iLounge

Apple and Emmis Interactive have announced a licensing agreement allowing Emmis to market its custom Storefront technology to other radio stations and media companies. Used exclusively to date by Emmis radio stations, the Storefront technology allows stations to build storefronts with a look and feel consistent with their product, while enabling listeners to easily find and purchase songs they hear on the air through the iTunes Store. Since its launch on Emmis Radio sites in 2006, the Storefront has been among the top five affiliates directing traffic to the iTunes Store. For examples, see the Storefronts of Power 106, Loop 97.9, and 105.7 The Point.

“Many stations’ web sites direct you to another web site to purchase music and require a users’ credit card information, making the buying experience very cumbersome,” Emmis Interactive co-president Rey Mena explained. “Our custom Storefront technology empowers a radio station to configure a station- branded storefront utilizing iTunes’ entire 6 million-song catalog. These storefronts allow listeners to shop from playlists of station artists as well as top picks recommended by on-air talent. It is a critical tool in building the relationship with listeners and offering them a richer user experience.”

HBO and Apple have announced that programming from HBO is now available on the iTunes Store, and as reported yesterday, select shows sell for more than the standard $1.99 per episode. “We’re very excited to make these legendary HBO programs available on the iTunes Store,” said Henry McGee, president of HBO Video. “Whether catching up on ‘Sex and the City’ in anticipation of its upcoming movie release or reliving a favorite ‘Sopranos’ episode, we think viewers will love being able to watch these shows on their iPod or iPhone.” “We’re thrilled to bring this incredible lineup of programming from HBO to the iTunes Store,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. “These are some of the most talked about television shows ever, as well as some of the most requested by our customers.” Episodes of The Wire, Sex and the City, and Flight of the Conchords are $1.99 per episode, while Rome, The Sopranos, and Deadwood episodes are priced at $2.99 each.

Apple will soon announce a deal with HBO to sell the premium cable network’s programming on the iTunes Store, according to a new report. Citing HBO employees involved in executing the agreement, Portfolio.com says the new offerings could be announced in the next few weeks. Although the details of the agreement are unknown, it appears as though Apple has agreed to a separate pricing structure for HBO content, with both higher pricing for HBO shows and a larger cut for the network possible stipulations. HBO employees said the deal was a result of pressure from parent company Time Warner, with one insider adding, “We should have done this a long time ago.”

Apple may be selling new release titles on the iTunes Store for less than wholesale price, according to a Wall Street Journal report. A person familiar with the matter says Apple is paying the studios a wholesale price of close to $16, while offering those titles on the Store for $14.99 each. Earlier this week, Apple announced that it would begin offering new release films from all of the major studios for purchase on the iTunes Store on the same day as the DVD release, and has since enabled Apple TV users to purchase videos directly from the device. “This is a game changer,” said Craig Kornblau, president of Universal Studios Home Entertainment. “For all the studios to offer all their movies [on the same date] as DVD, with the most influential marketing company in the digital space, is a very exciting development.”

Apple has announced that new movie releases from all the major and some premier independent studios will now be made available for purchase on the iTunes Store on the same day as their DVD release. Both new releases and catalog titles will be made available, from 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios, Sony Pictures, Lionsgate, Image Entertainment and First Look Studios. New releases will continued to be priced at $14.99, while most catalog titles will still sell for $9.99.

“We’re thrilled to bring iTunes Store customers new films for purchase day-and-date with the DVD release,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. “We think movie fans will love being able to buy their favorites from major and independent studios.”

New releases available for purchase on the iTunes Store this week, concurrent with their DVD release, include “American Gangster” and “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.” Other popular titles now available for purchase include “Juno,” “Cloverfield,” “I Am Legend,” “There Will Be Blood,” “Alvin and the Chipmunks” and “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.”

The BBC has announced that programming from BBC America is now available on the iTunes Store. Beginning today, customers can purchase single episodes and complete seasons of the BBC AMERICA series ”Torchwood," ”Little Britain,” and ”Robin Hood.” During the run of its new season, which began Saturday, each “Robin Hood” episode will be available on iTunes 24 hours after its premiere. “BBC is delighted to provide U.S. audiences with the unique ability to purchase and download select award-winning BBC America programming on the iTunes Store,” said Beth Clearfield, Vice President of Digital Media and Business Development, BBC Worldwide America. “As the first U.K. broadcaster available in the U.S., BBC is leveraging its trusted international brand in entertainment to provide our audiences with a first-rate digital experience.” The BBC was the first UK broadcaster to offer television programs on iTunes in the UK, and also offers its iPlayer service for users of the iPhone and iPod touch.

Apple has launched a special promo section on the iTunes Store celebrating the fifth anniversary of the store’s launch. ”iTunes Turns Five” features a look back at bestselling and staff-recommended media from each of the store’s five years of operation. Launched on April 28, 2003, the iTunes Music Store initially offered “more than 200,000 songs and a handful of exclusive tracks.” Over the years it has grown to offer more than 10 million songs, as well as movies, TV shows, iPod games, podcasts, audiobooks, and music videos, a diversification reflected when the store dropped the word “Music” from its name. As such, each year spotlighted in the promotion represents the content available that year; for instance, 2003’s promo page features only music, while 2005’s page spotlights music as well as TV programming (launched on October 12 of that year), podcasts, and audiobooks. The iTunes Store is now the largest music retailer in the U.S., and has sold more than 4 billion songs.

Update: Following the publication of this story, Apple made alterations to the iTunes Turns Five promo pages to change the number of songs available on the iTunes Store from 10 million to 6 million; no explanation has been given for the change.

NBC chief digital officer George Kliavkoff has raised the prospect of an NBC return to the iTunes Store, claiming that the network would “love” to be back, though price and piracy concerns remain sticking points. Speaking in an on-stage interview at the Ad:Tech conference, Kliavkoff said, “If you look at studies about MP3 players, especially leading MP3 players and what portion of that content is pirated, and think about how that content gets on to that device, it has to go through a gatekeeping piece of software, which would be a convenient place to put some antipiracy measures,” obliquely referencing iTunes. He added, “One of the big issues for NBC is piracy. We are financially harmed every day by piracy. It results in us not being able to invest as much money in the next generation of film and TV products.” It remains unclear how Apple’s FairPlay DRM, which protects all iTunes Store-purchased content from piracy, falls short of the company’s needs.

Kliavkoff added that “[w]e’d love to be on iTunes. It has a great customer experience. We’d love to figure out a way to distribute our content on iTunes,” noting that discussions between the companies continue: “we have film distribution with iTunes so yes, we do talk to Apple.” However, Kliavkoff suggested that Apple has too much control over pricing for the iTunes Store, explaining how NBC Universal sets a wholesale price for content it offers to distributors. “They can mark up the price and make a profit or use it as a loss leader to get people in the door. It’s really difficult for us to work with any distribution partner who says ‘Here’s the wholesale price and the retail price,’ especially when the price doesn’t reflect the full value of the product.” Both NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker and Apple CEO Steve Jobs have previously made comments suggesting the two companies would eventually come to an agreement regarding NBC TV shows, which were pulled from the iTunes Store last December following a contract dispute.

Twentieth Century Fox and Paramount have begun selling new release films on iTunes, joining Disney as the only major studios to offer new releases for purchase through the store. Fox began offering ”Juno” for purchase on Tuesday, the same day the DVD and Blu-ray versions were released, while Paramount offered ”Beowulf” for purchase not long after its DVD release on Feb. 26. Daily Variety reports that a Fox representative said it’s likely the studio will offer more new releases for sale in the future, with decisions being made on a title-to-title basis. Paramount is currently only “experimenting” with selling new release films on iTunes, according to a studio spokesperson. In the past, Paramount has offered certain older films for purchase through iTunes, but has only recently begun testing new release sales. Both studios are signed on to provide films for the iTunes movie rental service. [via MyAppleMenu]

Starbucks and iTunes have announced the new Pick of the Week program, in which a new complimentary song or music video will be offered every week as a free download for Starbucks customers. Every Tuesday, more than 7,000 company-operated Starbucks locations in the US will stock a new Pick of the Week download card redeemable on the iTunes Store for a free song or music video, from artists such as Carly Simon, Duffy, Counting Crows, Adele, Sia, Hilary McRae, and more. The first Pick of the Week, available starting today at participating locations, is the new song “Washington Square” by the Counting Crows. Customers will have 60 days from the date the cards are available to redeem them through the iTunes Store.

“With Pick of the Week, Starbucks will leverage its trusted curatorial voice in music and entertainment through its partnership with iTunes to provide our customers with a world-class digital discovery experience,” said Ken Lombard, president Starbucks Entertainment. “Pick of the Week provides an incredible way for Starbucks customers to discover great new music and videos for free on the iTunes Store,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. “With the world’s largest online catalog of music and video there is truly something for everyone.”

The Pick of the Week program follows a similar Starbucks/iTunes promotion from last October, Song of the Day, which offered customers the opportunity to pick up a new complementary download each day for a month. According to the companies, the promotion resulted in more than six million songs being downloaded. 

If the latest summary pages generated by the iTunes Store and Apple TV can be believed, Apple has reached its previously stated goal of offering 100 “high definition video[s] with 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound” for rent, yet still lags considerably behind its promised 1,000 standard-definition rentals—numbers originally promised by the end of February, but missed by wide margins. A count this afternoon of titles listed in Apple TV’s “All HD” section showed that the company is currently offering 197 high-definition movie rentals through Apple TV, with 100 of those rentals including Dolby Digital sound, and the remaining 97 offering only stereo sound. Notably, one of the Dolby Digital rentals—American Gangster—is available in two versions, making the company technically just shy of the 100 mark, assuming that its All HD tally is comprehensive.

By comparison, the iTunes Store’s standard-definition rental number remains markedly below 1,000, though searches of the Store’s catalog yield different totals. While the store’s All Rentals section shows a total of 390 standard-definition movies currently available for rent, up only modestly from the 384 offered in early March, a Power Search of the store suggests that 604 movie rentals are currently available; the difference appears to be attributable to the “All Rentals” section excluding movies that are available for both rental and purchase. It is unclear whether Apple is still attempting to ramp up numerically to compete with Amazon’s Unbox and Netflix’s Instant Watching movie rental service, which already offer thousands of titles.

iTunes remained the digital music brand of which consumers are most aware in 2007, according to results from the fourth annual TEMPO Digital Music Brandscape study, an in-depth examination of fee-based online music brands from global marketing research firm Ipsos Insight. Results show 82% of U.S. downloaders, both fee-based users and file sharers, are now aware of iTunes, with 38% of those thinking of the brand on a top-of-mind basis. “It has become clear that iTunes’ saliency has now reached beyond that of being ‘just’ the top brand presence to being the pre-eminent brand in digital music,” states Karl Joyce, Senior Research Manager with Ipsos Insight and author of the TEMPO study. “Even more telling than awareness and usage, iTunes favorability clearly demonstrates the value of the brand. While perhaps distressing to some, iTunes’ dominance simply cannot be denied.” In addition, half of all downloaders aware of more than one site now consider iTunes to be the best fee-based digital music service, up from 41% in 2006 and 33% in 2005. Data for the study were collected between September 10 and 17, 2007, from a web-based representative sample of 1,826 U.S. downloaders. [via Macworld UK]

Clear Channel Radio has announced that more than 340 of its primary HD Radio stations are now compatible with iTunes Tagging. "Radio continues to be the number one way that people discover new music, and the HD Radio iTunes tagging capability lets listeners add songs to their iPod playlists with just a push of the button,” said John Hogan, president and CEO of Clear Channel Radio. “With the vast majority of our HD primary stations now offering this exciting feature, we’re demonstrating how radio’s collaboration with the iPod benefits consumers.” Announced last September, iTunes Tagging is a new HD Radio feature designed to further boost iTunes sales by allowing listeners to “Tag” the currently playing song, automatically adding its information to a “Tagged” playlist on the connected iPod. When synced with a computer, the playlist appears in iTunes, making it easy to purchase tagged tracks from the iTunes Store. For more information on iTunes Tagging, read our Complete Guide to iTunes Tagging, and our review of the Polk Audio I-Sonic ES2, one of the first iTunes Tagging-capable HD Radio units.

Apple today announced that the iTunes Store has passed Wal-Mart to become the number one music retailer in the US, based on the latest data from the NPD Group. The NPD Group’s MusicWatch survey captures consumer reported past week unit purchases and counts one CD as representing 12 tracks; the iTunes Store became the largest music retailer in the US based on the amount of music sold during January and February 2008. “We launched iTunes less than five years ago, and it has now become the number one music retailer in the world,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. “We are thrilled, and would like to thank all of our customers for helping us reach this incredible milestone.” Apple in February announced the Store’s move into second position; since its inception, the iTunes Store has sold over four billion songs, and currently offers the world’s largest music catalog with over six million songs.

Apple this evening released iTunes 7.6.2, the latest version of their digital media management application. According to Apple, the release simply includes “bug fixes to improve stability and performance.” iTunes 7.6.2 is available now through Apple’s Software Update application, or as a free download from apple.com/itunes. [via TUAW]

Apple has announced that television programming from Germany’s top networks, including ProSieben, Sat.1, ZDF Enterprises, and Brainpool, and US broadcasters ABC Studios and MTV Networks is now available from the iTunes Store in Germany. Popular shows available for purchase include “Stromberg,” “Tramitz and Friends,” “Switch!,” “Shaolin Wuzang” and “Kaya Yanar-Made In Germany,” as well as US programs “Lost,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” and “South Park.” “iTunes is the world’s most popular online music and TV store with over four billion songs and 125 million TV episodes sold,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. “We’re off to a great start with over 35 TV shows available on the iTunes Store in Germany.” TV shows are priced at €1.99 and €2.49 per episode. 

UK rock band Radiohead has launched a Make Your Own Remix initiative for its latest single, in cooperation with Apple’s iTunes and GarageBand. Fans can visit iTunes in a number of countries (full list here) to purchase the song “Nude” along with five different “stems” of the song, giving them access to the bass, voice, guitar, strings/fx and drum tracks from which they can create their own remixes. In addition, fans who purchase all five stems before April 8 will receive an access code to download a free GarageBand project file for use when remixing; however, users need not use GarageBand to create their remixes, as the stems sold on the iTunes Store are iTunes Plus tracks, and are compatible with a number of software programs. Users may then upload their remix to radioheadremix.com, where the public can listen to and vote for their favorite remix (voting ends May 1). For more information, visit radioheadremix.com. [via SetteB.it]

A series of recently published Apple patent filings suggest that the company has developed a considerable digital fitness program for iTunes and touchscreen digital media devices, offering fitness training exercises, performance metrics, and a single integrated control screen with workout information and audio navigation. Originally discovered by AppleInsider, the filings, titled ”Integrated sensors for tracking performance metrics,” ”Dynamically adaptive scheduling system,” ”Rewards systems,” and ”Systems and methods for facilitating group activities,” describe a software- and hardware-based fitness system that includes sensors for motion and biometrics, a rewards program, and a system for facilitating group activities in which users can challenge others to match their workout performance. Using iTunes as a starting point, Apple’s system would begin with a computer-based user interview, allowing users to enter current health statistics, list any current medical conditions and/or medications they may be taking, set health goals, and so forth. Following the completion of the interview, the user is presented with suggested exercises, which can be synced to an iPhone or iPod, guiding the user through each exercise. Rewards can also be distributed to users based on individual performance data relative to a larger group’s data.

The date of the filings—March 27, 2007—suggests that Apple has been working on iTunes and touchscreen-based iPod exercise interface expansions for well over a year, preceding the iPod touch’s announcement and release by roughly six months. As with all patent filings, however, these do not necessarily represent any future product releases from Apple, but offer evidence of the company’s research in this area.

According to the Financial Times, Apple is currently negotiating with major music labels to offer an optional unlimited music rental service for iPods and iPhones, as well as an alternative subscription-based monthly service for iPhone users. Under the “comes with music” plan, the Times reports, premium versions of the iPod and iPhone would be bundled with “free access to its entire iTunes music library,” likely for the lifetime of the device, and enable consumers to “keep up to 40 or 50 tracks a year, which they would retain even if they changed their device or their subscription lapses.” A separate subscription plan would offer iPhone users monthly access to the iTunes music catalog for a recurring fee.

While Apple has not commented on the topic, and has previously dismissed the value of music subscription plans, “executives familiar with the negotiations” claim that the offering depends on Apple’s willingness to pay more than an initially offered total of $20 or so per device. Nokia has already planned a similar offering for its cell phones with a total payout of nearly $80 per phone.

Early this morning, Apple sent out an e-mail to iTunes Store Season Pass purchasers, offering an apology and download credits to users whose series subscriptions were affected by the recent Writers Guild of America strike. As explained in the e-mail reprinted here, Apple is issuing two video credits good for the purchase of TV shows, music videos, or short films from the Store, and promising to deliver “all additional episodes which are broadcast during the 2007-08 season” as they are received by the Store, as well as a partial credit for any episodes not delivered as originally planned. Full details are found below.