TechPatio » iTunes

Spotify lost nearly £17 million in 2009 – but still plans on a 2010 US launch!

Klaus — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 09:51:28 +0000

The swedish music streaming company, Spotify, just released their financial results for 2009 which shows a loss of £16.66 million, around $26 million.

Sales, administration and distribution accounts for about £27.7 million but Spotify couldn’t get their revenue above £11.3 million for the year.

Music Ally estimates that Spotify had 7 million users across Europe by the end of 2009, up from the 1 million users they started 2009 with. Out of the 7 million, at least 250,000 users were paying subscribers and the rest were on free accounts.

Spotify would like to combine paid and free subscription models and make revenue come 40% from advertising and 60% from paid subscriptions.

While Spotify was supposed to have launched in the US earlier this year, speculations suggest that iTunes, among others, might be trying to keep them out of the country.

Personally, I’m quite satisfied with Spotify, though Spotify is not yet allowed in my country (Malta) so you have to “get creative” to sign up, but I’m a paying member and enjoying every moment of it. If you’re a Spotify user, you might want to consider upgrading to either their Unlimited package at £4.99 a month or their Premium package for £9.99. The alternative is that Spotify’s business model will not make it and we’re back to paying for each song we want to buy, rather than unlimited steaming for a fixed price per month…
Related Articles:

How the web has changed the way we buy music – Infographic

Guest Author — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 15:07:07 +0000

The music industry is always changing, from the original LP records first introduced in 1926 (that were as big as 16 inches in diameter) to now being able to download the world of music straight to your phone. Since people discovered downloading music through the internet the music industry has changed dramatically. It’s now at a situation where 98% of music singles bought are now downloads.

The world of internet downloads laid berth to the Apple’s iTunes. Launched in 2001, it offered its users the ability to connect to the iTunes store to purchase and download music legally at a touch of a button.

As of September 2010, 11.7 billion songs have been downloaded through iTunes. Its phenomenal success was helped by the release of the iPhone in January 2007 that was labelled the ‘revolutionary mobile phone’.

A staggering fact is that 64% of iPhone users now consume online music in the United States.

The below infographic courtesy of MoneySupermarket.com details how the web has changed the way we buy music and it contains some brilliant facts and figures.

Related Articles:

iTunes Ping reaches 1 million users in 2 days

Klaus — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 15:41:30 +0000

Apple introduced Ping as part of iTunes 10 on September 1st, explaining how Ping is a social media network that’s all about music. You can follow updates from both your friends and from your favorite music artists and keep up-to-date with more than 17,000 concert listings.

According to Apple, 1/3 of the users who downloaded iTunes 10 also tried out Ping, bringing Ping users up to 1 million registered users during the first two days of service, which unfortunately also resulted in a lot of spam.

Apple has over 160 million iTunes Store users worldwide in 23 countries.
Related Articles:

iTunes 10: Left navigation gray and dull, close/minimize/maximize buttons vertical?! [How-to fix]

Klaus — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:05:30 +0000

iTunes 10 was announced and launched yesterday at the Apple music event and I’ve been playing around with it a little bit for today. The first thing I noticed was how the left navigation sidebar now looks gray and dull. The colored icons are gone and replaced with color-less gray icons.

Next after, I noticed something odd about the close / minimize / maximize buttons in the upper left corner (the small red/yellow/green buttons, you know). They’re no longer placed horizontal like in pretty much all other Mac application, but vertical !!

Luckily, if you’re annoyed about the new placement of the buttons, there’s a fix. Quit iTunes 10, launch Terminal and enter the following string:

defaults write com.apple.iTunes full-window -1

Launch iTunes 10 again and hopefully the buttons are back in their usual place.

But what’s up with the lack of colors in the left navigation sidebar? Initially I didn’t really like it. It was just too damn boring. So I decided to think about why Apple did what they did, cause I’m pretty sure they didn’t just re-design the icons for the fun of it. I came to the conclusion that because the navigation sidebar is now so dull to look at it, it attracts less attention and thus you might pay more attention to what’s going on in the main part of iTunes – the content area. I don’t know if that’s the reason, what do you think?

Either way, I’m not that annoyed by the lack of colors any more. I must be an early adopter

Ping

iTunes 10 now also has a built-in social media network for music and it’s already open to all 160 million iTunes account holders in 23 countries. After playing around with it for a while, I find it somewhat boring. I like the idea and I see the potential, but right now it’s rather boring, especially if you look at the artists to follow. I tried to look up Bruce Springsteen and Green Day but they were nowhere to be found. Instead you can follow artists such as U2, Katy Perry, Linkin Park and a bunch of other artists – oh, and Ladgy Gaga too, if you’re into that.

When it comes to privacy settings in Ping, Apple has certainly learned from Facebook how not to do it. Take a look at the screenshot below, that’s how easy the privacy settings work – a bit too simple but at least simple enough for everybody to be able to set them, compared to Facebook:

Related Articles:

Wrapup: Apple Music Event September 1st – iOS, iPods, AppleTV, AirPlay

Klaus — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 19:34:37 +0000

Steve Jobs and Apple just wrapped up their September 1st music event in San Francisco, showing us the next two updates to iOS, new iPods, new AppleTV, new iTunes, new AirPlay (previously AirTunes) and a new social media site called Ping.

Here’s a complete overview of all that has happened in the 1.5 hour long live video demonstration:

Apple Stores

Steve Jobs first took the stage and started talking about their new Apple Stores over the world and how they now have 300 Apple Stores in 10 countries and will soon open in Spain as well. On some days, Apple Stores have over 1 million visitors in total and 50% of Mac buyers are buying their first Mac, so Apple are bringing in a lot of new customers.

iOS

To day, Apple has shipped 120 million iOS devices and they’re currently activating 230,000 new iOS devices per day. Steve made a suggestion that some of the activation numbers mentioned by their competitors could include upgrades as well, but Apple’s 230,000 daily activations are new devices only.

6.5 billion apps have been downloaded from App Store so far (that’s 200 every second!) of the 250,000 apps in the Store of which there’s 25,000 apps for iPad.

iOS 4.1

iOS 4.1 will be available next week through iTunes and the main points are:

Bug fixes: Proximity sensor, Bluetooth issues, iPhone 3G performance.
HDR photos.
HD video upload over WIFI.
TV Show rentals (in addition to purchases).
Game Center.

HDR photos is kinda cool. Basically the camera snaps three photos on three different exposures and combines them into one, this ensures, for example, that a bright sky doesn’t get completely blown out because the camera tries to get the colors right for what is not in the sky. It’s really cool and I can’t wait to try it out – I use it kinda often on my Sony HX5V pocket digital camera.

HDR photo on the right - notice the sky is not burned out

Game Center has been announced for a long time now, we first saw it when Steve Jobs demo’ed iOS 4, but not until iOS 4.1 will it go public. On stage at today’s event, the game Project Sword was demoed and the graphics are stunning. Game Center will allow you to play with your friends and will auto match you with other players in case you don’t have any friends.

iOS 4.2 (Sneak Peak)

iOS 4.2 was also shown today and is mostly about iPad as iOS 4.2 will be available for iPad as well. It’s set to be available in November as a free update for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Actually, Steve Jobs mentioned on stage that iOS 4.2 would also bring HDR photos to the iPad, so I assume an iPad with a camera is just around the corner… ?

Two of the new things in iOS 4.2 was wireless printing from the iPad and AirPlay (previously known as AirTunes). More about AirPlay in the AppleTV section further down.

iPods

“Every year we try to improve iPods, make them even better for our users. This year, we’ve gone wild” – Steve Jobs.

All new designs for every iPod model – the biggest change in the iPod line, ever!

iPod Shuffle

Main features of the new iPod Shuffle:

Smaller.
Now has a clickwheel.
VoiceOver.
PlayLists.
Clip for instantly wearable.
15 hours of music playback (battery).
Comes in 5 colors and is $49 for a 2GB.
Pre-order today, expected delivery next week.

iPod Nano

Main features of the new iPod Nano:

Smaller (46% smaller and 42% lighter).
Multi-touch (no longer controlled by a clickwheel).
VoiceOver, FM-Radio, Nike+ etc.
Clip for instantly wearable.
24 hours music playback (battery).
Rotate the screen with two fingers.
Comes in 6 colors including a Product RED where some of the profits goes to charity.
Prices are 8GB for $149 and 16GB for $179.
Pre-order today, expected delivery next week.

iPod Touch

The iPod Touch is now the most popular iPod. It used to be the Nano but Touch overtook it last year. It’s also the #1 portable game player in the world and outsells Sony and Nintendo, combined. Over 50% market share in the US and worldwide for portable gaming devices.

Main features of the new iPod Touch:

Even thinner than before.
New Retina display (4x pixels, 326PPI).
Apple A4 chip (as in the iPhone 4 and iPad)
3-axis Gyro.
Front-facing camera.
Rear-facing camera with HD video recording.
FaceTime
40 hours music playback (battery).
Prices are 8GB for $229, 32GB for $299 and 64GB for $399.
Pre-order today, expected delivery next week.

iTunes 10

First some downloads and other facts from iTunes Store:

11.7 billion songs.
450 million TV episodes.
100 million movies.
30 million books.
160 million iTunes Store accounts with credit cards and 1-click shopping in 23 countries.
#1 online media store in the world.

A new version is now available: iTunes 10.

The good ol’ iTunes logo with a CD in it has been replaced with a new logo without the CD, a subtle hint at where the music business is going.

iTunes 10 also gets a new view, it’s almost like the existing List view but it’s called Hybrid view and instead of wasting space on showing the album name for when there are more than 5 songs per album, it now shows the album cover art instead.

Ping – a social network for music

Apple also launched their own social media network within iTunes 10 and also to be available on iPhone and iPod Touch within the iTunes Store app.

Ping is like Facebook and Twitter combined but revolves around music. Artists will raise their hand and say “everybody can follow me”. You can raise your hand and say the same but you can also say “everybody can follow me, but I want to approve them first”, if you want to control who can follow you on Ping.

Ping is open for all 160 million iTunes users in 23 countries immediately – go get iTunes 10 and register for it now!

AppleTV: One more thing hobby…

The first (current) generation of AppleTV was first launched in September 2006 and Steve Jobs admitted it never really got a big hit. They surveyed and found that what AppleTV users wanted the most were:

Hollywood movies & TV shows.
Everything in HD.
Lower prices for content.
Don’t want a computer on their TV.
Don’t want to manage storage.
Don’t want syncing.
Hardware to be silent, cool and small.

Well, meet AppleTV 2nd generation, it’s only a quarter the size of the first generation.

AppleTV 2nd generation:

All HD (when available).
All rentals, no purchases.
No storage management.
Streaming – no syncing.
Stunning photo slideshows.
Silent, cool & tiny.

New prices are $4.99 for furst run HD movies (gets cheaper the older the movie gets) and $0.99 for HD TV shows (used to be $2.99).

The only two studios available right now for TV shows are abc and FOX. Steve Jobs hopes that more studios will see the light (in AppleTV) soon.

Also…

Netflix subscribers can watch and stream movies for free directly from Netflix.
YouTube (including HD videos).
Flickr photos.
MobileMe video & photos.
Stream from Mac/PC: Music, Photos & Video.
AirPlay…

The old AppleTV was $229 and the new one is only $99. Available in about 4 weeks, pre-order today.

AirPlay

Formerly known as AirTunes, but now that you can stream more than just music, Apple renamed it to AirPlay. It comes for iOS devices (iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad) in iOS 4.2 in November and it will allow you to stream content from your iOS device directly to your new AppleTV.

Basically you can show off a bunch of photos taken with your iPhone as a slideshow on AppleTV uisng AirPlay. Or you can watch a video on iPad and as you enter your AppleTV roam, you can stream it to AppleTV with just a few taps on the device.

Woz

Steve Wozniak also made an apperance at the event, though not on stage, but Steve Jobs did ask him to stand up for just a moment…

Coldplay

Steve Jobs said that they’re many people at Apple who loves music and even though Apple has grown a lot since they first started with music and iPods, they still care about music. That’s why they ask someone to come and perform at these music events and this time it was one of the members from Coldplay (not sure which one). He ended the show by singing a few songs on stage.

Related Articles:

Apple TV 3.0 and iTunes 9.0.2 Updates Are Out. Palm Pre Sync Gone Again.

Klaus — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:02:45 +0000

Apple quietly updated Apple TV software to version 3.0 and it now supports new stuff such as Genius Mixes, Internet radio, iTunes Extras and LP support. Press release: Apple Introduces Apple TV 3.0 Software With Redesigned User Interface.

The iTunes 9.0.2 update also breaks Palm Pre sync capability (again).

Engadget:
iTunes 9.0.2 adds support for Apple TV software version 3.0, adds an option for a dark background for Grid View, and improves support for accessibility.

iTunes 9 comes with many new features and improvements, including:

• An improved look and feel, including a new Column Browser for easily browsing your artists or albums, movies, TV shows, and more.

• iTunes Store has a brand new look, with improved navigation for quick and easy exploration.

• iTunes LP and iTunes Extras create unique experiences that feature exclusive interviews, videos, photos, and more – available with select album and movie purchases on the iTunes Store.

• Home Sharing helps you manage your family’s iTunes collection between computers in your home. iTunes can automatically transfer new purchases, or you can choose just the items you want.

• Genius Mixes are created for you by iTunes and play songs from your library that go great together.

• iPod and iPhone syncing now allows you to organize your iPhone and iPod touch home screens directly in iTunes. Syncing is now also more flexible, allowing you to sync individual artists, genres, or TV show and Podcast episodes.

• iTunes U items are now organized into their own section in your iTunes library.

• Sync with iPod nano (5th generation), iPod classic (Fall 2009), and iPod touch (Fall 2009).

• iTunes 9 also includes many other improvements, such as HE-AAC encoding and playback, more flexibility with Smart Playlists rules, simpler organization of your media files inside an iTunes Media folder, and more.

Related Articles:

Palm Users Waving Goodbye To iTunes Sync?

Klaus — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 07:45:59 +0000

The battle between Apple and Palm for the Palm Pre phone to be allowed iTunes synchronization has been going on for a while now, but it might finally have come to an end.

The last attack out of the Palm camp was to identify the Palm Pre as an iPhone by using Apple’s “USB ID”, but USB-IF (Implementers Forum) took Apple’s side last week and Palm was asked to behave and play nice.

Since then, Palm has tried to come up with other ways to sync with iTunes, but apparently no luck yet and with the newest version of WebOS (the operating system within Palm Pre) lacking the Media Sync option, it seems that Palm has given up.

But wait, there’s more… maybe Palm is just preparing for another attack? When asked if they have given up, a Palm spokesman said:

We never comment on what might or might not be in on our product roadmap.

So there you have it. If you crave for iTunes sync compatibility, buy a Palm Pre if you feel lucky (or read the “PS” below). Or you could just get an iPhone and have it work right out of the box?

PS: Palm, if you’re reading this, why don’t you just ask The Missing Sync how they make the Palm sync with iTunes and do what they do….?

This post was not sponsored by Apple, despite my obvious attempt to make you buy an iPhone. But if you do, check out this article: 10 great iPhone apps for the road warrior, by Evan.
Related Articles:

How-To: iTunes TV Shows & Movies For Non-US Citizen

Klaus — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 20:36:25 +0000

UPDATE – September 16th 2009: It seems the Danish media finally found out about this tip, as articles today so far has featured in Politiken, DR P3 News and Maczonen.dk. According to Danish lawyer, Peter Lind Nielsen, it’s not – seen from a Danish legal point of view – nothing illegal about this method as nobody will lose anything (since you can’t buy the products in the Danish iTunes Store) so it’s not considered fraud. That’s good news. Let’s just hope Apple doesn’t mind it too much either…

Disclaimer: I originally wrote this in Danish over a year ago, but it should still apply today. I also take no responsibility for anything. Not even if your coffee machine starts making tea!

Even though iTunes Store TV Shows & Movies are available in some countries in Europe by now, there’s still many countries not having access to the goody bag. To be honest, it really sucks. Lots of users would like to pay for their content online, including me, but they can’t because the rights holders and networks can’t seem to agree on some sort of deal and make their content widely available.

Instead, sites like ThePirateBay and Newzbin (free trial for UseNetServer) are flourishing with all their illegal content that users can download for free.

So if you live in a “non iTunes TV Shows & Movies friendly”-country you basically have 2 options to get online content within TV shows and movies:

Download illegal as mentioned above.
Break a few iTunes Store rules and pay to download your content legally.

Just to clarify, I cannot guarantee for how long this tip will work or if it will work for you. You also run the risk of Apple closing your (new) iTunes account and seize the funds within, if you’re caught. However, I’ve never heard of that happening and I haven’t had any problems myself either, having spent several hundreds of dollars on TV shows and movie downloads/rentals on iTunes Store over the past few years.

You should also prepare some “fake” details you can use. Find an address somewhere in California (for tax reasons), pick a hotel or something, so you don’t involve an innocent person. You should also consider using an “American” name for your new iTunes account and make sure not to use an e-mail address that is too local (non-US). Consider signing up for a free Gmail/Hotmail account.

UPDATE – September 29th 2009: Apparently the “none” option from step #5 below has been removed by Apple. There’s another workaround which is reported to work:

Go to the US iTunes Store.

Find a FREE application for iPhone / iPod Touch (look in the App Store, right column)

Click on “Buy now”. When the account field appears, click “Create account” – and then it should work.

Unfortunately I cannot provide more information at this time, but I hope it works for you!

Here’s how you do it:

First you need to buy an iTunes Store Gift card/certificate. You might be able to find them on eBay but check the sellers feedback first, so you don’t get scammed. A $50 iTunes gift card might go for $55, so the seller will make a small profit on you. If you’re having troubles finding it, contact me and I can set you up with the lady I’ve been using for over a year (quick electronic delivery too).
-
Get into the iTunes Store in your iTunes application, logout from your current iTunes account if you’re already logged in (important). Now make sure you select the “United States” iTunes Store from the drop-down box at the bottom of your iTunes Store homepage.
-
Once in the US store, click “Redeem” in the right column. Enter the code from your iTunes gift card you received from the eBay seller.
-
Agree to the terms & conditions displayed. After this, it is very important that you click “Cancel”. Otherwise, if you continue, you will be asked to enter credit card details and that credit card will have to be an American credit card, which you probably don’t have…?
-
Now, click “Redeem” again from the right column. Create a new iTunes account. In “step 3 of 3″ you should see the option “None” marked under payment method. If “None” is not selected and you cannot select it, you have to start over and try again. Once your iTunes account is created you should be all set.

Hopefully it worked for you and you can now download all the TV Shows and Movie Rentals you like until you have no more money available in your account. You can also use your new iTunes account to watch TV shows and rent movies from Apple TV, including HD and surround-enabled movies.

Even though it sucks having to break the rules just to spend money, I prefer breaking iTunes T&C’s and pay for my content, rather than downloading it illegally from torrent sites etc.

I know it’s wrong… but what are the alternatives?
Related Articles:

iTunes Now Syncs With Palm Pre Again And Android

Klaus — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 08:42:05 +0000

Palm Pre

Last week Apple released an update to iTunes breaking the “compatiblity” allowing Palm Pre to sync with iTunes. Shortly after the stock price for Palm dropped, though it’s not certain that the two events are actually connected. Nevertheless, say hello to Salling Mediasync – an application that’s been around for quite some time allowing iTunes to sync up with a lot of different mobile devices. Now Salling Mediasync also supports phones such as Palm Pre and HTC Hero (Android).

Salling Mediasync is available both for Mac and Windows and supports syncing of your iTunes library containing music, podcasts, video and photos. There’s a free version of the application as well as a paid version which allows for faster synchronization.
Related Articles: