"I don't think there's any question that there are some set of people who are out there, who, the reason they use these file sharing services is they want stuff for free. They're stealing and they don't mind. But for the vast majority of users, it's simply been that there's been no legal alternative. No compelling legal alternative to the file swapping, file sharing services that are out there. All of the existing services have been subscription based. They've had various restrictions on how people can use their music."
The iTunes Store places far fewer restrictions on what you can do with digital music once you purchase it. So how big of a business could this be for Apple?
"We think it could be a huge business. Again, we think there's a huge, pent up demand of people who want to be able to get music more conveniently than getting in their car and driving to the record store. More conveniently than spending fifteen minutes on these file sharing services just to download perhaps the wrong song."
But Apple still faces the dilemma of how to sell online music to teenagers... who for the most part don't have credit cards... and find the songs they want are just a couple of mouse clicks away. Bloomberg Boot Camp, I'm Fred Fishkin.