itune

Rick Rubin, the man who coaxed some of the best studio performances out of the Beastie Boys, L.L. Cool J and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, threw the curtain open on the music industry this weekend. What was exposed was perhaps more uncertainty and frustration than many may have expected.

A celebrated record producer who was recently named co-chairman of Columbia Records, Rubin made startlingly candid statements in Sunday's edition of The New York Times Magazine about the effects of the iPod, digital downloads and piracy on the music industry.

"Columbia is stuck in the dark ages,&… Read more

NBC's attempt to spin this back in its favor ("Investment Tools" indeed) is pretty weak tea:

We never asked to double the wholesale price for our TV shows.

Yes, because $4.99 is not two times $1.99. It's two and a half times! Advantage NBC!

In fact, our negotiations were centered on our request for flexibility in wholesale pricing, including the ability to package shows together in ways that could make our content even more attractive for consumers.

Yeah! Because everyone enjoys being forced to spend more money than they wanted to, right?! Let's … Read more

Apple really shouldn't hold back its true feelings about the iTunes Store no longer having NBC's TV shows like this:

The move follows NBC's decision to not renew its agreement with iTunes after Apple declined to pay more than double the wholesale price for each NBC TV episode, which would have resulted in the retail price to consumers increasing to $4.99 per episode from the current $1.99. ABC, CBS, FOX and The CW, along with more than 50 cable networks, are signed up to sell TV shows from their upcoming season on iTunes at $1.… Read more

In news that comes just weeks after iTunes' loss of Universal Music Group, NBC has officially canceled its contract with iTunes, citing the need for stricter piracy controls and higher pricing that Apple was unwilling to provide. That said, NBC will still continue to sell its programming on iTunes until its contract runs out in December.

In other words, January will be the month that NBC sees a severe increase in the piracy it's trying to so hard to curb.

I'm not quite sure what any of these companies are thinking. First, Universal Music Group steps away from the third-largest music retailer in the world because it thinks iTunes is suffocating it, then NBC walks away to make more money and stop people from stealing its media. But what both companies don't understand is that they need Apple far more than Apple needs them.

Let me paint a scenario for you of what happens as soon as NBC pulls its programming off iTunes.… Read more

As one of my colleagues at Directions on Microsoft pointed out, MacWorld's speculating that the Sept. 5 Apple announcement will include the big news that The Beatles will finally be available on iTunes.

Specifically, my colleague pointed to some comments (scroll down) noting that Apple's promoting the event with the tagline "The Beat Goes On," which appeared twice at the end of the Beatles' final press release, issued on Apr. 10, 1970.

Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone by playing "Lovely Rita", and the solo catalogs of Paul, John, and Ringo have all come to … Read more

Jupiter Research's Mark Mulligan gives a run-down of what Nokia's new digital music strategy looks like and, well, let's just say Steve Jobs isn't exactly shaking in his Nikes.

Nice hardware with 99-cent Windows Media-DRMed downloads and, inexplicably, a PC-only subscription-based streaming service that doesn't do mobile streaming.

Wow. That's anticlimactic. And, frankly, a little confusing.

The one feature the Macalope sees that Apple really should implement is the ability to buy and download songs from the phone. Of course, there's currently no interface to add songs to playlists on an iPhone and … Read more

MediaMaster is one of many companies worth keeping an eye on, mainly for the potential of having your entire music library available anywhere you go, as long as you've got an Internet connection. Their Facebook app, which went live just a few weeks ago, is a prime example of a great use of the service.

The app lets you set up a huge playlist of music, and serve it up right on your profile in a miniplayer. Anyone who comes by your profile can then get the full quality versions of the tracks streamed in whatever order you set … Read more

The rumor mill is buzzing about new iPod models that Apple will apparently introduce in a press event on Wednesday, September 5.

That date comes from "sources within the company" who spoke to Ars Technica. The article goes on to cite AppleInsider, which is suggesting that there will be four new models, all incorporating Apple's OS X (like the iPhone) and based on flash memory (like the Nano). The consensus seems to be that these new models will not feature a full touchscreen like the iPhone, but will have some of the music-interface features from that product, … Read more

Carl Howe at Blackfriar's Marketing points out the problems with Wal-Mart's supposed bid to unseat iTunes.

The result: customers are likely to cherry-pick low-cost tracks at Wal-Mart when they can, but any large-scale defections from iTunes or even Amazon just aren't going to happen without a lot more marketing work.

Howe notes that Wal-Mart has a thinner selection and requires Windows Media to even browse its collection but he doesn't mention the biggest problem, possibly just because it's so obvious.

It's just not a convenient way to get songs onto your iPod.

As Michael Gartenberg says:… Read more