All Articles Tagged iTunes

Universal unveils a new music subscription plan that involves a $5 per month subscription fee. Universal has Sony BMG and perhaps Warner on board, so that’s 3 of the big 4. The notable absence is EMI, who has gone DRM-free. iPod Observer calls the plan novel, I don’t think I’ll be as kind. The part of their plan that’s novel is that the device manufacturers pay the $5 fee instead of the customer. What inevitably will happen here is that the customer will get charged that extra $5 per month anyway… and the customers won’t be able to decide for themselves when to end the subscription service. If I thought any company would pay that fee for more than a few months for ‘free,’ I’d be delusional. Delusional like Gartner analyst Mike McGuire:

“If the object is to wrest control of the market from Steve Jobs, this is a credible way to try it.”

Apple has started putting 99¢ DRM-free tracks on sale in iTunes. Usually, DRM free tracks are only available as purchases from iTunes plus and cost $1.29. Assuming this trend continues, I’m glad to see Apple iTunes moving aggressively against Amazon MP3.

With the release of firmware update 1.1.1 came something new to iPhone that I think may prove to be its most insidious feature yet; iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store. Now I know that many of you don’t purchase music via iTunes, preferring instead to utilize certain ahem free source, but you may sing a different tune once you start rummaging through genres and newly released content on the screen of your iPhone. For me it’s becoming an addiction. I have to force myself not to tap on the lovely purple store icon that beckons me to enter and pay pay pay. iPhone has now become a gateway drug to iTunes.

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Time Warner is building an iTunes competitor. You know, sometimes I get irked when I see websites use the word “competitor” so loosely. The geniuses at Time Warner Cable have had a long time to think about music and they’ve had a long time to watch Apple’s iTunes and mirror its success. So, they’ve unveiled a service that is:

1. Not iPhone compatible.
2. Not iPod compatible either.
3. Half as many songs as iTunes.
4. Not compatible with Macs at all.
5. Windows Media format only, plus DRM.
6. Subscription only, $9.95 / month

It’ll sell like gangbusters. This competitor is pretty much a license to print money. It’s the lost formula to turn lead into gold. It’s the missing link that will make the Zune sell like hotcakes.

figure 1: All this and more for just 70 Schrutebucks.

If you use a Windows PC as a DVR and are looking to get away from iTunes for syncing your video to your iPhone or iPod, it looks like Beyond TV might be worth a peek. The new version of Beyond TV, 4.7, not only syncs your shows to the iPhone or iPod, but also pulls out your podcasts from iTunes. Not bad!

figures 1 and 2: Sir Richard Branson of Virgin and Edgar Bronfman Jr.

In a brief article at sibling WMExperts.com site, I wrote yesterday that I was unsure how Amazon got EMI and UMG to provide media in a no-DRM format. Well, apparently Chairman Walter Bronfman of Warner Music Group informed investors that they were reconsidering DRM on their music; they might remove it. And lo and behold, here it shows up on Amazon.com with no DRM. I think they did more than just reconsider by then, they probably had it all done. The cause for his change of heart is telling:

“We need some online competition” for Apple’s iTunes Music Store, Bronfman said. He conceded the iPod is “the default device” and iTunes the “download model.”

I liked this quote so much I just kept on reading it over and over again:

Warner’s Bronfman told investors that one problem for his industry is that consumers are more loyal to the iPod than to any particular artist. That means the industry’s content must play on an Apple device.

Translation: “I wanted to start another format war but every analyst I asked told me I’d lose it.” Let’s all hope that those same executives bring more of their DRM-free music to iTunes as well.

Lastly, Richard Branson’s Virgin Digital music store is kaput. I do pity the companies that bought into Microsoft’s Windows Media Plays-For-Sure license, especially now. The margins have to be so seriously thin, I’m not sure how any of those companies could differentiate on anything within the service except for price per month.

Amazon has started a public beta of their music store. It looks like they have about 2 million MP3s available. Since the songs are MP3s, there’s no digital rights management (DRM) on the file, so you could copy the files from Amazon’s store as many times to as many people on as many computers as you’d like. Amazon got Universal Music Group and EMI and about 20,000 indie labels to sign on, notably absent are Warner and Sony BMG.

The MP3s are 256kbps, which puts them more or less on par with Apple’s $1.29 256kbps iTunes Plus AAC files; standard iTunes purchases are at 128kbps ($.99). The bummer of the service is that albums are $11.99.

Amazon has managed some key wins in terms of the top 100s of things, however. The top 100 songs are $.89 apiece; top 100 albums are $8.99 or less. The labels they’ve managed to grab are EMI and Universal, plus some 20,000 independent labels.

Speaking personally, I’m glad to see some competition in the download music space. Hopefully it’ll bring some good changes to the iTunes store instead of extinguishing it. [via]

Short weeks after Apple and Starbucks initially announced their partnership, Starbucks announced today that they’ll be giving away 1.5 million tracks per day for over a month. Their giveaway begins October 2nd and lasts until November 7th.

““Song of the Day” will offer hand-picked songs from top artists including Bob Dylan, Joss Stone, Dave Matthews, Bebel Gilberto, John Mayer, KT Tunstall, John Legend, Annie Lennox, Joni Mitchell, Keith Urban and Paul McCartney plus great music from up-and-coming artists such as Sia, Band of Horses, Hilary McRae, Frederico Aubele and Sara Bareilles.”

The downloads are given away by means of cards that you get when you go to Starbucks and buy coffee, which you can then redeem for the free song of the day. Supplies are limited — the deal begins “each morning and while supplies last,” so get up and grab some coffee before you, uh, go to Starbucks for your coffee.

Starbucks was in the news for other reasons today too — they’re being taken to task by the National Labor Relations Board for illegal union-busting and myriad other labor-related woes. Full disclosure: I’ll take tea over coffee pretty much any day.

It would appear that the iTunes update for 7.4.2 is your standard average bugfix release. Did it fix my store download issue? Why yes. Yes, it did. Their update notes that it fixes issues with iTunes Plus ringtone purchases along with anything else that it fixes.

iTunes WiFi store downloads are very adaptable to the mobile lifestyle, it seems. You can pause and resume them at will, essentially, and if you never resume them, your desktop version of iTunes can download the songs once you sync your iPhone or iPod Touch.

“If you need to turn off iPod touch or leave the area of your Wi-Fi connection, don’t worry about interrupting the download. iPod touch starts the download again the next time iPod touch joins a Wi-Fi network with an Internet connection. Or if you open iTunes on your computer, iTunes completes the download to your iTunes library.”

[via]