Posts Tagged ‘iTunes’
Richard Dreyfuss reads the iTunes EULA
Richard Dreyfuss reads the iTunes EULA
Cut to the chase, and listen to the “Effective Until” reading. It’s the keeper.
Paper books are dead – says renowned publisher
The prince of coffee table books believes paper books are dead. Now he wants to be king of the app.
Since 1980, Nicholas Callaway has made the finest of design-driven books, building a publishing house and his fortune on memorable children’s stories and on volumes known for the fidelity of their reproductions of great art. But the quality of paper, ink and binding mean nothing to him now.
For Callaway, it’s all about apps — small applications sold in Apple’s App Store where books are enhanced beyond the mere text of e-books. In this cutting-edge new medium, cooks can clap hands to turn pages of an interactive recipe, a book about Richard Nixon can include footage of him sweating during presidential debates, a Sesame Street character can read a story out loud and, should your child get bored, the app can turn the tale into a jigsaw puzzle or a computerized finger-painting set.
“I have bet the whole ranch on this,” Callaway told Reuters. “This kind of juncture happens maybe once in a century.”
Publishers from New York to London agree this as a moment of huge change. They are adapting to rising sales of e-books, and the popularity of smart phones and tablets such as the iPad. The retail landscape has changed with Amazon becoming the dominant seller of books while countless book stores go the way of video rental stores. America’s No. 2 book store chain, Borders, is bankrupt. Some authors have dropped their publishers entirely, self-publishing online and using social media to connect with readers. Others have become adept at using Facebook and Twitter to reach readers or have attracted fans by becoming popular reviewers of books on Amazon and then publishing their own book.
Callaway is among those who believe the change is just beginning and, in the years to come, the app will change things utterly.
RTFA. Several pages of history, analysis and commentary – decision and the courage to follow that decision to its logical new beginning.
For my part, I think he’s right. Though few have followed through on the breadth of editing and presentation techniques made available by digital media, what I have seen approaches a qualitative change in communication.
Everything a book can offer and more. All the rest is cultural accommodation.
Win $10,000. Hangup on congratulations call from Apple!
Mom says, “Oops!”
You can’t blame Gail Davis for hanging up on the person who called her to congratulate her on downloading Apple’s 10 billionth app and winning a $10,000 iTunes gift certificate. Her husband and her both don’t have iPods capable of using App store items.
“I thought it was a prank call,” Gail Davis said to Cult of Mac. “I said, ‘Thank you very much, I’m not interested’ and I hung up.”
However, the call – which came from Apple’s VP of iTunes Eddy Cue – was completely legitimate. Her 14 and 17 year old daughters had downloaded the free Paper Glider app on their mother’s account and told her mother this was the real thing.
They had downloaded the app around 9:30AM their time (UK), 1:30 AM PST/4:30 AM EST. “The more I thought about it, the more I realized it was a genuine call,” she said. “The girls were getting quite tense. They never would have forgiven me. They would have held it against me for all eternity.”
One of Cue’s colleagues called back, and the Davis’ family will be using the prize money to, you guessed it, download more apps.
Har! Hanging up is definitely something I’d do.
Ping, Apple, Amazon and social networking
Apple announced on Wednesday a cornucopia of new hardware and software: sleek iPods, a brand new Internet-enabled video streaming device and new versions of its iOS software and iTunes 10. However, the most impressive to me by far was Ping, the music-only social network that Apple is opening up its 160 million existing iTunes users.
No, I’m not blown away by the 160 million number. What I’m impressed by is the thinking behind Ping…
From a content perspective, there are three different types of media we love to talk about:
* movies we see
* music we listen to
* books we are reading
These are accepted social norms. In fact, many relationships are made on the basis of collective love of a movie and many friendships have started with mixed tapes. It makes perfect sense for a music service to be social…
Ping…can tell me who my friends think are cool and the top 10 favorites of people in my social graph. Some of my friends are famous deejays. Others just have eclectic musical tastes. They can collectively sift through over 10 million songs and help with the discovery of music. This social-powered discovery is part of the biggest theme of our times: serendipity…
My belief has only been affirmed by growth in the amount of data available. With 12 million songs and 250,000 apps, the best way for Apple to enhance the iTunes store – aka its shopping experience — is through the use of social. Back in 2007, I argued that social networking was merely a feature that had to be embedded into applications to enhance their value. Apple has done a great job of that, but it’s also gone one step further, not only by adding a social networking layer to iTunes, but by meshing it with its commerce engine, the iTunes Store. And it’s made this experience available on both the desktop and its devices…
Like Apple, Amazon too has a lot more data about its customers and their behaviors and could create a compelling discovery experience. I believe with tens of thousands of products in its store, the retail giant needs to figure out ways to surface content and other offerings smartly.
As much of a non-social being as I am, I see what Om has perceived. Starting with the business opportunity, granting like access to like is socially meaningful as well as commercially beneficial. After all, this is part of how craft-oriented magazines – from Road & Track to Quilting Magazine – built their subscription base.
Mutually supportive, generating an internal energy, the subscription base of iTunes can utilize Ping to lead and support purchasing decisions. Music, movies, books – access deepened by the people you choose to accept as peers and friends.
Cripes, I have a single simple example like those Om mentions in his article: 3Cities. A group I’ve never heard of – Bombay Dub Orchestra – produced this recording a short while back. I never heard of them. But, Om mentioned liking the CD in his personal blog – I listened to a track and bought the CD. Best music purchase in the last year!
With iTunes, Apple has thrown their weight around [Gasp!]
Investigators for the Department of Justice began asking questions about Apple’s business practices involving digital music at least three weeks ago, multiple music industry sources told CNET.
DOJ investigators have interviewed numerous executives at record companies and digital music stores and according to those with knowledge of the discussions, it is clear that investigators are interested in learning whether Apple has employed anticompetitive tactics.
The sources said that the department’s inquiry is just in a fact-finding stage and that there is nothing to indicate investigators have found any wrongdoing or would file a complaint against Apple…
Apple has a history of throwing its weight around the music sector. Apple’s iTunes accounts for 70 percent of all digital song sales and wields huge power. Apple has often used that clout to dictate terms to suppliers — that is, the major labels.
Here are just a few examples: The major labels wanted variable pricing on songs and albums and for years Apple resisted. In 2005, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said the top recording companies were “getting greedy”after music execs considered a music price hike. Last year, Apple finally gave the labels some additional control over song pricing.
The big record companies wanted the ability to sell albums that were unbundled, meaning they wanted Apple to sell hot LPs as a full package and refrain from selling individual songs from these works. Again, on this issue Apple hasn’t given much ground.
To iTunes’ fans, Apple was a freedom fighter. The perception was that Apple was standing up for consumers.
Apple’s refusal to force customers to buy full albums saved them from having to shell out money for songs they didn’t want. To them, Apple’s reluctance to raise the 99 cent song price was another way the company kept music costs down. And the government never made a peep about these practices.
Regardless of papier mache whines like this, the DOJ isn’t about to investigate the MPAA or RIAA. They aren’t even prepared to come down on the side of consumers and protect Fair Use – which has been eroded every year by greedy entertainment giants, pliable bureaucrats and judges.
Thieves used iTunes for laundering ID theft
Four of the five losers
Five Rochdale men have been jailed for using iTunes music gift vouchers to launder money in an internet scam.
The men used stolen credit card numbers to buy £750,000 worth of vouchers to sell at cheaper prices through eBay. They were caught when police stopped one of the men during a search at Hull port in 2007 and seized his laptop.
It led them to orchestrator Suhail Tufail, 26, who admitted fraud charges and was jailed for five years at Manchester Crown Court.
In May 2007, Humberside Ports police stopped three men – including Mohammed Arfan Rasool and Imran Aslam – as part of a routine search when they arrived from Amsterdam.
A “suspicious” laptop belonging to Rasool was seized and examined by Greater Manchester Police’s economic crime unit.
When officers examined the hard drive, along with two other computers found at his home, they found the details of more than 7,000 bank cards. The same details were found on computers seized from Tufail. They later discovered that many of the details had been used to fraudulently purchase iTunes gift certificates.
It emerged that Tufail developed the idea of buying the vouchers and then selling them at a reduced price to launder cash from the cards…
An eBay spokesperson said the company had worked closely with police to provide evidence and was “delighted” with the sentences.
“Criminal activity is not tolerated on our site and we will continue to work alongside law enforcement agencies to ensure that anyone who attempts to commit fraudulent activity on eBay won’t get away with it,” they added.
I imagine Steve Jobs was sort of pleased, as well.
I recall iTunes gift cards being shut down last time we went to use one as a birthday present – and it’s satisfying to know the details of the “gift card scam” that was the explanation for the quick stop.
iTunes soon to reach 10 billion song milestone – WINNER
Apple’s iTunes music store will soon reach 10 billion songs sold since its inception in April of 2003, and is marking this accomplishment with a contest rewarding the purchaser of the 10 billionth song a $10,000 iTunes card.
While Apple’s iTunes took nearly three years to reach its first billion, it will soon surpass 10 billion songs sold since the online music service was introduced in 2003…
“iTunes changed the way you buy music, making songs and albums available for download, day or night. Seven years later, we’re about to celebrate our biggest milestone for music, yet — 10 billion songs downloaded,” states Apple’s website.
You can enter at the site without a purchase, BTW.
Apple celebrated 3 billion songs sold in July of 2007 after four years of sales. Thursday’s contest announcement reveals that sales trends since then have greatly increased. iTunes has taken only three years to make its 10 billion song milestone.
In many ways, iTunes has been a core qualitative change in entertainment communications – usually unmentioned by pundits who only focus on hardware and the software running on that hardware.
iTunes functions – for me – as a cloud aggregator, as a media manager for home entertainment and more. I have a dozen or so regular iTunes subscriptions which bring HDTV programs, mostly documentaries and geek programs like Tekzilla into my living room TV set via AppleTV on a weekly basis.
iTunes and the AppleTV serve the same function for programs, documentaries, I download from the Web and import into iTunes to be distributed throughout the house as required. It’s all simple and easy – as it should be. I don’t mind mentioning, as I often have to content providers, if you’re sensible enough to make your content available on iTunes the market for your intellectual wares is broadened and deepened so much more over making consumers search for it through the whole web.
Update WINNER: Louie Sulcer of Woodstock, Georgia. The 10 billionth song downloaded? “Guess Things Happen That Way” by Johnny Cash.
Music mavens prove to iTunes/Apple how dumb they are
Since Apple granted music labels the flexibility to set individual song prices between $0.69 and $1.29 on the iTunes Music Store, growth of digital music sales has slowed, one music executive has revealed.
According to Peter Kafka at MediaMemo, Warner Music Group revealed Tuesday that it has seen digital music sales slow down since the price increase took effect in April 2009. Digital album downloads grew 5 percent in December, down from 10 percent in the September quarter and 11 percent in the June quarter. Digital revenue is slowing as well: Warner saw 8 percent growth in the holiday quarter, versus 20 percent a year before.
Warner CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr. reportedly said the pricing change has been a “net positive” for Warner, but conceded that a 30 percent price increase during a recession was not the best move…
Do you think so? Idiot!
In early 2009, Apple convinced record labels to remove digital rights management from iTunes music downloads. But in the process, the Cupertino, Calif., company conceded price flexibility. Starting last April, some popular tracks saw a 30 percent increase in price, from 99 cents to $1.29.
Anyone believe the Music Barons have a clue about marketing to 21st Century consumers?
Steve Jobs returns to the stage
Daylife/AP Photo used by permission
Apple boss Steve Jobs has made his first public appearance, after almost a year away from the limelight, at a product launch in San Francisco.
He last appeared on stage for the company in October 2008, since when he has been absent because of ill health.
The notoriously private head of Apple won a standing ovation as he walked on stage, after which he gave details about his recent operation.
“As some of you may know, about five months ago I had a liver transplant,” he told the crowd.
“So I now have the liver of a mid-20s person who died in a car crash and was generous enough to donate their organs.”
Mr Jobs then urged the audience to all become organ donors.
But it was not long before he got down to business…
He used the event to show off a new 64GB iPod Touch and an iPod Nano featuring a video camera, pedometer and FM radio.
Mr Jobs said the firm had sold around 100m of the Nano devices, claiming that it was “the most popular music player in the world”.
Mr Jobs said the firm had sold over 30 million iPhone handsets and attributed its success to the App Store which, he said, now has more than 75,000 applications which owners can download to their phone. So far, he said, there had been 1.8bn apps downloaded.
Worth a footnote in the history of this digital world so many of us utilize, live in to some extent. Some more, some less. 
Do we need an iTunes for news?
Last Tuesday, iTunes, Apple’s ubiquitous online music store that sold more than 2.4 billion tracks last year alone, changed its own tune, announcing that songs would no longer be sold with copying restrictions and that they would be available at various prices.
The digerati crowed over the collapse of the hated digital rights management (which Apple never liked, either) and record companies kicked up their heels at the thought of leaving behind the tyranny of the 99-cent price point.
But lost in the hubbub was the fact that Steve Jobs and Apple had been able to charge for content in the first place. Remember that when iTunes began, the music industry was being decimated by file sharing. By coming up with an easy user interface and obtaining the cooperation of a broad swath of music companies, Jobs helped pull the business off the brink. He has been accused of running roughshod over the music labels, which are a fraction of their former size. But they are still in business.
Those of us who are in the U.S. newspaper business could not be blamed for hoping that someone like him comes along and ruins our business as well by pulling the same trick: convincing the millions of interested readers who get their news every day free on newspapers sites that it’s time to pay up.
For a long time, newspapers assumed that as their print advertising declined, it would be intersected by a surging line of online advertising revenue. But that revenue is no longer growing at many newspaper sites, so if the lines cross, it will be because the print revenue is saying hello on its way to the basement.
