Appletell

Well it’s about time! Radiohead has finally come to its senses and has agreed to sell tracks on iTunes. Initially, they refused when Apple told them they had to sell them. It was the entire album or nothing.

I never understood the reasons Radiohead was so resistant to selling tracks. They would still get paid for the tracks that people bought. Apple didn’t budge; neither did Radiohead. Each went its separate way.

Now, here is where it gets interesting with their album In Rainbows. Radiohead decided to enter the “pay as you please” model. That’s right, they left it up to the fans to decide the amount they wanted to pay. Although many of the fans took it for free, the band still made millions, and get this—they didn’t have to pay distribution fees or record labels. However, they’ve now moved away from the “pay as you please” model.

Yorke says, however that the move was “… a one-off response to a particular situation,” and won’t happen again. He also added, “I don’t think it would have the same significance now if we chose to give something away again. It was a moment in time.”

Apple iTunes is the number one music retailer in the U.S. Other groups have done well selling their music on iTunes. I imagine it was a combination of things that caused Radiohead to change their minds.

Radiohead, for those who don’t know, is an alternative, English band from Oxfordhsire. Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, Ed O’Brien, Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway make up the band. I first heard them in 1993 when their first album Pablo Honey debuted. I’ve been following them ever since. Radiohead has sold over 23 million records and released 7 albums.

I occasionally purchase albums, but, for the most part, I buy singles from the iTunes music store. I just finished purchasing three of their tracks: “Weird Fishes,” “All I Need” and “Karma Police.” I’ll be back when I have more time to download additional singles. If you are a Radiohead fan, log onto iTunes and pick up your favorite tracks or albums. Enjoy!

In honor of Black Music Month, Apple is throwing a month-long celebration, featuring in-store performances at a variety of its Apple store locations throughout the U.S. There will be 22 artists appearing in seven cities, including San Francisco, New York, Atlanta, Troy, Michigan, Santa Monica, California, Miami, and Chicago.

Billboard reports that Michelle Williams, Tiffany Evans, Malcolm Jamal Warner, Cherish, Wyclef Jean, Janelle Monae, Marvin Sapp, Mike Phillips, Yung Berg, B.o.B., Anthony David, Goapele, Vaughn Anthony, MC Lyte, David Banner, Pastor Troy, Killer Mike, Talib Kweli, DJ Irie, Mistah F.A.B. and E-40 will be performing. This month-long celebration gives people a wonderful opportunity to hear these talented artists perform.

If you were looking forward to seeing Tiffany Evans perform, you just missed her; she kicked off the event yesterday, June 1, at the Apple Soho location. Last month, her self-titled album was released via Columbia Records.

The list of artists that will be making an appearance at the various Apple stores throughout the US is impressive. I have met Wyclef Jean and Goapele (pronounced Gwa-pa-lay) a few times and have many of their songs loaded on my iPod nano.

Although I’ve not had the pleasure of meeting Malcolm Jamal Warner, I would like to meet him. I was a big fan of The Cosby Show, and am still hoping the episodes make an appearance at the iTunes store so I can purchase my favorites and watch them on my Apple TV.

I would love to attend one of the shows, but they aren’t appearing in my city. Let us know if you get the chance to check out a performance.

Via [Billboard]

Today, Apple celebrates the fifth anniversary of its iTunes store with a look back at “all of the great music, video, and exclusives” that users discovered on iTunes, and highlighting the songs and shows that defined each year of the iTunes store’s life. Apple gives a brief history along with a collection of “best sellers” on its iTunes store today, and claims its music catalogue grew from over 200,000 songs and a handful of exclusive tracks to over 10 million songs, according to information available on the iTunes store.

Earlier this month, Apple announced that the iTunes Store surpassed Wal-Mart to become the number one music retailer in the United States, based on data from January and February of 2008. Apple also stated that it had served over 50 million customers and sold more than four billion songs.

iTunes makes up approximately 70 percent of digital music sold worldwide. It is estimated that in the next five years, Apple’s media service may account for a staggering 28 percent of all music sold worldwide.

Via [The iPod Observer]

Some of you out there may be musically challenged. If so, you may want to consider picking up an instrument, and what a better way to do so than with Piano Wizard. This app is great if you want to learn an instrument but also want to save some money by not paying for lessons. Released by Music Wizard Group, Piano Wizard is completely customizable and can teach you anything from a super easy level to an advanced level. Beginner or pro, Piano Wizard seems to fit all players’ skill levels with adjustable preferences. Piano Wizard even includes some games and other exercises to break away from normal lessons and test out your newly learnt skill. Piano Wizard comes in two versions, an easy version for $49.95 and a premier version for $119.95, both of which include stickers to put on your keyboard. Of course, you can bundle the premier software with a Keystation 49e for just $199.95 total. So, if you want to learn piano or just want to practice more, check out Piano Wizard.

[Piano Wizard] via [MacUser]

How can you really show your mom that you love her this Mother’s Day?  With an Apple product, of course!  So if you’re wondering what you can get for the rapidly approaching May 11th, look no more, you can find it all here!

1) Mom’s love photos and memories, so get her an Apple photo book! You know how the saying goes, “A picture is worth 1,000 words.” Gather up all those old memories from this year and put them together in a nice, high quality book that your mother can cherish forever.  Plus, Apple is making it even easier with 20% of photo books just by using the promo code “LoveMom.” Just make sure you order in time so the books makes it for Mother’s Day.

2) Introduce them to the tech world with an iPod Shuffle! Only $49 and coming in five separate colors, an iPod Shuffle is the perfect way to show your mom you love her.  You can load it with all of her favorites songs before you give it to her and really make her smile, too!  Not only that, but they are extremely portable, light weight, and make for good fashion statements.

3) Keep in touch with a new Mac!:  If money isn’t a factor, go ahead and get her a new computer.  With the iSight camera and Leopard, it is easier than ever to have a great time video chatting.  She will thinks it’s awesome and you’ll have fun doing it, what more could you ask for on Mother’s Day?

4) If home made is more your style, use iLife! All Macs come with great pre-installed editing software.  If you want to give your mom something truly from the heart, make her a movie or slideshow with her favorites pictures and clips.  They love to see that you took the time to create something wonderful for them.

5) If your mom already has all the above, give her the gift of Apple with a gift card!:  Whether it be for iTunes or the store, everyone loves have the freedom to spend their money one what they want.  Get your mother a gift card and allow her to choose something for herself.  You can always find something at the Apple Store to spend some money on.

“Pick of the Week,” a new program from Apple and Starbucks, will consist of Pick of the Week cards stocked at more that 7,000 Starbucks locations that give customers a chance to discover new music and video.  Simply grab the card while getting your coffee, then fire up iTunes and redeem the song or video of the week.  The first song being featured is Counting Crow’s “Washington Square,” but don’t feel rushed because Apple says customers will have 60 days to redeem the song from the date it is available.  The companies expect this new program to drive more than 1.5 million downloads every week.

This is the another big announcement coming from these two companies since October 2006, where the iTunes Wifi Music Store was launched that allows users to easily find songs they hear at Starbucks.  Apple and Starbucks seem to really be enjoying their partnership with each other, so it will be interesting to see what else comes from their relationship.

According to recent Russian publications, the Russian iTunes store will be up and running by the 21st.  Many billboards have been seen with confirming this message, showing the the usual non-desrcript black and white iPhone theme with the words iSkoro (translate to iSoon): 21.04.08.  Russia is still one of the only major countries without access to iTunes, but is soon to be another purveyor of the most popular music store.  Many other Russian Apple sites have also been broadcasting this message.  According to iPodNN, “imacintosh.ru lists its support e-mail as “rusupport@apple.com,” and itunes-store.ru lists its contact as “support@apple.ru.” The apple.ru domain actually belongs to Apple IMC, Russia’s largest distributor of Apple products.”

Via [iPodNN]

Sony label chief Rolf Schmidt-Holtz was recently interviewed and mentioned the possibility of Sony creating a new music subscription program. The way Sony is looking at this is very interesting, and could very easily compete with Apple’s iTunes Store if they gained support from major labels and could make the system easy to use.

“We have many ideas. For example, a subscription offering in the digital music distribution, in which we currently operate. In the simplest, and perhaps the most attractive alternative would be a kind of music flat rate for all MP3 players, including the iPod, for a monthly contribution is available from the entire music world.”
[Google Translated]

A major problem with subscriptions is that once you stop paying, your music is gone. Sony has even thought about this and may give you 40-50 songs each year to keep, just for being subscribed. When asked about pricing, the Sony label rep explained it would be in the range of 6 to 8 Euros ($9-12) a month, roughly the price of a CD here in the states.

If Sony can pull this off it would definitely cause an upset to Apple, possibly pushing Apple to create a subscription system of their own, already being rumored.

Do you like to buy your music, or would you rather use a subscription based service?

Read [Faz.net] (Translation) Via [Electronista]

I was disappointed to hear that any functionality related to the iPhone’s music playback is inaccessible by the iPhone SDK. Although the SDK has many possibilities, anything to do with the iPhone music player is prohibited. This means that possible applications for social networks like Last.fm are not possible through the SDK. This is something I do right now with my Jailbroken iPod Touch running 1.1.4, using an app called MobileScrobbler. Apple hasn’t spoken about this restriction, but some suggest that the reason for it being in place is to stop rival music stores to iTunes being created. I’m happy for no rival stores to be created, but Apple is limiting a lot of the capabilities a developer could do with the device. There is, of course, a chance that the restriction would be removed later on, once the SDK is out of beta stages.

Via [iPodNN]

According to sources (specifically Financial Times), Apple is in the process of considering offering unlimited music downloads from the iTunes store at no cost to customers who purchase an iPod or iPhone at an inflated price. The concept is basically the same as Nokia’s “comes with music” program which they offer in partnership with Universal Music.

The program would allow customers who have purchased an iPod or iPhone from Apple for a higher price to download unlimited DRM-free music from the iTunes store’s vast collection. The deal is based on the concept of partnerships with record labels within which Apple would pay a fee to allow their customers unlimited access to the labels’ music libraries.

Research has shown that customers are attracted to such bundled packages, and that these would most likely increase sales for both the music record labels and the manufacturer (Apple). However, bidding wars that are currently common are preventing programs like these from becoming a reality. Nokia is apparently offering the record labels approximately $80 per handset sold - divided between the record labels taking part and based on what material can be downloaded for free by the consumers. Apple is rumored to only be offering $20 for the same service, which seems surprising low when compared to Nokia’s and other similar partnerships.

Apple is also rumored to be considering a subscription model for the iTunes store, where users would be able to pay a monthly fee for unlimited downloads of music that is theirs to keep. No other details are yet known, and here is no indication as of yet whether the subscription offered would be for a fixed period or month-to-month. Apple, who many people agree is considering the move in order to boost iPod and iPhone sales, refused to comment on the Financial Times report.