November 29 - 3:45pm EST   Warner Music Group on Thursday reported a major drop in profits for its last financial quarter that it largely attributes to online music. Although the company noted that its purely download-based music income increased by 25 percent to $130 million, the company's overall profit dropped about 58 percent and resulted in just $5 million versus $12 million the year before. This income would have been worse still had the company not taken advantage of a settlement with Bertelsmann over a Napster legal dispute. [full story]

November 20 - 12:10pm EST   The contemporary comedy-drama "Purple Violets" this morning became the first feature film to premiere exclusively on iTunes. Purple Violets tells the romantic tale of two successful college friends who, now professionals in their 30s, meet up with the women they loved and lost in school. The film is available via the iTunes Store for $12.99 as a 1.15GB download in widescreen format. The movie is available only from Apple's iTunes Store this month. [full story]

November 19 - 6:00pm EST   Following last week's update for Popcorn, Roxio has issued Toast 8.0.3, bringing a number of Leopard-specific fixes, and some other bug fixes as well. The update resolves a few cosmetic issues that resulted from using Toast under Leopard, and a problem where the OS would produce poor quality music DVDs. A few errors have been fixed: Error 9011 will no longer occur when burning a DVD with MPEG-2 video and PCM audio, and -2009 will cease to happen when using PCM pass-through audio, while the "Optimize on-the-fly" setting will no longer result in error -35 in Custom Hybrid and Mac Volume projects. Toast will now use the correct video quality settings when they are selected, ... [full story]

November 16 - 11:05am EST   Native Instruments' second announcement for Friday is the release of KORE 2, what the company describes as a comprehensive instrument that melds the engines of ABSYNTH, FM8, Guitar Rig, KONTAKT, MASSIVE and REAKTOR. It additionally comes with a library of 500 new sounds, and a touch-sensitive hardware controller that allows more intuitive interaction. To expand the program users can combine it with KOMPLETE 5, or any Audio Unit or VST plug-in. KORE 2 costs $560, and requires Mac OS X 10.4 and a 1.8GHz G5 processor or better. [full story]

November 16 - 9:25am EST   Native Instruments and Beatport have released a new, free music player, Beatport SYNC. The software is based on NI's TRAKTOR DJ program, but is in fact meant for more casual playback; the difference is that unlike iTunes, users have two playback decks and a simplified mixing board, which lets users crossfade or beatmatch tracks to create a smooth flow. More complex tasks such as beat detection, tempo sync and loudness control are handled automatically. The program is integrated with iTunes and iPod support, and can play or import music from virtually any connected device including flash sticks and cellphones. [full story]

November 15 - 1:25am EST   RealNetworks today announced the consumer availability of its new RealPlayer v11 for Windows after a five-month public beta period and announced a beta of its Mac version; in addition, the company said the newest version finally bring support for transferring downloaded video content to Apple's iPod nano, iPod classic and iPod video. iPod owners who previously only had access to video content available through Apple's iTunes now have access to non-DRM protected videos from thousands of sites on the Web after upgrading to the paid version of its product. The new Mac beta allows the downloading of non-DRM protected Web videos from thousands of sites for playback online ... [full story]

November 14 - 11:10am EST   Warner Music Group chairman and CEO Edgar Bronfman has praised Apple's iTunes Store while promising "many, many more" bundles of tracks with ringtones in what appears to be a complete 180-degree stance on digital music. The executive admitted to fighting consumer demand for digital tracks, which only fueled the illegal P2P transfers online that helped to shrink CD and DVD sales at a rapid rate. Bronfman used Apple as a prime example of digital music done right, citing the company's successful iPhone with its slick user interface and easy-to-use nature. [full story]

November 12 - 6:35pm EST   Apple today officially released the iPhone v1.1.2 and iPod touch v1.1.2 firmware and software updates via its iTunes software. The software, which was found on Apple's own servers last Thursday and shipped with iPhones in the UK and Germany this past weekend, will not appear in the computer's Software Update application, or in the Apple Downloads site, the Cupertino-based company noted. Apple officially acknowledged that the update closed a critical security flaw that affected previous versions and has been exploited to allow users to "jailbreak" the devices to gain access to the file system and install third-party applications. Over the weekend, however, hackers found ... [full story]

November 9 - 2:50pm EST   Apple and Starbucks this week launched the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store at around 360 Starbucks coffee shops in the California Bay Area. Starbucks customers can wirelessly connect for free with iTunes to shop for music as part of the plan announced by Apple CEO Steve Jobs during a special event in San Francisco on September 5th. The Bay Area launch includes stores spanning from Santa Rosa to Gilroy, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, and Apple's vice president of iTunes Eddie Cue eluded to broad coverage with very few Starbucks stores lacking the service. [full story]

November 8 - 2:45pm EST   Hip hop star Jay-Z has banned his latest album from Apple's iTunes Store, saying that wants the "work of art" to be enjoyed in its entirety. The album, titled American Gangster and serving as the 'imaginary soundtrack' for the film of the same name, is not to be offered as individual tracks via iTunes as is customary of most works sold via Apple's digital storefront, according to WCCO.com. The decision comes after rock band Radiohead chose to sell their works only as complete albums. [full story]

November 8 - 7:20am EST   Ticketmaster and the iTunes Store have expanded their music + tickets offerings by integrating digital album sales directly alongside concert tickets in a single transaction on Ticketmaster.com. Ticketmaster said that more than 700 musical acts with performances currently on sale via Ticketmaster, including Kanye West, Keith Urban, Modest Mouse and Bon Jovi, are among the first to have their songs and tickets jointly available to fans who search for music and concerts online. Both Apple and Ticketmaster have also launched a special dollar-off discount, which will be applied to every digital album sold on Ticketmaster and fulfilled via the iTunes Store through December ... [full story]

November 7 - 2:45pm EST   Former Disney CEO Michael Eisner this morning said digital media distribution is currently at best a break-even business, and that Apple gobbles up most of what little money is made, according to a report from News.com. "[The studios] make deals with Steve Jobs, who takes them to the cleaners," Disney's chief explained. "They make all these kinds of things, and who's making money? Apple! They should get a piece of Apple. If I was a union, I'd be striking up wherever he is," Eisner remarked, presumably referring to Apple CEO Steve Jobs. [full story]

November 6 - 7:30pm EST   Vara Software today announced updates for two of its applications, Videocue 2.7, software that acts as a teleprompter for individuals doing a video podcast, and webcast manager Wirecast 3.0.4. The updates ensure Leopard compatibility, and have resolved some outstanding bugs, as well as some new feature introductions. Both applications are available from Varasoft's webstore, with Videocue selling for $40, and Wirecast at $450. [full story]

November 5 - 3:20pm EST   Apple on Monday released iTunes 7.5 (Windows), an update to its software for managing connected devices such as the iPhone and iPod as well as music and video content. Version 7.5 features the ability to activate the iPhone wherever service is offered and support for Phase, a new interactive music game designed exclusively for iPod nano (third generation), iPod classic, and iPod (fifth generation). Apple also said that the release, coming just days before the launch of the iPhone outside of the US, also includes bug fixes to improve stability and performance. Apple also released QuickTime 7.3 (Tiger, Panther), which addresses critical security issues as well as brings ... [full story]

November 1 - 10:05am EDT   Elgato has released an update for EyeTV, its TV streaming, recording and encoding software. Version 2.5.1 should download automatically when the proram is next launched, and is meant to take advantage of Leopard's new features. EyeTV recordings can now be properly browsed in Cover Flow, and can also be played directly from Finder, using Quick Look. When using iChat, recordings can be inserted into video conversations, with voice commentary on top if desired. Lastly, EyeTV windows for both live TV and recordings can be set to "float" between Spaces, avoiding interruptions. EyeTV costs $56 and requires Mac OS X 10.4 along with a compatible tuning peripheral. [full story]