iTunes - page 25

At San Francisco’s Moscone Center West, Apple CEO Steve Jobs today met every bit of speculation that fans of the iPod had thrown in his direction in the week leading up — and then some.

The biggest news of the day is the iPod Touch, a virtual twin of the iPhone that eschews phone features and ramps up the multitouch multimedia features. The Touch carries a 3.5 inch screen on a body only 8 mm thick — even thinner than the iPhone. The device has 8 or 16 GB of storage and will sell for $299 or $399.

In a very surprising move, however, the device keeps the iPhone’s WiFi antenna and Safari web browser. It offers almost the full capabilities of an iPhone without the need for an AT&T account. In all likelihood, VoIP calling could be enabled with a microphone accessory, making this a true phone replacement for the adventurous. I had thrown this out as a possibility last week and dismissed it as cannibalizing iPhone sales too much. This is one gutsy move by Apple.

The device can even purchase songs and videos directly from a new WiFi-based iTunes Store that will now also be available to iPhone users. Anything purchased from the store syncs back to users’ computers. All content costs the same as it does on the full store, and everything available through the traditional iTunes store can be purchased from the WiFi store. Perhaps most bafflingly, Apple has a new partnership with Starbucks that will allow iPhone and iPod Touch users to press a fifth button in Starbucks stores to find out which song is playing in the store and instantly download it to their device if they like it. Users can see the last 10 Starbucks songs. Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz joined Jobs on stage for the announcement. Wifi iTunes Store connectivity is free at Starbucks — but not to the wider Internet, which will require a T-Mobile Hotspot account.

Jobs also announced the iPod classic, a revamp of the original iPod in a metal case at 80 GB and 160 GB, selling for $249 and $349 for those with bigger storage demands; oddly squat video iPod nanos at 4 and 8 GB for $149 and $199; color iPod shuffles at 1 GB in a (product) RED configuraiton; and 99-cent ringtones for iPhone.

All images via GadgetLab

After Friday’s rumpus relating to NBC’s withdrawal from the iTunes Store, it’s small wonder that the company has already made a business decision to thumb its nose in Apple’s general direction. The Peacock Network will make theirs Amazon Unbox, the amazing new service that no one uses.  And, wouldn’t you know it, Amazon has consumers in mind, right NBC?

“This further expands our longstanding relationship to bring a robust content offering to the marketplace in a variety of ways that will benefit the consumer and, at the same time, protects our content,” said NBC Universal’s president of digital distribution, Jean-Briac Perrette, in a statement.

Whoops! Looks like they’re just being greedy! It’s known that NBC got into a dispute with Apple over fixed pricing on iTunes, and wouldn’t you know? Amazon offers a variety of over-priced options and makes it way harder to actually watch anything you download! In fact, Unbox won’t let two people in the same household share content on a device — in other words, couples are SOL.

What a kinder, gentler model! <Sigh> I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: iTunes saved “The Office.” What a pity that NBC can’t tell.

Ars Technica 

Predicting the future of any technology is a risky proposition. Weird, unexpected things happen that no one can anticipate. Lest any of us forget, for a brief moment in 1998, many assumed that DVD-Audio would replace the CD before something called Napster totally changed the game.

But predictions of the future are fun (why else is speculation about Apple so fascinating?), and everyone gets in on the act at some point. The latest to try to imagine what comes after the iPod is Rick Rubin, the bearded producer who launched the career of the Beastie Boys and revived those of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Johnny Cash. He’s legitimately credited with helping to break hip hop worldwide, but I hardly think his abilities to accurately read the new sound 20 years ago has anything to do with his ability to guess how we’ll get our music.

“You’d pay, say, $19.95 a month, and the music will come anywhere you’d like. In this new world, there will be a virtual library that will be accessible from your car, from your cellphone, from your computer, from your television. Anywhere. The iPod will be obsolete, but there would be a Walkman-like device you could plug into speakers at home.”

You want to know what I love about this quote? That it’s actually stating the complete obvious,  but it also anticipates a future where people treat music differently than they do now. First, yes, the iPod will be obsolete at some point in the future. And then Apple will release a new one, including one that works in speakers at home (Oh, wait, that’s been around for years). People are obsessed with the current solution instead of thinking about the needs that it meets.

The bigger question is why anyone thinks subscription music will suddenly take off, however, I can’t guess. Subscription music has never been big, dating to the Columbia Record Club. We’re probably only a year or two from a time when we can put our entire iTunes libraries into a cloud we can access from anywhere, but I want it to be my library, not every song ever. I want to have access to the whole library and choose a song to download, but I want to add things to my library, not have glorified radio going on.

But you heard it here first folks: Sometimes, technology gets obsoleted!

Via Epicenter.

Apple just slapped NBC down hard. Responding to reports NBC was pulling out of the iTunes Store, Apple announced that it was prematurely canceling their partnership — Because NBC wanted $5 per episode of its shows!

Apple® today announced that it will not be selling NBC television shows for the upcoming television season on its online iTunes® Store (www.itunes.com). The move follows NBC’s decision to not renew its agreement with iTunes after Apple declined to pay more than double the wholesale price for each NBC TV episode, which would have resulted in the retail price to consumers increasing to $4.99 per episode from the current $1.99. ABC, CBS, FOX and The CW, along with more than 50 cable networks, are signed up to sell TV shows from their upcoming season on iTunes at $1.99 per episode.

Incredible. NBC has benefited from iTunes more than anyone else, and they’re throwing out crazy price increases. I mean, that would have made Friday Night Lights Season 1 cost $110! NBC is selling the DVD for less than $20 brand-new with more special features! If this is any indication of Hulu’s pricing scheme, it’s screwed out of the gate.

Via Daring Fireball.

Rick James pic from CBC.

A lot of mystery remains about Apple’s big iPod event next week. Will we see widescreen touch iPods (what were known as “true” video iPods before the iPhone showed up)? Nanos with video? A shuffle that can scramble your brain?

What is certain is that, for once, Steve Jobs won’t demonstrate a new iPod video with a clip from “The Office,” as NBC Universal has announced its withdrawal from the iTunes Music Store as of December, according to the New York Times. While it’s possible that existing content will remain or that NBC will offer new content on an as-chosen basis like Universal Music has, it’s more likely that NBC is packing up its toys for Hulu.com, the bizarre commercial video service that NBC and News Corp. promise to launch “real soon now.”

This is a huge blow — NBC makes up 40 percent of all video sales, and I can’t think of a recent iTunes event that didn’t feature an NBC show, which really says something, given Steve Jobs’s close ties to Disney and ABC. Not a sign of doom, but a clear sign that Apple isn’t as secure in video as it has been in music.

Via Apple 2.0.

Apple just sent out invites to a special media event at San Francisco’s Moscone West convention center on September 5 at 10AM — and music is clearly the theme.
There’s been lots of speculation that new iPods are on tap, including stubby, ugly iPod nanos and a touchscreen iPod Touch.

Apple has become the third largest music retailer in the U.S., besting Amazon in fourth, according to the latest quarterly survey by NPD Group.

Apple now has a 10 percent market share behind Wal-Mart (15.8 percent) and Best Buy (13.8).

Previously in fifth place, Apple leapt over Target and Amazon.

NPD said Apple benefitted from sales of iPods over the holidays, and a slowdown in CD sales. Year-on0year, CD sales are down by 20 percent in the first quarter, according ot Nielsen Soundscan.

Apple and Amazon are the only companies in the top 10 that sell digital downloads.

Reuters.

Steve Jobs has made a hobby out of letting the world know that people aren’t interested in renting their music. We hear you loud and clear, Steve. One thing Steve has never claimed, however, is that people don’t like renting movies, as Netflix and Blockbuster will attest.
On the eve of his WWDC keynote, the Financial Times claims that Steve is about to put Apple at the forefront of the digital movie rental business:

A film would cost $2.99 for a 30-day rental. Its digital rights-management software would allow films to be moved from a computer to at least one other device such as the video iPod or iPhone. The software would prevent movies being copied.

Interesting notion. After all, Apple has gone through hell trying to sign up movie studios to sell their films through iTunes. A lot more companies than Disney and Paramount will leap in if this is legit.
Via MacRumors.

Technorati Tags: itunes, movies, rentals

Apple dropped a few lovely and unexpected tidbits in addition to the already anticipated iTunes Plus DRM-free music downloads. Specifically, Apple’s new “hobby,” the AppleTV, will soon have direct YouTube support, and an build-to-order option to quadruple the device’s capacity to 160GB will roll out soon, for $100 extra. It’s still not a DVR out of the box, but this thing is getting very capable very fast…
iTunes Plus, meanwhile, includes the ability to buy-upgrade (“bupgrade?”) any iTunes Store song you already own without copy-protection and a higher bit-rate for 30 cents per song. I must admit, I’d be moving what few iTS songs I have to the superior format, but none of the songs I have are in the first bunch of iT+ selections. Anyone making the move?

Technorati Tags: appleTV, itunes, itunes plus, youtube

After midnight Eastern tonight, Apple let its own cat out of the bag to go along with Microsoft’s announcement of Surface. The Mac OS X Software update brings iTunes 7.2, featuring support for DRM-free downloads off of the iTunes Store, what Apple is calling “iTunes Plus.” The update notice mentions this support from “participating labels” (does EMI have friends in its DRM-free world?), and then the help file goes further, as noted by MacRumors:

The iTunes Store also offers songs without DRM protection, from participating record labels. These DRM-free songs, called “iTunes Plus,” have no usage restrictions and feature higher-quality encoding.

The first time you buy an iTunes Plus song, you specify whether to make all future purchases iTunes Plus versions (when available). You can change this setting by accessing your account information on the iTunes Store.

If you already have iTunes Store purchases that are now available as iTunes Plus downloads, you may upgrade your existing purchases. To do so, visit the iTunes Store and follow the onscreen instructions.

Perhaps there’s hope for converting my library of FairPlay-encoded files to come back to life. We can only hope. Tomorrow’s going to be exciting. Stay tuned…

Technorati Tags: drm, itunes

Ever since Apple and EMI shocked the world in April by announcing that they would sell music through the iTunes Store free from copy-protection constraints, the world has been waiting for the company’s to actually make that announcement a reality.

This might be the week, if the rumor mill has it pegged correctly. MacNN claims we’ve been going through a delay of these products, which I can’t say I noticed:

The seeming delay for introducing the new tier of content has been primarily attributed to a desire to offer the entire catalog at once in the unprotected format rather than a gradual rollout. The companies’ technicians are simply in the later stages of encoding and hosting the files before they go live, the contact says.

Not too surprising, here. After all, Apple said they would launch an offering in May — that means they’ll launch it on the last Tuesday of the month, right? Wake me up when Apple actually misses launching during the month.

DRM-free iTunes set this week? [MacNN]

Technorati Tags: itunes, drm

Silicon Valley raconteur Om Malik is always keeping his eyes peeled for something to surpass Apple’s killer iPod+iTunes combo, and after endorsing Real Rhapsody the other day, he’s now generally supporting the idea that a new generation of DRM-free music will fuel a surge in digital music sales.

While online music downloads have grown rapidly, DRM (regardless of the
flavor) has added more friction than security to the process, often
slowing total sales, especially amongst the non-techie music fans.

I still don’t buy it. Most people are willing to put up with minor DRM headaches for convenience. Most other people that really want to own their music are using services like eMusic or buying CDs. I don’t think we’re at a point where a lack of DRM-free Greatest Hits of the Eagles downloads is the bottleneck. Granted, Om thinks Apple stands to benefit here, but he also implies that the Sonos hardware that connects to Pandora could be the wave of the future. Which it isn’t. I’m sorry, but radio, however evolved, doesn’t hold the same long-term value as buying what you want. Pandora’s a fun trick right now, but it’s a long way from the music-brain I never realized I needed.

Confirming long-standing rumors from…earlier this week, Paul McCartney has confirmed to Billboard that his new solo album “Memory Almost Full,” will be distributed via the ITunes Store through Starbucks’s Hear Music label. Of much greater interest to everyone but five of Paul’s most loyal fans is that the Beatles might soon be ready to pull the trigger on a deal for digital distribution.

McCartney also has told Billboard that a deal to finally make the Beatles catalog available for sale online is “virtually settled.”

McCartney added, “I don’t want to pre-empt anything, but we’re well on the way to something happening there, which is very exciting.”

Keep your fingers crossed. If all goes well, there will finally be a way to find the music of the Beatles on the Internet! You’ll be able to visit “Penny Lane,” and “Strawberry Fie…” What’s that? Unauthorized copying? Never heard of it.

McCartney’s “Memory” goes digital – Yahoo! News
Via Digg.

Technorati Tags: beatles, paul mccartney

Just in case you’re wondering if Steve Jobs has changed his mind about offering music on the iTunes Store in any form other than purchased downloads, here’s a reality check, courtesy of Reuters:
Not gonna happen.

“Never say never, but customers don’t seem to be interested
in it,” Jobs told Reuters in an interview after Apple reported
blow-out quarterly results. “The subscription model has failed
so far.”

Are you sure Steve? I mean, mayb…

“People want to own their music,” he said.

Cool. We hear you. I do think Steve is basically right, of course, as I’ll explain after the jump.&nbsp;

Technorati Tags: itunes, Steve Jobs, steve jobs

I have a pretty big music collection — I can’t come close to fitting even all of my favorite tracks onto my creaky 15GB iPod — but I have nothing on New York Sun staffer Will Friedland, who allegedly has the largest iTunes library in the world: 172,150 tracks, taking up 849 gigs and 809.2 days of music. Glenn Wolsey has a fun interview with Will. Obsession is a beautiful thing, sometimes.
Glenn Wolsey : Blog Archive : Interview: Will Friedwald, Owner Of The Worlds Largest iTunes Collection:

Technorati Tags: itunes, world record

The record companies are selling more and more music online, but they’re paying scant attention to digital packaging: there’s no good album covers for online music.
That’s the conclusion of Adrian Shaughnessy at Design Observer, who’s spent the last few months researching online alternatives to album art. And unfortunately, there aren’t any.

As downloading threatens to become the main distribution method for recorded music, it is widely believed that the album cover will be replaced by some new online format perhaps animated that will make CD packaging redundant. Well, I might be missing something, but I’ve found nothing in the digital arena that offers a viable alternative to a well-designed CD or vinyl album cover. Instead, I’ve discovered a grim-faced resistance movement amongst dozens of tiny record labels determined to hang onto physical packaging and expressive cover art, no matter what.

CoverFlow in iTunes — which displays a JPEG of the album when a song is playing — is a start. The artwork is static and there’s no lyrics or band bios, but the artwork certainly helps navigate the music collection. It also makes the music feel like a collection, rather than just a bunch of files.

There are signs that the record companies are looking at iTunes and the iPod as a platform for designers to play with.

George White, Warner Music Group’s senior VP of strategy and product development, put together a digital packaging demo for Apple to re-imagine album artwork as more than a JPEG on an iPod.

“We’ve been looking at a few technologies (for digital album art), and have been trying to bring these to Apple, to encourage them to bring that level of experience to the iPod,” says White. “A very simple demonstration that we’ve done takes the Gnarls Barkley liner notes and does a fly-through (using Adobe Flash Lite). You’re actually moving through the lyrics and artwork. It’s sort of like a theme park ride through the album. It’s really, really cool-looking on an iPod.”

(Apple did not respond to questions about whether it’s considering any of Warner Music Group’s suggestions.)

White also pointed to Warner’s Wamo pack, which gave Japanese cell phone users digital albums with ringtones, video, full tracks and artist interviews. Wamo packs aren’t new — they launched overseas a year ago. But White says Warner plans to produce more of these bundles. He also mentioned that while Wamo packs use Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language, or SMIL, for their interactive menus, Adobe’s Flash Lite would be a better candidate for “the level of sophistication people expect from Warner Music Group’s artists.”

(Adobe confirmed that Warner’s iPod/Flash Lite demonstrations had taken place, but said that the company “has not announced any joint plans for Flash or Flash Lite to be used in next-generation digital albums.”)

AppleInsider:

Filings discovered today by AppleInsider and noted on April 5th at the US Patent and Trademark Office show that Apple Corps has given up more of the trademarks associated with The Beatles’ own company than was expected as part of the landmark settlement in February… (Steve Jobs’ Apple Inc.) received the rights to use imagery virtually inseparable from Apple Corps’ music business, including the centerpiece green apple and two variants with the fruit cut in half.

Two news nuggets suggest the Beatles catalog is getting close to release online:

Yesterday Reuters reported that Neil Aspinall, the long-time head of Apple Corps., had stepped aside:

A combative, media-shy executive fiercely protective of the Beatles’ legacy and Apple Corps Ltd., Aspinall kept busy in recent years waging a legal battle against computer company Apple Inc. over their similar logos.

A bigger issue was the Beatles’ noted refusal to license tunes to online retailers, such as the technology firm’s iTunes store….
His slow-and-sensible approach to the band’s affairs paid off in the 1980s when compact discs were introduced. He refused to join the rush, and held out for a higher royalty rate. The band’s crowning moment, “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band,” finally came out on CD in 1987, amid a worldwide publicity blitz marking the album’s 20th anniversary.

Aspinall was also the main reason why Beatles tracks are not heard on multi-artist compilation CDs, because he said they cheapened the band’s image.

On Thursday Reuters reported Apple Corps. settled a long-running royalty dispute with EMI:

The company representing The Beatles has settled a 30 million-pound ($59 million) royalty dispute with EMI Group, in a deal that could finally pave the way for the Liverpool band’s music to go online… “It seems like it is heading in that direction,” Jupiter analyst Mark Mulligan told Reuters of the Beatles catalogue. “The conversation has changed from an ‘if’ to a ‘when’.

This is London:

Acoustic guitarist Kate Walsh has knocked Take That off the top of the iTunes download album chart – but does not even own an iPod.

The 23-year-old guitarist recorded her album in a friend’s bedroom and named it Tim’s House in his honour.

The homemade album has proved a unexpected hit with iPod fans who had downloaded it from the iTunes website in their thousands – knocking Take That and Kaiser Chiefs from the top spots.

Miss Walsh said: “You end up looking at it every day to see if you’re still number one. I think I’m ahead of Elton.

“I don’t actually have an iPod yet. I hear they are quite good for ten hour flights.

“I set up my own record label called Blueberry Pie and just got the music out there. It’s pretty easy. Anyone can do it.”

The classically trained pianist from Brighton said she built up a fan base by putting her music onto her MySpace page and eventually persuaded iTunes to sell it.

Kate Walsh’s MySpace Page.

So, I might or might not be interviewed by On the Media soon regarding my thoughts about the Apple/EMI deal that will soon bring us DRM-free iTunes music downloads. It’ll basically depend on if they can find me a studio in Toronto or not — I’ll keep you posted. In collecting these thoughts, the following thing occurred to me: I have no idea if it’s a good thing or not. After giving it some more thought, it’s definitely good, bad and ugly…I mean, unclear. This is the most theoretical I’ve gotten in awhile, so definitely click through to see what it’s all about.

The European Union has launched a price probe into Apple’s iTunes.

European regulators are investigating prices Apple charges for tunes in different countries and is accusing it of restricting choice.

European regulators say Apple and the record companies are violating rules that allow EU citizens to buy goods and services in other memeber countries without restriction. The iTunes store uses credit card details to check country of residence, which is used to determine prices and what music catalog is offered.

“Consumers can only buy music from the iTunes online stores in their country of residence and are therefore restricted in their choice of where to buy music,” EU competition spokesman Jonathan Todd told BBC News.

Apple said it had always wanted to offer a fully pan-European service, but was restricted by the demands of its music partners.

“We were advised by the music labels and publishers that there were certain legal limits to the rights they could grant us,” it said in a statement.

“Apple Unveils Higher Quality DRM-Free Music on the iTunes Store: DRM-Free Songs from EMI Available on iTunes for $1.29 in May” Apple

“We are going to give iTunes customers a choice–the current versions of our songs for the same 99 cent price, or new DRM-free versions of the same songs with even higher audio quality and the security of interoperability for just 30 cents more,’ said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. ‘We think our customers are going to love this, and we expect to offer more than half of the songs on iTunes in DRM-free versions by the end of this year.”

The Wall Street Journal says Jobs is joining EMI to announce the company is completely abondoning DRM copy protection, just as Steve Jobs urged in an open letter in February.

Others concur, including:
Guardian’s Online Blog

Arstechnica

Bloomberg

Image courtesy of Seeking Alpha