Radiohead's 10 videos From the Basement

June 25, 2008   1 Comments
Radiohead, or perhaps just their label, has added 10 Live Music Videos from their 'In Rainbows' album. The live spontaneous music videos were a part of Nigel Goldrich's From the Basement series of TV shows. Performing live this collection captures the unique band that Radiohead is and how they perform live.

Music Video Tracks include:

• Bodysnatchers
• House of Cards
• Nude
• Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
• 15 Step
• Reckoner
• Go Slowly
• Videotape
• Bangers & Mash
• All I Need

The original In Rainbows album is available for purchase through iTunes Plus for $7.99. The Music Video track from 'From the Basement' are $0.99 each.

Labels: iTunes Plus, iTunes Store, Music Videos, TV Shows

Australia get iTunes TV Shows

June 24, 2008   0 Comments
The Australian iTunes store is the most recent store to now offer Television programming. ABC, Disney, MTv, Nine Network and the Australian Broadcasting Networks are all well represented in the store, with a standard $2.99 AUS cost per show. Australian shows such as, Sleek Geeks, We Can Be Heroes and McLeod's Daughters all appear in the store

One notable difference is the lack of season passes. This means Australian users will be checking for new episodes weekly, a trend we can't see lasting very long. We assume season passes will soon be added, as at the current rate a season of episodes will be much higher then purchasing the series on DVD.

--UPDATE--
We may have beaten Apple to the internet with this one... here's the official press release

Labels: iTunes Store, TV Shows

iTunes Store is the @#$%

June 19, 2008   0 Comments
Hot off the press this morning, Apple announced that iTunes users have purchased over 5 Billion songs through the iTunes store and they continue to be the #1 music retailer in the United States. It also doesn't hurt that they have the largest online catalog, with over 8 million tracks. In addition to the music, iTunes users are also renting and purchasing over 550,000 movies a day, making iTunes the #1 Music Retailer and the most popular online movie store.

Personally I use iTunes as a media library and don't touch the store that often, but these number are astounding. Combo them with the 20k TV shows and you can see why its so popular. We would like to see Apple maintain a larger flim library and a higher percentage of high definition films as well. I mean, 2,000 films and only 350 are HD?

Labels: iTunes Store

Radiohead's Creep rejoins UK Top-40

June 9, 2008   0 Comments
When does a 15 year old song, make its way back into the UK Top-40? Radiohead's classic Creep, did just that this week. After Radiohead decided to include their entire back catalogue of albums through the iTunes UK Store.

Creep, creeping back into the Top-40 just shows the strength of the online music industry today. If a simple release of a 15 year old song can chart on the UK Top-40, imagine how important future album releases will become. Some record labels are already doing this. We would expect to see many more back catalogues released as well, allowing for record companies to profit of pre-existing media, and not just new releases.

Included in the EMI Radiohead back catalogue includes a Best of album, which hit #4 on the UK charts for albums. This album did not come with the approval of Radiohead.

Labels: iTunes Store

HBO show Debut in iTunes

May 13, 2008   0 Comments
HBO's Award winning programming has been added to the iTunes TV library. New programs include 'The Sporanos,' ' Sex and the City', 'Deadwood', and 'Rome' in addition to "Flight of the Conchords" and "The Wire." The availability of HBO shows opens the door for cable subscribers that do not receive the HBO channels.

Most episodes will be priced at the standard $1.99 per episode, while longer shows such as 'The Sporanos,' 'Deadwood,' and 'Rome' will be priced at $2.99 per episode. Full seasons are also available for immediate purchase.

This is great news... but we have one question.... where's Entourage?

Labels: iTunes Store, TV Shows

Hanna-Barbera for iTunes UK

March 4, 2008   0 Comments
Hanna-Barbera, the classic childrens cartoons, including Scooby Doo, Yogi Bear, and Huckleberry Hound have been made available for purchase through the iTunes UK Store.

Each hour-long classic cartoon are £1.89 each.

BBC has also put some earlier series of its shows up on iTunes UK as well. These include The Mighty Boosh and Life On Mars.

Labels: BBC, iTunes Store, TV Shows

BBC Shows in UK iTunes Store

February 19, 2008   0 Comments
BBC content has finally appeared in the iTunes UK Store overnight. Rumors have been circling about the publicly funded network bringing shows to iTunes to supplement their 'iplayer'. There were even rumors about using AppleTV's new rental program to allow for free viewing of these shows, but it looks like they are going with the standard purchase format.

Currently available are shows such as Torchwood, Spooks, The Mighty Boosh, Life on Mars, The Catherine Tate Show, Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps and finally Little Britain. These are all selling at £1.89

If your on the left side of the pond, your stuck looking for torrents of these shows. Currently BBC shows only appear in the UK version of the iTunes Store.

Labels: BBC, iTunes Store, TV Shows

Idol on iTunes

0 Comments
Fox and Apple will be making the performances from American Idol Semifinalists available on iTunes on March 11th. In addition the videos which will sell for $1.99, the store will feature music track sfrom the top-24 semi-finalists for 99¢. Similar to TV-Show season passes Idol fans can pre-order performances which will automatically be downloaded when available.

iTunes will also be sponsoring streaming videos on American Idol's website, and the iPod has become their official MP3 player, and iPhone Handset. These items will show up in cheesy commercials filmed by the contestants, similar to other sponsors such as Coke, AT&T and Ford. Might be cool to see them pay homage to the silhouette ads.

To hold you all over iTunes currently has 'Exclusive Video Memorable Season 7 Audition' for free right now.

Labels: Fox, iTunes Store, TV Shows

Farscape and Fragile Rock in iTunes

January 29, 2008   0 Comments
The Jim Henson Company has joined iTunes with the first seasons of >Farscape and of Fraggle Rock
. I'm sure most of the sci-fi geeks are more excited about Farscape, but i have already found myself downloading a few random Fragile Rock episodes to reclaim some of my youth before its all gone.

Nicole Goldman, VP of Marketing and Publicity, says the Jim Henson Company "continue to be honored and thrilled by our fans’ ongoing desire to support their favorite shows and view them using all formats of media,... We know our fans have been asking for these titles on iTunes and through our partnership with New Video, we hope to serve our loyal supporters and also introduce these beloved shows to new audiences.”

Individual episodes are of course $1.99, and the season are $40.00 for Farscape and $35 for Fraggle Rock. In the next few months expect to see more seasons and shows by the Jim Henson Company appearing in iTunes.

Labels: iTunes Store, TV Shows

Wallace & Gromit arrive in iTunes UK

January 22, 2008   0 Comments
iTunes 'Shorts' collection no longer just includes Pixar flicks. Two collection of short Wallace and Gromit films have been added to the iTunes UK Store this morning. A total of 5 24-30 min. shorts have been added, grouped into two separate collections:

• 3 Cracking Adventures: A Grand Day Out, The Wrong Trousers, and A Close Shave.
  
• Cracking Contraptions: 2 Parts
  
• Coming Soon:Five Tales

Each collection includes multiple films at £4.99, however you may also purchase them individually for £1.89 each. I hope we are able to get these collections on this side of the pond.

Labels: iTunes Store, Movies

iTunes Movie Rentals with Fox

December 26, 2007   0 Comments
Looks like the hot ticket for 2008 will in fact be Movie Rentals through iTunes. The Financial Times reported that Apple and 20th Century Fox have inked a deal for digital movie rentals. The deal will allow for the consumer to rent a Fox DVD release from iTunes for a limited time. After the allowed time expires the movie self destructs or something mission impossible style. Earlier this month we had reported Fox and Apple working out a deal for Movie distribution through iTunes, we just didn't know it could be rental related.

Added to the deals is a rumor we've heard floating around for a while. An upgrade to AppleTV which will allows for iTunes Store browsing. We also anticipate seeing Steve's old company, Pixar's movies appearing at the same time.

We hope that after Fox has a successful test run, other movie studios will join in seeing the potential. iTunes is currently connected to millions of computers, ipods, and AppleTV's internationally, making the exposure for the studios reaching further then any other media box out there. This launch could result in leapfrogging Amazon or Netflix popularity in downloadable rental services.

Labels: Fox, iTunes Store, Movie Rentals

Canada gets iTunes TV Shows

December 11, 2007   0 Comments
All you Canadian HTPC owners out will soon no longer have to resort to torrents or crossing the US border to download TV Shows. It took over two years to arrive, but Apple will be adding TV Shows to the Canadian iTunes sometime on Wednesday of this week. Till this release iTunes have only made TV Shows available to the United States and United Kingdom. All the licensing terms and conditions were finalized with some canadian networks, as well as already existing itunes networks to allow for the distribution.

But before you expect a wealth of new content, the Canada's TV Shows will be rolled out slowly, adding a few shows and networks a day. Sometime Wednesday, CBC, CTV and a few US networks will add their content. NHL content is also expected relatively soon.

Labels: iTunes Store, TV Shows

Fox & Apple working on Movie Deal

December 4, 2007   1 Comments
Twentieth Century Fox and Apple are working on a deal to distribute the studio's movies through iTunes. Apple has worked with studios before to distribute movies, but this time around Apple has agreed to sell movies at a higher price point. It appears $15 per title is where Fox wants to sell their titles at.

This move can be seen as a decision to stay competitive with Amazon, which already sells movies from Fox and other studios. It curious, if Apple gave into Fox's demands, why not NBC's. It sounds like they only wanted to test the market with a $3-4 per TV episode. Perhaps Steve got stubborn.

Labels: Fox, iTunes Store

NBC pulls out of the iTunes Store

December 3, 2007   0 Comments
We all knew it was coming. NBC has pulled all of their TV Shows from the iTunes Store. Last August the NBC vs. Apple spat went public, each accusing each other of not being fair to the other. NBC opted not to renew their contract with Apple's iTunes Store, in favor of their own download service, Hulu, and Amazon Unboxed. But these systems are packed with DRM and require IE and a windows box to play but a mac version is due sometime in 2008.

So as of today you won't find Bravo, NBC, NBC News, NBC Sports, SciFi, USA, or Telemundo programming in iTunes. In disgust a good number of NBC TV Show customers have expressed their dissatisfaction with the network, encouraging other to download the shows via torrents or peer-to-peer solutions.

NBC had provided iTunes with three of the top ten selling shows last season, and accounts for 30% of all TV Show sales.

Labels: Hulu, iTunes Store, NBC, TV Shows

Beatles are coming... in 2008

November 16, 2007   0 Comments
Its been a long time, coming, but it seems that the Beatles collection number one albums and songs will be finally available through iTunes, you just have to wait a little bit longer. Contact Music is reporting that, Sir Paul McCartney has given the thumbs up to selling the catalog through the iTunes Store stating: "You've got to get these things right. You don't want to do something that's as cool as that and in three years time you think, 'Oh God, why did we do that?'"

Apple Corp and Apple Inc. originally butted heads regarding a deal inked back in the early days of Apple, indicating that then Apple Computers Inc. would not be involved in the music industry. This of course changed with the introduction of the iTunes Store were Apple Inc. sells music from thousands of artists internationally. Slowly over the years, each of the Beatles individual music has made its way into iTunes, with the Beatles Catalog being the last domino to fall.

Last month, Olivia Harrison, George Harrison's window, indicated that the wheels were in motion to make the Beatles music available, just after George's music was added to the online catalog. But she also warned that we would have to wait until 2008.

Labels: Beatles, iTunes Store

iTunes won't get Jay-Z's latest

November 14, 2007   0 Comments
Rapper and President & CEO of Def-Jam records has decided not to sell his latest album through the iTunes Music Store. American Gangster, the artists 10th studio album is described as a concept album, depicting his personal experiences as a Street Hustler. Jay-Z cites iTunes ability to sell individual tracks as the reason behind the decision. It is his feeling that selling individual tracks compromises the albums integrity.

Seems like a pretty simple solution to me. Why doesn't Apple only off to sell the album and not individual tracks. Competitors such as Amazon MP3 is selling album in its entirety, without the option of individual tracks.

Labels: iTunes Store

Scrubs Are On Call in iTunes

November 2, 2007   0 Comments
House may have left iTunes, thanks to the NBC tiff, but another group of doctors have arrived. Scrubs, now in its last season, has been added to the iTunes Store. Scrubs appears on NBC, but are owned by ABC/Disney. Steve may have some pull there being on their board of directors.

Currently only two episodes, My Own Worst Enemy, and My Hard Labor, from the current season are available. We hope that ABC/Disney will bring the earlier seasons.

Labels: iTunes Store, NBC, TV Shows

More NBC vs. Apple Fun...

October 29, 2007   0 Comments
The fun between Apple and NBC continued to day at a Syracyse University benefit. NBC Universal Chief Jeff Zucker, threw a few more punches at Apple, stating that NBC Universal has ONLY made $15 million of its iTunes deal with Apple. He continued on explaining how Apple has made millions of iPod sales 'backed by our content'. NBC was specifically looking for a piece of the Apple Hardware sales during their contract negotiations.

The NBC Chief explained that they proposed a $2.99 / TV Show price point for 1 show to test if the market was open to a flexible pricing schedule. Sticking with their set price points Apple immediately had declined. NBC was the largest contributor to the iTunes TV Show directory, and consistently featured best selling TV Shows, week-in, week-out. The studio counted for 4 out of 10 video sold through iTunes.

The most laughable statement Zuker made was saying that “Apple has destroyed the music business. If we don’t take control on the video side, they’ll do the same”. iTunes has been one of the few bright spots in downloadable music, giving consumers an easy alternative to file sharing systems. At the very least, Apple has saved the record industry millions each year, and made millions for them as well.


All of these harsh words thrown at Apple comes when NBC Universal is preparing to launch their very own video distribution servers Hulu.com. Still in the early beta stages, it appears it will host shows such as The Office, Bionic Women, House, Bones, Arrested Development, Miami Vice and content from E!, SciFi, and USA networks. From the screenshots and description it appears to be a flash-like browser that allows for emailing and sharing of videos. The Office episode it has an example was slow to load, and extremely choppy. We say, good luck with that!

Apple has not commented on these latest attacks. We will continue to monitor the NBC fun, and keep you updated on Hulu when its ready for prime-time.

Labels: Hulu, iTunes Store, NBC, TV Shows

Warner may reject iTunes renewal

October 26, 2007   1 Comments
It appears that on the day if Leopards release, Apple's iTunes may be receiving some more unfortunate news. Warner Music is considering joining Universal in rejecting a one-year deal with Apple. Warner Music include Atlantic Records, Elektra, Bad Boy, Rhino Records and Word Entertainment.

Apple's iTunes Store seems to be running into more and more difficulties with record labels, television studios, and perhaps movie studios. Apple wants to provide as much content for its iTunes users, while making a buck, and it would seem to me that the studios, labels, etc would want the same thing. Can't they all just get a long?

Labels: iTunes Store, TV Shows

NBC/Apple End Negotiations

October 25, 2007   0 Comments
NBC and Apple have decided to end their negotiations regarding the studio's television programming. As we reported last month, NBC has pulled all their Television shows from iTunes, despite their early success with iTunes. The fued is over iTunes pricing, where television shows appear at $1.99.

On December 1st, Apple's contract with NBC expires, and at that point all NBC shows including shows from SciFi, USA, and Bravo will be pulled from the iTunes Music Store. NBC sent a breach of contract letter on October 9, but no legal action will follow. NBC has already worked out deals with Amazon to distribute their shows through their Amazon Unboxed service, packed with DRM.

Reactions from the fans seemed to be mixed. Several want the two to work out the details and renew the contract, others are boycotting NBC, while others simply suggest using torrents to get their shows. If you can't live without your NBC content we recommend getting a mac tv capture device, and record for your personal library.

Labels: Apple, iTunes, iTunes Store, NBC, TV Shows

More Zeppelin for iTunes

October 23, 2007   0 Comments
Apple continues to become good buddies with Led Zepplin, with an online exclusive 'digital box set' avaialble for pre-order through iTunes. "The Complete Led Zeppelin" includes the entire catalog of 165 tracks for $99.00.

In June we reported that "Mothership" would Zeppelin's first digital release, but the digital box set will be released on November 13. Mothership is included in the box set as well.

As an added bonus, iTunes customers who purchase the collection will be entered to see the Led Zeppelin reunion in London. The reunion show will be held November 26th, at the 02 Arena in London. Your purchase automatically enters you to win tickets to the show, tickets to the private dress rehearsals, round trip airfare and three night hotel accommodations for two.

Labels: iTunes Store

NFL Action on iTunes

October 17, 2007   0 Comments
MLB's World Series about to get underway, the NFL's season is in full swing. iTunes is continuing to work with the NFL Network to bring you all the latest action. They have several options.

NFL Replay:
Personally I love this format. 90 minutes to cover the entire game. They have onfield mic, amazing camera angles and compact the entire game into 90min. Each week they select 5 game to highlight in this format. They are $2.99 each, and a season package is $83.72. This seems a little steep to me.

Follow Your Team:
With this option you can purchase highlights from your favorite teams latest game. You'll get each catch, each play, each block. Season pass for $25 a year, and Episodes at $2.

NFL Game Day
This is the NFL Networks Sunday night review show. They spend an hour going over all of the games from that Sunday, and preview Monday's game. You get post-game reactions, expert analysis from Mariucci, Sanders adn Eisen. $2 episodes, $25 Season.

Last year, NFL Network put out their Game of the Week, which is a NFL Films style tribute tot he best game of each week. I own all of them from my home team, the Chargers, from the last few years. They are simply stunning from start to finish. Yet they seem to be missing this year.

Labels: iTunes Store

iTunes Plus moving to 99¢ tracks

October 16, 2007   0 Comments
Earlier this week several the iTunes Plus track from independent labels have appeared at a 99¢ price point, 30¢ lower then the standard. Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO has informed the Wall Street Journal that this was the begining of a pricing transition, to have all iTunes Plus tracks available for the standard 99¢ price tag found in the regular store. There has been much speculation that the new prices are a result of offerings from Amazon and Wal-Mart.

EMI was the first major label to sign on to iTunes Plus, offering the majority of their collection in both DRM and No-DRM flavors. The Plus tracks also featured a higher bit rate, so audiofiles could justify the extra 30¢ being spent for the DRM-Free tracks. Its refreshing to see that most iTunes tracks will be available at a common price tag.

Labels: DRM, iTunes Plus, iTunes Store

99¢ iTunesPlus Tracks

October 15, 2007   0 Comments
Some readers have pointed out that there are a few 99¢ iTunes Plus tracks available in the iTunes Store. This is 30¢ cheaper then the standard $1.29 price point for DRM-Free iTunes Tracks.

We browsed through some of the iTunes Plus selection and found many tracks now available at 99¢. These all seem to be related to SubPop, Nettwerk and other independent record labels. Nettwerk represents Barenaked Ladies and Sarah McLachlan both which has 99¢ tracks now. Subpop represents a wide variety of mostly alternative-independent artists, most notably Postal Service and Band of Horses.

In our brief search we found Band of Horses: Cease to Begin, ChillOut: a Nettwerk Escape, Iron & Wine, and Herschell Gordon Lewis all at the new price. MacDailyNews is also reporting that Flight of the Conchords and The Perishers are also at the same price tag.

So it appears that this may be limited to specific tracks, specific artists and specific record labels, we hope to see more DRM tracks appearing at the 99¢ price point. We applaud SubPop and Nettwerk for their contributions to this effort.

Labels: iTunes Plus, iTunes Store

iTunes collects all four Beatles

October 9, 2007   0 Comments
This morning iTunes rounded out their collection of Beatle solo artists with George Harrison's catalog of albums. Dubbed the 'quite one', Harrison had the most extensive collection of unreleased songs when the Beatles split. What you won't find in this collection however is any songs Harrison wrote and recorded with the rest of the Fab Four, but what you will find is that these tracks are available in Non-DRM goodness of iTunes Plus.

• All Things Must Pass
• Brainwashed
• Living in a Materail World
• Live in Japan
• Gone Troppo
• George Harrison
• Somewhere in England
• Thirty Three and 1/3
• Cloud Nine

With Harrison's Music available through the iTunes Store, this means that they now offer tracks and albums from all four Beatles, McCartney, Starr, Lennon and now Harrison. It seems all the more likely that we will have Beetles in the iTunes Store sooner then later.

While iTunes and Apple (Music) continue to discuss getting Beatles music in to the iTunes store, they are both loosing out on potential sales. Your traditional Brick and Mortar stores are dying off faster then the dinosaurs, and fans of the music are looking towards peer-to-peer and torrent networks to enjoy their music. In a recent torrent search, over 410 hits appeared for "Beatles". This represents thousands of individuals sharing their music, and millions of dollars in lost revenue. With these figures, its curious to how the record companies can argue about their cut of iTunes Music sales, while the continue to loose revenue due to music piracy daily.

Labels: Beatles, iTunes Plus, iTunes Store

Rumors: MacNano & iTunesHD

October 5, 2007   0 Comments
A few rumors are flying around the mac centered blog sites out there. In the last 24 hours these inside sources have been reporting that the MacMini will be retired and give way to the new MacNano, HD movies making their way into the iTunes Store, and even Leopard may be released in Q4 2007, rather then Q1 2008! A series of Apple events would introduce each of these rumors and new products from today to mid-december, just intime for the last minute holiday rush.

Rumor #1: MacNano
This new entry-level mac will measuere about 2/3 of the high of the Nano, shrinking the volume by nearly 25%. Entertainmac anticipated the new dimensions to be about 2 stacked AppleTV's. It will still support an internal optical drive, 60GB and 80GB hard-drives, and we would expect 802.11N wireless capacities. The most shocking however is the rumored starting price tag of $250. It sounds to us like the AppleTV and Mini platforms are melding together on this one.

Rumor #2: iTunesHD
This rumor seems more feasible then the last, as HD video are long over due for the iTunes Store. With HD Discs available from everywhere from the Piggly Wiggly to Albertson's, and Macs/AppleTV's handling HD Capacities there is no logic behind not having HD quality movies available. The rumor floating around specifically points to a selection of movies with an increased resolution. Currently 640x480, this falls short HD capacities, but users out there have already been importing 1280x720 (720p) videos to their HTPC's and AppleTVs for some time now.

Rumor #3: OS-X Leopard
Lastly, we return back to OS-X Leopard. Originally scheduled to be released Q2, Leopard has been pushed back to Q4, and some even point to Q1 of 2008. With the rapid release of recent developer builds of OS-X Leopard, it appears apples is ramping up the changes and finding their way to a final product sooner then anticipated. ThinkSecret and AppleInsider both point to release dates of October 26th. Amazon.com has been pre-selling Leopard for several months now, if you don't want to be one of the midnight release fan-boys.

Labels: AppleTV, iTunes Store, MacMini, Rumors

The Griffins, the new itunes neighbor...

October 3, 2007   0 Comments
With House moving out, there was vacancy to fill in the iTunes Store. Fox continues to test the waters of iTunes by increasing the number of shows. They have previously posted season premiers, as well as popular favorites Prison Break, 24, The OC, and American Dad. It seems they have found their test candidate. Family Guy has joined the iTunes line-up.

Currently only one episode is available. 'Movin' Out' was the second episode from Season 6 (although it appears as #1?). You may purchase this track for $1.99 and demonstrate that you want the Griffens to stay, and we may just see all the previous season and more of current season appearing.

Labels: iTunes Store

The doctor is no longer in.

October 2, 2007   0 Comments
NBC's tiff with apple is reaching beyond the shows aired on its network now. Broadcastingcable.com has confirmed that House, the popular Fox TV show will no longer release new episodes through iTunes. House is produced by Universal Media, a subsidiary of NBC Universal.

With more and more popular shows dropping from the iTunes Store, Apple will have to take another look at their profit margins. Perhaps TV shows were a small drop in the bucket, but this could become huge if it keeps up.

Until then most Mac HTPC users are turning to the torrents for their House, Heros, Office, and other NBC TV Shows.

Labels: iTunes Store, NBC, TV Shows

2 New NBC shows found in iTunes!

September 26, 2007   0 Comments
NBC had their falling out... or did they? Two of NBC's new shows have appeared in iTunes. Chuck and Jouneyman both appear in iTunes for your standard $1.99 price tag. Both of them also have the option to buy a season pass!

Are we to assume that NBC and iTunes's already had this in the works and continued to move forward as planned, or is this a new development. The pricing seems to be the same, so it doesn't seem to be on NBC's terms, unless the percentages changed. NBC seems to still be moving forward with (the unfriendly, DRM crippled) Amazon's Unboxed service as well, with Heros, My Name is Earl, and other NBC shows appearing.

Stay tuned as the Networks vs iTunes drama continues...

Labels: iTunes Store, NBC, TV Shows

Fox & CBS to offer Free TV Shows.

September 20, 2007   0 Comments
Fox and CBS have both decided to offer their season premiers, free, through iTunes. You may download Prison Break, K-Ville, and The Big Bang Theory.

On the other hand NBC is trying to counter with offering free episodes of the Office and Heros through their direct download service, which is heavy in DRM and not Mac friendly.

Labels: iTunes Store, NBC, TV Shows

CBS content with iTuneStore

September 19, 2007   0 Comments
Despite all the drama surrounding the NBC Universal's TV Shows, CBS's says that they are content with iTunes and continue to provide their programs in iTunes. CBS brings programs like one of my favorites, CSI. CBS utilized their iTunes content as a marketing strategy. The $2 shows introduce and allow viewers to catch up with seasons.

NBC recently decided to take actions to pull their programs in favor of a flexible pricing option for iTunes pricing. After breaking off their deal with iTunes, NBC elected to sell their shows on Amazon. These unfortunately are not iPod/AppleTV/iPhone compatible. News Corp has also been struggling to get gain more control of the pricing of their programs in iTunes.

The iTunes flexible pricing battle continues.

Labels: iTunes Store, TV Shows

iTunes UK FINALLY gets TV Shows

August 28, 2007   0 Comments
UK, Welcome to 2 Years Ago. Brits can now get TV Shows now. Apple snuck in several Television shows in their Thursday iTune Store update for the UK. The "TV Programmes" heading will present a list of shows from ABC, Viacom, Nickelodeon, MTV and Paramount. No real surprise to the studios that took the lead here. The episodes are priced at £1.89 each. TV Shows include, Grey's Anatomy, South Park, Desperate Housewives, Ugly Betty, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, that 70's Show.

EntertainMac can't be alone in thinking that this was long over due. It seems odd for Apple to ignore one of their largest Apple supporter groups out there. Over the years it has always taken the UK iTunes a while to catch up with the states, but this is ridiculous. I guess its funny, they don't ignore their music, by sponsoring the iTunes Festival London last month. Just think it only too 2 years to get TV shows on iTunes UK. In another year you may just see movies! (gasp!)

Labels: iTunes Store, TV Shows

3 Billion and counting...

July 31, 2007   0 Comments
Apple is announcing today that they have sold more than 3 Billion songs through the iTunes Store. Currently the store, has over 5 million songs available, 550 tv shows, and 550 movies, passing Amazon and Target to become the 3rd largest music retailer in the United States!

Congrats to Apple. Lets get more movies and tv shows up there already!

Labels: iTunes Store

Zeppelin lands Mothership to iTunes...

July 30, 2007   0 Comments
The Observer.Uk is reporting that Led Zeppelin has finally joined the ranks of hundreds of other recording artists, announcing they will release Mothership, a best of collection, on iTunes. Scheduled to be released in the store November 12, Mothership's tracks such as were hand selected by Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones.

With Zeppelin joining iTunes, Radiohead, and the Beatles back-catalogue, are the major artist not available on iTunes.

Labels: iTunes Store

iTunes 7.2 is here... with iTunes Plus

May 29, 2007   0 Comments
Version 7.2 is out and available through your system update and as a download from the Apple iTunes Website as well. The big addition to this update is iTunes Plus.

With iTunes 7.2, preview and purchase iTunes Plus music—new higher-quality, DRM-free music downloads from participating music labels. These are similar to the EMI DRM-Free music previously available at $1.29.

Other then these tracks there is no DRM-Free music in iTunes, and can expect the full launch to take place later. Sources point to Wednesday as the day.

Digging a little deeper the help menu provides a little more information about upgrading your previously purchased tracks. This is great for those people that spent bank on there iTunes music and swapped to another player later on.

Labels: DRM, iTunes, iTunes Plus, iTunes Store, Software Update

EMI goes DRM Free in iTMs

April 2, 2007   0 Comments Steve Jobs made a bold statement regarding how he would allow non-DRM music in iTMs if the record lables allowed it. Today with EMI's announcement, DRM-Free music will be made available through the iTunes Music Store.

The DRM-Free music is meant to compliment the DRM content in iTunes. Versions of both types will be available for download, however at different price ranges and different qualities. DRM-Free downloads will be available at a higher quality for $1.29. The standard DRM'd versions will be available at $.99, and for those iTMS users who already have the DRM'd verisions can upgrade to the non-DRM version for 30¢. Its nice to have options.



If you wish to view/listen to the announcement EMI has made it available as a podcast, pdf, wmv, and realaudio.

Labels: DRM, iTunes Store

MLB Video in iTMS

March 30, 2007   0 Comments
Continuing to add more and more content to iTunes, Apple has announced today it will be bringing Major League Baseball highlights to the iTunes Store. They will be offering 3 flavors for your viewing pleasure:

• MLB.com Daily Rewind: 25min Highlight video from around the league. [$1.99 ea]
  
• Games of the Week: The best game from the NL and AL. Full-length without the commercials! [$1.99 ea]
  
• MLB.Com Baseball's Best: Highlighting the best classic baseball games from the past. [$1.99]
  

MLB is also offering a Multipass at $7.99/mo for both, as well as traditional season passes at $19.99.

To get everyone started, they are offering a 2007 MLB Season Preview Show, as a free download.

I appreciated every moment of the NFL season through iTunes, I can only expect to do he same with the MLB shows. I only wish they had team-by-team highlights like the NFL did. I really could care less what the Devil Rays, Royals, or Nationals are doing.

Labels: iTunes Store

Complete My Album in iTunes

March 29, 2007   0 Comments
iTMs Thursday is here. Last week we got some exclusive Sony TV Shows, this week we get a feature called Complete My Album. Based on the previous tracks you have purchased through the iTunes Store, you may now purchase the rest of the album at a discounted price.

Prior to this any album purchases would of resulted in purchasing a song twice. Witha 99¢ credit towards each song, albums are looking a lot more attractive. But before you go out and look to take advantage of this from years of single track purchases, do it before June 27, as Apples grace period will end. After this grace period expires you will have 180 days to purchase the full album after purchasing a single track.

Happy iTMs Hunting...

Labels: iTunes, iTunes Store

Sony throws in the TV Shows...

March 23, 2007   0 Comments Sony has joined the iTunes store with many of their television classics. The include "Starsky and Hutch", "Charlies Angles", "News Radio" and "Till Death".



It appears these shows are all ready to be downloaded and transfered to your AppleTV and/or iPod!

Labels: iTunes Store, TV Shows

Lionsgate joins the iTunes Crowd

February 12, 2007   0 Comments Coming across the AP, Apple is anouncing that they have teamed up with Lionsgate to bring an additional 150 titles to the iTunes Store. These will be available for download today. Some of these titles include: "Terminator 2", "LA Story", "Basic Instinct", "The Blair Witch Project" and "Dirty Dancing." Titles are $9.99 are recorded at 640x480.

In the coming weeks be on the look out for "Total Recall", "Rambo", "Monster's Ball", “Chaplin” and “The Boys From Brazil.”

“We’re delighted to offer these incredibly popular Lionsgate films on iTunes, and look forward to adding even more films in the future,” said Steve Beeks, president of Lionsgate. “iTunes lets users download these wonderful films to watch on their computer, TV or iPod, so movie fans can take their favorite Lionsgate films with them anywhere.”

Lionsgate joins Disney and Paramount in the iTunes Store, which now boasts over 400 titles for imediate download.

Labels: iTunes Store