Apple is launched the annual Japanese version of its back-to-school promotion, intended to encourage Mac sales. Unlike the US and Canada, many schools in Japan start classes on April 1st. This year the company is giving away a 10,000 yen ($129) gift card, which can be used toward content at the iTunes Store, the App Store, and/or the Mac App Store.
Sony Music briefly inflated the price of a Whitney Houston album -- The Ultimate Collection -- only hours after the singer's death on Saturday, a Guardian report notes. The company is said to have initially raised the album's wholesale price at about 4AM on Sunday, causing its price to automatically jump at places like the iTunes Store. At the UK iTunes Store, the cost rose from £5 to £8; the album is actually an old one, a best-of compilation dating back to 1997.
Two new job listings have hinted that Amazon will be the next commercial Internet video service to produce some of its own content. Its studio division is hiring for the People's Production Company to create comedies and children's shows. Unlike its counterparts, though, it would be developing for traditional formats as well.
New Nielsen data about TV viewing habits has shown that cord-cutters, or those who drop paid TV in favor of Internet viewing, are often decreasing their viewing habits as a whole. Someone who has broadband but only watches traditional TV over the air watches less than half that of a regular cable subscriber, at nearly 123 minutes a day on average instead of 257, but still uses it much more than Internet streaming. These viewers typically saw no more than 11.2 minutes a day of streaming video, which was over double the five minutes of a cable subscriber but far from a direct substitute.
Most people know that iTunes Match, Apple's latest music-related service that offers to backup and make available whole iTunes libraries online, costs $25 year. While many assume the fee is at least in part a "bribe" to record companies to allow unlimited re-downloading, in fact Apple pays rights holders a fee each time a song is re-downloaded -- and for independent distributors who work with iTunes such as BandCamp, CDBaby and TuneCore, the royalty is a windfall for their artists.
VoIP provider Vonage has just released a new Vonage Mobile app that will allow for free calling and texting between users who have it installed on their smartphones, as well as discounted calling rates to those who don't. It uses Wi-Fi, 3G or 4G data networks and is now available for iOS (free, iTunes) and Android (free, Android Market) devices. The app is meant for frequent travelers, or those who have friends or family abroad and want to use their phones to contact them.
Pop musician Paul McCartney will host a live, streaming concert through iTunes on February 9th at 7PM Pacific time, according to an announcement. The event is being hosted at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles, and is meant to promote Kisses on the Bottom, a new McCartney album released on Tuesday. Backing him live will be Tommy LiPuma, as well as Diana Krall and her band, all of which contributed to the record.
AT&T has now released the U-verse iPad app (free, App Store), meant as a companion to the TV watching experience. U-verse TV subscribers can get extra information and bonus content through the app on the TV show they're watching, such as photos, cast and crew data, similar shows, a synopsis, and more. The app will also turn the iPad into a remote control and a guide, letting users schedule DVR recordings and see what's coming up.
Redbox and Verizon started the week with word of creating an all-encompassing movie service. The strategy would see Verizon provide movie downloads and streaming while Redbox supplied new Blu-ray and DVD discs to rent. While details were short, it would have subscriptions "and more," all while making sure viewers had access on the "media and devices they prefer."
iTunes Match subscribers late Friday reported a problem with iTunes Match playback failing. Anyone on a desktop, whether Mac or Windows, couldn't play cloud-stored songs unless they were already matched with the iTunes Store. The problems didn't appear to be limited to particular app or OS revisions, and iOS users could still access the service.
Apple has quietly added its "Genius" suggestion technology to Apple TVs, offering recommendations on other shows viewers might enjoy based on their past rentals or purchases. The option is selected via a new menu item that can be chosen by users. The new feature was added to most connected current-generation Apple TV units silently overnight, and mirrors a similar feature that has been a part of the iTunes application for years.
Sister Sledge has filed a lawsuit Thursday against Warner Music Group. The San Francisco complaint caught by the Hollywood Reporter accused Warner of cheating the "We Are Family" singers of revenue on iTunes, Amazon MP3, and other stores through purportedly deceptive terms. By counting a download as a one-time sale rather than a license, Warner was taking the group down from a 25 percent cut to much less.
A flaw in iTunes Match may inadvertently replace "explicit" tracks with "clean" versions for some users, according to reports by Cult of Mac reporters and corroborated by users elsewhere. A later update on 9to5Mac indicates that at least one user has heard back from Internet Software and Services head Eddy Cue's office that acknowledged the issue and said the company is working on on a fix.
Spotify scored a more symbolic win Wednesday after checks found that Coldplay had put its latest album, Mylo Xyloto, back on Spotify (link). The appearance, which includes other streaming services like We7, follows after the rock band kept its whole album off of streaming music services for fear of losing album purchases at iTunes and elsewhere. The decision was unusual as it came just weeks after the band's manager David Holmes had reiterated his objections to what he saw as lost revenue.
On his last day as chairman of Warner Music Group, industry leader Edgar Bronfman Jr. sat down for an interview at the D: Dive Into Media conference in Dana Point, California. He was asked about a wide variety of topics, including his thoughts on various technological aspects of music which inevitably includes Apple, Spotify, Google and other players in the digital music scene. While defending the necessity of record labels, he warned of over-consolidation.
Disagreements between Redbox and Warner Bros. may have inadvertently benefited viewers after a deal between the two expired Tuesday. Redbox will now have to buy Blu-ray and DVD discs from retail to stock its catalog rather than at a lower price from Warner, but it will no longer face the 28-day delay instituted by Warner to try and shelter traditional rentals and sales. Warner earlier in the month had started insisting on an even longer 56-day delay that likely pushed Redbox into the more expensive but much faster arrangement.
Musician Neil Young in an interview at the D: Dive Into Media conference made the contentious claim that Apple's late chief Steve Jobs would have been pushing hard for improved audio quality. The "Needle and the Damage Done" creator claimed that Jobs, despite creating the iPod for digital music, preferred to listen to vinyl records at home. Apple's co-founder would have allegedly been working on higher quality devices, not just formats like Apple Lossless, to improve audio quality.
Hulu chief Jason Kilar used careful language in an interview at the D: Dive Into Media conference when discussing major content deals. He wouldn't confirm or deny any talks to bring Hulu Plus to the Apple TV. The executive was aware it was a potentially loaded question and denied it twice when pressed.
Spotify has already reached three million paying subscribers, the company's US managing director Ken Parks gave out in a discussion Thursday [free reg. required]. The benchmark number given to the FT was triple the million from a year ago and saw it growing much faster than before, having reached two million in September and 2.5 million in November. The three million now represented a larger 20 percent portion of the base and didn't include those who were just part of free trials.
Netflix saw the fuller consequences of its more controversial decisions on Wednesday with results from the fall. The company added more streaming customers than it expected, 220,000, but the "continued impact" of its price hike for those keeping DVDs and streaming led to it shedding 2.76 million disc subscriptions. These, along with the costs of expansion outside of the US, dragged Netflix's profit down 13 percent year over year to $41 million.
Amazon might separate at least the subscription side of its Instant Video service to better compete in Internet video. A rumor late Tuesday from the New York Post had it breaking the subscription video out from its bundling with the $79 Prime service. Studios are reportedly unhappy that Amazon was following its traditional practice of using a service as a loss leader, presumably for setting unrealistic price expectations or treating movies and TV shows as afterthoughts.
Apple has posted blowout results for its fiscal first (calendar fourth) quarter with record iPhone, iPad, and Mac sales. It's holding a conference call to discuss the results and should have both more details as well as possible surprises. Check our live coverage page from 5PM Eastern for details as they arrive.
The IFPI in its latest study (PDF) saw an eight percent upswing in digital music revenue in 2011. The increase is the first it claimed to have had since 2004 and lines up with an American rebound in overall album sales. They were important enough for online content to represent 32 percent of the industry association's combined business versus 29 percent in 2010.
YouTube in a briefing Monday said it had pushed past four billion video streams a day. The milestone was explained to Reuters as a 25 percent boost over the three billion from just eight months earlier. A full 60 hours of new video was being uploaded every minute versus 48 hours at the earlier point.
Following its announcements of iBooks 2 and the iTunes U app, Apple has released iTunes 10.5.3. The update is a relatively minor one, explicitly intended to support the new interactive textbooks made possible by iBooks 2. It may also provide a backend for iTunes U, since the latter app supports buying and downloading online course material.
Hulu followed in Netflix's footsteps Sunday by launching its first fictional, original TV series. Battleground covers a fictional political campaign in Wisconsin and is produced by JD Walsh, 500 Days of Summer's Marc Webb, and Hagai Shaham. It should be followed up by more documentaries, including a second season of Morgan Spurlock's A Day in the Life and Richard Linklater's new Up to Speed.
Music label EMI is now known to have sued fledgling service ReDigi for its strategy of reselling downloadable songs. New details obtained by CNET showed that EMI unusually didn't object to the doctrine of first sale, which only lets a seller collect income with the initial purchase, but rather the origins of the MP3s and other music. ReDigi isn't selling the music from paid sources like iTunes, EMI said, and by extension isn't selling legal copies.
US album sales have grown for the first time in seven years, Nielsen Soundscan reported Wednesday. A three percent increase to 458 million albums in 2011 was helped by digital sales from iTunes and other sources jumping by 20 percent, to 103 million, overcoming a six percent drop in CD sales to 225 million. Single songs themselves grew faster, up nine percent to 1.27 billion songs.
Pioneer has just released two Elite-branded and networked home theater receivers that both get AirPlay support and DLNA 1.5 compatibility. The N-30 and N-50 otherwise share a 2.5-inch color LCD display. Using AirPlay, users can stream music from their iTunes libraries and iOS devices wirelessly, as well as use Pandora web radio, iHeartRadio and other music services. DLNA 1.5 catches a large number of other devices that can stream audio or HD video.
Several more details have emerged about Apple's January event. 9to5Mac, for instance, says it has heard that iTunes staff are in "lockdown mode" ahead of any announcements. MacRumors meanwhile says it has learned of Apple taping promotional interviews with textbook publishing executives, although the site adds that it's uncertain if they relate to January plans.
Apple's rumored January event will be concentrating on iTunes U, and education in general, according to sources in touch with blogger and Fox News anchor Clayton Morris. Morris says he first heard about the event in September; at the time it was scheduled for late fall in New York, but ultimately postponed. New York remains the site for the spiel because of its central location for textbooks and publishing, Morris states.
Apple is gearing up for a non-hardware special event at the end of January, insiders divulged Monday. The gathering, in New York City rather the Bay Area, had few details from AllThingsD but would be headed up by Internet Software and Services head Eddy Cue. The only proclaimed certainty from the multiple contacts was that it wouldn't involve the iPad 3.
The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) published data showing the rapid rise of digital music on Monday while simultaneously making its familiar complaints about the perceived effect of piracy. Downloads from iTunes and similar stores grew a fast 24 percent in 2011 over 2010 to 26.6 million. As in past years, the tally wasn't yet fast enough overcome the decline of the CD market, which dropped 13 percent to 86.2 million and led to an ultimate six percent drop in album sales overall versus last year.
iTunes Connect has returned from a scheduled downtime one day early, reports say. The service for Mac and iOS developers regularly goes offline for several days during the Christmas season. This year Connect was officially scheduled to be offline from December 22nd through to the 29th, during which time no changes by app developers would go live. Why Apple would resume Connect service early is unknown, but the company could theoretically be trying to cope with a heavy backlog.
A new phishing scam is once again targeting owners of Apple products, warns security firm Intego. The attack is said to have begun "on or around" Christmas Day, and involves an email that claims to be from "appleid@id.apple.com" with the subject line "Apple update your Billing Information." It insists that a person's billing information is out of date, and that it must be updated or else Apple will delete the associated account. A provided link looks like it should lead to Apple's online store, but in reality takes victims to a fake sign-in page.
Apple's iTunes Match, an add-on service that makes most users' entire iTunes music library available to their other devices for an annual $25 fee, now has its own dedicated website that includes a walk-through video, setup guide, product description and Frequently Asked Questions column. The site may be part of an effort to combat user confusion over what exactly the service offers and to more formally separate it from the company's free iCloud service.
New estimates compiled by Hollywood.com point to the movie industry facing a rare decline. Assuming the last week of the year reflects trends, movie theaters will have made $10.1 billion in 2011, or 4.5 percent less than in 2010. AllThingsD didn't glean explanations from the research.
Amazon UK took a page from Apple's 12 Days giveaway with a sale, not giveaway, of its own. The deal cuts back a number of books by several times their asking prices, often putting them under £3. Its deal starts off with a focus on award-winning novels first.
Apple has started its promised 12 Days of Christmas promos in Canada and the UK (general iTunes link). The giveaways start off with a free three-track live Coldplay EP from the iTunes Festival in London (iTunes). It includes both the raw songs as well as videos and an iTunes LP interface.
The Dutch parliament late last week passed a motion that will likely keep movie and music downloading legal in the country. Although not binding, the measure discourages a proposed law from State Secretary for Security and Justice Fred Teeven that would have made many common direct downloads illegal. Personal use downloads by themselves would remain legal, the Netherlands governing body said.
Shoppers who are stuck for a very last-minute Christmas gift at a discount price can opt for Wal-Mart's ongoing offer of $50 in iTunes credit via a "virtual card" that is delivered via e-mail for just $40. Shoppers report the credit can be obtained after purchase in as little as 15 minutes, once users verify their e-mail address and use a special PIN number in the confirmation e-mail to redeem their purchase. The "eCard" can be sent as a gift to another e-mail address.
Motorola Mobility has reportedly moved to acquire SetJam, a startup that compiles data from a variety of streaming video services. The company offers a "data integrity engine" that indexes TV shows and movie listings from sources such as Hulu, Netflix, Amazon and iTunes. The system automatically determines the number of specific episodes available from each source.
A new Citi Investment Research study from analyst Mike Mahaney points to Netflix still increasing its share of Internet movie and TV viewing. Between May and December, Netflix's share of those watching movies on TV grew from 20 to 27 percent. Most of that came at the expense of Hulu, which was down from 19 percent to 15.
Apple is engaging in a rare Boxing Week sale on the iTunes Store. Boxing Day takes place on December 26th in Australia, Canada, the UK, and New Zealand. The Boxing Week promotion is already active, however, if only in Canada.
The Recording Academy on Wednesday awarded the late Steve Jobs with a posthumous Special Merit Grammy for his contributions to music. He received the Trustees Award for "outstanding contributions" to music outside of performance. In a statement, the Academy praised Jobs for blurring the lines between technology and art through through iTunes, the iPod, and other fields.
Amazon's UK-based Lovefilm has closed a deal with Sony Pictures Television. The arrangement will give subscribers to the media rental and downloading service exclusive streamed access to Sony's current TV series as well as past shows. Also included will be future movie releases from Sony.
Following Apple’s recent addition of the ‘Complete My Season Pass’ function for TV shows on iTunes, the company has posted two new FAQs. One addresses the new ability to upgrade to a Season Pass for TV shows at a discount, while the other addresses changes to the ‘Complete My Album’ function. The new FAQ has dropped any mention of the 180-day window for upgrading to a full album at a discounted rate after a user has downloaded individual songs from it.
Apple has quietly rolled out a new feature on the iTunes Store, Complete My Season Pass. The concept is similar to the Complete My Album option for music. If a person already has some episodes of a TV show on iTunes, they can now buy the rest of a season at a discounted Season Pass rate, instead of paying for a full Season Pass or buying remaining episodes individually.
Apple is temporarily freezing access to new iTunes Match subscriptions in some of the recently-added countries, reports say. At least some people clicking on the option in iTunes are being greeted with a pop-up message. "iTunes Match is temporarily not accepting new subscribers. Check back later," the window states.
A number of people trying to log into iTunes and/or iCloud accounts overnight were met with error messages, reports note. "The Apple ID you entered couldn't be found or your password was incorrect. Please try again," one message read. Attempting to change the password simply generated a "fatal internal error" at Apple's support site.
