04/25/2006, 9:20am, EDT

Tuesday, April 25th

Apple to sell ads on iTunes?

Apple may soon be adding advertising to its its popular iTunes serice, according to content partners who have been briefed on the plan. The introduction of visual ads could be the first step to allowing ads in other content areas or on iPods, reports Ad Age: "Apple CEO Steve Jobs has supported the idea of ad-supported podcasts, so adding a visual component to the existing audio ads isn't much of a stretch." While Apple's current plans are for the advertising to appear only in the lower-left corner of the iTunes library while users listen to podcasts from their computers rather than from portable devices, the report notes that it is a "big step for the service, which has so far limited ad intrusions to audio spots embedded in some of the podcasts offered via iTunes."

Apple's decision to allow advertising on iTunes may undercut the television networks, although the company is said to be working with ESPN Radio, which supplies some of iTunes' most popular ad-supported sports podcasts, according to the report.

"Still, the iTunes deal undercuts the networks' bread-and-butter business. ABC is about to work advertising into its on-demand distribution plans; in May and June it will offer free versions of several of the same shows it sells on iTunes on its own site with ads that can't be skipped. NBC will launch free original Webisodes this summer of its hit "The Office." AOL's In2TV plans to offer free, ad-supported original fare and just signed a distribution deal with A&E Network."

Filed under: industry
Other story tags: digital music/video

, 12

12 comments

Reader Reactions (Please use <i></i> for italic text)

subscribe to comments
for this article

Expand All

Global Settings

Bartman

first

04/25, 9:32am, EDT

i hate to see ads in itunes, what is apple thinking? might as well use real player lol

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined Oct 1999

User is offline

ibugv4

welcome! you've got gree

04/25, 10:17am, EDT

Apple is going to milk iTunes for all its worth at the expense of the user. It's why I don't like them anymore.

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined Jun 2003

User is offline

boris_cleto

wishful thinking

04/25, 10:24am, EDT

Personally I think it's just wishful thinking on the part of a trade magazine for an industry dyeing.

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined Sep 2002

User is offline

realestateHunter

Headline is misleading

04/25, 11:14am, EDT

I thought they meant you could buy ads?!?! How crazy would that be...

"I really like the VW commercials, here's 99c so I can see them whenever I want."

Whatever.

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined Dec 2005

User is offline

aristotles

RE:Headline is misleading

04/25, 1:22pm, EDT

That reminds me of the cheezy movie "Demolition Man" where they liked to listen to ad jingles as entertainment.

Senior User

Joined Jul 2004

User is offline

BurpetheadX

99 cents

04/25, 1:35pm, EDT

if this allows the price of songs to stay at 99 cents, so be it.

Dedicated MacNNer

Joined Jul 2002

User is offline

testudo

Stupid

04/25, 1:35pm, EDT

First, if people are 'listening' to a podcast, they are most likely NOT looking at itunes (i certainly don't). So some visual ad is kind of pointless.

Second, it sounds like Apple jumping on the podcast's bandwagon and using their works for Apple's gain. All apple does with the podcasts is host the link to the RSS feed. That's it. The bandwidth, cost, etc, is basically on the podcaster. Now Apple wants you to watch ads while listening to other's content? And how do they tie these together? Is it in the file (which is hard if its an MP3 file, which most podcasts are)? Does it connect to the internet to get the ad while you're listening? Can you skip it/ignore it/HIDE it?

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined Aug 2001

User is offline

testudo

Re: 99 cents

04/25, 1:40pm, EDT

Two different income levels. Music won't have ads, its about podcasts. Podcasts are currently free, and should cost Apple very little in resources. Music cost is based on price set by apple, labels.

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined Aug 2001

User is offline

bdusen

who's ads?

04/25, 1:59pm, EDT

I could be wrong but from my interpretation of the story, Apple is merely adding the means by which a podcaster can add a different type of advertisment into their streams to support themselves - the ad revenue would go to the podcaster, not to Apple. So it's not really Apple being greedy or forcing ads upon us so much as it's Apple giving podcasters more options should they choose to use advertising as a means of funding their content.

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined Aug 2001

User is offline

BurpetheadX

re: 99 cents

04/25, 2:44pm, EDT

Yes, but record companies have been bugging Apple to raise the price of songs for a long time. Apple might under the table actually do so, but then use the revenue from Ads to subsidise the price of songs back "down" to 99 cents.

Dedicated MacNNer

Joined Jul 2002

User is offline

additional comments:..1..2..Next

Your Comments

Not a member of the MacNN forums? Register now for free.

Default Comment View
External Page Links
Comment Threading View