8K iTunes songs per month costs…1 fiancée
At the 2004 Macworld San Francisco keynote, while recounting the success of the iTunes Music Store since its inception nine months ago, Steve Jobs noted that the top spender on iTunes had spent $29,500.
While reaction probably ranged from shock (’Surely some kid just accidentally hit the Buy Song button thinking it was the preview button!’) to envy (’I wish I made that much money in nine months’) to nerdy (’How many tracks is that per day, assuming some are album purchases?’), very few probably thought ‘That guy’s fiancée will dump him when she finds out.’
But when Entertainment Weekly writer Dalton Ross asked readers of his blog to write in and nominate their most embarrassing DVD purchase, he got a response from a Susan P. who noted:
I used to wonder how my husband-to-be had more than 700 music CDs and more than 300 movie DVDs and hundreds and hundreds of record albums until I discovered that he had $43,000 in credit-card debt. In looking at his last bill (for one month) he had charged more than 8,000 iTunes at 99 cents each and had charges at places that sell music and movies, too. This guy made $45,000 a year. Called off the wedding.
Was Susan P. engaged to the mysterious “top iTunes spender” Steve Jobs noted in that 2004 keynote? Or are there two insane iTunes spenders out there? If Susan’s fiancé bought more than 8,000 iTunes songs every month, he would actually beat out mysterious keynote guy’s total in four months.
Or maybe it was Dalton Ross himself:
Fine, Susan! Can you get over it already? I told you, I’m working off the debt as fast as I can! If you think outing me in some lame Internet column is gonna help the situation, well, you’re just plain wrong, and that’s just plain mean. I thought we were past all this.P.S. Will you take me back?
macdaddy1 on November 16th, 2006 at 8:54 am
What a maroon.
With the 8000+ songs he bought, he probably won’t notice she’s gone.
Noah Winecoff on November 16th, 2006 at 9:02 am
I hope he bought some songs with lyrics about being alone.
Todd Baur on November 16th, 2006 at 9:02 am
Buying Al Green to romance your fiancee: $10
Maxing out your iPod’s capacity: $29490
Explaining the difference to her: Priceless
Paul on November 16th, 2006 at 9:18 am
8000 songs, 3 minuts each (let’s face it, he cannot be a jazz fun, with 35 minutes tracks – jazz funs make anought money to cover that AND fiancee :)). Back to math – that will give us 24000 minutes of music.
24000 by 31 days, that give us (double check) ~774 minutes, and that is 12.9h. What a geek, he must have bought all these songs just to have them
Originalgeek on November 16th, 2006 at 11:51 am
Wow. Someone who actually needs a 60GB iPod.
joe on November 16th, 2006 at 12:03 pm
wow maroon is right! geez.
oh but dont get me wrong, maroon is amazing when it comes in the right style sweater.
i think the word you might have been looking for was moron. a coincidence that that word should be spelled incorrectly …
wrathensteiner on November 16th, 2006 at 12:40 pm
“what a maroon” is a reference to Bugs Bunny’s “old timey crookspeak”…moron
CA on November 16th, 2006 at 12:41 pm
Re: maroon: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=maroon
Check out #1.
slick745 on November 16th, 2006 at 1:18 pm
Commenting on joe from #6,
you maroon
kamikasee on November 16th, 2006 at 1:21 pm
joe,
Maroon is correct, I just think you’re probably not old enough to get the joke. I suggest you look into Bugs Bunny.
digitalplaid on November 16th, 2006 at 1:23 pm
I thought I misread it at first too, until I went back and looked again. I haven’t heard that term used in years, but I think we should resurrect it. Thank god Mom was a gangster.
MAROON
1. A default moron.
1. You can depend on Rob to act like a maroon when he gets on his soapbox.
Ernie on November 16th, 2006 at 2:29 pm
“…what a maroon, what an ignoranimus…”
Jack on November 16th, 2006 at 2:43 pm
Get a brain, morans
blackbrutha on November 16th, 2006 at 2:55 pm
Stupid MOFO. I can download that many songs and albums per month for free. Can you say torrents and p2p. Stupid nigga..lol
jüergen on November 16th, 2006 at 3:09 pm
@#3 Todd Baur:
oh man, your comment just nailed it!
spencer on November 16th, 2006 at 3:22 pm
That’s really not a lot of music. I have 130 gb of music (mostly ripped to 192 cbr kbps) from CD and several thousands of vinyl records sitting on a shelf. 60 gb iPods are for weaklings.
Linda Pelfrey on November 16th, 2006 at 3:32 pm
Why is everyone criticising this poor guy??? 8,000 songs are cheaper and will last longer than downgrading a fiancee into a wife!
Species 8472 on November 16th, 2006 at 3:53 pm
Maybe it was the cheapest way he could think of to get rid of her. She might well look like the back end of a bus. Now he’s got shot AND got zillions of songs.
Isn’t a macaroon a type of biscuit or cake? A maroon a colour or something that you shoot in the air as a warning? Just a thought.
Anyname on November 16th, 2006 at 4:41 pm
obviously he never heard of bit torrent what doooch
Sportsseo on November 16th, 2006 at 5:09 pm
$8000 a month. Nice. I wonder how many Ipods this guy owned? Have to assume well over a dozen.
Neo-Rio on November 16th, 2006 at 8:41 pm
“PS. Will you take me back”
What a loser.
Alfred Bachly on November 17th, 2006 at 1:19 am
While this guy might have made some bad decisions, I don’t think it’s fair to consider him a “doooch” or a “stupid nigga” for not getting his music illegally… this is similar to calling someone an idiot for buying an expensive car instead of just stealing one. I know there are those that disagree with this, but remember… it’s not the big-name artists you hurt by downloading music, it’s more likely to be their back-up hired vocals and instrumentalists that feel the blow (people that may barely be making enough money to live on).
Q: “What’s the difference between a musician and a medium cheese pizza?”
A: “The pizza feeds a family of four…”
The English Gentleman on November 17th, 2006 at 10:24 am
This fella should just sell his story to the press, make a load o’ money off it. Pay his debts off and said his ex a thank you note for dumping him before he made an even bigger mistake in marrying her.
You marry for love NOT money or the lack there of!
David Mackey on November 17th, 2006 at 9:25 pm
I don’t suppose there is any way to track the validity of this story?
wouldnt you like to know... on November 17th, 2006 at 11:06 pm
i dont what the big deal is, i spent that much on crack, got nothing to show but diminshing health, strained family relations, i have a friend with a bar bill for that much last year.
at least he got something out of the deal.
Geoff C on November 18th, 2006 at 7:44 am
It’s priceless that most of you are buying into this article as news or fact.
If the situation is true, he still got off cheaper with the iTMS bill, than with the fiancee bill. With the music you can turn it off when you are tired of listening to it.
hacker not cracker on February 27th, 2007 at 11:00 pm
she had every right to call off the wedding. when you marry somebody, you are becoming one with their finances … not fun at all!