iTunes’ New Rival

Spotify isn’t the only company doing this. There are others like Rdio, Pandora, and Last.fm in the space. But Spotify is the biggest, and, according to geeks, the best, thanks to a clean user interface and really fast song streaming. Spotify has 1.6 million paying members and 10 million total users.

Spotify gets ready to eat your iTunes for lunch

Finally. A free cloud-based music service that you’ll want to use.

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Sweden’s Spotify has been well known in Europe for years. Since 2006, 10 million listeners from Sweden, France, the UK, Spain, the Netherlands, Finland, and Norway have been tuning in to Europe’s hottest music service using their computers and mobile phones.

Spotify utilizes the high speed internet access many mobile phones and most home computers now have to allow users to stream music from Spotify’s catalogue rather than keep it on their personal devices.

In pictures: iTunes top 25 most downloaded songs

And with a catalogue of 15 million songs, this is not your father’s jukebox.

How it works

Though other services exist that allow users to listen to their choice of millions of songs online, and still more offer personalized online radio stations, Spotify will be the first to allow users to listen to any song, anytime they want. For free.

The service launched in the US on Thursday, and Spotify is ramping up their free service option. For the time being the free plan is invite-only and is expected to be opened to everybody in a few weeks. In the meantime, once Spotify emails users their invitations, they will be able to listen to any of the 15 million songs from their computer.

There are, of course, a few catches. First, you will have to listen to commercials. And after 6 months you will be limited to 10 hours per month.

This is what got 1.6 million users in Europe to opt for Spotify’s paid service plans.

The two plans Spotify offers in the US are a PC plan for $4.99 and a combo PC and mobile plan for $9.99. Both plans remove the monthly limits and commercials, but the combo plan (confusingly named the “Unlimited” plan) allows users to listen to songs on their mobile phones and allows them to download songs onto their devices to be listened to offline.

This is quite possibly what could kill Apple’s iTunes service as we know it, and indeed, threatens the entire music download industry.

On a cloud system files stay on a remote server and are read by users but not downloaded to the user’s computer to be stored. Up until now, services like iTunes made users pay for songs which they then had to download and store on their computer. Many an unhappy computer user has lost his entire music collection due to a hard drive failure or laptop theft. This is one of the benefits of the cloud.

Much like Netflix has been called the video store killer (and now cable killer), the launch of Spotify may mark the beginning of the end of paid music downloads like those sold through iTunes. Apple’s cloud solution, iTunes Match, offers a free service, but it only allows users to listen to songs purchased through iTunes. At $25 per year, Apple’s paid offering is cheaper than Spotify’s, but limits users to their own library of songs.

And because Spotify started in Europe, the service can travel with users when they leave the US on vacation or business.

Representatives at Spotify are plugging the software’s Facebook integration as a major advantage over other services and proprietary services such as iTunes’ Ping.

Not only is this a coup for music lovers, it may also turn out to be the paradigm shift users needed to switch to the cloud, which could have indirect ramifications as far reaching as reduced piracy.

In 2010, Billboard compared Spotify to the iPod. If it’s as revolutionary as the iPod, users have a lot to look forward to.

In pictures: iTunes top 25 most downloaded songs

Apple’s iTunes Store, App Store now cost roughly $1.3 billion a year to operate

By Josh Ong

Published: 08:10 PM EST The costs associated with maintaining the iTunes Store and App Store have grown to more than $1.3 billion a year, according to one estimate.

Asymco blogger Horace Dediu crunched the numbers using data published by Apple at last week’s Worldwide Developers Conference. Dediu assumes that Apple continues to run the stores at “just above break even.”

The company has said for years that the iTunes Store and App Store do not generate much profit, as most of the it is invested back into supporting the stores.

According to Apple, the digital storefronts have reached 15 billion song downloads, 130 million book downloads and 14 billion app downloads. There are now 225 million iTunes accounts and 50 million Game Center accounts. The App Store offers 425,000 apps, including 90,000 apps developed specifically for the iPad.

Dediu combined Apple’s download estimates with the average price of songs and apps and the split between developers or music labels and Apple to arrive at his estimate. After adding together the content margin for songs and apps, Dediu estimates that operation costs reach approximately $113 million per month, from a total income of $313 million month.

“Much of that cost does go into serving the content (traffic and payment processing). Some of it goes to curation and support. But its very likely that there is much left over to be invested in capacity increases,” Dediu said.

Apple’s most significant investment toward capacity increases likely came in the form of a $500 million data center in Maiden, N.C. The company said this spring that the facility, which is nearly five times the size of its existing Newark facility, would support the iTunes and MobileMe services. Given that MobileMe is due to be phased out in June 2012, the server farm will support the just-announced iCloud service.

iTunes has become the largest music and movie store in the world. In April, reports emerged that Apple had ordered 12 petabytes, or 12,000 terabytes, of additional storage for hosting video content on iTunes.

Look out Apple: Spotify is coming after iTunes users

Music streaming service Spotify has a major announcement… and it’s not the date of its US launch. The company announced Wednesday morning that it would begin offering iTunes and iPod integration to premium subscribers, with a bonus MP3 store for those who want to purchase the songs they have been streaming. With this move, Spotify is aggressively courting Apple’s vast user base, possibly in preparation for its long-anticipated launch in the US.

The first part of Spotify’s announcement involves integration with “classic” style iPods, such as the iPod classic, iPod nano, and iPod shuffle. Normally, users can only manage the playlists for those devices through iTunes software on the Mac or Windows, but Spotify says that users can now plug in their devices and have them appear in the Spotify sidebar for song management. From there, you can sync your Spotify playlists and any MP3s you have in them to your iPod, just like you would through iTunes.

Spotify also announced a new music download service to go hand-in-hand with its streaming service. Now, when users spend time crafting their streaming playlists, they can purchase (some of) those songs directly from Spotify in order to sync them with their non-streaming devices. “By introducing a range of MP3 bundles, we’ve been able to offer you some of the most competitive prices available—from as little as 50p per song,” Spotify wrote on its blog.

(Spotify also announced that Spotify Mobile apps for iPhone and Android can wirelessly sync MP3 playlists to their devices through the Spotify sidebar. Take that, iTunes!)

The introduction of Spotify’s MP3 download service and subsequent iPod integration comes less than a month after the company said it was cutting its free music hours from 20 to 10 hours per month per user, and limiting users to five free plays per track. The company didn’t offer an explanation for the change, but anonymous sources said that the music labels “encouraged” Spotify to cut back its free offerings by suggesting the business model wouldn’t survive otherwise. “Spotify desperately wants to show labels high levels of conversion and will get higher levels of conversion by ratcheting back free,” one anonymous source said.

Since Spotify’s new iPod syncing feature is only limited to premium subscribers, it’s clear that the latest announcements are meant to move users into paying tiers. And those buying MP3s from Spotify will have to shell out extra money whether they’re a subscriber or not, adding even more padding to Spotify’s bottom line.

This also marks a slight shift from Spotify’s original business model—which was to offer various levels of streaming service—and puts it more into competition with traditional download services like iTunes and Amazon. We’re almost willing to say Spotify has a leg up, too, by giving iPod users more software and syncing options and by allowing iPhone and Android users to sync their music wirelessly. You certainly can’t do that kind of syncing through iTunes yet, and Amazon’s software really only facilitates the downloading of songs from Amazon MP3. Frankly, it’s making those of us stuck here in the US want to try out Spotify more than ever—which is definitely the point.

LizaMoon Malware Spreads Through iTunes, Infects 500000+ Pages

Music lovers and Apple fanatics, beware: There’s a new malware campaign out there, and it’s using iTunes to get to you.

The malware, nicknamed “LizaMoon” by security firm WebSense, was first discovered on March 28th on 28,000 webpages, many of them associated with RSS and XML feeds for iTunes podcast updates. A more recent update claims that upwards of 500,000 pages are now affected (Google claims 1.5 million pages, although WebSense is unsure about the veracity of that number).

According to WebSense, Lizamoon tries to convince users that they need to download software to remove an existing virus, although the warning can appear on pages unaffected by Lizamoon, the infection having happened earlier without any visible sign for the user. The security firm even made a video to explain more:

There is one benefit for iTunes users – Apple says that it prevents the code from automatically executing even on affected feeds – but if you’ve downloaded any podcasts from iTunes lately, you might want to update your antivirus systems, just to be on the safe side.

More on Techland:

Android Malware Outs Pirates With Text Messages

40% of Social Network Users Attacked By Malware

Say Happy 40th Birthday to the Computer Virus

Apple Pushing ‘Great AirPlay Apps’ via iTunes

iOS 4.3 brought many great features to iPhone and iPad users, from personal hotspot, to a brand new, ultra-fast JavaScript engine.

One of the new – yet less known – feature offered by the new version of the operating system is AirPlay support for third party apps. Third-party developers can now use the AirPlay API to stream content from their apps, to any AirPlay compatible devices such as Apple TVs – a feat only reserved to Apple-branded apps thus far.

For the occasion, Apple has opened a specific AirPlay-compatible apps section in iTunes to showcase the best apps that leverage the technology. As of now, a little over ten apps are featured, including Discovery Channel HD, VEVO, Martha Stewart Makes Cookies, ESPN the Magazine for iPad, Golfplan with Paul Azinger, My Daily Clip, Authentic Yoga with Deepak Chopra, Baseball Gameplan with Jason Giambi, MLS MatchDay 2011, and last but not least, Air Video.

Note that the list is not exhaustive, and Apple will keep adding more apps to the AirPlay section as more AirPlay-compatible apps hit the App Store.

Thanks to AirPlay, users can stream music and videos throughout their entire house, wirelessly. While most Apple-branded products such as the second generation Apple TV already support AirPlay, a slew of speaker docks makers such as iHome, and more and more AV receivers and stereo systems makers such as Denon are embracing the technology as well.

Apple Considering Unlimited iTunes Downloads

Apple has initiated discussions with four major record labels to allow customers to download songs purchased through iTunes an unlimited number of times.

The record labels contacted by Apple are EMI, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group Corp. According to unnamed sources, if negotiations are successful, Apple plans to begin offering the new service this summer.

This move if successful would allow iTunes customers to permanently back up purchases made through the store and download them to multiple devices such as the iPhone, iPad and iPod as well as a home computer or laptop.

Currently, Apple only allows a single download of any product and will not replace any purchase made if lost. The company’s terms of service clearly state that Apple is not liable if you lose, destroy or damage any download.

Apple Considering Unlimited iTunes Downloads

Thursday’s Apple Rumors — Google’s Coming for iTunes

Here are your Apple rumors and news items for Thursday:

Motorola Hints at Google iTunes Battle: According to The Guardian, Motorola (NYSE:MMI) CEO Sanjay Jha may have accidentally confirmed the existence of a new Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) music service that will compete with Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iTunes service. While speaking at the Mobile World Conference, Jha said that Google’s Android 3.0 platform, called Honeycomb, would make the tablet equal to Apple’s services because it “adds video services and music services.” He then elaborated on his point saying, “If you look at Google Mobile services today, there’s a video service, there’s a music service… that is, there will be a music service.” Google has tried to match Apple in each digital retail category — both companies opened e-bookstores last year, Apple’s iBookstore and Google Editions. Google’s music service would be a serious threat to Apple’s iTunes if it followed the Google Editions model of linking purchases to a Google account and being accessible via a web browser, which would make it available to Apple handset users.

Apple Corners Panel Supply Market: Taiwanese tech newspaper DigiTimes says that the flood of new contenders for the tablet crown held by Apple’s iPad are going to face serious supply issues as they come to market this year. Hewlett-Packard (NASDAQ:HPQ), Motorola, and Research In Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) are all using the same glass capacitive touch panels in their tablets as Apple’s iPad. With a lock on 60% of tablet component supply, Apple has left those manufacturers competing over the remaining parts. For companies DigiTimes calls “second-tier players,” tablet makers like Vizio releasing its Via Tablet this year, they face being squeezed out of the market entirely due to shortages created by Apple.

MobileMe Refresh: Website Cult of Mac reported Wednesday that Apple will take on Facebook, Foursquare, and Ustream with the new version of its MobileMe services suite. New features include a live video-streaming service, a location-based check-in system, and a GPS-based tagging system currently named “Tokens” that lets users mark real-world places similar to Facebook Places. This report followed a Wall Street Journal report from earlier in the week that said Apple would be refreshing the MobileMe to coincide with the release of a smaller, cheaper iPhone this fall.

At the time of publication, Anthony John Agnello did not own a position in any of the stocks named here.

New Android Market Trumps Apple’s iTunes Store

It’s the little things that go a long way. One tiny feature that can make a piece of software or a gadget infinitely better. Maybe it’s the way a Twitter app refreshes by tapping the top banner. Or how a music app automatically starts when you plug your earbuds in. It’s the subtlest attention to a small UI detail that causes a user to say, “Ah, that’s cool,” and other developers to say, “Ah, of course!”

And in moving its rough-around-the-edges Android Market to the web, Google nailed a big one. One so big, that it’s now arguably better than Apple’s iTunes Store.

Launching yesterday, the web-based Android Market frees the user from browsing apps on their phone. The third-market site AppBrain had done a commendable job before, but there wasn’t an officially Google-sanctioned site until yesterday. And not a moment too soon.

Similar to the iTunes Store in almost every way, the Android Market sorts free and paid apps into categories. Each app comes with its own linkable page and description as well as a user rating, version requirements, price, and developer information. So far, so familiar.

But what separates the Android Market on the web with the iTunes Store is the total lack of an extra program or wired syncing.

After a user logs in, the Android Market recognized the device and account of every Android user. Downloading and installing an simply requires selecting the appropriate device and clicking “Install.” From there, the app is automatically downloaded directly to your device and begins installing. Couldn’t be easier.

Compare that to browsing for an iPhone or iPad app from your computer. Accessing it requires iTunes to open up — which leads to a lengthy load time and many complaints about bloatware. Once it’s finished loading, download the app to your computer. Afterwards, you have to actually pull out the iPhone wire, physically connect it to your computer, and sync it to your device.

For a company heralded for its ease and sleekness, wireless syncing is a feature that’s way overdue.

Apple may hold claim to 100,000 more apps than Android’s 200,000, but with this recent update, it’s trailing the competition in a big way. Expect Cupertino to introduce wireless syncing shortly.

Here’s Lifehacker’s video of Google’s demonstration of the new Android Market:

Apple’s iTunes App Turns 10

From its humble beginnings as a simple music collection organizer, ten years later iTunes has become a killer app for playing and purchasing all kinds of media?and a major money maker, with over 10 billion songs sold.

January 9, 2001, marks the beginning of iTunes’ illustrious journey, when Apple released it as a Mac OS 9 application, built on the groundwork of the earlier SoundJam, which Apple purchased the rights to. It wasn’t until 2003,with version 4, that the real money-maker became part of iTunes?the iTunes Store.

No longer restricted to music on its tenth birthday, iTunes now sells and plays movies, TV shows, and even serves up college coursework with iTunes U. As recently as this past fall, it became a social network, too, with the introduction of Ping, and after that the heretofore untouchable Beatles music catalog became available.

A year after iTunes’ launch, it moved to Mac OS X and became the conduit for Apple’s fledgling iPod music players. Each time Apple has launched a new media-capable device?iPhone, touch, iPad?the software has been updated to match the new must-have gadget, and syncing to iTunes on either a Mac or PC is how users of those devices load their latest operating system versions.

The latest version of iTunes, 10.1, added support for iOS 4.2, which enables the company’s emerging AirPlay capability that allows wireless streaming of music, video, and photos throughout the home to compatible players and to Apple TV. And it’s likely that we’ll see yet another minor version bump for tomorrow’s big expected announcement of an iPhone that works on Verizon’s CDMA network.

As each version has added more features and capabilities, though, the software has gotten more and more bulky, with the current version weighing in at nearly 150 megabytes installed. We can only hope that future versions will go on a diet while remaining full-featured.

Yes, it’s a piece of software rather than a shiny gadget, but iTunes has been instrumental in Apple’s ascendance to tech domination?perhaps not in market share, but certainly in both mindshare among technophiles and in the company’s market valuation.

Hacked Apple iTunes accounts sell in China for pennies on the dollar

By Katie Marsal

Published: 09:00 AM EST A Chinese online store is selling hacked, illegal iTunes accounts tied to active credit cards, offering $200 worth of content from Apple’s service for as little as $30.

China’s Global Times this week revealed that about 50,000 illegal accounts are being sold through taobao.com, with prices ranging from just 1 yuan to about 200 yuan, or $30. Many of the sales are said to be stolen iTunes user accounts being re-sold by hackers.

“Potential buyers are promised access to music and movies through iTunes amounting to seven times more than the amount paid,” the report said. “The only restriction is that all downloads should be made within 24 hours of the transaction being completed at Taobao.”

A reporter for the publication tested the sales by paying $5 to a seller on Taobao. In return, they were provided an iTunes username and password which allowed access to an account complete with credit card details and a U.S. billing address.

Last July, it was revealed that iTunes account holders were being targeted in a number of fraud cases, in which some iOS developers used stolen accounts to boost their sales rankings of iPhone software. Apple quickly made a public response to the matter, suggesting that customers review their iTunes account for unauthorized transactions.

“Developers do not receive any iTunes confidential customer data when an app is downloaded,” the company said in a statement. “If your credit card or iTunes password is stolen and used on iTunes we recommend that you contact your financial institution and inquire about canceling the card and issuing a chargeback for any unauthorized transactions. WE also recommend that you change your iTunes account password immediately.”

In August, Apple also bolstered the security of its Apple ID accounts, which are shared by iTunes and store credit card information for purchases. Users must verify their account information when they log into new devices, and new iTunes account passwords must have at least 8 characters with mixed capitalization.

Compromised Apple iTunes Accounts Sell for Cheap Online

Roughly
50,000 active iTunes accounts are reportedly being sold online for as
little as 15 cents.

According
to China’s Global Times
newspaper, the accounts are being sold through taobao.com, a popular
Chinese-language online store, for between 1 and 200 yuanthe equivalent
of between 15 cents (USD) and $30 (USD). A reporter for the newspaper tested
the waters by paying $5 to a seller on the site, and in exchange was given an
iTunes username and password that permitted access to the account and
ultimately credit card and billing address information.

“Potential
buyers are promised access to music and movies through iTunes amounting to
seven times more than the amount paid,” according to the report. “The
only restriction is that all downloads should be made within 24 hours of the
transaction being completed at the site.”

According
to Global Times, thousands of such accounts have been sold during the past
several months. It is possible user account credentials were phished
or stolen through malware. It is also possible the accounts were
established using stolen credit cards.

“If
you think about it, there are cyber-criminals out there
who make money from stealing ‘virtual goods’ from online role-playing games
and sell them for hard cashso if they can make money from, effectively, ‘nothing,’
they can make money from iTunes accounts too,” Graham Cluley, senior
technology consultant at Sophos, told eWEEK. “If people are prepared to
pay for somethingcut-price access to iTunesthere will be others who will try
and supply it.”

In
response to the report, Apple is advising users to take action if they suspect
their account may be compromised.

“We’re
always working to enhance account security for iTunes users,” an Apple
spokesman said in a statement. “If your credit card or iTunes
password is stolen and used on iTunes, you should contact your financial
institution about any unauthorized purchases, and be sure to change your iTunes
password right away.”

Amazon MP3 swallowing heavy loss-leaders in fight for iTunes market share

Amazon’s MP3 download ambitions continue to fall short of Apple’s iTunes behemoth, with even heavy discounts and loss-leading sales failing to claw away significantly at their rival’s market lead. According to the latest stats from NPD Group, Amazon clinched just 13.3-percent of the paid digital download market in Q3 2010, a 2.3-percent rise over the previous year, while iTunes’ share climbed three points to 66.2-percent. However, Amazon has been forced to stomach expensive loss-leaders in order to make that increase: while Apple negotiates wholesale prices to suit its download deals, insiders tell the WSJ, Amazon generally pays around $7-8 wholesale for music it offers at around the $3.99 price point.

Meanwhile, record labels – though anecdotally frustrated by Apple’s control over the market – suggest that Amazon is doing even worse than NPD calculate. Those the WSJ spoke to say Amazon may have only 6- to 10-percent of the market, versus Apple’s 90-percent. Amazon is refusing to release details on how much return business it sees, but the strong tie-in between iTunes and Apple’s iPod, iPhone and iPad ranges look to be keeping the company ahead of the game.

Beatlemania on iTunes set to buoy EMI profits

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 1:25 AM on 21st November 2010

EMI is set for a boost in profits after strong sales of Beatles songs on Apple’s iTunes download service, but the company has denied accepting unfavourable terms to sign the deal.

Beatles records are set to dominate the British and US single and album charts with 15 Beatles’ records, led by Hey Jude, expected to be in the UK Top 40 single chart when it is published today.

The music is available for download after a deal between the two surviving members and the heirs of the Fab Four and Apple computer company to sell the records on iTunes was finally reached last week. EMI, which owns the rights to The Beatles’ recordings, played a key role.

Fab deal: EMI owns the rights to The Beatles’ recordings

However, EMI denied suggestions in the music industry that it had accepted a significantly less favourable split in income from digital sales between the group and the company to get the deal done.

There has been speculation that EMI accepted substantially less than a half-share, with The Beatles taking most of the income. EMI said this was ‘absolutely not true’. The Beatles’ spokesman did not return calls.

Even with the profits boost, EMI is still expected to breach the terms of its bank loans in March without further investment.

EMI’s owner, financier Guy Hands, lost a court case against US bank Citigroup earlier this month over the deal and faces seeing ownership revert to Citigroup if the music giant cannot meet the terms of its loan.

In Britain, The Beatles’ compilation album ‘Blue’ (1967-70) is at number nine on iTunes, with ‘Red’ (1962-66) at number 14, while Sergeant Pepper is 17.

In the US, Abbey Road is number four with the White Album at number nine and Sergeant Pepper at ten.

Apple iTunes sees Beatles downloads rise in charts

Beatles has featured on Apple’s app store- iTunes. This move has surely affected music’s digital grounds and at the same time it speaks of the best music featuring in Apple.

Experts claim that in terms of digital music, Beatles were the holy grail, a band which although broke, but managed to sell the highest number of recordings in the music industry.

As the deal was publicized yesterday Australian time, the Beatles’ music began to feature as one of the best sellers in the world.

Indeed, the iTunes charts offer music fans an instant, virtual census on just what the most popular Beatles tracks and albums are present.

In case of Australia, for example, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club is presently the infamous Fab Four album, followed by Abbey Road. And follows the infamous songs like- Let It Be, Here Comes The Sun, Twist and Shout and Hey Jude, in that array.

In case of US, Abbey Road and The White Album are the two of the most selling LPs, with Here Comes The Sun, Let It Be and In My Life the most popular downloaded tracks.

UK music enthusiasts have also released the 31 Beatles tracks into their iTunes Top 200, and presently the most downloaded songs are Hey Jude, Twist and Shout and Blackbird.

The prices vary in all three regions. For example in case of Australia, The White Album is priced at $35.99, however in the US it’s just $19.99. Similarly, Abbey Road costs $12.99 in the US and $20.99 in Australia.

The famed bands absence from Apples music service was long considered a glaring omission. Apple Corps, which publishes the Beatles work, had long resisted delivering the Fab Fours work in an online format, preferring a series of CD releases over the past decade. I’m sorry, were you expecting congratulations here? Perhaps the most “unforgettable” element from today’s Beatles-available-on-iTunes announcement was the eyerolling on Wall Street: Apple’s share price was down five points at press time. Nearly a decade after Apple Inc. introduced iTunes, the digital downloading service finally has landed the Beatles. ITunes on Tuesday rolled out the Fab Four’s music for legal downloading for the first time, offering 17 albums encompassing all 13 of the group’s original studio albums, the double “Past Masters” collection of nonalbum tracks, two hits compilations and a box set including everything except the hits collections. On Tuesday, Apple Inc. said its iTunes store will start selling downloads of songs and albums from the group, in an agreement with the Beatles’ recording label, EMI Group Ltd., and its management company, Apple Corps Ltd. Apple’s news release only cites that concert film as an exclusive. “The fact is, this would have been a big deal three years ago,” says James McQuivey, an analyst at Forrester Research . But the Fab Four’s work doesn’t show up on Amazon’s MP3 store , Apple’s main rival in the digital-download business. “Abbey Road,” the group’s 1969 studio album, quickly jumped into iTunes’ ranking of the top 10 hottest-selling albums Tuesday.

The first settlement came in 1981, when Apple Computer paid Apple Corps millions to keep its name, with the promise it would stay away from the music business.

Grooveshark used to offer Beatles songs until they began disappearing from the site through a simple search for “Beatles.” However some forum members have found that unique search terms, like “Beattles,” still draws a few results. We love the Beatles, and it has been painful being at odds with them over these trademarks, Steve Jobs wrote in a February 2007 press release .

Apple has a 75% market share of the digital music market, McQuivey says. Just a year and a half ago, Apple banished DRM entirely from the iTunes Store’s music inventory. “iTunes and Apple Corps missed the revenue stream a long time ago. The songs have been available on numerous torrent sites for years.” What kept the Beatles’ catalog off iTunes for so long was a complicated web of legal entanglements. Tuesday, the Beatles finally ran out of excuses for not letting downloaders give them their money. Is there anybody left online who doesn’t already have all the Beatles MP3s they want? Several of those artists have cited their opposition to iTunes’ breaking up albums into individually downloadable tracks. Those years of legal action doubtlessly made the attorneys rich, but it may have slowed the Beatles arrival on iTunes. Apple is making the bands albums available for $12.99 each, with songs priced at $1.29, in addition to a $149 Beatles Box Set with the albums, mini-documentaries and other materials.

Nearly a decade after Apple Inc. introduced iTunes, the digital downloading service finally has landed the Beatles. ITunes on Tuesday rolled out the Fab Four’s music for legal downloading for the first time, offering 17 albums encompassing all 13 of the group’s original studio albums, the double “Past Masters” collection of nonalbum tracks, two hits compilations and a box set including everything except the hits collections. It has finally happened, but it wasn’t easy. Beatles songs are finally available in Apple’s iTunes store. But while the Fab Four might be the most notable iTunes holdout, they certainly aren’t the last. In the past, he’s stated he believes iTunes is “killing” music, and says he won’t give in until Apple offers variable pricing and will allow more album-only downloads. A dwindling number of artists are still resistant to joining Apple’s music download service.

Searches on iTunes for AC/DC, Kid Rock, Tool, Garth Brooks, and Def Leppard will return disappointing results: karaoke and cover tracks, not material from the artists themselves. AC/DC and Apple have an ideological agreement; the Australian band protests Apple’s policy that offers albums piecemeal. It marks the first time that Beatles songs have been available for digital-download sales. Finally, a digital destination to discover and consume the biggest group of all time.” Does it matter that Beatles are on iTunes?

How did the two sides get it right? That interminably long and inexplicably winding road has come to an end – long after fans who wanted the Fab Four’s songs already had them. “iTunes and Apple Corps missed the revenue stream a long time ago. After that it was very easy to cut a deal.” They code-named the initiative “Bastille,” as it coincided with Bastille Day. “They truly think that they’re saving music,” the singer said in a 2009 USA Today report . And I’m sure they’re just doing it all in the interest of making as much…cash as possible. Somebody buys “Revolver” on disc and passes it around. Mr. Faxon had previously served for many years as a senior executive at EMI’s music-publishing division, where he won a reputation as a low-key but effective executive, in an industry filled with outsized egos. Let’s put it this way, it’s certainly not for the…love, let’s get that out of the way, right away.” AC/DC’s most recent album was purposely kept out of Apple’s music stores. (Credit: Last. Until we get variable pricing, until we get album-only downloads, then they are not a true retailer for my stuff, and you won’t see my stuff on there.” Multiple sources said that with meandering anthems that overlap into one another, ambient rock band Tool has the same misgivings about iTunes. Professor Mnookin noted that he often tells his students, “Before you go into any negotiation, any party should ask, what are my interests, what do I care about, and what are my alternatives if I don’t make this deal?” It is not immediately obvious that the Beatles-iTunes agreement had to happen now.

Kid Rock and Bob Seger have also refused to cave in, like holed-up gunfighters. The Beatles have partnered with Apple Inc.’s iTunes service, ending the most prominent holdout and finally bringing one of music’s most popular catalogs to the online store. As long as the Beatles and Apple have co-existed, fans of both have wondered: when are these crazy kids finally going to get together? But the iTunes generation, comprised of those kids you bump into on the subway or the sidewalk, the ones who bounce their heads gently to a beat so as not to dislodge their earbuds, had been denied. If they wanted to hear “Dear Prudence” or “Lovely Rita,” they’d have to do so the old-fashioned way: file sharing. Searches on iTunes for AC/DC, Kid Rock, Tool, Garth Brooks, and Def Leppard will return disappointing results: karaoke and cover tracks, not material from the artists themselves. And now, 32 years later, the two are ready to do business , with Apple selling Beatles singles and albums on iTunes. That interminably long and inexplicably winding road has come to an end. AC/DC and Apple have an ideological agreement; the Australian band protests Apple’s policy that offers albums piecemeal. “My hat’s off to them. Formed about 50 years ago, the Beatles have remained a top-seller, with customers buying more than 30 million albums in the last decade, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Finally, a digital destination to discover and consume the biggest group of all time.” ‘Dancing’ semifinals prove semi-predictable Jennifer Grey’s still leading the pack, Bristol Palin is still dead last and Brooke Burke still has nothing new to add to the show. Apple last year began selling songs for 69 cents and $1.29 aside from the normal 99 cents, though album-only downloads are still discouraged. And where did they go wrong? In 2007, the company and Apple Corps Ltd., the entity that handles the Fab Four’s business affairs, settled a trademark dispute about the apple name and logo. “They truly think that they’re saving music,” the singer said in a 2009 USA Today report . Single albums cost $12.99 and double albums are priced at $19.99, Apple said.

Until we get variable pricing, until we get album-only downloads, then they are not a true retailer for my stuff, and you won’t see my stuff on there.” Multiple sources said that with meandering anthems that overlap into one another, ambient rock band Tool has the same misgivings about iTunes.

Kid Rock, whose new album “Born Free” was released Tuesday, has said he’s resistant to the pack mentality and is suspicious of anyone who tells him that he “must” be on iTunes. Yet marketing is all about drawing consumers closer to the product. You can download his full albums only from Amazon.com and the Rhapsody MP3 store. “Because I remember being a kid when I heard a song that I liked, I would jump on the bus, ride to Detroit, get a $2.50 transfer and walk a mile to the hip-hop store to buy the new Eric B. & Rakim record. That age group grew up with iPods, and they don’t go to stores to buy CDs. In 2007, Kid Rock’s sixth album “Rock ‘n’ Roll Jesus,” debuted at number one on the Billboard top 200 chart, despite its absence from iTunes.

Tool: Another group that doesn’t want its songs sold off piecemeal, the L.A.-based prog rock band has kept its music from the clutches of Apple’s online empire. EMI is in dire financial straits and trying to fend off Citigroup, to whom it owes a considerable amount money. So the Beatles on iTunes is a good move for turning on the next generation to the Beatles’ music.” Will other holdouts follow suit? Prince’s music is available from the online retailer, but he dismissed iTunes and the Internet altogether earlier this year. “The Internet’s completely over,” Prince told the Daily Mirror.

The Beatles have come to iTunes.  After a decades long back and forth between Apple (the computer company) and Apple Corps. (The Beatles’ multimedia company), the two appear to have come to an agreement. The music of The Beatles went on sale in the iTunes store Tuesday morning, FoxNews.com has confirmed.  The page selling the Fab Four’s tunes went live about 20 minutes before the official announcement at 10 a.m.

Purchasing the entire Beatles back catalogue will cost £125. “We love the Beatles and are honored and thrilled to welcome them to iTunes,? said Apple CEO   Steve Jobs in a statement. If you are one of the rare people who is both a huge fan of the group, but somehow doesn’t actually own the music, you can buy the entire back-catalog at once for $150. “We’re really excited to bring the Beatles’ music to iTunes,” said Sir Paul McCartney. The Beatles have been notable absentees from the digital music revolution, and it was initially thought that a trademark dispute between Apple Inc, the technology company, and Apple Corps, the Beatles’ label, could be to blame, though that legal wrangle was settled in 2007. Each album comes with iTunes LP, which features additional content including lyrics, photos, and album art. The update came in advance of what Apple had promised would be a 10 a.m. “It’s a symbolic milestone.” While the Beatles music has been available for four decades on vinyl, cassette, 8-track and CD, its migration to iTunes makes it more easily available to those who don’t own the songs in those other formats. Even if you don’t want to buy the White Album yet again, you should head over and spend the morning checking out the freebies. Until now, to listen to Beatles songs on iPods, a fan needed to obtain a CD and “rip” a digital version of it or find someone who already has done so. Also available are the two-volume “Past Masters” compilation and the group’s “Red” and “Blue” collections. There are enough videos to keep you distracted from work for a chunk of the day, including TV ads, a documentary of The Beatles first U.S concert at the Washington Coliseum in 1964, and a great highlight reel. Fans can also purchase individual songs and a digital box set featuring live concert film an iTunes exclusive, according to the release.

The length of that deal is unknown. Such a service would allow users to stream content over a network onto various devices, but analysts said Apple still needs to line up agreements with music labels, whom the company has repeatedly clashed with the over the years. That being the case, the past few years had seen rumor after rumor that the Beatles were finally going to arrive on iTunes. “It has been a long and winding road to get here.

“Have you ever downloaded something you were pretty sure you had somewhere else? “I am particularly glad to no longer be asked when the Beatles are coming to iTunes,” said Ringo Starr.

Apple Premieres Movies on the iTunes Store in Japan

TOKYO—November 11, 2010—Apple® today announced that movies are now available on the iTunes Store® in Japan giving customers an incredible way to enjoy movies on their iPhone®, iPad™, iPod touch®, Mac® or PC, or with the new Apple TV® on their HD TV. Starting today, there are over 1,000 movies to rent or buy in high definition and standard definition from major international film studios including 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, The Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros. Pictures, Universal Pictures and top Japanese studios including Asmik Ace Entertainment Inc., Fuji TV, Kadakowa Pictures, Nikkatsu, Shochiku Company Limited and Toei Company Limited.

With iTunes’ legendary ease of use, discovering and watching movies is as simple and easy as buying music on iTunes® has always been. Movie fans can choose from many top-rated movies in Japan, including Hollywood blockbusters such as “Toy Story 3” and “Sex and the City 2,” as well as Japanese favorites including “Ototo,” “Gekijôban Kamen Raidâ Dikeido: Ôru Raidâ tai Daishokkâ” and “Odoru Daisousasen THE MOVIE 2.”

With iTunes Movie Rentals, once a movie is rented, it starts downloading from the iTunes Store directly to iTunes or Apple TV, and users with a fast Internet connection can start viewing the movie in seconds. Customers have up to 30 days to start watching their movie, and once a movie has been started customers have 48 hours to finish it—or watch it multiple times. In addition to renting movies on the iTunes Store, many movies are available to purchase in HD and SD.

The new Apple TV started shipping in Japan this week and offers the simplest way to watch HD movies on an HD TV and users can also enjoy millions of YouTube videos, more than 200,000 podcasts, 4,000 Internet radio stations and personal photos from MobileMe? and Flickr, while music, videos and photos can be streamed from Macs and PCs. Users can control Apple TV with their iPhone, iPad or iPod touch using the Remote app, available now as a free download on the App Store?, or with the upcoming availability of AirPlay® users will be able to stream music, photos and video from their iPhone, iPad and iPod touch directly to Apple TV.

Pricing & Availability
iTunes 10 for Mac and Windows includes the iTunes Store and is available as a free download from www.apple.com/jp/itunes. iTunes movie purchases and rentals require a valid credit card with a billing address in Japan. iTunes HD movie purchases in Japan start at ¥2,000 for catalog titles and recent releases and ¥2,500 for new releases, and SD versions are priced at ¥1,000 for catalog titles, ¥1,500 for recent releases and ¥2,000 for new releases. iTunes HD Movie Rentals start at ¥300 for library title rentals and ¥500 for new releases, and SD versions start at ¥200 for library title rentals and ¥400 for new releases. Apple TV, which comes standard with an aluminum Apple Remote, is available through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers for a suggested retail price of ¥8,800. Apple TV requires an 802.11b/g/n wireless network or Ethernet network, a broadband Internet connection and a high definition TV capable of 720p.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork, and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple is reinventing the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced its magical iPad which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.

Press Contacts:

Takashi Takebayashi
Apple
takashi.takebayashi@apple.com
+81 3 5334 2430

Nao Yanagisawa
Apple
nao_yanagisawa@apple.com
+81 3 5334 2430

NOTE TO EDITORS: For additional information visit Apple?s PR website, or call Apple’s Media Helpline at (408) 974-2042.

Apple, the Apple logo, Mac, Mac OS, Macintosh, iTunes Store, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple TV, iTunes, MobileMe, App Store, AirPlay and Apple Store are trademarks of Apple. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.