itunes

The most "hip and trendy" music download site is combining with the one retail environment that may just as well define "hip and trendy". Yeah, that's right, Apple's megapopular iTunes music service has teamed up with overpriced java distributor ... Starbucks, promising free songs to customers waiting for a caffeine fix. According to reports, Starbucks intends to dole out some 50 million free tunes in its domestic coffee shops to promote iTunes' upgrade to wireless service, set to debut in select markets soon. What's the deal? For the month between October 2 and November 7, Starbucks ... (view more)

Apple is reportedly considering cutting its prices for television episodes in half, from $1.99 to $0.99 -- the same price it currently charges for music singles. The price-slashing is part of Apple's plan to increase digital video sales. The company ... believes that the increase in volume will more than double, leaving profits positively affected even after the price cut. (Source: appleinsider.com ) But not everyone is seeing the price reduction with rose-colored glasses. Television studios worry that cutting the price of TV downloads will negatively impact DVD sales. Currently, a season of a ... (view more)

Apple has finally given up on their deal with NBC Universal after several disputes over the price of their television shows. Apple officially announced that they would no longer be offering any NBC programs for the fall season through their iTunes ... downloading service. NBC has fired back at their former partnering company, claiming that Apple was solely responsible for the downfall of the agreement. According to NBC affiliates, they had given Apple sufficient notice that their programs were not to be sold via iTunes after the end of the previous season. (Source: usatoday.com ) The quarrel is ... (view more)

Up until now, few have questioned the success of the iPod and iTunes. However, the future of Video iTunes has now come under criticism, as more channels have begun streaming their own free content. Is there a future for iTunes? (Source: slashdot.org ... ) While sales of movies and television shows are expected to almost triple this year, a new study by Forrester Research found that unless the average consumer begins paying for online content en masse (which -- let's be serious -- is not likely to happen), growth in sales will likely begin to diminish next year. This could spell out bad news for ... (view more)

Steve Jobs has not changed his mind about the way music should be sold. Last week, Jobs reinforced his view that subscriptions and iTunes do not mix. "Never say never, but customers don't seem to be interested in it," Jobs said of subscription ... services. "The subscription model has failed so far." (Source: reuters.com ) Jobs' stance on the issue is far from new. In 2003, Jobs explained to Rolling Stone how the natural evolution of music doesn't support subscription services: "People don't want to buy their music as a subscription. They bought 45s; then they bought LPs; then they bought ... (view more)

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) Studios and Apple recently announced that MGM will now offer titles from its catalogue of feature films for purchase and download on the iTunes Store website. This deal will add to iTunes menu of over 500 movie titles ... available for purchase and download. (Source: reuters.com) Beginning Wednesday, MGM, which has the largest modern film library in the world (over 4000 films), launched 25 titles for download on iTunes. An Apple spokesperson noted that more of MGM's films would be added over the next several weeks. (Source: blogs.pcworld.com ) The iTunes online store ... (view more)

On April 2, EMI and Apple announced that EMI's entire music catalog will be available free of all digital rights management (DRM) protection on the iTunes store. While the buzz of the announcement has centered on the implications for the music ... industry, there is another facet of this situation worth discussing: Steve Jobs' orchestration of the shift to DRM-free music. (Source: techreport.com ) In February, Jobs released an open letter on the Apple website criticizing DRM protection systems. Jobs wrote: "Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable ... (view more)

After several attempts to make iTunes compatible with Windows Vista, Apple is still discovering defects and incompatibility issues. The iTunes software is a crucial component when synching music to be downloaded onto iPod portable players. Even ... though Apple recently released iTunes 7.1, the company urges customers not to install the product on Vista-ready computers until all the incompatibility issues are resolved. (Source: denverpost.com ) Apple has since removed warnings from their website in favor of a cautionary notice that acknowledges some glitches with the program -- which includes ... (view more)

Apple has some bad news if you've been planning on listening to your iTunes on Vista: it may not work. Apple issued an advisory on last Friday explaining that iTunes 7.0.2, when launched on Vista, has been giving users trouble. There have been ... problems with purchased music tracks playing, synching issues, and -- worse of all -- incidences where the iPod corrupts. (Source: betanews.com ) iPods have corrupted when users try to eject the device from a desktop port using the "Safely Remove Hardware" feature on Vista. To safely remove the device, it must be undocked using the "Eject iPod" control ... (view more)

Swarms of online shoppers wanting to redeem their new iPod and iTunes gift cards apparently overwhelmed the Apple iTunes music store over the holidays, prompting error messages and massive slowdowns of up to 20 minutes or more for downloads of a ... single song. (Source: technology.canoe.ca ) Users began posting urgent help messages on the store website both Christmas Day and Boxing Day. The average problem that customers encountered was that the system could not process their request to download songs and videos. Some people were not allowed into the iTunes music store altogether. It still ... (view more)