Apple - iTunes Music software

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Nate Dogg
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Apple - iTunes Music software

#1 Post by Nate Dogg » Tue Apr 29, 2003 8:58 am

Apple sells Net tunes for a song: 99 cents
Tuesday, April 29, 2003 Posted: 11:43 AM EDT (1543 GMT)

Apple chief executive Steve Job poses with musicians Seal, left, and Josh Groban, right, during the iTunes Music Store launch event.

Apple is launching a service that provides music online while protecting artists and record companies from illegal downloads. CNN's Andy Serwer reports (April 29)

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RELATED
Fortune.com: Will Steve Jobs save the music industry?

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -- Apple Computer Inc. unveiled its long-awaited online music service this week, promising to make the process of buying music on the Internet simple and affordable.

The company said it aimed to make its Internet-based iTunes Music Store service cheap enough to compete with free, file-swapping sites the record industry blames for its slump.

Apple said on Monday its iTunes Musci software was immediately available for its own Macintosh computers, while a Windows version would be available by the end of the year.

In addition to downloading songs for 99 cents each, users would be allowed to burn songs on an unlimited number of CDs for personal use and download them on up to three computers.

At the same time, Apple rolled out new versions of its popular iPod digital music players with expanded capacity.

As expected, Apple said that its online song service would be integrated closely with its iPod line, allowing Mac users to buy music over the Internet and transfer it readily to the handheld players.

"Consumers don't want to be treated like criminals and artists don't want their valuable work stolen," Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs said in a statement.

Apple said its online music service would feature more than 200,000 songs from the top five music companies.

Under one roof
"We don't know any other company that has these assets under one roof," Jobs said, referring to Apple's iPod, iTunes software, and the deals it had negotiated with the five largest record labels.

More than two years ago, Apple took the wraps off an advertising campaign with the phrase, "Rip. Mix. Burn," which irritated many in the music industry, who thought the tagline amounted to an incitement to piracy.

Jobs acknowledged as much on Monday, noting dryly: "There was some confusion." However, Jobs said that "rip" simply means transferring music from a CD to a computer's hard drive.

"That's what it means to everyone under 30," Jobs said at a San Francisco event attended by hundreds to unveil the service. He added that in light of Apple's music service, the tagline should be updated to be "Acquire. Manage. Listen."

Record industry executives have expressed hope that Apple's commercial music offering can lure users away from the file-sharing Internet services that music companies have blamed for slumping CD sales.

Marsalis, Morrissette
Jobs concluded the event with a video deaturing interviews with U2 lead singer Bono and musicians Wynton Marsalis and Alanis Morissette, all praising Apple's new service.

Jobs said that the pay-as-you-download Apple service, which allows users to hear free, 30-second clips of songs, was superior to other fee-based online music services.

"People are used to owning their music," not renting it, Jobs said. "We think subscriptions are the wrong path."

Listen.com's Rhapsody digital music service, which costs $9.95 a month and allows users to burn songs to a CD directly for 99 cents, offers more than Apple's service, the company's chief executive said.

"What Apple offers is about one-third of the features, two-thirds of the music to just over 3 percent of the market," said Sean Ryan, CEO of Listen.com, adding that its average user listens to 200 or more songs a month, which would make Apple's approach prohibitively expensive.

Rhapsody is being acquired by RealNetworks Inc. . Representatives of the two online music services backed by the major labels, Pressplay and MusicNet, could not be immediately reached for comment, although record executives have been supportive of Apple's efforts. Entertainment companies battling to shut down such file-sharing sites suffered an unexpected setback Friday when a federal judge in Los Angeles denied a request to shut the Grokster and Morpheus song-swap services, saying they cannot control what is traded over their networks.

Cupertino, California-based Apple has built its strategy of around the idea that its Macintosh computers, which represent about 3 percent of the personal computer market, could serve as the "digital hub" of a still-emerging digital lifestyle.

Apple already has a hit with its popular iPod digital music player. The device, the size of a deck of playing cards, holds thousands of songs in digital format. It is available in versions that work both on Apple's computer and on computers using Microsoft's Windows operating system.

The new iPods are available in 10-gigabyte, 15-gigabyte and 30-gigabyte models and cost $299, $399 and $499, respectively. They are thinner and lighter than previous models and have back-lit buttons.

Copyright 2003 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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DapperDan
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#2 Post by DapperDan » Tue Apr 29, 2003 10:36 am

I was just playing with Apple's store. It ain't bad, but it ain't great either. I typed in several big names (Basie, Armstrong, Ellington, and Goodman) and got back exactly 100 tracks from each artist. That implies that they've probably got more than that in there, but only return the first 100 tracks of a search. Wunderbar.

Then, I tried browsing the Jazz genre. It comes up with an error of some kind. ("We could not complete your Music Store request (500)... Try again later.")

Then, I tried searching for less popular artists. Gene Harris? Nothing. Slim Gaillard? One track on a compilation. Glen Gray & The Casa Loma Orchestra? One track on a compilation.

The trick for the "popular" artists seems to be:
- Do a "Power Search" on the artist
- Select one of the "Top Albums" shown at the top of the screen
- Select the artist's name from the icon bar above that

This was enough to figure out they've got 22 Basie albums, 28 Ellington albums, 50 Armstrong albums, etc.


So, I'd say that the Apple Music Store doesn't suck, and it's a reasonable way to go cruising around some popular jazz musicians, but it's nowhere near ready to be your exclusive source of jazz music.

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#3 Post by main_stem » Tue Apr 29, 2003 12:58 pm

Sweeeeeeeeet!

I bought an iPod when they fisrt came out and it has been the best damn purchase I have made in years. (Read: I can't live without it.) Don't use it much for DJing currently but I'm planning on doing some experiments in the coming weeks.


It'll be interestinf trying the new compression codex they are pushing, AAC. And, if it really is better than MP3s.
"We called it music."
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#4 Post by Trevor » Tue Apr 29, 2003 1:54 pm

You know i'm not big at all on Mac. I've used mac's a lot and i've tried to like them. I've even owned one before. I just don't like Mac. Now they are way to expensive. I think there are only 2 things good with mac. 1. THey don't crash as much 2. Good Graphics. That's all.

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#5 Post by Nate Dogg » Tue Apr 29, 2003 3:03 pm

I am very interested in getting a 30 Gig portable player. But, I might wait till the price drops.

Of course, at that point, I will want the 60 Gig version.

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#6 Post by main_stem » Tue Apr 29, 2003 6:55 pm

Trevor wrote:You know i'm not big at all on Mac. I've used mac's a lot and i've tried to like them. I've even owned one before. I just don't like Mac. Now they are way to expensive. I think there are only 2 things good with mac. 1. THey don't crash as much 2. Good Graphics. That's all.
Hee Hee. My Mac at home makes my PC look like it's running on half empty and I work at Microsoft, currently.
"We called it music."
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Some reservations...

#7 Post by Zot » Tue Apr 29, 2003 8:27 pm

My excitement about the new Apple music store was dampened somewhat by the fact that it is only available to US residents. It's difficult to understand that they are launching a service with all the hype about making music more readily available on the Internet, when what they really mean is "on the Internet within the USA".

For someone like me, finding great music is much more difficult because of our smaller market size in Australia. I usually buy new CDs at Amazon and put up with the international shipping charges, or (more recently) pay for them and download them through emusic.

As a long-time user of the iPod, I was pretty excited about the new iPods, though. First and foremost, the addition of AAC support is something I've been really hoping for. But there are two other features that might seem small that I'm pretty happy about too:

* BPMs: Yep, Apple actually included a BPM field in iTunes so you can now put add all your BPMs in the correct place. I've been using the Comments fields up until now, but that doesn't allow BPM to be one of the criteria for Smart Playlists. Using Smart Playlists you can, for example, create a playlist for all of your "swing" stuff between, e.g. 120-140 bpm. Very handy.

* On-The-Run playlists. One of the biggest headaches of using an iPod to DJ regularly is not being able to cue up a song on the fly. This means you can come up with your next couple of tracks ahead of time and not have to stand over your iPod, or worry about hitting the wrong button just when someone comes to ask you a question.


While I'm on this thread, I'm really interested in hearing if anyone has had any experience using the iTrip? http://www.griffintechnology.com/produc ... index.html

I'm wondering if this is a good option for teaching dance classes. If I could have my iPod on a belt clip while I'm running my class, it will dramatically improve the running of the class for me. Any thoughts or experiences?

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#8 Post by Trevor » Wed Apr 30, 2003 11:21 pm

You know i'm kind of at a mute point with the whole file sharing thing. I've talked to Ryan Shocks from Orgy and a few other musicians and i understand from a musicians piont of view that it really does suck how their stuff is basically for free. Alot of musicians are working for free. I mean it really sucks when you have a kid that has every single album out on the market and he hasn't bought one of them. I think what pisses them off the most is when there is something unreleased to the general public and it get's out. So i mean i think it's cool what Mac is doing in charging a low cost of 99 cents a song and 10 bucks for an album. If you think about it the musicians still lose but this way they can't really complain.

But does it really make that much of a differance when they have the money already? I dunno...I understand both sides of the spectrum. But i don't know which one to go with.

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#9 Post by main_stem » Thu May 01, 2003 8:38 am

Got to say I like the AAc compression it's only slightly larger than an 128 mp3 but as clear as a CD. Granted this is based off of only doing a couple of songs from one album. I'll be doing a more extensive test when I get the chance.

As for the music store, it's a good start. There is a lot of stuff up there. but nothing I'm ying to get right now. It will be nice when they start getting some of the smaller jazz lables and more of the swing era artisits on there. ONe can only hope they eventually go across the bond and get some of the jazz lables there.
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#10 Post by Stan » Thu May 01, 2003 2:08 pm

main_stem wrote:Got to say I like the AAc compression it's only slightly larger than an 128 mp3 but as clear as a CD. Granted this is based off of only doing a couple of songs from one album. I'll be doing a more extensive test when I get the chance.
Here are some links to discussions on bit rate comparisons between the AAC, MP3, etc. codecs:

http://www.telos-systems.com/techtalk/a ... efault.htm (go to page 8 for discussion on bit rates, 96 AAC ==> 128 MP3)

http://mp3.radified.com/mp3.htm (claims 128 AAC ==> 192 MP3)

cached Google link (cached Google link to a page mentioning that 160 AAC ==> indistinguishable from source CD).

Needless to say, I'm reencoding my entire collection because I'm out of HD space and the lower the bit rate, the better. I'm using 192 MP3 currently but plan to use 128 AAC.
main_stem wrote:As for the music store, it's a good start. There is a lot of stuff up there. but nothing I'm ying to get right now. It will be nice when they start getting some of the smaller jazz lables and more of the swing era artisits on there. ONe can only hope they eventually go across the bond and get some of the jazz lables there.
I had the same issues with the store when I first tried it. It's only been 4 days so they will definitely get more artists and labels on board. Just make sure that you've disabled the 1-click purchasing so that you don't get too addicted. ;)

ST

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#11 Post by main_stem » Thu May 01, 2003 2:54 pm

Stan wrote: Just make sure that you've disabled the 1-click purchasing so that you don't get too addicted. ;)
No shit, it's way to easy. I found some Johnny Hodges stuff that I wanted for a while but never found a good price on the disc. Thankfully I had to finish cooking dinner so I didn't buy anything. Really they should rename it buyTunes.

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#12 Post by Marcelo » Sun May 04, 2003 1:23 am

iTunes 4 also supports BPM info in the tags, and there's a plugin you can get that will let you tap the mouse along with the song and it'll enter the BPM automatically in the window. Spiffy.

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#13 Post by Nate Dogg » Mon May 05, 2003 1:27 pm

New article,

GOING DIGITAL
Apple Music Store Sells 1 Million Songs In First Week

(URL: http://www.crn.com/sections/BreakingNew ... leID=41756)

By Russell Redman
CRN
Cupertino, Calif.
11:21 AM EST Mon., May 05, 2003

Apple Computer said Monday that its new iTunes Music Store, launched last week, sold more than 1 million songs in its first week of operation.
The online store, accessed through the computer maker's iTunes 4 digital music jukebox software, enables users of Apple Macintosh computers and iPod MP3 players to search and preview a catalog of more than 200,000 songs and then use a credit card to buy and download music for 99 cents per title. There's no subscription fee, and users can burn songs onto an unlimited number of CDs for personal use, listen to songs on an unlimited number of iPods, play songs on up to three Macs and use songs in any Mac application, including Apple's iPhoto, iMovie and iDVD software.

With last week's launch of the iTunes Music Store, Apple also unveiled thinner iPods--now available in 10-, 15- and 30-Gbyte models--as well as iTunes 4, an upgrade of its digital music application, and QuickTime 6.2, an update of its MPEG-4 streaming media software that provides foundation support for iTunes 4 and Advanced Audio Codec (AAC) format capabilities.

So far, more than 1 million copies of iTunes 4 have been downloaded, according to Apple. In addition, the company said it has received orders for more than 110,000 new iPods, and more than 20,000 new iPods were sold in U.S. stores over the past weekend.

Apple's online music play reflects its "digital lifestyle" strategy, which puts the PC at the center of a computing environment touching home, work and leisure activities. However, the online music store also represents a move to position the company as a provider of not only technology but also digital content, which is necessary to feed the emerging "multimedia household," industry observers say.

Media networking, in which media servers store and play rich content over a home network, is expected to represent 49 percent of total home networking revenue by 2007, compared with a 6 percent share in 2002, according to research firm In-Stat/MDR. Overall revenue for the home networking space is projected to hit $5.3 billion by 2007, up from $1.8 billion last year. And by the end of 2007, the total number of installed home networks in the United States and Canada is expected to top 28 million, more than three times the 9.2 million installed home networks in 2002, In-Stat/MDR reported.

To procure content for the iTunes Music Store, Apple inked deals with five major music labels: BMG, EMI, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal and Warner. The computer company said it plans Tuesday to add about 3,200 new tracks to the store's catalog.

In the press release on the iTunes Music Store's first-week results, Apple quoted record executives who expressed surprise over the store's early progress. Roger Ames, chairman and CEO of Warner Music Group, said in a statement that selling 1 million songs in a week was "totally unexpected," while Universal Music Group CEO Doug Morris said his company had an internal benchmark of 1 million songs sold in the first month as a measure of the store's success.

"In less than one week, we've broken every record and become the largest online music company in the world," Apple CEO Steve Jobs said in a statement.

The iTunes Music Store launch ended weeks of industry speculation that Apple had planned to acquire Universal Music Group, a subsidiary of French media and entertainment conglomerate Vivendi Universal. Jobs had even issued a statement saying that Apple "never made any offer to invest in or acquire a major music company," although he didn't deny that talks had occurred.

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#14 Post by Nando » Wed Dec 10, 2003 10:41 pm

I wanted to bring this thread back up since iTunes has been out for a month now for PCs.

Has anyone been using it? I know their jazz collection is a bit scarce, but there seem to be some novelty songs I'd get just in case. 99 cents doesn't seem like a bad deal for them.

My big hesitation is that I have all my songs ripped on MusicMatch and it sounds like anything I get from iTunes, stays in iTunes. I don't seem to like the library interface as much as the MusicMatch one, but maybe someone here can expound on it if it's helpful.

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#15 Post by Mr Awesomer » Thu Dec 11, 2003 1:40 am

I downloaded and used it for a little while but then purged it when I discovered how sloppy the software system resource wise. I like complete control over how I use a piece of software, and iTunes was not providing that freedom.
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