World of Apple

Yesterday Apple’s iTunes Store reached the 10 billionth song download milestone, today the company has announced the competition winner and the 10 billionth song.

In a press release Apple stated that the 10 billionth song, “Guess Things Happen That Way” by Johnny Cash, was purchased by Louie Sulcer of Woodstock, Georgia. Sulcer will win a $10,000 iTunes store gift card.

“We’re grateful to all of our customers for helping us reach this amazing milestone,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of Internet Services. “We’re proud that iTunes has become the number one music retailer in the world, and selling 10 billion songs is truly staggering.”

Since the iTunes Store opened in April 2003 Apple has led a major change to the music industry and today celebrated the sale of the 10 billionth song from the online store.

Apple celebrated the sale of 1 billion songs in February 2006 and 3 billion in July of 2007.

The person who downloaded the 10 billionth song will win a $10,000 iTunes gift card.

The 10 billionth song download coincides with Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ 55th birthday.

CBS is looking to experiment with the pricing on TV shows on the iTunes to see if a lower price will spur a sales increase. CBS is looking to sell some TV shows through iTunes for as little as $0.99 according to the New York Times.

One anonymous TV network executive said, “We’re willing to try anything, but the key word is ‘try,’ “.

The price cut will only effect standard definition versions of TV shows with HD versions staying at $2.99.

Last week some other networks lowered pricing with NBC recaps of Olympic events and episodes of the PBS Kids shows “Arthur,” “Martha Speaks” and “WordGirl” all available for $0.99.

Andrew Russell, a senior vice president of PBS said that it was a three-week experiment to “generate buzz”. Adding, “At this point we still feel the $1.99 price point is right for us, our audiences and our producers to help support creation of more outstanding kids’ content,”

Apple has in the last week doubled the download limit for App Store downloads when using a carriers 3G network.

Previously Apps downloaded from the App Store would have to be downloaded using WiFi if over 10MB, this limit is now 20MB and is said to not only apply to Apps but podcasts and videos too.

The iTunes Store is quickly approaching the download of the 10 billionth song and will mark the moment by giving away a $10,000 iTunes gift card.

Since the store opened in April 2003 it has reached multiple milestones, iTunes reached its first billion songs downloaded in February 2006 and 3 billion songs in July of 2007.

Apple website read, “iTunes changed the way you buy music, making songs and albums available for download, day or night. Seven years later, we’re about to celebrate our biggest milestone for music, yet — 10 billion songs downloaded”.

FT.com is reporting that Apple is pushing US TV networks to reduce the price of their TV shows to help “spur demand” on the iTunes store. Apple has suggested during meetings to much resistance that TV show prices be reduced from $1.99 to $1.

Financial Times associates TV shows as an integral part of Apple’s tablet strategy which the publication expects to be unveiled tomorrow.

According to a person familiar with the talks Apple “is looking to change pricing dynamics” adding, “That’s what they did to the music industry. The difference between the TV industry and music is this one has good economics.”

Financial Times goes onto state that Apple has primarily focused on ” courting book and newspaper publishers ahead of the tablet’s launch” suggesting that Apple has been in talks with News Corporation’s HarperCollins and the New York Times. Apple has also rumoured to have “approached Conde Nast, Hearst, McGraw-Hill and the Hachette book group, according to the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg.”

Finally, Financial Times reports that Apple has “floated the idea” of a low-cost video subscription service with “News Corp, Time Warner, Viacom, Disney and CBSwhich would combine the “best of television” and would cost $30 per month.”

Apple has today announced the availability of the iTunes Rewind section on the iTunes store. Apple has listed the top selling albums, songs, movies, TV shows, apps, audiobooks and Podcasts from 2009.

On the US iTunes store the following were the top sellers of 2009:

Top selling songs
1. “Boom Boom Pow,” Black Eyed Peas
2. “Right Round,” Flo Rida
3. “Poker Face,” Lady GaGa
4. “I Gotta Feeling,” Black Eyed Peas
5. “Gives You Hell,” The All-American Rejects
6. “Just Dance,” Lady GaGa & Colby O’Donis
7. “Party in the U.S.A.,” Miley Cyrus
8. “The Climb,” Miley Cyrus
9. “Dead and Gone (feat. Justin Timberlake),” T.I.
10. “Use Somebody,” Kings of Leon

Top selling albums
1. Kings of Leon, “Only By the Night”
2. Various Artists, “Twilight (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)”
3. Lady GaGa, “The Fame”
4. Taylor Swift, “Fearless”
5. Dave Matthews Band, “Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King”
6. Michael Jackson, “The Essential Michael Jackson”
7. The Fray, “The Fray”
8. Jay-Z, “The Blueprint 3″
9. Eminem, “Relapse”
10. Black Eyed Peas, “The E.N.D. (The Energy Never Dies)”

Top Selling Movies (Rental + Purchase)
1. Twilight
2. Pineapple Express
3. Quantum of Solace
4. The Proposal
5. Star Trek
6. Zack and Miri Make a Porno
7. X-Men Origins: Wolverine
8. Paul Blart: Mall Cop
9. Up
10. Bolt

The UK iTunes store is also offering a list of the best sellers in 2009.

Top Selling Songs
1. Black Eyed Peas “I Gotta Feeling”
2. Lady GaGa “Poker Face”
3. Colby O’Donis / Lady GaGa “Just Dance”
4. Black Eyed Peas “Boom Boom Pow”
5. Cheryl Cole “Fight For This Love”
6. La Roux “In For The Kill”
7. Tinchy Stryder “Number 1″
8. Alexandra Burke “Bad Boys (feat. Flo Rida)”
9. Lily Allen “The Fear”
10. Kings Of Leon “Use Somebody”

Top Selling Albums
1. Kings of Leon “Only By The Night”
2. Lily Allen “It’s Not Me, It’s You”
3. Lady GaGa “The Fame”
4. The Prodigy “Invaders Must Die”
5. Florence + The Machine “Lungs”
6. Beyoncé “I Am…Sasha Fierce”
7. Kasabian “West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum”
8. Michael Jackson “Number Ones”
9. Black Eyed Peas “The E.N.D. (The Energy Never Dies)
10. The Script “The Script”

Top Selling Movies (Rental + Purchase)
1. Quantum Of Solace
2. Yes Man
3. Watchmen
4. Role Models
5. Slumdog Millionaire
6. Marley & Me
7. Gran Torino
8. Star Trek
9. RocknRolla
10. Angels & Demons

Apps (Biggest Grossing)
1. CoPilot Live UK & Ireland (ALK Technologies)
2. TomTom UK & Ireland (Tom Tom International BV)
3. The Sims 3 (BV)
4. National Rail Enquiries (Agant)
5. Tom Tom Western Europe (Tom Tom International BV)
6. Scrabble (Electronic Arts Nederland BV)
7. WORMS (Team 17 Software)
8. Sonic The Hedgehog (SEGA)
9. MobileNavigator British Isles (NAVIGON AG)
10. Need For Speed Undercover (Electronic Arts Nederland BV)

Apple today introduced iTunes 9, the latest version of the world’s most popular software application to purchase, manage and play media, packed with innovative features such as iTunes LP, Home Sharing and Genius Mixes, as well as a redesigned store and improved syncing. iTunes 9 makes it easier than ever to discover, purchase and enjoy your music, movies, TV shows, and apps for iPhone and iPod touch from Apple’s revolutionary App Store. Plus, Home Sharing now lets you easily transfer songs, movies and TV shows to other computers in your home.

“iTunes 9 is a great iTunes release, with innovative features that make using iTunes better than ever and iTunes content richer than ever,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “iTunes LP, for example, lets artists share more of their creativity with fans and gives music lovers the feeling of being immersed in an entire album with art, lyrics, liner notes, photos and videos.”

iTunes LP is the next evolution of the music album delivering a rich, immersive experience for select albums on the iTunes Store by combining beautiful design with expanded visual features like live performance videos, lyrics, artwork, liner notes, interviews, photos, album credits and more. iTunes LP debuts today with albums including Bob Dylan’s “Highway 61 Revisited,” Norah Jones’ “Come Away With Me,” The Grateful Dead’s “American Beauty” and Dave Matthews Band’s “Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King: iTunes Pass.” The new iTunes Extras provides a similar experience for movies on iTunes with features including documentaries, deleted scenes, interviews and interactive galleries. iTunes Extras is now available for select movies including “Twilight,” “Batman Begins,” “WALL-E,” “Iron Man” and “The Da Vinci Code.” Customers can enjoy iTunes LP and iTunes Extras on a Mac or PC.

iTunes 9 also introduces Home Sharing, which lets you easily transfer music, movies and TV shows among up to five authorized computers in your home. Family members can now view up to five iTunes libraries on their home network, see only the portion of these libraries they don’t already have, import their favorite content directly to their own libraries, and automatically add new purchases from other computers into their library.

With improved syncing in iTunes 9 and iPhone OS 3.1, you can now organize your iPhone apps right in iTunes and they will automatically appear on your iPhone with the same layout. Plus, syncing music, photos, movies and TV shows is easier than ever with the added ability to sync music by artist and genre and sync photos by Events and Faces. The iTunes Store on iPhone now features precut ringtone downloads with over 20,000 ringtones priced at just $1.29.

Music industry sources have reportedly told CNet that Apple is set to announce the availability of pre-cut ringtones at the upcoming September 9 media event.

According to CNet, Apple is rushing to have the service available in time which will see pre-made ringtones available for purchase on the iTunes store, no price is currently known but sources suspect they’ll be available for “far less than $3″.

Apple has today announced that the major movie studios are now offering movies for purchase and rental on the iTunes Store in Germany.

Movies are available from Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM), The Walt Disney Studios, Sony Pictures Television and independents including Universum and Shorts International. The iTunes Store debuts with over 500 movies available.

iTunes movies in Germany start at €7.99 for catalog title purchases, €9.99 for recent releases and €13.99 for new releases. iTunes Movie Rentals are €2.99 for library title rentals and €3.99 for new releases, and high definition versions are priced at just one euro more.