 out of 5 songs purchased digitally work only on iPods. This creates a market virtually impenetrable to competition – an action already difficult due to the popularity of the brand.

Meanwhile, we are completely off topic and I agree that the revolution of digital music and mp3 players has saved millions of CDs from being produced :)

Thanks for pointing that out Loren. I couldn’t agree more.

In addition, I’d like to add that the iPod I buy every two/three years and the external hard drive I own are much more costly/nearly impossible to recycle than plastic CD cases.

what loren said is exactly how i feel, in a nutshell. i am strongly for purchasing music online (my favorite retailer is emusic.com), but strongly against purchasing it from the itunes music store for that very reason: their ridiculous DRM schemes.

i think that the credit for this positive environmental impact is better given to the mp3 format itself than Apple or iTunes. illegal downloading, debatably as popular as iTunes, is having just as much of a positive environmental impact, as are other legal mp3 businesses. Generally, as a company, Apple is not terribly concerned with environmental impact of its more tangible products (http://www.greenmyapple.org). Therefore i do not think that it deserves this commendation.

Yay for iTunes! It’s bringing down the price of albums too.

... But oh! How does this balance out with the number of CD-Rs, CD-RWs and DVD-Rs that people are using to burn their digital downloads? :)

I have to confess I’ve only started using iTunes recently. I still like to have the CD in my hand but the reduction in packaging is a good move….except the major labels are still charging the artists for “Packaging”. Check out http://www.futureofmusic.org/ especially http://www.futureofmusic.org/contract… Still, I can content myself knowing that we get more per song than U2! (only sold 1 so far though!)

Has anyone considered how many people ‘burn’ the albums they buy from the iTunes store? I would bet this amounts to at least 25-50% of those albums downloaded…

You would also have to factor in the additional CO2 emissions from the downloading PC, the iTunes servers, the internet backbone, etc.

This would significantly reduce any environmental benefit the iTunes store would bring!

Batfink, regardless of whether people burn the CDs, or the CO2 emissions, the fact is, more than a billion CDs have been downloaded instead of bought at a store, and I’d say that the factors you’ve listed would only make up around 25% of that waste.

Sure, there are some detrimental effects of the iTunes Store, but overall, a lot less energy is used and a lot less trash is produced when you use iTunes over buying a CD. The pros definitely outweigh the cons in my opinion.

It helps, but we certainly need to do more than save a few hundred CDs from being made and pitched