Apple to launch its own Music Service?

[wessman]

Apple to Launch Music Service?
from the pay-to-play dept.
posted by michael on Tuesday March 04, @13:06 (music)
http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl.../03/04/1758231

[0]discstickers writes "The San Jose Mercury News is running an [1]article about an Apple music service that might be ready to launch next month. $.99 a song with the ability to burn to CD doesn't sound too bad."

Links:
0. http://www.discstickers.com
1. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/sil...ey/5311076.htm


Apple online music service wins kudos
Los Angeles Times
Posted on Tue, Mar. 04, 2003

Top executives at the major record companies have finally found an online music service that makes them excited about the digital future, sources said Monday.

The new service, developed by Apple Computer, offers Macintosh users many of the same capabilities that are already available from services previously endorsed by the labels. But the Apple offering won over music executives because it makes buying and downloading music as simple and nontechnical as buying a book from Amazon.com, one source said.

``This is exactly what the music industry has been waiting for,'' said one person familiar with the negotiations between the Cupertino computer maker and the labels. ``It's hip. It's quick. It's easy. If people on the Internet are actually interested in buying music, not just stealing it, this is the answer.''

That ease of use has music executives optimistic that the Apple service will be an effective antidote to surging piracy on the Internet, sources said. Other legitimate music services have cumbersome pricing plans and are more technically complex than unauthorized online services, such as the Kazaa file-sharing network.

The new service would only be available to users of Apple's Macintosh line computers and iPod portable music players, who have been largely overlooked by the legitimate online music services. Although no licensing deals have been announced, sources close to the situation say at least four of the five major record companies have committed their music. The service could be launched as early as next month.

Apple's products account for just a sliver of the total computer market -- less than 3 percent of the computers sold worldwide are Macs, according to market research firm IDC. The vast majority of the potential audience for downloadable music services uses machines that run Microsoft's Windows software.

An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment on the service Monday.

© 2003 Mercury News and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.

[Theinfamousone]

It all depends on how much the music costs, not the ease of use (to an extent). Kazaa makes finding music easier than sitting down. A dollar a song is too much, that's more than music is at even the highest priced retail CD store, and those come with the covers and labels. The music should be a lot cheaper, maybe 25 cents a song. That MIGHT be able to rival Kazaa, if the quality is 95% lossless. Then a CD with 20 songs would still cost $5. But after buying the CD-R and jewel case, and the label, taking the time to burn it, you might as well just buy it from amazon.com.

That's like charging more for 4 quarts of motor oil than it costs to take it to jiffy lube or whatever and have them change it for you (including the oil). When everyone has an oil well in their backyard, no one is going to buy it. Although some people that have better things to do will still take it to Jiffy Lube.

[Sockfulloflove]

what rip, $.99 a song? ya right, you'll save money just buying the reg. original cd.

[isus]

i dont know where you buy cd's, but many of the cd's i see have 15-17 tracks... thats about $15-$17. if there's no tax, then that easily beats a cd at sam goody or wherever you go to buy cd's... i mean, sam goody has most cds at $16 bucks, and the $13 ones are shitty.

besides, you can d/l the tracks you want... so if there is a one hit wonder band, you save $15...

[d-koolest]

I'm happy burning my cds from DC.:wings

[Wolfie]

Personally, I don't wanna get a Mac so I guess I won't be using them. Also the 99 cent track would only be good if you want to download one or two songs from a CD (as isus said), but if you chose to download entire CDs you end up paying the same expensive rates in the stores.

[Lamourlady]

agreed.
that's not any cheaper than buying a cd.
the whole point of p2p is that we think cds r over-priced, especially for those with one-hit wonders.
i've said it a million times or more...
i am more than willing to pay to download, if the quality is there.
and the price is fair, and it isn't Apple.....lol.

[MamiyaOtaru]

Everyone's really quick to disparage any scheme where you pay for music heh. A buck a song really seems reasonable. One of the main things filesharing apologists have said is "who wants to pay $15 for a CD with one good song>" Well, this service lets you pay $1 for one good song, and in that way is a lot better than buying a CD.

It's true though, if the whole album is good, you might as well buy the CD (except then you'd have to get your lazy ass to a music store).. I'll be interested to see if it succeeds. Say want you want about the price, but it will at least offer the flexibility that CD don't. A step in the right direction for sure.

In the end though, no pay service will ever offer most of the bands I want heh.

[Ken17625]

No matter what, you can't compete with free..........

[Wolfie]

Buying a CD from the store (if like most of the content and want to support the band) is all fine but IMO they are still over-priced. A general reduction in prices from 15-20 $ to maybe 5-8$ would be lot more effective in bringing people back to music stores to buy full CDs. The pay schemes such as above are only economical if you want only selections off a CD.

[EvilHamsterOfDeath]

you know if the record companies were smart they would make there own p2p apps ......free ones......... through in a couple ads and they would be making money without having to charge people.....but they arent smart enough to think of that ..... lol

[wessman]

Apple To Make "Music To Your Ears" Announcement
from the what-a-crappy-news-day dept.
posted by Hemos on Monday April 21, @10:48 (media)
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/04/21/145201

supa_k writes "According to an offical Apple invitation sent to the good folks at [0]MacCentral, on April 28th Apple will make 'announcements that will be music to your ears.' It remains to be seen if this involves a purchase of Universal - something Apple offically [1]denied just a few days ago but it will undoubtedly be the announcement of their online music subscription service and the other announcement will surely be new iPods."

Links:
0. http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/...21/appleevent/
1. http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl...216238&tid=107


Apple to hold special event April 28
By Jim Dalrymple
April 21, 2003 8:15 am

Apple Computer Inc. informed MacCentral by special invitation Monday morning of an event the company will hold in San Francisco on Monday, April 28, 2003. While the invitation was not specific on exactly what the company would announce at the event, it did narrow down the possibilities.

The invitation says that Apple will have "announcements that will be music to your ears." Apple has several music products, but speculation over the past couple of weeks has focused on three things: a new iPod; a buyout by Apple of Universal Music; and a new music service by Apple.

News of Apple's interest in Universal Music Group first broke on April 11 with speculation that the company would make a $5 billion to $6 billion bid for the music business by the end of April. Apple was supposedly making the bid to fuel the company's as yet unannounced music service, which makes downloading and purchasing music as simple and non-technical as buying a book from Amazon.com, according to people that have used the service.

The confirmation and subsequent retraction by Vivendi Director Claude Bebear, who reportedly said that Apple "will probably make an offer" for Universal Music Group, prompted Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, to issue a statement last week.

"Apple has never made any offer to invest in or acquire a major music company," said Jobs in the statement. "The press statements this morning attributed to Vivendi board member Claude Bebear are untrue, as Mr. Bebear has confirmed in a later report. Beyond these comments, we will abide by Apple's policy of not commenting on rumors."

Of course, the iPod MP3 player would be a big part of any Apple branded music service if Apple decided to launch it. For now, we will have to wait until April 28 to see what Apple will unveil.

Apple has released several products during special events in recent years including the iPod, iBook and the company's rackmount server, the Xserve.

Copyright © 2003 Mac Publishing LLC. All rights reserved.

[Kyle06]

Originally posted by wessman

launch next month. $.99 a song with the ability to burn to CD doesn't sound too bad."

Sorry I am to cheap but that does sound good

[wessman]

Review of iTunes Music Store
from the music-over-my-head dept.
posted by pudge on Wednesday April 30, @13:38 (apple)
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/04/30/1310258

Daniel_Staal writes "Apple's recent release of their music download service created quite a discussions here on /., with a lot of opinion and speculation. In light of this I thought I'd poke around, kick the tires, and see how it actually works." Staal's review follows. The Wall Street Journal also has a review: http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/solution-20030430.html

Daniel_Staal continues:

First, the disclaimer: I'm an Apple supporter, having used them as my desktop system since my parents got a IIe back when they were new. I run several Unix servers, but my desktop of choice has always been Apple. Also, while I like listening to music, I'm no audiophile, and can't usually tell the difference between a 192kbps MP3 and the CD it is encoded from. My best speakers are on my computer, and they are Monsoon flat panel 3-piece set.

Ok, on to the review. iTunes Music Store requires the new version of iTunes of course, for which Apple has updated the brushed metal interface again (Apple, why do you come up with this great Aqua interface and then never use it?). My first stop on any new program is always the preferences, and Apple's added some new options for this version: "Sharing" and "Store." I don't have any other computers worth streaming music too, so that's off, and I turn off the one-click shopping. I like having a shopping cart.

The store itself is presented as a special playlist in iTunes, just click and it connects. It presumes a fairly wide iTunes window, wider than I usually use, but the stuff I wanted was all on the left side so I'm fine. The default store layout is obviously Amazon-inspired: new additions, up and coming, editor's picks, and most popular all being highlighted. Genre is a pull-down menu on the top left: all the picks change and the background color. Click on an album to view it in a two-pane view: info above and songs below. There are easy links back at any point, or up the hierarchy. Double click on a song to hear the preview (not just the first 30 seconds, they seem to actually choose them).

That's the basics. There are two levels of search: the search box in iTunes and a Power Search available from inside the store. The Power Search lets you search by song, artist, album, genre, and composer. Users of Limewire will find it familiar. Clicking Browse puts up three panes across the top: genre, artist, album. Once an album is selected the songs are available below.

On to the interesting stuff: actually buying songs. I select a song I've got a poor p2p copy of and click buy, and it asks me to sign in with my Apple ID, or create one if I don't have one. This is where I have my first problem. I have an Apple ID, but entering it puts up a message saying I've never used it with iTunes Music Store before (well, duh) and asks me to review the terms and conditions. Then it directs me to the account creation screen, with my info already filled in.

Of course, the account creation screen won't let you create a duplicate account, and asks me to log in. Can we say endless loop? How about bug that should be fixed?

I create a new email address, and make a new account. No problem. Log in, select the song and a couple others. Click "Buy Song," enter credit card info (which is then saved into the account, on Apple's server) and the songs download quickly. I had one more blip: one song had trouble downloading (I assume server load) and was told to try again later, with a menu option. It worked several hours later.

The selection is broad, but not yet very deep. Many albums I found are in partial status, with only one or two songs. Several artists I was looking for were not listed at all. Considering this is just roll-out that isn't a major issue (they weren't big artists, at least not in the U.S.). Everyone should be able to find at least some of their picks available.

Also, some albums are listed as "Explicit" or "Clean." Notice I said "albums": if one song in an album has a label they all seem to, though I didn't do an exhaustive search. Since this is structured as song-centric, I feel they should have labeled on a song-by-song basis.

Enough with the marketing stuff, this is /. The files, as was mentioned in the announcement, are in AAC format. Let's see what we can do with that, shall we?

First options: inside iTunes. iTunes can convert one format to another normally, trying it on a 'protected' AAC file returns an error. Also, trying to burn an MP3 CD with one on the playlist just skips burning the AAC files (or returns an error if they are the only files.) Fair enough, we didn't really expect the capability to circumvent all controls to be built in... (Though you can of course burn regular CDs.)

Next, let's see what can be done with the file itself. They are saved, just like any other iTunes music file, in the iTunes music folder. The icon has a little lock on it, to indicate its 'protected' status. A few clicks later and the file is owned by guest:nobody chmod 777 and in a world readable folder. (Assigned to guest.)

So much for one definition of protection. [Ed: I renamed the file to .m4a (not protected) and set the permissions to the same as my other tracks, and iTunes would still not let me convert it to MP3.]

I can also play that file as another user on the same machine. I would try other machines, but I only have the one Mac at the moment.

The only other Mac player I can find that claims to play AAC is only for Mac OS v9, and does not appear to recognize the bought file, so no help there. I do however have an app that hijacks the audio stream before the speakers and allows you to play with equalizers, balance, etc. Oh, and it lets you save the result as an MP3 as well as playing it through the speakers.

I fire it up and a few minutes later I have an MP3 that I can't tell from the AAC. So much for that definition of protection.

Is this service for everyone? Probably not if you are a hard-core audiophile and can tell the difference between a 128kbps ACC and the original, but for most of us: it works. I can do what I want with the file, even get it to MP3 if I need it, though it is hard enough that I have to actually think about doing it (which means I won't do it unless I need to). I'd love it if it were cheaper, but I probably would not buy twice as many songs at half the price. Finding songs is easy, buying them is easy. (For reference: $0.99 per song does not include taxes, taxes will be listed in the invoice you are emailed.)

I'll probably spend too much money there.

© 1997-2003 OSDN.


Apple's New Service Beats Illegal Free Sites
By WALTER S. MOSSBERG, with reporting by Katherine Boehret
April 30, 2003
http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/solution-20030430.html

For several years now, the music and technology industries have been casting about for a legal Internet music service that might rival the wildly popular bootleg services, like Napster and Kazaa, where songs can be grabbed for free. But the results have been dismal -- until this week.

Early services with access to major label catalogs, like MusicNet, pressplay and Rhapsody, have been pathetic. They all require monthly fees, and they mainly stress "streaming" music, which you can listen to, but can't download. They don't sell downloaded songs that remain on your hard disk and can be used freely. Instead, their downloads expire if monthly fees aren't paid. Playback of songs is usually restricted to one or two PCs, and the songs often can't be used on portable music players. The ability to burn songs to CDs is either very limited, or requires a per-burn payment on top of the service's monthly fee.

In short, these services treat everyone like a potential criminal, and they take all the joy out of buying and playing music.

But, this week, Apple Computer launched the first really useful, and enjoyable, legal music service, the iTunes Music Store (www.applemusic.com). It's an enormous step forward, and the first online music service I can recommend.

This new Apple service also is bound by some restrictions insisted upon by the big labels. But these limits are so much more liberal than the ones imposed by the earlier ventures that it's as if the other services never existed. Only Apple is selling major-label downloads that a typical consumer or family can freely use, in any common scenario, without running into restrictions.

Like most other Apple products, Apple's iTunes Music Store is beautifully designed and easy to use -- although for now, it only works on Macintosh computers, a tiny species in a world of Windows machines. I've been testing it heavily over the past couple of days and it works very well. I have downloaded more than 50 songs, burned them to CD, copied them to multiple computers, and loaded them onto multiple iPod portable music players. There were a few minor hiccups, but the service basically worked as promised, easily and well.

There are no monthly fees for Apple's music store. You just pick the songs you like, and buy them for 99 cents apiece. You can buy as many or as few songs as you like. You can play a free 30-second preview of any song, and if you like what you hear, you just click a single button to buy it. No shopping-cart screens appear. The songs you buy begin downloading to your computer immediately. That 99 cent price will have to come down eventually, if online music buying is to become a mass phenomenon, but it's low enough to get the business off to a strong start.

Entire albums can also be purchased for download, at prices that range from about $8.00 to over $11.00. But most albums are $9.99 -- well below the price they fetch in stores. The music store doesn't require a Web browser or any new software. It shows up as a feature of Apple's excellent iTunes music jukebox software, which comes free with every Mac. Every purchased song includes a picture of the album cover, which shows up in iTunes when you play the track.

Forever Yours

Once you buy a song, it's yours to keep. It never expires. You can copy it to as many as three computers, which don't have to be owned by the same person, or even be in the same location. You can copy each song to an unlimited number of iPods, and burn each song to an unlimited number of home-made CDs. However, you can only burn the same list of songs to 10 CDs. After that, you have to change at least one song on the list. This is to prevent someone from creating hundreds or thousands of copies of an album for mass distribution.

These limits are so loose that they allow essentially full and free use of the music by any typical family, which is unlikely to own more than three computers. In fact, Apple's rules allow the kind of small-scale sharing of music that the record labels have previously condemned as piracy, but which most honest people consider routine and allowable, even if it technically isn't.

For instance, you could designate computers owned by friends and relatives as part of your group of three, and e-mail the songs you buy to them. They will be able to play them, burn them, and copy them to iPod players. Or, you could burn 10 copies of an album or mixed play list and pass them out to your friends. Or, you could simply invite all your friends with iPods to come over and load the songs you've bought. Finally, if you burn a CD of your purchased tracks, you can use common, simple software to "rip" the tracks into unrestricted MP3 files in minutes, even on a Windows PC.

Why would you use Apple's store instead of bootleg services like Kazaa, where the songs are free? Well, on Kazaa, the songs can be hard to find, especially in the version you want. There's a lot of trial and error. Also, the quality can be poor, with pops and hissing and the endings cut off. There's no album art included. And lots of people using Kazaa have received viruses and spyware along with their music.

But, most of all, downloading songs from Kazaa is at the very least unethical, and probably illegal, because the people who upload the songs to those services don't own the copyrights, and don't pay anything to the artists or songwriters. With the Apple store, you do have to pay, but your conscience can be clear.

Every major genre and era is represented among the more than 200,000 tracks in the Apple store. I downloaded songs by James Taylor, Bette Midler, Paul Simon, Van Halen, Billy Joel, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Linda Ronstadt, Bill Haley and his Comets, and Peter, Paul & Mary. I also got an alternate mix of Bob Dylan's song "Everything Is Broken." All of these went onto my iPod. My wife asked for some music by Louis Prima, so I downloaded an album of his and burned it onto a CD she could play in her car. My assistant Katie downloaded a couple of tracks from Coldplay.

There are two big downsides to Apple's new music store, but both promise to be temporary. First, the store only works on Apple's own Macintosh computers. But the company is planning to release a Windows version by the end of the year. Secondly, many albums are only partially present. There are lots of gaps. The company says it is loading songs into its servers as fast as it can, and that the partial albums should fill out over the coming weeks.

There is also another oddity about Apple's venture: The songs it sells aren't in the common MP3 format, but in a newer format called AAC. This is a standard, recognized format, but it hasn't been used much, and there are few software programs that can play it, especially on Windows PCs. Apple insists that it chose AAC because, at any given quality level, it sounds better than MP3 files, and yet takes up slightly less room on a hard disk. The company swears that the choice of AAC had nothing to do with security or anti-piracy, or with locking out Windows software.

In my tests, however, I found Apple's claims for the superiority of AAC to be exaggerated at best. On the kind of rock and pop music most people buy, Apple's AAC tracks sounded fine to me, but no better than the same songs rendered in MP3.

When I reported this to Apple, the company said middle-aged ears like mine couldn't tell the difference, but younger ones could. So I asked Katie, who is in her 20s, to compare 11 identical songs recorded at the same quality level, 128 kilobits per second, in Apple's AAC format, and in the MP3 format. Her verdict: The AAC songs may have been very slighter sharper and crisper, but the difference was minuscule.

As for the size of AAC files versus MP3s, I found that the AACs were only very slightly smaller than MP3 files at the same quality level, and in some cases the AAC files were the same size, or even slightly larger.

Fortunately, Apple isn't abandoning MP3s. The iTunes software still handles and plays MP3 files, along with AACs, and you can mix the two formats in play lists, and when burning CDs, or downloading tracks to an iPod.

The service is well designed, with minimum clutter and maximum usability. You can quickly search for any artist, album, composer or song title. Or, you can browse the collection by genre, artist and album. There are artist pages that group all of an artist's albums, and you can view the album cover for any song or album. These album covers get downloaded with any song you buy, and are displayed in the iTunes player when you play the song.

Making the List

When you buy a song, it is automatically added to a special play list called "Purchased Music," but it also shows up in your regular song library and can be added to any other play list, along with songs you already own.

I ran into a few glitches with the store in my tests. A couple of song downloads were interrupted, but I was able to resume them later. In one case, the store said I had bought a song, but it never got delivered. In another case, one song had a gap in it. And another didn't burn properly to a CD.

Apple attributed these problems to opening-week jitters in its service, or to flaws in the files provided to it by the record labels. It said customers can report these problems, and get refunds, via a customer-service option under the iTunes Help menu.

With Apple's new music store, honest music consumers finally have a decent alternative to the bootleg services.

Copyright © 2003 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

[Mitsugi]

Copying and pasting all those copyrighted article could get this site in trouble.. just link to them.. There's so many article, no one's gonna read them all, just pick the best ones and link to them.

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