We predicted it! Apple will be hosting an event surrounding its popular music player, iPod and the popular music download service, iTunes. The event will take place on September 1st at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco at 10am PDT. It is a tradition for Apple to release a new iPod is September, but the next generation of iPods are expected to get Apple’s juicy retina display and front facing camera, of course along with Apple’s IOS4. There has also be speculation of Apple making changes to the Apple TV, including a scaled down device with the price tag of just $99 and access to the App Store. Get ready ladies and gentlemen, Jobs and his crew are ready to change the game once again… Are you ready!?
Also this month Kazaa popular for its download music service have released a player so you can stream all the latest tracks from Katy Perry, Lady Gaga and co. live into your homes.
If music downloads are your thing then you have most likely used iTunes before. Apple has announced today that the popular download service’s iTunes U has surpassed 300 million downloads and counting. iTunes U is Apple’s digital education catalog service. The feat took a little over three years to accomplish. Currently the catalog now includes more than 800 universities as it’s partners and about half of those participants make their content available to the public through Apple’s iTunes Store.
Some of the most elite universities make sure of the iTunes distribution; Harvard, MIT, Cambridge, Oxford and the University of Melbourne. Apple has also made it a point to not limit the catalog to just the English speaking demographic. Institutions in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico and Singapore were all recently added. In total, the catalog now holds more than 350,000 free audio and video files which can be played on a computer, iPhone, iPod or iPad.
In a turn of disappointing news, the chart topping UK acts, Pink Floyd has been removed from the music download service iTunes library. Albums like Dark Side of the Moon, The Wall and Wish You Were Here have all been removed from the music download service as the group’s contract with EMI had come to an end.
Pink Floyd did make attempts to try and secure a fresh contract earlier this year but as of right now there is no contract set in place, which means their music cannot legally be sold online. This is a major upset in their business plan as since 1991 they have sold more than 36 million records in the United States alone. Recently, digital downloads have amounted to about 40 percent of the bands total records sales. Earlier work by the band can still be sold and found online.
Ahhh giving away free music, such a novel idea. Independent music title, The Fader used a similar promotion four years ago and channeled magazine giveaways on iTunes as a new way to reach music fans in the social space. Four years later The Fader is ending it’s giveaway in light of wanting to live the American dream and yes, make real money. The Fader seeks to make money in an uncertain ad driven market.
The 95,000 circ. magazine will begin doing this in the fall and will switch its digital distribution to Zinio. Zinio creates editions for popular brands such as Cosmo and Men’s Health for consumption on the iPad, mobile phones and PCs.
The Fader, Zinio edition, will cost consumers $4.99 per single issue and $16.99 for a yearly subscription. That breaks down to a 15% savings over the print version, which should help to increase readership amongst consumers. The Fader is making other digital distribution plays revolving around it’s print magazines, which they publish six times a year. They also just launched a free mobile application for the iPhone and Android handsets to let users customize their experience. They also will have an application ready for the iPad in about three months.
The ability to tag songs and send them for download within iTunes was something that never really caught on like everyone anticipated. Some say that it was a lack of marketing, which is hard to believe for an Apple product, or simply a lack of available devices that supported the ability. Regardless users have other ways to go about finding the music they know and love instead of just by radio, tag’ em and download’ em later. Overseas in the UK a company called Pure has stepped up to the plate with a competitor called FlowSongs.
The technology offers select Pure Digital radios to connect with the 7Digital network in order to mark songs, purchase them for around $1.00 each and then stream them via the users Lounge account to as many Pure compatible radios as your little heart desires. The songs that are found via DAB, FM or internet stations can be tagged and all of your music downloads are 100% DRM free. It gets even better! A large amount of the music will be encoded to 320kbps! through you will have to put up with a tiny $4.00 yearly charge in order to pay for the Shazam end of the service. All this music-loving goodness is set to go live on Monday. Hooray for the internet!
We predicted it! Apple will be hosting an event surrounding its popular music player, iPod and the popular music download service, iTunes. The event will take place on September 1st at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco at 10am PDT. It is a tradition for Apple to release a new iPod is September, but the next generation of iPods are expected to get Apple’s juicy retina display and front facing camera, of course along with Apple’s IOS4. There has also be speculation of Apple making changes to the Apple TV, including a scaled down device with the price tag of just $99 and access to the App Store. Get ready ladies and gentlemen, Jobs and his crew are ready to change the game once again… Are you ready!?
