>He then gave an example of another new artist who said he’d have to sell 1 to 1.5 million records with his current record deal to make $1 million. With Ryan’s system that artist could make $1 million with only 10,000 customers — only 1% as many customers.

I'm pretty sure that math is wrong in the article.

$1mln for 10,000 customers means $100 per customer? for an album? Who pays $100 for a small time artist's album, much less a digital download.

>Distribution isn’t hard. If you’re selling apps instead of albums, then you’ve probably already got the skills to set up your own store front.

You might have the skills to setup a store front, but chances are you wouldn't do it well, unless you've built several store fronts.

Ryan was saying in the video that the lifetime value of the customer could quickly approach $100 through sales of additional albums, swag, etc.

>It’s because Apple prevents you from owning the relationship with your customer.

And that's a good point for me as a consumer. I don't want a new relationship per cd I buy.

Ok, iOS apps are sold through iTunes. These apps work on iPod, iPhone, and iPad. If you sell an iOS app and want to sell to more than just the small percentage of jailbroken phones, you have to sell here.

This guy is selling a Mac App. Mac Apps are sold on the Mac app store. Separate thing, and you don't have to use it. You can sell separately as this guy does.

Shame he doesn't know the difference between iOS and OSX though.

I guess, but to me this only makes sense for the bigger artists (if it makes sense at all). I don't think iTunes wants you to lose interest in that new artist you have been listening to, they want you to buy more music all the time.

Some examples of this: ping, recommended artists, etc.

If you want to argue that you want users buying your music instead of a different artist, I understand, but to me music is more a matter of taste (and you can have hundreds of albums just awaiting your perusal) whereas while software can definitely have a taste element, it is supposed to accomplish some goal.

There is a finite amount of software you are going to want on your phone or computer (besides games which are more consumable), and unless your software in orders of magnitude better than your competitor that I already use, or something new that I don't have and cant do without you, I am not going to switch.

You shouldn't because you can't. Try the Mac/iOS App Store.

The fact that Apple can and does reject apps makes me very hesitant to invest time in developing on the platform.

Why? The bar is pretty low. Have you seen all the crap apps in the store?

If your apps treat customers right, and are minimally competent, Apple won't reject your app.

I did get one rejection for a stupid UI error that would have caused confusion. It took me 30 minutes to fix it, and then no problem.

This doesn't make sense. First off, when I buy a CD at walmart, the maker of the CD doesn't get my email address. So iTunes is no different in that regard than any other retailer.

When it comes to apps, you do have a relationship with the customer, via the App. you can communicate with the customer within the app, via push notifications, or you can ask them for an email address as part of a registration process. You have many choices in this regard.