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A Free iTunes Download Can Point Out the iTunes Addiction.

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The marketing strategy of Apple iTunes has been consistent since the program’s inception.

The software itself is free, available as a free iTunes download online, and users browse the store, sampling 30 seconds of each of their desired audio tracks for free.

Consumers don’t have to pay anything until they want to purchase music or other audio that isn’t free.

As a way to promote its service, Apple offers free song downloads in conjunction with many other media offers.

Consumers familiar with the iTunes system usually equate each song with 99 cents, which is what it costs to purchase a song through the iTunes store.

Companies like Apple utilize these free song downloads to push its presence into the public eye, promoting themselves by offering songs as prizes for sweepstakes.

The goal is to achieve a constant reminder of the presence of the company so that consumers will recognize the company and spend time exploring its service.

While consumers can search for codes that give a free iTunes download, the process usually links them up with other companies, businesses, or advertisers who take their contact information.

In some cases, information about where a consumer goes on the Internet is tracked by these companies, such that consumers’ privacy is invaded without their knowing.

Most consumers think of personal computers as tools for entertainment, work, research, or any number of other activities, but in the last decade, more have become cautious with computers because of the vulnerabilities they pose to privacy and security.

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Free Downloads, Occupied Consumers

One of the problems with the free iTunes download scheme is that free things often inspire greed.

Many iTunes users have figured out how to port over song files that they get from Limewire or Frostwire, as shown in the video.

The problem is that because this process doesn’t cost anything from the consumer, it is likely that consumers spend a great deal of time doing this.

Consumers spend increasing amounts of time figuring out how to circumvent the system to get free things.

This kind of behavior can be habit-forming, illegal, and unsupportive of the people who are the source of the goods.

While the people are off trying to figure out how to rip off Apple and music artists, however, bigger problems are affecting the nation, such as wars, mass sickness, and rising joblessness.

Occupied consumers no longer have the presence of mind to care about those issues when their objective is to accumulate free downloads.

For some, getting free downloads and other free things is a coping mechanism.

The problematic belief in that case is the belief that the people cannot do anything about the larger problems at hand.

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Using iTunes for Communication

iTunes also has podcasts, many of which are available as a free iTunes download.

One way to harmonize the American consumer’s addiction to getting free stuff and the need for important issues to reach the minds of the public is to create podcasts with that information.

Like other podcasts, these can be made available for free.

These may not reach many people without advertising, but curiosity is bound to draw some attention.

Free downloads aren’t bad things by themselves.

They become destructive when they occupy the attention of consumers for long enough to prevent them from caring about anything else.

Free downloads can be just another addiction. In that case, one might just as well use iTunes to point that out to people.

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