Archive for: itunes
In recent weeks there has been a lot said regarding the possible rate hike for distributed music. Sites like iTunes, Amazon, and Napster to name a few, are all music distribution sites with business models that would have been greatly affected by this possible increase.
The Copyright Royalty Board was to meet to discuss a rate increase of almost 60%, which would hit deep into the profits that distribution sites make. Apple, so angered by this possibility threatened to shut down iTunes if the board passed the rate increase. Apple, who currently owns the largest margin of mp3 players on the market, the iPods, would have shut down their site? A part of me says no, perhaps an idle threat. All in all, the board has decided to keep rates the same, 9 cents per song. You can read more about the decision here.
Still, Apple may not have come out of this situation without egg on their face. The reality of one of the largest music distribution markets completely shutting down, with an mp3 player that is connected to propriety software, iTunes, may scare people into moving towards a more functional player that is not directly tied to any one site. Could Apple have shown it’s own weakness? Or is Apple relying on its millions of dedicated fans to stick with the “in” platform of choice?
For now iTunes is safe.
We7 is one of the new kids on the block in the music industry. On We7 you can find artists from all over the world, signed and unsigned. With the majority of artists you are able to listen to the tracks on their albums, as well as add them to a play list. Additionally, tracks can be purchased via iTunes.
We7 is mainly an ad supported streaming platform, in which artists receive their royalties from a percentage of the advertising revenues and then hopefully more from purchases via iTunes. We7 keeps the other cut of the advertising revenues for providing the platform, as well as getting a percentage from iTunes affiliate sales.
We7 has a catalog that is growing rapidly and they seem to have a few majors already on board. I would like to see a better design that takes up the majority of the page on a fluid layout, instead of just the current fixed layout. This will also allow them to strategically place their advertising banners, which is their key business model. We7 however is definitely worth checking out if you are look to stream some of the best albums from the biggest artists, from anyone in the world.
Apple fans generally sit on the edge of their seats days before Apple makes announcements regarding new products, new updates, or a new direction. More often than not Apple never fails to wow the crowds in taking the lead with innovation and design, but for some reason a large number of reports are saying that today’s announcements at the “Let’s Rock” event were nothing more than a yawner.
Personally I feel that fans have become accustomed to drastic announcements, or for lack of a better word, world changing technology, but sometimes its the little things that make what we already have just that much better. Here’s a run down of the announcements from today:
- For starters the iTunes application received a nice upgrade. The biggest is the addition of the Apple Genius. No, not the guy at the Apple store, but rather back end programming that serves as a personal DJ for your iPod. Genius uses data loaded on the Apple server and in turn working with the iTunes on your computer to find great matches to your already expanding playlist. Let Genius do the audio matching and see how accurate to your taste it really is.
- Apple has also made up with NBC, and now the two are best friends…for now. NBC is re-releasing their material for now with hits like The Office and 30 Rock available in HD for only $2.99 per episode. Other shows and networks will soon follow, but having HD quality on the iPod is an interesting addition, better get those lines ready for downloading overload!
- The iPod Touch got a much needed update along with a decent price drop. Sleek, new design, similar to the iPhone 3G now makes the iPod Touch more curvy and easier to handle. It’s new thinner design makes it easy to carry and comes with built in Nike+ software for the runner in you. The pricing for the new iPod Touch is as follows, $229 (8GB), $299 (16GB), and $399 (32GB)
- Finally the Nano got a new design. I admit when the Nano went short and squat I did not think I would be a fan of that version, and when I got my wife one I found myself using it more than her. The design grew on me and I became accustomed to it. I’m not sure what happened behind the scenes, but apparently there was enough of an uprising that the Nano has gone back to it’s long narrower design, but kept the same screen real estate. Like it’s larger counterpart, the new Nano comes with it’s own built-in accelerometer. They also come in much more bolder colors which reminds me of a pack of Now or Laters.
According to reports stock fell just over 3% after the announcements were over providing support that investors as a whole were underwhelmed by Apple’s announcements. Sad really, while expecting ground breaking news, Apple delivered some solid additions to iTunes, and price drops and re-designs for other products. I think this holiday season will see an increase in iPod Touch sales, and don’t be surprised when you see those brightly colored Nanos flying around either.
Photo Credit, Apple, Inc.
Apple has pushed the new iPod Touch Firmware 2.0 to iTunes. All iPod Touch users can upgrade to this latest firmware by paying a one-time fee of $9.25.
iPhone users, however, get to upgrade to firmware 2.0 absolutely free of cost. As I find this kind of unfair on part of Apple to charge only iPod Touch users, so I am going to help you upgrade iPod Touch to firmware 2.0 absolutely for free.
If you want to have an updated iPod Touch 2.0 for free, then just follow the steps below:
- Download iTunes 7.7 from Here.
- Hold Shift and click Restore.
- Select iPod1,1_2.0_5A347_Restore.ipsw
- Enjoy!
The iPod1,1_2.0_5A347_Restore.ipsw firmware can be downloaded from any of the mirrors below. It is the complete stable and final iPod Touch Firmware 2.0 (5A347) and has been checked and tested.
Rapidshare mirror (Join parts using this software)
http://tinyurl.com/ipodtouch-firmware-2-part1
http://tinyurl.com/ipodtouch-firmware-2-part2
http://tinyurl.com/ipodtouch-firmware-2-part3
Uploaded.to mirror
http://uploaded.to/file/ih0z65/iPod1,1_2.0_5A347_Restore.ipsw
Freakshare mirror
http://freakshare.net/files/30208/iPod11_2.0_5A347_Restore.ipsw
Once you download the firmware locally on your PC, follow the steps above to update iPod Touch to Firmware 2.0.
While at the SummerMash party in Austin last week, I was introduced to a breakthrough site that had just launched in beta the week prior, MySites. A MySites representative spoke with me briefly to highlight some of the amazing features his site offers.
Some might say that MySites tries to be too much, but I think they execute their offerings very well. Let’s take a look at the Virtual Desktop aspect first.
MySites does a great job of storing up to 10GB of items, to include photos, movies, and music. While it can’t necessarily import files from Flickr, iTunes, or any other site, you can personally upload your own files. With 10GB of space available you can set up your virtual desktop with more than enough to keep it functional. The files are stored in folders that you have to double click to open, just like your real desktop. You have access to the full customization of MySites which makes it a great addition to the usual items you can place on there like calendars, emails, sites, etc.
The flipside of MySites is the Social Networking aspect. MySites fully intends for you to share your content with friends and across as many sites as possible. With the ability to add buddies and designate which files can be accessible, it’s sure to be a great place to gather to share all of your uploaded files. Seeking others with similar interests is also possible, and is encouraged to fully extend your network via MySites.
As of last week MySites could not connect to any currently existing social network site, but again the site is in beta. I was assured that future offerings would be made available as the site is built out.
Im not too sure if this article will apply to the majority of our readers, but I thought I would run through a list of music distribution companies and work out who is worth using and who is not. All these companies are digital distribution companies, so they take music from artists all over the world and then distribute that music to the worlds largest online stores. All these companies take a cut for providing this service in some form or another.
We are also going to run through an example of how each site will work in terms of revenues for the artist. We will place 1 album per year for 2 years on each site. Each album will have 13 tracks. The artists actual sales were $0.99 per track and sold 1,000 tracks.
Cdbaby – Cdbaby is one of the old companies in this market and they provide some great services, even though the website they use seems to be outdated approx 5 years ago. The prices are as follows:
Setup: $35 one time fee
Cut for Distributor: 9% of all income
Partners: You dont have a choice at which online stores your music goes to, except for a very small list of selected retailers. The Cdbaby service is completely non-exclusive and doesnt tie up any of your rights. Their distribution partners include iTunes, eMusic, Hear Music, Last.fm, MusicNet, Napster, Rhapsody and others.
Example: The artist has to pay $35 upfront for first album and then another $35 for second album, totally $75 in initial outlay. Sales would be $0.99 x 1000 tracks sold, which equals $990, and the artist would receive $900.90. Profit equals $900.90 less $75 costs = $825.90
Tunecore – Tunecore is the new player on the block who has been getting a lot of press attention for their business model, while at the same time they have been signing some very big album distribution deals.
Setup: $19.98 Per Album Per Year Storage. Plus $0.99 per store per album. Plus $0.99 per track.
Cut for Distributor: Nothing in terms of income
Partners: The choice is yours, you can send your music to one or all of their partners. Partners include, iTunes, Amazon, Lala, Napster, Rhapsody, Music.com, eMusic and GroupieTunes.
Example: Costs would equal $19.98 x 2 for two years ($59.94), plus $0.99 per album for 5 stores ($9.90), plus 13 tracks on both albums at $0.99 each (25.74). Overall costs equal $95.58. Profit equals $990 less $95.58 in costs = $894.42
The Orchard – The Orchard is currently one of the worlds largest online distributors, they have over 350 retails partners in a variety of areas. Im not going to run through their sections because they are very straight forward. The Orchard as far as Im aware dont charge for inclusion into their catalogue, they also have a huge list of retail partners, but the big down side is that they are known for taking a very large percentage cut. Plus, everytime I rang them, I could never actually get to speak to a person with a little bit of intellegance that atually got back to me on time with information about what they can provide. The worst service I have seen in the industry.
RouteNote – RouteNote is the new player on the block. They have a very basic distribution model and a growing list of retail partners. Since they are new on the block they dont have as many retail partners as their rivals, but look for this to grow.
Setup: Free
Cut for Distributor: 10% of income
Partners: The choice is yours, you can send your music to one or all of their partners. Partners include, iTunes, eMusic, Limewire and Audio Lunchbox. They are also in talks with Amazon and Rhapsody to add their options to the RouteNote service.
Example:$990 is sales and the artist would receive = $891 (with no upfront costs)
After this analysis it shows that Tunecore is the best option for artists to retain the most revenues. However, that being said the artist will have to pay a cost of $95.58 upfront and tasks the risk of having to make sure they sell 1000 tracks to make the correct money. RouteNote is a new service but the results speak for themselves. Their service brings is nearly as much money as Tunecore, but the artist doesnt have to pay anything upfront at all!
Disclosure – Im currently CEO of Insomnia Ltd which owns RouteNote.
Crenk has long been a part of the Insomnia Media Group, which today is launching our music initiative.
RouteNote is a user driven music distribution service, allowing indie artists to get access to major online retailers and make their music available to film, radio and other media producers for quick, easy licensing.
The site is launching into public beta which involves our distribution section. Distribution through RouteNote will allow unsigned artists and independent labels from all over the world to sell their music in some of the worlds largest online stores. RouteNote is a completely non-exclusive music distributor that has some of the best rates in the industry. Artists are able to sign up for FREE, uploading as many tracks as they would like and being able to keep 90% of the revenues from download sales.
What RouteNote offers:
- Retain 100% Ownership of your tracks
- Non-exclusive
- Worldwide Exposure
- No Signup Fees
- Receive 90% from all download sales
- It wont stop you from signing up to a record label in the future
- Forward looking partnerships and marketing expertise
RouteNote is a unique service that can help hundreds of thousands of artists all over the world. So why not signup today.
Stay tuned for more features to also launch over time.
Here at Crenk we have already reported about Myspace and their new music offering several times. It seems now that the launch is imminent. The LA Times has reported that Myspace will be launching their music offering as early as tomorrow. The new service will compete directly with iTunes and will be offering music downloads, streams, videos and mobile phone ring tones, along with related items, such as merchandise and concert tickets.
Stay tuned for more coverage about the launch in coming days.
Starbucks said it will be giving away millions of songs via download on iTunes. It is reported that more than 10,000 US Starbucks locations will be participating in the give away, which will be running from October 2 to November 7. Customers can receive “Song of the Day” cards redeemable on Apple’s iTunes store for a complimentary song selected by Starbucks. Starbucks said it will give away 1.5 million downloads per day for a total of more than 50 million free songs. Customers will have until the end of the year to redeem the song on iTunes.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=df7ab927-7942-44c3-abb1-141d943088d2)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=26e54ae0-19a7-4dac-801e-22dd1439c181)
