01.16.08 - 11:35am
Four years ago iTunes was just a fledgling set to rise to unparalleled heights. At the time the Super Bowl was a huge booster for iTunes which combined with Pepsi launched a commercial set to Greenbay’s version of the song “I Fought the Law” encouraging buyers to buy legally online from iTunes rather than illegally downloading tunes from various sources.
Over 1,000,000 songs from iTunes were given away free in the Pepsi promotion and iTunes has then grown expeditiously year after year, becoming the extreme dominant in the download market and helping to propel iPods to explicit dominion.
Today however, a new era is emerging and rather than Apple being the underdog to Microsoft, with an almost cult like following, Apple is now the one on top and as the new “King of the Hill” is the one everyone wants to overcome.
Category: MP3 Players, apple, itunes | Tags: amazon, apple, drm, itunes, justin-timberlake, pepsi | Be the First to Comment »
01.11.08 - 03:03pm
Amazon has added Sony BMG to their already large repertoire of DRM free music as BMG joins Universal, Warner and EMI, selling their songs DRM free from the Amazon website. This puts Amazon’s DRM free catalog at an impressive 3.1 million songs.
The addition of BMG’s music on Amazon puts a larger dent in the Apple/iTunes dominace over the market as Apple still has yet to sell any of its music DRM free except that from EMI. All the other music on iTunes can only be played on an iPod and have limited download use due to the Fairplay restrictions on the music.
“We are constantly exploring new ways of making our music available to consumers in the physical space, over the Internet and through mobile phones, and this initiative is the newest element of our ongoing campaign to bring our music to fans wherever they happen to be,” said Thomas Hesse, president of global digital business and U.S. sales for Sony BMG, in a statement.
Category: itunes | Tags: amazon, apple, drm, itunes, sony-BMG | Be the First to Comment »
09.26.07 - 04:54pm
We’ve heard about Amazon’s soon to be music store for months and it is finally here, proving to be everything iTunes but for less.
Amazon has decided to go straight DRM free, launching with over 2 million songs from Universal and EMI. All DRM free. Apple has some DRM free music from EMI but not from anyone else. Amazon was lucky enough to step in at the right time between the Apple and Universal feud and has secured Universals songs DRM free. If you buy the same songs on iTunes you are locked.
Amazon is also offering the tunes for less. 31 percent less, selling their DRM free songs for just .89 cents while iTunes DRM free songs cost $1.29. Along with that the varied pricing in Amazon lets them offer many albums for less than iTunes traditional 9.99 price, with many below $4.99. Some of course are more than iTunes $9.99 but those you can just buy from iTunes. (Ah, the wonderful world of competition.)
Category: itunes | Tags: amazon, itunes, mp3-music-downloads | Be the First to Comment »
07.11.07 - 12:18pm
This weekend in San Francisco an iPhoneDevCamp was held. A place where developer’s gathered to unlock the secrets of the iPhone and create iPhone applications.
This DIY - do-it-yourself - event was free and open to anyone who wanted to come, join and contribute. Over 325 attendees did just that.
“It’s about embracing constraints,” said Chris Messina, 26, an entrepreneur in San Francisco and an event organizer. “These constraints aren’t holding us back. They are giving us focus.”
Focus is exactly what they did as they spent the weekend brainstorming in various groups and opening up all sorts of ways to access and improve the iPhone. In the end they came up with dozens of new apps in one weekend with many developers so pumped up they spent all Saturday night coding.
“The spirit was generous,” said Jory Felice, a seniro Web developer at Belkin International Inc. “People get a sense of pride that their solution works for a lot of people.”
Category: Bling Bling, iPhone | Tags: amazon, apps, baby_monitor, developers, iPhone, san_francisco | Be the First to Comment »
05.21.07 - 10:18am
Amazon has announced that they will open their online music download store - DRM free!
Hoping to compete with iTunes, Amazon is joining the DRM free revolution by announcing they will only sell DRM free music in their new online MP3 music store to open later this year. With two of the largest purveyors of music going DRM free, record labels may be forced to go along with them.
Amazon only mentioned EMI signing with them, but they say that by the time their music store opens later this year that they will have DRM free music from over 12,000 labels.
They are trying to compete with Apple who is already selling DRM free music for $1.29 a download and the DRM protected for $.99. The big difference between the two is in the way their DRM free music is released. Apple only releases their DRM free music in AAC format which is not compatible with very many devices although works fine with the iPod. Amazon will release their songs in MP3 format which is compatible with all devices.
Category: itunes | Tags: amazon, apple, drm_free, emi, mp3-format-music_store | Be the First to Comment »
04.24.07 - 10:49am
Recently the talk has been that Apple has full control of upcoming talks with the “Big Four” - the major music labels renegotiations. Apple is expected to make more demands for DRM free music and with control of over 80% of the digital market they do have a lot of power in the negotiations, however recent news that Amazon is launching its own DRM free online music store next month may provide enough competition to leave Apple out in the cold.
There has already been speculation that Universal may sign with Amazon to allow their music to be purchases DRM free.
Why Amazon instead of Apple - Amazon is more likely to allow varied pricing giving the record labels what they want - more money. Apple has stuck to its .99 cents a download for all music irregardless of popularity, although they recently went up to $1.29 for EMI’s DRM free music. However this may still not be enough for the record labels who want control over pricing of their music.
Category: apple, itunes | Tags: amazon, apple, drm-free-music, emi, itunes | Be the First to Comment »
