Mark Cuban offers a wild idea on how Google or Microsoft could throw a monkey-wrench into the Apple iTunes business model. His theory: either one could write a check to the music industry that would match what Apple is paying - he figures the music industry take from iTunes is about $575 million a year based on the top labels market share of annual downloads of about 1 billion songs - and then start giving away music - maybe the first billion songs - with advertising support.
Disney has sold 125,000 digital copies of films through iTunes store in less than a week, generating $1 million, Disney chief executive Robert Iger said Tuesday.
Disney expects revenue of $50 million in the first year from its iTunes partnership, Iger said at an investment conference in New York sponsored by Goldman Sachs.
"Clearly customers are saying to us they want content in multiple ways," Iger said.
Some hard details regarding Apple's rumored iTunes Movie Store have crept out this morning, with word that Apple will be selling new release movies for $14.99 and back catalog movies for $9.99 perhaps as early as this month, according to reports. Of course, these movies would then be viewable on the iPod.
Considering that the average DVD costs about $17, a $14.99 protected movie downloaded to a fancy new touchscreen iPod or Zune will definitely rip the DVD sales and rental market a new orifice.
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