Apple - Idolator

Posts Tagged “Apple”

your $199 iphone just made my christmas gift a little less joyous

The Phone You Want, The Radio You Don't

The announcement of iPhone 2.0 dragged the Internet to a screeching halt on Monday, and now that things are starting to sort of get back on track, all the exciting features of the Phone To Save Us All are being unveiled. You know those terrible local radio stations you've been ignoring in your car or in your home? Now, you'll be able to listen to them while rapidly draining the battery on your iPhone! More »

1:00 PM on Fri Jun 13 2008
By Dan Gibson
293 views, 8 comments

Today In Unsurprising Major-Label Negotiation Tactics

With the forthcoming launch of the 3G iPhone, Apple is trying to make the iTunes Store available to any iPhone users, and not just those who are already within reach of a wireless connection. But he needs to make deals with the major labels in order for this to happen, and so the majors are hoping that this means the idea of variable pricing—in which, say, Hard Candy will cost the few people who still want to buy it out there an extra couple of bucks—is back on the table, as is the whole "Comes With Music"-like all-you-can-eat plan that gives over a chunk of change to the labels for each device sold in exchange for said devices having "any" songs (that the labels want to keep in digital print and, presumably, don't feel like overcharging for) available to users who want them. Not to seem all biased and stuff, but I do hope Mr. Jobs stays strong in these negotiations, because the whole Comes With Music plan in particular seems like a stinker with a shelf life that will come screeching to a halt as soon as the labels figure out that they've made all the money they can from it. [Listening Post]

1 comment

Overly excitable music-business types are looking at Apple's recent deal with HBO, where top-tier shows like The Sopranos are priced at $2.99 per episode on the iTunes Store (as opposed to The Wire's $1.99-a-pop price), as a sign that the company may someday embrace variable pricing, which would allow the music business to revitalize itself by charging the $2.99-a-song price that "4 Minutes" and "Touch My Body" so rightfully command. Thankfully, Anthony Bruno at Billboard splashes a bit of water on this notion by pointing out that the shows that HBO has placed on iTunes last quite a bit longer than three minutes and thirty seconds—which, one would think, might attract just a bit more money—and that most of the variants in price can be explained away by the shows' relative lengths. Prediction: Some poor major-label act is going to be corralled into releasing a 10-minute debut single for the purposes of "testing the $2.99-a-song waters" within the next six months. [Billboard]

8 comments

100 and single

Forever Leavin' Pork & Beans: Big Chart Moves By Summer Single Contenders

Chris "dennisobell" Molanphy, our resident chart guru, looks at the upward, downward, and lack of movement on this week's Billboard charts:

You can't kill Leona Lewis, you can only make her stronger. For the first time in 30 years, a song returns to the No. 1 spot on Billboard's Hot 100 after being evicted twice. Love her or hate her, Ol' Dead Eyes is back.

As unusual as Leona's threepeat is, the more interesting moves this week are made below the No. 1 spot, in part because it looks like the songs we may be hearing during car-radio season are hitting the charts now. That includes big debuts by the unsinkable Chris Brown and heartthrob Jesse McCartney, a first-time appearance by new British "It" girl Duffy, and a huge move on Modern Rock by a certain gang of veteran geek-rockers trying to regain their cred.

2:00 PM on Fri May 2 2008
By Chris Molanphy
1,528 views, 7 comments

polite requests

UK Music Companies Ask Apple For Some Money

The Music Business Group, which represents record and songwriting companies in England, would like to see the makes of computers, iPods and other things that make money to give a slice of that pie to the owners of music copyrights. Not that they'd have to, as everybody copies CDs anyway, but it'd be awful nice of them. More »

1:15 PM on Mon Apr 14 2008
By Anthony Miccio
141 views, 1 comment

Hypebot is wondering if the stalled effort to make more digital-music stores' catalog free of digital rights management is the fault of the stores or the major record labels. I have a third theory: The roadblock isn't really because of either side digging in its heels: It's because the "issue" of whether or not music should be free of DRM is one that doesn't really matter to 95% of consumers, as long as they can get the songs they've already purchased online to work on their computer/portable device, and so pouring a lot of money into a "solution" for this overhyped-by-the-tech-nerds problem isn't really as high a priority as, say, negotiating deals for possible subscription services or wrangling holdouts' catalogs onto their stores' virtual shelves. (I know, readers—it's hard to think that the opinions of people on the Internet might not be all that important in the grand scheme of things!) [Hypebot]

5 comments

oopsie!

iTunes Leaks Raconteurs Album, Apple Switchboard Prepares For The Worst

Looks like the iTunes Store accidentally leaked the Raconteurs' Consolers Of The Lonely a few days before its Tuesday release—reports are filtering in from people who successfully purchased the album on both the US and UK versions of the iTunes store, and it's apparently popping up on the peer-to-peer services as well. (In the interest of reporting, I tried buying the record, only to be greeted with a "This album is no longer available" message.) Who among us would not love to be listening in on that angry phone call from Jack White? [The Modern Age]

1:30 PM on Fri Mar 21 2008
By Maura Johnston
1,083 views, 6 comments

Latest by scott pgwp: "Accidentally," sure. That's what they get for dissing iTunes and advance release dates in one press release! more »

the new model

Majors And Apple Looking To Open An All-You-Can-Hear Buffet

The Financial Times is reporting that Apple has been talking to the major labels about bundling unlimited music into iPhones and iPods, although the deal hasn't yet been done because of the amount of money Apple is willing to pay the majors for access to their catalogs. (The Cupertino device maker wants to give the labels $20 per device sold; in comparison, Nokia pays out $80 to labels for each device sold with its Comes With Music subscription plan.) The plan would tack $100 onto the cost of each iPod and $7-$8 onto each iPhone user's monthly bill, but apparently the majors are also lobbying for a clampdown on the number of tracks consumers can keep, with the desired provision allowing "customers to keep up to 40 or 50 tracks a year, which they would retain even if they changed their device or their subscription lapsed." I'm pretty skeptical about the whole idea—for reasons involving interoperability of the "all you can eat" catalog and previously owned music, the limitations of what the store will actually have if it ever launches, and the probably-inevitable DRM that will force the tracks to disappear once consumers stop ponying up money—but I'm always open to a second opinion, so after the jump, a few industry observers weigh in. More »

12:00 PM on Wed Mar 19 2008
By Maura Johnston
325 views, 7 comments

Latest by PerpetualCarouse: So Doug Morris and Apple make more money, and artists still won't get paid. more »

they get letters

John Mayer Files A Bug Report

profitability?

Billboard Does The Math On iTunes

It isn't necessarily because the music industry is imperiled all over that the question of whether the iTunes Music Store is operating at a profit finds interest among industry folks. According to Billboard's Ed Christman, who did plenty of math and showed his work in his piece, the store is indeed making money, though precisely how much remains in question. More »

3:45 PM on Thu Mar 13 2008
By Michaelangelo Matos
591 views, 5 comments

Apple (the good one, not those hippies who put out Badfinger and James Taylor records) has said that the UK press' recent speculation that the Beatles' catalog will make its digital-music-store debut on the iTunes Store soon is, in fact, only speculation. How will we ever hear the Beatles' music now? [Billboard]

3 comments

hey what's that song

Brendan Benson Doesn't Know If An iPod Chart Bump Is What He's Looking For

The latest indie rocker to be plucked out of relative obscurity to soundtrack an Apple commercial is Brendan Benson, whose "What I'm Looking For" can be heard in a spot for the iPod Touch that debuted last Wednesday during American Idol. The effect of these ads on a song's popularity is well-documented, having most recently made an overnight chart star out of Yael Naïm. But it's unlikely to have as much of an impact on the more established Benson. More »

3:15 PM on Tue Mar 4 2008
By Al Shipley
1,323 views, 10 comments

Latest by comehomenow: Awe, I love Benson. Lapalco is my fav of his. Haven't seen this commercial yet, but hopefully it will catch on. It does seem a little ill-timed, with a new Raconteurs album in the works. Hmm... more »

sales

iTunes Becomes No. 2 Music Retailer Despite Majors' Efforts

According to research by the NPD Group, the iTunes Store was the second-largest music retailer in the United States last year, behind only Wal-Mart. iTunes leapfrogged over Best Buy and Target—which came in second and third, respectively, to iTunes' fourth place the last time the NPD Group conducted their music-buying survey—as paid downloading experienced an overall spike of 50% between 2006 and 2007. Those downloads now make up 10% of all music sales, although unsurprisingly the rise in downloads didn't make up for the plunge experienced by CD tallies throughout the course of the year. Related to that, NPD is claiming that one million people just stopped buying CDs completely last year; maybe it's because of my scouring Soundscan during the year, but does that number seem a bit low to anyone else? [Reuters; HT Chris Molanphy]

1:15 PM on Tue Feb 26 2008
By Maura Johnston
283 views, 9 comments

Latest by mackro: I'm curiously what the sales for movies and DVDs are for the retailers in comparison to the CDs. Technically, this isn't music related, but it definitely is music-industry related. more »

Apple and American Idol have entered into a partnership that makes the iTunes Store the sole place to buy audio and video downloads of contestants' performances after the show. No word on whether or not promotion for iTunes' offering of Carly Hennessy's Ultimate High will be part of the deal, but we can all hope. [Silicon Alley Insider]

1 comment

Jay-Z's Apple Photo Op Makes Fanboys Around The World Go OMG!!!11

4 comments

i've been locked out

Napster Serves Up Some Apple Whine In An Effort To Big-Up Its MP3 Offerings

Sure, some people are really excited that all four major labels have started dropping digital-rights management from their online offerings. But according to Wired, these baby steps don't necessarily mean that music fans (at least, the ones who care enough to buy before they try) are going to be awash in MP3s starting tomorrow; in fact, the overwhelming majority of major-label wares that are still out there are locked up in some sort of copy protection. And to hear Wired—and the COO of Napster, whose company just unlocked its downloads in an effort to remind people that in 2000 it was the place to be for your unauthorized song-by-song downloads—it's all Apple's fault! More »

8:53 AM on Tue Jan 8 2008
By mjohnston
369 views, 4 comments

Latest by Captain Wrong: "I mean, shoot, I would have loved to have at least tried some of the formerly PlaysForSure-protected services out there, but I was constantly told "No Macs Allowed."" QTF! I like the idea of subscription music services. I'd love to take advantage more »

rumors

Biting Into The Latest Revival Of That "Jay-Z And Apple Are Going To Put On A Big Show" Rumor

Gadget-obsessed blogs are atwitter with the recently revived rumor that Jay-Z would be teaming up to start a label with Steve Jobs and Apple, with the Boy Genius Report citing "a high-up person attached to Jay (no, not who you're thinking)^*" as saying it's a go and that the label will be announced at the next MacWorld conference. But even though Jay-Z has a pretty an open calendar as far as music-biz-related executiveships go, is this chatter just a little bit of a far-fetched fanboy fantasy? Takes from around the blogosphere after the jump. (The naysayers seem to have a little more weight to their arguments—i.e., they go beyond "OMG!!!!111"—but that could be my "oh, this is old news/well they sure kissed and made up fast after the whole American Gangster-sales kerfuffle/hey where's Beyonce in this version of the rumor anyway?" impulse talking.) More »

9:30 AM on Thu Jan 3 2008
By mjohnston
349 views, Comment

pots of gold for everyone

Radiohead's Distribution Strategy Still Kinda Newsworthy, We Guess

Back in September, Radiohead spurned the iTunes Music Store because they wouldn't offer their records in full-album format, but the band has seemingly changed its tune for In Rainbows, which is the first—and only—full-length from the band to be available at Apple's virtual shop. The album's songs are available as a la carte downloads from iTunes and Amazon, with the price lower (and the rest of the band's catalog available) at Amazon's still-fledgling MP3 store. Will this new availability cut into In Rainbows' thriving-for-three-months filesharing tallies? The album's already No. 1 at Amazon's MP3 store, so maybe! At the very least, this piece of news will surely bring the band more Google News results, which is the real currency of today's info-soaked world. More »

1:10 PM on Wed Jan 2 2008
By mjohnston
225 views, Comment

A Long Listmaking Exercise For A Long Weekend

Posts Tagged “Apple”