World of Apple

iTunes Store Selling Zeppelin Discography

Apple announced today that it would be offering a special digital box set containing Led Zeppelin’s entire discography on the iTunes Store.

“The Complete Led Zeppelin” is a 165-track collection of all 13 of the legendary group’s albums, including the new career-spanning “Mothership” retrospective, for only $99.

“We’re excited to offer Led Zeppelin’s entire catalog as a special digital box set with this pre-order,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. “Now you can get all of the band’s albums with one click for an incredible $99.”

“Led Zeppelin is a band that made albums; each one legendary from start to finish,” said David Dorn, senior vice president of e-Commerce for Rhino Entertainment. “We’re excited to offer this incredible digital boxed set on iTunes, which represents one of the greatest bodies of music ever recorded and should be owned by every rock music fan.”

Led Zeppelin’s “Mothership,” a 24-track collection of the group’s best-known songs, hand-picked by Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones, is also available today for pre-order. Touching on every studio album, the collection contains defining songs including “Whole Lotta Love,” “Rock and Roll” and “Kashmir.” In addition to “The Complete Led Zeppelin” and “Mothership,” Led Zeppelin’s entire catalog of songs and albums will also be available for individual purchase and download beginning November 13.

Movie to Debut on iTunes Store

The New York Times is reporting on Apple’s growing effort to bring more content and raise awareness of the Movie section of the iTunes Store.

On November 20th, iTunes will serve as the exclusive launch for the independent film “Purple Violets” directed by Edward Burns. This is the first time that a feature film will make its commercial debut on iTunes.

Following yesterdays revealing from Steve Jobs that Apple would lower the price of iTunes Plus tracks, Apple has officially announced that it has expanded the selection and lowered the price.

iTunes Plus now offers over two million tracks. The iTunes Plus catalog is now the largest DRM-free catalog in the world, and includes artists from Sub Pop, Nettwerk, Beggars Group, IODA, The Orchard and many others, along with EMI’s digital catalog.

“iTunes Plus has been incredibly popular with our customers and now we’re making it available at an even more affordable price,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. “We’re adding over two million tracks from key independent labels in addition to EMI’s digital catalog and look forward to even more labels and artists making their music available on iTunes Plus.”

EMI began offering their catalog on iTunes Plus earlier this year, and their impressive selection has grown to include singles and albums from the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Norah Jones, Frank Sinatra and the solo catalogs of all four Beatles.

Apple’s CEO, Steve Jobs has confirmed to the Wall Street Journal that the company plans to reduce the price of iTunes plus songs by .30 cents either later today or tomorrow.

Songs on iTunes Plus originally came at a premium though: 30% more than the standard 99 cent song price for tracks long available with DRM. “It’s been very popular with our customers, and we’re making it even more affordable,” Mr. Jobs said.

The move will make all DRM-free songs available for $.99 on the iTunes Store, they were previously $1.29.

This move brings Apple’s prices inline with those from Amazon and Wal-Mart who bother offer DRM-free music stores.

10 Millionth London Store Visitor

Apple’s Regent Street Apple met a major milestone today, welcoming its 10 millionth customer through the doors since it opened in November 2004.

Store staff surrounded the shopper, Michal Revivo and gave her more than she bargained for.

The shopper was greeted with applause from store employees and was give a black MacBook, an iPod nano and a One-to-One personal training membership.

Facebook and iTunes Tie-in

Facebook is said to be working on an artist platform to rival that of Myspace.

According to the report by Paid Content Facebook is attempting to create a platform to allow bands and labels to create artists pages, and allow various widgets to be embedded for music promotion, organizing events, and more.

“Among those widgets would be iLike, the most popular app inside Facebook, but will also include iTunes widgets for sampling (to begin with), and eventually buying music through Apple,” the report reads. “The service will still have the utilitarian sensibilities of the Facebook platform, the sources stress, rather than the more chaotic and flashy platform that MySpace has.”

Facebook has reportedly made the rounds with music labels but is said to have “an actual deal with Apple” as part of the music platform initiative.

iPhone in Canada Soon?

Digital Journal claims to have information that the retailer Holt Renfrew will carry the iPhone by mid-October throughout Canada.

The Holt Renfrew source says the 8GB phone will be a GSM phone, retailing across the country for $799. Anyone familiar with the GSM market in Canada knows that Rogers is the leading GSM provider in the country.

HD Content on iTS?

According to CrunchGear, Apple is planning a “substantial” update to iTunes later this month. The site claims that Apple has placed a huge order for Apple TV units ahead of the release of HD content on iTunes.

iTunes HD as its been dubbed will reportedly allow the downloading of High Definition TV and Movies.

Starbucks has today announced that the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store, which features Starbucks exclusive “Now Playing” service, will go live in more than 600 Starbucks locations in New York and Seattle on October 2nd.

In celebration of this historic launch, Starbucks announced today that it will introduce the digital music experience across all of its U.S. company-operated and licensed stores by offering its customers the “Song of the Day,” an unprecedented free digital music promotion. From October 2 to November 7 at more than 10,000 Starbucks locations, customers may receive “Song of the Day” cards redeemable on the iTunes Store for Mac or PC for a complimentary song hand-selected by Starbucks Entertainment. Throughout the promotion, Starbucks will give away 1.5 million downloads on iTunes per day for a total of more than 50 million free songs.

“This is a landmark moment for Starbucks,” said Ken Lombard, president of Starbucks Entertainment. “With the launch of the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store at Starbucks we can now provide the same classic coffeehouse experience and compelling music offerings our customers have come to expect from us through a new platform ideal for the digital music consumer. This is the first step in combining the power of brick and mortar retail and digital music.”

“Song of the Day” kicks off Starbucks exclusive partnership with Apple, which lets customers use the T-Mobile HotSpot Wi-Fi Network at participating Starbucks to wirelessly download music onto their iPhone, iPod touch or laptop from the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store with no Wi-Fi connection fees or HotSpot login required.

“Song of the Day” will offer hand-picked songs from top artists including Bob Dylan, Joss Stone, Dave Matthews, Bebel Gilberto, John Mayer, KT Tunstall, John Legend, Annie Lennox, Joni Mitchell, Keith Urban and Paul McCartney plus great music from up-and-coming artists such as Sia, Band of Horses, Hilary McRae, Frederico Aubele and Sara Bareilles.

Each morning and while supplies last, Starbucks customers nationwide can discover that day’s complimentary download as part of their daily coffee routine. Upon receiving their complimentary download card at Starbucks, customers will have until the end of the calendar year to redeem the song on the U.S. iTunes Store.

Starting October 2, Starbucks company-operated locations in the U.S. will offer iTunes Digital Release Cards for sale, including KT Tunstall’s “Drastic Fantastic” with bonus music videos, digital booklet and a behind-the-scenes documentary video, and music from the film “Into the Wild,” featuring all new songs from Eddie Vedder with bonus tracks and digital booklet. Each iTunes Digital Release Card contains a full album’s worth of music and features collectible artwork. After the card is activated upon purchase at Starbucks, customers can download the album and bonus material on the iTunes Store for Mac or PC.

Starbucks will also offer the Starbucks Card Plus Two, a limited edition re-loadable Starbucks card with added bonus value. When a Starbucks Card Plus Two is registered online the cardholder will receive two complimentary song downloads of their choice on the U.S. iTunes Store.

The iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store at Starbucks will continue its national rollout to 350 Starbucks stores in the San Francisco Bay area in early November; 500 stores in Los Angeles in early February 2008; 300 stores in Chicago in March 2008; and additional markets throughout the U.S. later in 2008. The iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store at Starbucks will run on the robust T-Mobile HotSpot Wi-Fi network, which is available at participating Starbucks locations across the U.S.

As Apple promised last week at its Special Event, Ringtones have finally been enabled on the iTunes Store.

A new column has appeared in the sidebar called “Ringtones” and there is now an option under the store menu to “Create Ringtone”.

Currently songs available to be converted into Ringtones are very slim on the ground with Apple stating last week that only 500,000 songs are currently participating.

Ringtones are available for $.99 on top of the price of a song which has already been purchased.

Apple also appears to have enabled a spotlight like auto completing search box on the iTunes Store.

One user over at Flickr has posted a screenshot of iTunes which appears to point towards future Movie rentals.

iTunes Movie Rentals?

The user writes:

I was trying to report a problem via iTunes, and this pop-up for selecting a reason contains some interesting/revealing strings… looks like “RentalMovies” will be coming to the iTunes store.

Apple has posted the QuickTime stream of today’s special event on its website. Lets just recap on today’s news:

• Refreshed iPod shuffle
• New iPod nano
• New iPod classic
• Introducing iPod touch
• Price drop for iPhone
• iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store
• iTunes now with iPhone ringtone support
• Apple and Starbucks partnership
• iPod Hi-Fi discontinued

iPod touch

Apple has also posted a few further prices of interest:

• iPod nano advert
• iPod nano Gallery
• iPod touch Guided Tour Video
• iPod touch gallery
• iPod classic gallery

Apple and Starbucks today announced an exclusive partnership that lets customers wirelessly browse, search for, preview, buy and download music from the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store at Starbucks onto their iPod touch, iPhone or PC or Mac running iTunes while at a participating location. When a customer enters a participating location, their device will automatically recognize the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store using a high-speed Wi-Fi wireless network with no connection fee or hotspot login. Customers will be able to browse, search and freely preview millions of songs, including a new “Now Playing” service which displays the name of the song playing in the Starbucks store at that moment, then easily buy and download songs or albums directly to their device. Prices and selection on the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store are the same as on the regular iTunes Store. The service will make its debut at more than 600 Starbucks company-operated locations in New York and Seattle on October 2.

“Getting free access to the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store and the ‘Now Playing’ service at Starbucks is a great way for customers to discover new music,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Imagine walking into a participating Starbucks, hearing a great song, and being able to instantly download it onto your iPod or iPhone. We think this is very cool.”

“With this partnership, we’re bringing Apple’s leadership in digital music together with not only our retail footprint, but the unique Starbucks experience, to offer customers a world-class digital music experience,” said Howard Schultz, chairman, Starbucks Coffee Company. “Introducing this new service is a natural extension of our music strategy which only enhances the retail coffee experience for customers by helping them discover and acquire new music instantly.”

After its debut in New York and Seattle on October 2, the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store will continue its national rollout to 350 Starbucks stores in the San Francisco Bay area on November 7; 500 stores in Los Angeles in early February 2008; 300 stores in Chicago in March 2008; and additional markets throughout the US later in 2008.

The iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store at Starbucks will run on the robust T-Mobile HotSpot Wi-Fi network which is available at participating Starbucks locations across the US.