Amazon’s Mp3 service has become the second largest online music service in the world. Bold statement, but when you consider that it has been estimated to have sold around 130 million tracks compared to iTunes’ 2.8 billion, suddenly we start to see the reality of the situation. 

I’m not saying in any way that Amazon’s Mp3 service is a bad thing, for the experience is very good for something as disconnected as Amazon is. Of course, what goes against Amazon is the tightly knit store that iTunes has, which makes buying so much easier. I mean, with Genius you can buy tracks right from your sidebar! Or while on the move with your iPhone or iPod Touch. People much too much prefer the iTunes way than something that involves a step 2. 

Of course, iTunes DRM is hardly crippling. With upto five authorised computers and as many iPods as you can afford, FairPlay really is fairplay. You can burn as many CDs as you want, and possibly rerip them to break the protection. It is just the arrogance of DRM that makes a paying customer look like a thief, while the real thief can in fact move around freely with music. And the fact that the record companies choose to treat their largest customer base like this is a sad thing.

All is not lost however, as we’re seeing more and more ‘rumours’ about iTunes going DRM-free, one of which claimed that iTunes was definitely going DRM-free last tuesday. And when we see such an increase in rumours, the possibilities of it being true are very high. Macworld, perhaps. 

Personally I’ve never bought music from Amazon, being an iTunes Store user myself, but looking at the interface I would much too much prefer to buy music from the iTunes Store. Any SA readers buy music from Amazon? What’s your opinion on buying music from Amazon? Would you ditch Amazon if iTunes went DRM-free?

[Full report on Yahoo! News]

Back in September, at the ‘Let’s Rock’ special event, where Apple introduced the new range of iPods, we also got the announcement of introduction of HD TV Shows through iTunes. iTunes 8 came along the ability to buy HD shows at $2.99 along with regular TV shows at $1.99, and boy has it been welcomed by the masses.

According to a press-release issued by Apple today, the total number of episodes purchased through the iTunes store has topped 200 million. While a substantial figure in itself, it’s even more surprising to know that the number of HD episodes since the launch has touch the 1 million mark. If I take little help from whatever mathematics I know, that’s about 27,000 downloads each day.

The press release also announces the addition of additional networks to the catalogue. While only NBC, ABC, and Showtime were available since September 9, today’s announcement marks the arrival of CBS and Fox onto the HD bandwagon.

Radiohead was forever against the idea of customers being able to purchase individual tracks rather than the whole album. And they resisted putting their music onto the iTunes Store for a long time. But, as it goes, their ‘pay as much as you feel like’ project didn’t turn out to be an astounding success (well, they didn’t say it was a failure, but who would?), which led them to succumb to the pressure of the iTunes Store.

As it turns out, Radiohead seems to be loving it here, because they not only have their entire collection [iTunes link] on the store, but have now provided the stem tracks for a popular track from their ‘In Rainbows’ album, ‘Reckoner’ [iTunes link]! ‘Stem tracks’, by the way, are separate tracks for each of the instruments/voice. These stem tracks, six in total, include the lead vocals, bass, drums, guitars, piano, and backing vocals. All this is in 256kbps DRM-Free iTunes Plus format, as a $0.99 ‘Album Only’ download. That is, you cannot download a single stem track individually. And, if you purchase the track on the iTunes store, you get a special ticket that will allow you to download the garageband version of the same. We’re totally digging the Mac love, guys!

Fans are encouraged to remix the track, add in their own instruments if they so choose, and post them on a special page created for the purpose. Listeners can then vote up their favourite remixes and play them on the page itself. There’s a section for most popular tracks as well as widgets for gathering votes on your Facebook or MySpace profile. You can also check out the previous project for the track Nude. Note that mixing the tracks does not give you any rights to the song. You still need permission to use the tracks commercially.

Looks like a new trend has started on the iTunes store, with free HD shows being offered of the season premiere episodes. Or maybe this is NBC having their way with iTunes. NBC has not only got variable pricing for their episodes ($2.99 for HD, $1.99 for SD, and $0.99 for old shows), they have also made available new episodes of their TV shows as free downloads. Everyone seems to be happy with this deal. 

The season two premier of Chuck [iTunes link] is being offered as a free download on the iTunes Store, pre-air. Hear that? Before even the rest of the world gets it, you can enjoy the episode right on your iPhone (and for free). And while Chuck gets the SD treatment, the episode of crime and drama TV show Life [iTunes link], again a pre-air season premiere, is given in crystal clear high definition.

So if these two shows mean anything to you, go grab ’em already. And if they don’t, then I’d highly recommend you check them out, because both shows are very entertaining in their own way. [Ed note: Of course, as is usual, you need a U.S. iTunes Store account to be able to enjoy these freebies.]

iTunes has picked my favourite genre and an awesome song this time round for the single of the week. ‘Buildings & Mountains’ by The Republic Tigers is a must listen for any alternative rock fan out there. 

A relatively unknown artist, The Republic Tigers released “Keep Color” back in May this year. So even though this track has been out in the market, the iTunes Store at least, for a couple of months, hats off to Apple for bringing it as the free single of the week. The track is a mix of old and new, with excellent sound production and vocals. Perfect for those times you take a walk on the beach at twilight. 

So grab the song for free from the iTunes Store, within this week. There’s also some other miscellaneous content there, including some HD TV shows you might want to check out. The page will be updated next on Tuesday the 23rd.

Having recently had this application rejected, Fraser Speirs, developer of the popular iPhone app ‘Exposure’ has quit the App Store business. Apple recently rejected his application “Podcaster” because it “replaces a feature in Apple’s own software”. Fraser has gone through what must be countless days creating this application only to have it rejected at the last moment.

The application in question downloads podcast episodes directly to the iPhone over Wifi, eliminating the need to dock the iPhone to the computer for the same. It is a non-malicious application, non-pornographic, and it isn’t a bandwidth hog as it uses Wifi for data transfer. 

One might defend the case of Apple, that the SDK documentation clearly mentions that the App Store will not allow any applications that are competitive to that present on the iPhone, and podcasts is part of those applications. But lo and behold, as there are a hundred different weather applications that clearly take the case of Apple’s own weather widget. Then there’s the Calculator apps, the notes, and a lot more if one puts some time in. So how is a developer supposed to know that the application is acceptable or not?

The App Store, at least when it comes to developers, is broken. They cannot speak about the apps due to the non-disclosure agreement of the SDK, they cannot moderate the reviews on the iTunes store, they have to wait weeks before updates are worked into the store, and, they have to bank on Apple’s good mood before starting to write new applications. 

Frasier will continue to provide support and updates for Exposure, but as for creating something new, he’s out. 

Frasier Speirs - The App store: I’m out.

A little late in posting ‘the single of the week’, what with all the Apple announcements keeping us busy, what we have for this week is Lenka’s “The Show”. Judging by the cover, it looks like a flat track, but a single listen got my ears up and perky. 

Following the lines of Yael Naim, this track would go perfect in one of those iPod commercials. With a soft and steady rhythm provided by the keys, Lenka’s voice is sweet and innocent. Of course, if you are 17 and need your friends to know you are a hard rock dude, better make sure this track is hidden in your library. For the rest, who don’t give a damn as to what people think of their tastes, this is a pleasant listen. 

So without further ado, check out this song, free on the iTunes Store till the end of this week. Note that you will need a free iTunes account to make this purchase. The iTunes store is also offering free HD episodes of NBC’s TV shows—that is, the first episode of each.

iTunes 8 was launched during Apple’s special music event yesterday. I was very excited to try it out and downloaded it the first thing this morning. Here are my initial Impressions and review of the new features in iTunes 8.

The biggest feature touted at the keynote is Genius Playlists. The idea is that iTunes will automatically generate playlists, based on the current song, with other songs that ‘go well together’. iTunes will initially index all your music and send it back to Apple’s servers where a database based on your playlists, play counts, likes, and dislikes will be built. It then matches this with other users’ databases and brings back all that genius information, updating it from time to time. You need to have an iTunes Store account to use the Genius features (one more reason to have an iTS account). All this is well and good in theory, but how does it perform in the real world? Continue Reading »

iTunes 8 debuted today with some exciting new features with a new ‘genius algorithm’ to make you spend waste more money. With a visual refresh, as well as a new grid view, iTunes 8 might just be the worthy upgrade we were looking for.

Without further ado, let’s look into the new features announced in the “Let’s Rock” Keynote.

What’s New in iTunes 8?

Genius Playlists
You can automatically make playlists from songs in your music library that ‘go great together’, at the click of a button. A genius sidebar makes recommendations from the iTunes Store that might match the Genius playlist. As people add more and more info, Genius will gets smarter and smarter. This helps you to rediscover music in your library.

Grid View: Browsing by Album Cover
You can now have album browsing just like iPhoto’s skimming feature. You can switch by album, artist, genre or composer, each of which shows you all your albums on a dark backdrop. Movies, TV Shows, Audiobooks and Podcasts also support the Grid view, with TV shows displaying how many unwatched episodes remain.

HD TV Shows
After more than a year of bickering, NBC is back in the iTunes Store. Bringing with it the popular shows like Office and Heroes along with the rest of their content. Along with the same $1.99 for SD content, we now have TV shows in HD as well, setting you back by $2.99 per episode! Get ready for Heroes (and Hayden Panettiere) in HD.

Brand new Visualisation
Going along with the rumours, iTunes 8 brings along with it a new visualisation, which involves a 3D space like platform with planets and dazzling lights. It sure looks cool!

iTunes 8 is available for download at the Apple website as a free download for Mac and PC users. What are we waiting for then?

As ‘predicted’ by Kevin Rose and Gizmodo, many of the rumours and predictions came true. All said and done, are you excited by this release?

After a pro-Tibet album was hosted on iTunes, the Chinese government decided to block access to the entire iTunes store. 

Customers in China of Apple Inc.’s iTunes online music store were unable to download songs this week, and an activist group said Beijing was trying to block access to a new Tibet-themed album. - Reuters

Then word was out that Apple was on the move, investigating the block on the store. 

“We’ve noticed the problem. It’s true that users may fail to log in to iTunes store right now,” said the Beijing-based Apple spokeswoman. “We are still investigating.” 

Now reports are coming in that the problem has been rectified and the iTunes store is accessible in several places across China. A slight change, however, is that the album has been moved from the prominent “New Releases” list to somewhere deep within the bowels of the store. 

A point to note is that China, like India, doesn’t have an iTunes music store, and users have to log into the stores of one of the 22 countries where it is available. 

[Via Music Blog 2.0]