Appletell

Apple is reporting that its iTunes music store has now registered over 5 billion downloaded songs from the online music store. Recently crowned as the number one music store by market research firm NPD Group’s MusicWatch. In addition to having sold over 5 billion songs, the online music store is also reporting that around 50,000 movies are being downloaded from its sites everyday. Suffice it to say that iTunes is now also the world’s most popular online movie store.

We are not surprised at all with this report. The iTunes Store is the official source of music for iPod and iPhone owners, two of the most sought after portable media players in the world market today. What is surprising with this report is the fact that, as of today, there are still other regions which are not covered by the iTunes Store. This means iPhone and iPod users in these regions still can’t purchase music and videos from iTunes, despite the fact that both devices are officially available in their region.

If iTunes could penetrate these countries it currently doesn’t cover, that 5 billion downloads mark would have been achieved a little bit earlier than today. Still, the iPhone 3G is slated for release on July 11th, and we expect that figure to shoot up further as more countries get the official distribution of the iPhone 3G.

Read [Apple News]

Apple is treating UK iTunes customers with the availability of movies in the iTunes store. The iTunes movie collection features premier titles from major studios including 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney Studios, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros, MGM, Sony Pictures and Lionsgate UK. Apple said that more than 700 films are now available for rent or purchase at the UK iTunes store. Even sweeter is the fact the iTunes users can download movie titles on the same day their DVD version is released.

With iTunes movie rentals now available, UK fans can start watching movies as soon as their iTunes setup starts downloading the movies they just rented. Customers will have 30 days to start watching the rental. Once the movie has been started, consumers have 48 hours to finish it. If there are some time left, they can watch it repeatedly until the 48 hour time limit expires.

To kickstart the iTunes movie rentals and sales, recent movie hits such as Hitman, I Am Legend, National Treasure 2 and Into the Wild were just released by iTunes. Movies for sale cost around $13 for library title purchases and $21 for new releases. Movie rentals would burn customers some $5 for library title rentals and $6.8 for new releases.

Via [Apple Press Release] Product [iTunes]

The World Trade Organization and members of the G8 are working on new regulations that would instate an international Copyright Police.  The tasks of that force would include many things, but there are two main purposes.  the first would be to monitor Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to sniff out any pirate’s.  The second purpose would be to monitor international borders and customs installments to possibly search and seize your iPod, iPhone, computer, or any other electronic device with pirated music.  Andy Space for 9 to 5 Mac reports the following:

Nations including Canada, the US and various European states (including the UK, which sits on the G8) are secretly agreeing a new pan-global state police deal in which information held on iPods and other devices could be subject to investigation by customs officials tasked with a new role, as copyright police.  Dubbed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), signatory nations will form an international coalition against copyright infringement.

And to pour some salt into the wounds, the investigator of said devices has complete discretion on whether any music on it is infringing any copyrights, and has the authority to do anything from heavy fines to a total seizure of the device.  And here’s the doozy- the investigator doesn’t even have to tell you why he applies said punishment to said crime.  Everything in this proposal seems like the brass is taking a “Stalinist” approach to the war against pirates, and everything seems a bit extreme, from the unwarranted searches and seizures to having Big Brother looking over your shoulder while you’re on the internet.  I think that there are certain steps to preventing copyright infringement that are much less harsh, in some ways more effective, and not in the G8’s proposal’s.  Wouldn’t that ruin your trip top France is some random customs officer thinks that any of your music on your iPhone was obtained illegally and seizes it and sbsequently destroys it without explanation or warrant?  That would sure tick me off. 

Originally, these restrictions were being written up in secret, but certain US privacy groups implemented the Freedom of Information Act after getting wind of the proceedings. 

Via [The Ottawa Citizen]

Netflix has introduced a $100 Apple TV competitor that will offer its users more than 10,000 movies and TV shows with a $8.99/month unlimited subscription plan.  Coming in at 5 by 2 inches, this device will offer the same component ports as the Apple TV plus one for S-Video and one for Composite video.  It has no hard drive, but rather streams the videos.  Netflix chief executive Reed Hastings says, “The key breakthroughs of the Netflix Player are simplicity and cost.” Right now, it’s looking like a pretty serious competitor to the Apple TV if you ask me.

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Since its introduction by Apple on January 9th, 2001, iTunes has become one of the most popular music library organization apps ever.  It started off simple and eventually became what it is today, a place not only to organize files, but to shop, learn, and watch.  With so much growth, large deals, and new features in the past few years, it makes me wonder where iTune’s place will be in the future.  When digital sales take over physical media, will it be because of iTunes?  Will iTunes one day start a revolution in how we purchase and handle all of our DVDs, music, and TV shows?  Or will iTunes eventually slip away into the past and be replaced by a whole new app or movement?

With the direction iTunes is headed now, it seems like it very well could be the driving force behind moving totally to digital sales for some.  It has one of the biggest music selections available anywhere, allows you to rent movies, releases new DVD titles the same day as hard copies, and contains all sort of other media, such as podcasts and TV shows.  With only a couple more deals and updates, iTunes could soon be the place to go for all of your media.  This would almost completely eliminate the need for physical media.  Don’t get me wrong though, I don’t think this will happen anytime very soon, but it is possible.  But what would seal the deal for moving completely to digital media?

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Hate rushing to the store to make sure you are able to get one of the few copies available of your favorite movie on the day of its DVD release?  We’ve all been there, and it sucks.  Well, Apple has now come to the rescue.  You are now able to purchase iTunes movies on the same day as their hard copy DVD release.  This deal covers a ton of studios, including 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment, and Lionsgate.  The new releases go for $14.99 currently at the iTunes store.

“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.”

It was going to happen eventually, and I’m glad the time has finally come.  Could this be one of the largest steps in a while towards moving completely to digital entertainment, or is there still a long way to go?

Apple has finally surpassed its goal of 1,000 movie rentals - users can now rent from a store of over 1,000 movies. Apple didn’t meet this goal on time however - they are exactly 63 days late from the deadline - but at least they made it. Steve Jobs must have been very optimistic with the movie rental idea, as 2 months isn’t really acceptable from Apple. Most people expected all 1,000 movies to be on the store at least 63 days ago. But I suppose its best that Apple took its time, making sure everything went well - better late than never as they say.

To see the expansive list of movies available on the iTunes rental option, just open up iTunes and choose search from the store menu; choose Movies from the Power Search pop-up and enable the “Search Movies That Are Available for Rental option” - then click search. You’ll see all of the movies organized into 6 pages, each with 150 movies - another additional page lists 103 movies.

Via [Macworld]

When announcing iTunes Movie Rentals, Steve Jobs said to expect 100 High Definition, 5.1 Surround Sound titles available for rent by February.  Although Apple has made this goal, they are really short in their goal of 1,000 standard definition titles.  396 short, to be exact. Although there are 197 HD titles, of which exactly 100 are 5.1 Surround Sound, there are a relatively meager 604 SD titles.  Also of note is the fact that only six (yes, only six) titles have been added to the content library since March.

This may seem very un-Apple to set a seemingly attainable goal and miss by a mile, but they managed to do so.  If Apple ever wants to be a substantial competitor for Amazon’s Unboxed or Netflix’ Instant Watch, both of which have thousands of titles (it is still pretty foggy on whether or not Apple is really actually trying to compete with those two companies). 

Via [iLounge]

We keeping hearing rumors about Apple moving over to Blu-Ray in laptops and desktop computers. I’ve got a few theories of why Apple will never use Blu-ray for Macs. Before I speculate of why the format won’t be coming, Apple signed up for Blu-Ray about 3 years ago! Since then, they haven’t done anything and probably won’t in the future.

Movie rentals. Apple is pushing them hard to succeed and putting Blu-Ray players in Macs will lower the chances of buying sales/rentals of HD content from iTunes. Blu-ray has all the major vendors in the movie industry, and Apple still hasn’t hit 1,000 movies in the iTunes Store.

No optical drive in MacBook Air. Apple told us that we don’t need a DVD player to watch movies, the iTunes Store works fine. If they don’t want us watching DVDs, it won’t be any different for Blu-ray movies.

Professional applications don’t yet support Blu-ray. Rober X. Crinigely of the PBS predicts. Even though this is a valid missing link, he says that this would be a lame excuse to not use the format.

Why don’t you think Apple hasn’t switched to Blu-Ray yet?

iTunes movies look to have been very successful. Apple has managed to get contracts with all the major movie studios, and their child companies. Almost every new hit movie will be on the iTunes Store, ready for downloading in an iPod-friendly format - to watch on a Mac, PC or iPod. Sillicon Alley Insider is reporting that Disney today announced that 4 million movies had been sold on iTunes - that’s $123 million. Disney also recently announced a digital sales goal of $1 billion; this includes revenue from advertising online (e.g ad revenue from online video viewing or from any of its sites), online games subscriptions, movie and music downloads, and e-commerce that is not related to its theme parks.

iTunes movies are currently limited to the USA only. Steve promised that the rest of the world will be seeing iTunes movie rentals later this year - this should have a huge impact on the revenue from movie sales.

Via [MacRumors]