Coinciding with yesterday’s major product announcement, Apple has now also released its latest version of iTunes. This new version provides the necessary device support for the new iPod nano, iPod classic, and iPod touch, as well as a number of other new features. The update itself lists other new features such as the newly-announced custom ringtone feature for the iPhone, the ability to play purchased videos with closed captioning, rating albums, and watching videos at a larger size within the iTunes window:
Another subtle change has been made to the way in which music playlist selection works for synchronization. When selecting the “Music” tab from a device synchronization screen, selected playlists are now shown organized into their proper folders, with icons to differentiate between standard playlists and Smart Playlists. Further, the “Purchased” and “Audiobooks” categories appear at the top, designated by special icons:
Possibly the most significant update in this version of iTunes is the addition of Album Ratings, a feature that will likely be of interest to many iTunes users, but of huge benefit to those who rely heavily on Smart Playlists to manage their content. Once in the Album view, you will see a rating field below each album cover, which will appear similar to the track ratings. You can rate an entire album by simply clicking on this field as you would for a normal track, or you can continue to rate individual tracks.
Envisioning the Next Chapter for Electronic Books
In October, the online retailer Amazon.com will unveil the Kindle, an electronic book reader that has been the subject of industry speculation for a year, according to several people who have tried the device and are familiar with Amazon’s plans. The Kindle will be priced at $400 to $500 and will wirelessly connect to an e-book store on Amazon’s site. That is a significant advance over older e-book devices, which must be connected to a computer to download books or articles.
Also this fall, Google plans to start charging users for full online access to the digital copies of some books in its database, according to people with knowledge of its plans. Publishers will set the prices for their own books and share the revenue with Google. So far, Google has made only limited excerpts of copyrighted books available to its users.
Apple announces new music download service, Groove to fight on
Meanwhile, Groove Networks, a company that has already been offering music downloads to mobile users, announced that it would fight on against Apple’s initiative by taking $6 million more in funding from venture capitalists. Groove says its users have downloaded 35 million songs since 2004, striking distribution deals with Vodafone, MTS Allstream and Sony BMG to allow their subscribers to access Groove.
Sales numbers at CD Baby
- Total number of albums in CD Baby: 194,385
- How many of those have ever sold a CD: 170,379
- Percentage of artists who have sold a CD: 87%
- Total number of albums in Digital Distribution: 129,014
- How many of those have ever earned digital income: 123,168
- Percentage of Digital Distribution artists who have earned digital income: 95%
Apple, Hollywood in disconnect
In the background, however, was a development with which Jobs is likely concerned: Two years after Apple started selling TV shows via iTunes and a year after it added movies, Hollywood is still not fully aboard with his vision and has chafed, in some cases, against Apple's firm grip on the high-end content download-on-demand biz.
After months of negotiations, insiders say Apple still has only a few studios aboard for its effort to add movie rentals to iTunes. If and when it launches, the service could be a boon to Apple TV, which hasn't gained much traction with consumers since launching last spring.
Apple and most of the studios have very different ideas about what consumers should pay to download a movie. That's why Disney, in which Jobs is the largest individual shareholder, remains the only studio selling new movies through iTunes for $12.99, though Paramount, MGM and Lionsgate sell their library titles for $9.99.
Music videos embrace YouTube aesthetic as budgets dry up
With the music industry in crisis from falling sales and file sharing, labels have less cash to subsidize elaborate videos that will mostly be seen in miniature on computers. The result has been a major shift in the art form, as artists increasingly embrace the YouTube aesthetic with cheap, stripped-down, low-production videos. The shrinkage of the video will be obvious Sunday at the MTV Video Music Awards, where grandiose, ambitious videos will seem like an exotic species facing extinction.
Why I'll Pass on the iPod Touch
- No Phone, No Camera, No Bluetooth or EDGE
- Wi-Fi: Woohoo, it has Wi-Fi — but what's the use of having Wi-Fi if you can't always access a hotspot outside the house? Once you walk out the door, the only place you have free access to the Internet is at Starbucks to buy music.
- Storage: Why, oh why on earth would you pay $299 for an 8GB iPod or $399 for 16GB? OK, so it's flash-based, has a multi-touch interface, a beautiful 3.5-inch display, and Wi-Fi capabilities, but the price just seems outrageous when the 160GB metal iPod Classic is only $349.
- No New Features: The iPod Touch is just an iPhone without a phone. And why didn't they add new colors, FM radio, an expansion slot, or a microphone to give it VoIP capabilities? Even the Sony Mylo and Zune have some of these features. Why make it look and act like a PDA, yet leave out important things like a microphone.
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