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A Milestone for iTunes; a Windfall for a Downloader
[February 24, 2006]
　It may well have been the best 99 cents Alex Ostrovsky ever spent.
　Early yesterday, he paid that amount to download "Speed of Sound," a song on the Coldplay album "X&Y," from the iTunes Music Store, the Internet music shop that Apple Computer started less than three years ago.
　He did not know it, but it was the billionth song the site had sold, and Apple was not about to let that go unnoticed.
　So at 12:45 a.m., Mr. Ostrovsky's phone rang. It was an Apple employee, telling him that in addition to the song, Apple was giving him a 20-inch iMac, 10 iPods and a $10,000 gift card for the iTunes store. It is even establishing a scholarship at the Juilliard School in his name.
　Mr. Ostrovsky, 16, was still trying to absorb it all yesterday. His phone had been ringing all day, alternating between reporters wanting to know his reaction and friends wanting to congratulate him.
　At one point Mr. Ostrovsky, who lives in West Bloomfield, Mich., went to an Apple store to look at iMacs. "Everyone there knew who I was, too," he said. "It's just surreal."
　He has pretty concrete ideas about how he will use the prizes, though. The iMac stays with him ― "I'd been asking my parents for a new computer for a while, so this was a dream come true," he said. He will keep an iPod, and family and friends will get the rest. But the $10,000 gift card has him a bit flummoxed.
　"My sister has already called from New York to talk about divvying it up," he said, "and I'll probably buy some music for friends."
　But he will also buy more for himself. Until now, Mr. Ostrovsky has not been a frequent user of the iTunes store. "I've downloaded maybe 50 songs, but I was always more likely to borrow CD's from my friends," he said. "I'm certainly going to download more songs now."
　That would certainly be music to Apple's ears.

A Milestone for iTunes; a Windfall for a Downloader
iTunesにとってのマイル標石；ダウンロードをする者にとってのたなぼた
[February 24, 2006]
　It may well have been the best 99 cents Alex Ostrovsky ever spent.
　Early yesterday, he paid that amount to download "Speed of Sound," a song on the Coldplay album "X&Y," from the iTunes Music Store, the Internet music shop that Apple Computer started less than three years ago.
　He did not know it, but it was the billionth song the site had sold, and Apple was not about to let that go unnoticed.
　So at 12:45 a.m., Mr. Ostrovsky's phone rang. It was an Apple employee, telling him that in addition to the song, Apple was giving him a 20-inch iMac, 10 iPods and a $10,000 gift card for the iTunes store. It is even establishing a scholarship at the Juilliard School in his name.
　Mr. Ostrovsky, 16, was still trying to absorb it all yesterday. His phone had been ringing all day, alternating between reporters wanting to know his reaction and friends wanting to congratulate him.
　[...] he will also buy more for himself. Until now, Mr. Ostrovsky has not been a frequent user of the iTunes store. "I've downloaded maybe 50 songs, but I was always more likely to borrow CD's from my friends," he said. "I'm certainly going to download more songs now."
　That would certainly be music to Apple's ears.
　おそらくそれはAlex Ostrovskyがこれまで払った99セントのなかで最高の99セントだったであろう。
　昨日、彼は開始して3年にも満たないインターネット上の音楽ショップであるiTunes Music StoreからダウンロードしたColdplayのアルバム『X&Y』の"Speed of Sound"という曲の料金を支払った。
　彼は知らなかったが、それはそのサイトが販売した10億番目の曲であった。そしてAppleはそのことを注目されずに終わらせようとはしなかった。
　そういうわけで、午前12時45分にOstrovsky氏の電話は鳴った。それはAppleの従業員であり、ダウンロードした曲に加えてAppleが20インチのiMac・10個のiPod・iTunes store用の10,000ドルのギフトカードが贈ることを告げた。さらにはジュリアード音楽院に彼の名前を冠した奨学金を設立するという。
　16歳のOstrovsky氏は昨日丸々かけて、そのことを理解しようとしていた。彼の電話は彼の反応を知りたがる記者と彼を祝おうとする友達で1日中鳴り続いた。
　彼はまた自分自身のために以前よりも音楽を買うだろう。今まで、Ostrovsky氏はiTunes storeを頻繁に利用していたわけではなかった。「50曲くらいダウンロードしたことがあったけど、友達からCDを借りることが多かった」、「今では明らかにより多くの曲をダウンロードするだろう」と彼は言った。
　これは確実にAppleの耳に心地いいだろう。