Piper Jaffray said iTunes Music Store downloads for 2005 could reach 513 million versus the current estimate of 387 million, and 2006 iTunes downloads could reach 1.0 billion versus the current estimate of 542 million.
“It’s really quite ridiculous how simple and effective the new iPod Shuffle is,” writes Scott Goldman of the Indianapolis Star. “This variation of the wildly popular digital music player again has launched Apple to the forefront of digital music technology.”
At the Costume Designers Guild Awards on Saturday, Jennifer Rade, who designed the costumes for Apple’s iPod silhouette commercials, was honored with an award. “Only fellow costume designers could appreciate how difficult a job that was,” Rade said.
Lift, a bar in Des Moines, Iowa, is now holding “PodJay Mondays,” a weekly night devoted to iPod owners. “People program a playlist with 15 minutes or so of songs from their music catalog, then hand their players over to bartender Clint Curtis who treats the entire room to their musical tastes.”