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Posts Tagged “iTunes”

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.

More »

2:00 PM on Fri May 2 2008
By Chris Molanphy
1,276 views, 7 comments

cross-platform branding

Hot Chip To Rock For Zune, Play iTunes Festival

Man, those Hot Chip guys sure love irony. They're in the middle off a month-long tour promoting Zune (remember Zune?) that will take them to Coachella—and then they're headed to Berlin to do their post-modern thing at the iTunes Festival! So whether you prefer AAC or WMA, you can easily get your hands on the best album of 2008. But which company does the band have more love for? More »

11:00 AM on Wed Apr 16 2008
By Anthony Miccio
272 views, Comment

reality check

iTunes Beats Wal-Mart As No. 1 Music Retailer... So What?

You may have heard that iTunes has taken Wal-Mart's position as the top music retailer in the US. While this is probably a gradual inevitability, and iTunes sales have risen quickly over the last two years, the stats involved only cover the month of January 2008, a period influenced not just by holiday gift cards, but a lull in big album releases. With little new full-length product of note, it's no surprise digital sales would rise in overall percentage. There's also evidence that the slump in CD sales and the rise in digital-music sales are both slowing, and may even plateau. This doesn't "debunk" the report, but it does suggest that everyone should chillax about the end of tangible product, and see what craziness comes next. [ArsTechnica]

4:30 PM on Thu Apr 3 2008
By Anthony Miccio
165 views, 3 comments

Latest by scott pgwp: I wouldn't be surprised if numbers came out showing that the trend covered the entire 1st quarter, not just January. a) for all the reasons you raise above (even in Feb. and March there weren't any really huge albums), and more »

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
1,075 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
321 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

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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
582 views, 5 comments

digital rights-not-wrongs

Idolator Endorses: Digital DJ Mixes With Full-Length Tracks

This is a little late to the boat, but bear with me: Over the last couple of days I've noticed that DJ mixes sold through digital outlets are increasingly becoming a better financial deal. Since I tend to look for dance tracks based on other critics' recommendations, I had noticed that labels like Defected often put their DJ-mixed compilations on eMusic and other outlets with the songs at their original length. But two recent mix-CDs—Carl Craig's Sessions (K7) and Triple R's Selection 6 (Trapez), each of which contains more than 20 cuts—have done the same thing, making this a trend worth endorsing. More »

9:30 AM on Fri Mar 7 2008
By Michaelangelo Matos
263 views, 7 comments

Latest by AbundantChoice: Also, on eMusic i've seen alot of mixes where the last track offered on a DJ mix disc is a continuous mix of the whole CD in one track. This isn't great if you're hunting for specific songs in the more »

Obviously American Idol is a crassly commercial enterprise, so it shouldn't be much of a surprise that the show's producers would try and insert product placement into any nook and cranny that can fit it. But really, Nigel Lythgoe and company—referring to an episode featuring current pop hits as ""Songs from iTunes' Current Top 100 Week"? I know you're excited about your little dalliance with Steve Jobs, but come on now. [MJ's Big Blog]

7 comments

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
271 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
365 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 »

100 and single

One-Week Superstar: Flo Rida's Hot 100 Sales Bonanza

Ed. note: Chris "dennisobell" Molanphy, our resident chart guru, looks at the upward, downward, and lack of movement on the Billboard Hot 100 in the latest installment of "100 And Single": More »

6:30 PM on Thu Jan 3 2008
By Chris Molanphy
909 views, 3 comments

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
339 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
223 views, Comment

Indie-label download service eMusic pits its 20 best-selling albums against iTunes' top 20, one by one, mano a mano. Among the surprises: Fall Out Boy and Stars fight to a draw; the Across The Universe soundtrack bests the Apples In Stereo (!?); and somehow, the person masterminding these battles has no idea who Colbie Caillat is. (Lucky.) [17 dots]

2 comments