iTMS to carry banner ads?
Advertising Age reports something that I always felt was inevitable:
Coming soon to iTunes: ads. Apple — a brand that prides itself on the purity of the user experience — will soon put up billboards on its popular iTunes service, according to content partners who have been briefed on the plan. The introduction of visual ads could be the first step to allowing ads in other content areas or on iPods.
Ads on iPods?! What if Apple offered a $150 discount on iPods as long as users accepted listening to preloaded ads that users would sync each time the iPod was plugged in? Woudl you accept? Highly unlikely, but worth contemplating.


Wow. In a few sentences you managed to turn banner ads on a webpage into pre-loaded commercials on digital music players..
It’s a shame apple used to be such a customer orientated company.
i really dont see how the ads could appear on the iPod, i dont think users would accept it.
but it reminds me of this article from bbspot:
http://www.bbspot.com/News/2005/02/ipod_ads.html
If Apple goes ahead with that , then they will lose me as an iTunes user . Wasn’t it bad enough that they lost so many users like myself upon the advency of OS X . My Powermacs were not able to meet the requirements . So I did the wise thing , I purchased a PC with Windows XP loaded for $100.00 and then installed Linux . Hey I heard it somewhere that Mac users were a smart bunch , I was smart enough to walk away from APPLE , and I’ll do it again if they get stupid .
I sure did didn’t I? It was a “what if” scenario that I thought readers could respond to. Don’t confuse my sarcasm as authenticity on any level.
Derek: I think you misunderstood me. I know you were merely being sarcastic, but I think you were exhaggerating(sp?) a bit much.
Was I really? Isn’t the whole idea of content on these pages to bring up ideas or stories that wouldn’t be discussed elsewhere? Notice how I placed the scenario towards the end of the post? Exaggerating or not, it’s not at all unrealistic in an advertising driven world. Something like what I’m inquiring about may not be done by Apple, but I can guarantee it will be done by someone sometime in the future. Lower cost electronics in exchange for viewing rotating ads?
See, now you just took a sarcastic comment and turned it in to a big situation. ;)