DOM SXSW Live The list of bands includes: Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears, Boy & Bear, Brother, Chapel Club, Chikita Violenta, City and Colour, The Civil Wars, Dom, Glasser, Hayes Carll, Jessica Lea Mayfield, Le Butcherettes, Lia Ices, Lucinda Williams, Neon Trees, The Republic Tigers, Ryan Bingham, and Small Black. As noted, each show…
Apple Music
Apple Working on Higher Quality Music Downloads
Universal Music Group’s Interscope-Geffen-A&M record label executive Jimmy Iovine said his label is already working on bringing 24-bit music to consumers, according to CNN.iTunes users may get higher quality tracks soon“We’ve gone back now at Universal, and we’re changing our pipes to 24-bit. And Apple has been great,” he said. “We’re working with them and…
Apple Adds Playlist Support to Ping
Ping playlists include standard song previews, the ability to purchase individual tracks or the full playlist, customer ratings, and customer reviews.Ping PlaylistsApple introduced Ping in September along with iTunes 10 during the company’s fall iPod-related media event. At the time, company CEO Steve Jobs said Ping was “like Facebook and Twitter meet iTunes,” although it…
Apple Announces Beatles on iTunes
The Beatles: Now on iTunesAll 13 of the band’s studio albums are available, along with the Red and Blue collections, the two-volume Past Masters compilation, the Beatles Box Set, and the 1964 Washington Coliseum performance video.Apple also posted a special Beatles-related Web page with a Beatles tribute video and commercials highlighting the band’s arrival on…
It’s About The Music Stupid! Edition
The fact is, it’s still about the music (stupid), and it’s never been about what Steve Jobs says about Apple’s intentions, it’s always has been, and the foreseeable future, will be about what Jobs does with Apple . It was music that made the iPod popular, but it also made the iPhone, and now the…
And The Beat Goes On
Reviews will follow as they always do, but there are some that I think are worthy of a web site visit, so a quick discussion of each. NAVIGON 1.5.0 Software I have covered NAVIGON before and anyone who knows me personally knows that I think this is the greatest iPhone app going because it keeps…
GrooveMaker
There used to be an old comic book advertisement that said, “They laughed when I sat down to play the piano.” The new GrooveMaker iPhone app brings that phrase into the 21st century… Its ad might say, “They laughed when I said I would DJ the whole party with just my iPhone.” But it’s true:…
"Listen" by Tryad: First Non-Apple iTunes LP Release
Tryad is a Paris-based band that records in English, and iLongPlay began working on the iTunes LP release without consulting the band (the Creative Commons license specifically allows use of the material by other parties wishing to add to it or build upon it). The result includes an iTunes LP version of the album with…
Bring Back the iTunes Shopping Cart!
In Search of Wish List With the extinct iTunes 8 Shopping Cart, to set things up so that to-be-purchased items went directly to your Cart by default, you enabled an option in iTunes Preferences > Store. Alternatively, via the 1-click option, you could choose to purchase items immediately. Essentially, it is the same model used by…
Adventures in iTunes Sitting
The first app I found, on a suggestion, was Synergy from Wincent Software. (v.3.5a6) Wincent Colaiuta has written a very handy app that puts iTunes controls in the Menu bar, but you’ll actually have to click on the Menu bar item to force a popup window that displays the name of the song.Synergy PrefsA nice…
Dr. Mac: Rants & Raves - iTunes Plus: DRM Free or Not?
Episode #79 Surely by now you’ve heard about Apple’s new DRM-free iTunes offerings known as iTunes Plus. If you haven’t, here’s how I described it in my Houston Chronicle column earlier this week: Announced earlier in the month and launched last week, iTunes Plus provides the option of higher-quality music encoded at twice the bit…
Podcast - Apple Report: Mangling Music with Melodyne
Direct Link: MP3 Version After a recap of the week’s Apple news, Ricky and Jeff dive into a one-of a kind Product Roundup. Learn about Melodyne, a pro-audio application you’ve definitely heard before — though you probably didn’t know it. Plus, this show features recording contortions, for the Mac nerds out there. The Apple Weekly…
Analyst: DRM-free Music Good for iPod
The open letter from the Apple CEO was posted on the company Web site on Tuesday, and is generally assumed to be a response to demands from European countries to open the copy protection used at the iTunes Store so that other companies can sell iPod-compatible music downloads and iTunes-compatible players. Apple claims it canit…
iPod Knocks Oricon Out of Music Download Market
Oricon is bowing out of the computer-based music download market in Japan, and is citing Apple’s iPod as the reason. According to Reuters, the company has been losing 25 million yen (about US$212,495) a month on its download store for PCs since the service started in March 2005. Oricon spokesman, Teruaki Hidaka, commented “The iPod…
Podcast - Weekly Roundup: Unbox vs. iTunes (sort of...)
Direct Link: MP3 Version It was supposed to be a show about Amazon vs. Apple, but how much of a comparison can you draw when only Apple has the full package? For the full story on Apple’s full package, listen in to TMO’s Bryan Chaffin, Jeff Gamet, and Ricky Spero in this week’s Context Machine.…
Podcast - Weekly Roundup: iTunes on Top
Direct Link: MP3 Version iTunes is still riding high. Let’s see if TMO’s Jeff Gamet can help Roundup Anchor Ricky Spero take it down. Also this week: what’s the road ahead for Creative, Sony, ScanDisk, iRiver…and what’s missing from the Mac software cannon? The Weekly Roundup will be included in TMO’s main RSS feed, and…
iTunes Catalog 2.1 Adds New Playlist Control
KavaSoft announced the immediate availability of iTunes Catalog 2.1 on Thursday. iTunes Catalog is a Mac OS X application that lets you create a Web-based interface for your iTunes music collection so that other users can view your playlists and listen to your music online. The updated version lets you control which playlists are visible…
Just a Thought - iPod Etiquette
During a conversation at work a friend of mine, I shall call her DeeDee, mentioned a situation she was involved in while on a recent flight. She was chilling with her iPod, getting into her music, oblivious to the world around her, when the person seated next to her started up a conversation. DeeDee said…
iPod, iTunes Makes Google Top Lists
The iPod and iTunes were both on Google’s lists of popular searches for 2005. The lists are a part of Google’s annual Zeitgeist report, which analyzes the trends in search queries for the past year. iTunes and iPod in the Top Ten iTunes came in at number six in the Top Gainers list, indicating a…
Apple Launches "iPod 101: Master Your Music & More"
Apple Computer has launched a new iPod feature at the company’s Web site: “iPod 101: Master Your Music and More.” As the name implies, it’s a collection of tips for making the most of your iPod, though some obvious advertising of Apple products and services is also included. The tips include instructional videos, written instructions,…
iTunes Video Downloads Top 1 Million
Apple has already sold one million videos on the iTunes Music Store in the 20 days since the October 12 debut, suggesting a strong market for legal video downloads. Videos cost US$1.99 each, and currently there are over 2,000 music videos, along with short films from Pixar, and television shows from ABC and Disney. Apple…
TMO Reports - Apple Starts iTunes Countdown Campaign to Half Billion (UPDATE)
Apple Computer announced Tuesday a promotional campaign counting down to half a billion songs sold on its iTunes Music Store (iTMS). As part of the countdown, Apple plans on giving away an iPod mini and an iTunes gift card for 50 songs to the iTunes customer who purchases the winning song at each 100,000 interval.…
Yahoo! Subscription Service Faces Tough Road vs. Apple's iTMS
Mr. Burrows said Yahoo! faces a tough battle with its Music Unlimited service and that it wonit overtake Apple “overnight. “Changing consumer behavior — renting, not buying music — will take some doing,” he wrote. “Also, itis hard to make money on new types of subscriptions that allow folks to download tunes to portable players,…
TMO Reports - Apple Steps Up Targeted e-Mail Campaign to iTunes Users
Apple Computer has begun to escalate its campaign of sending targeted e-mail to users of its online iTunes Music Store (iTMS), suggesting different types of music and updating users on new albums from previously bought artists. The marketing ploy has increased in its intensity over the past few weeks, based upon responses from readers of…