1 Billion Downloads for iTunes

February 24, 2006 Thomas Mennecke (http://www.slyck.com/)

Some quick math predicted iTunes’ story well. In one minute, the iTunes' music store sells around 1,400 songs. That’s 84,000 songs per hour, and just over 2 million a day. On Sunday, iTunes’ sales totaled approximately 987,477,000 songs. At 2 million songs every 24 hours, iTunes was expected to hit its magic number of 1 billion songs by the end of this week. Today, iTunes has reached the 1 billion track milestone.

iTunes made its Internet debut for the Mac community in April of 2003. Facing stiff competition from Rhapsody and Napster, Apple launched iTunes for Windows in October.
So much has changed since then. Most notably, Rhapsody and Napster are no longer the stiff competitors they once were. iTunes has taken an overwhelming lead in the authorized music download industry, as it has maintained a commanding 80% market share.

Apple has succeeded where others have remained stagnant largely due to its savvy, if not subversive, marketing. Digital music tracks sold from the iTunes music store are protected with Apple’s proprietary Fairplay DRM. The only MP3 player compatible with this format is the highly fashionable yet functional iPod. Both leaders in their own right, the iPod and iTunes music store have fed each other to market dominance.

The competition, especially Napster, has become increasingly disgruntled with Apple’s lock on the market, and has called on the industry leader to loosen its grip on proprietary formatting. Apple’s lock on Fairplay DRM disallows all other MP3 players from accepting tracks from the iTunes music store. With the iPod the clear leader in the MP3 player market, alternative music stores such as Napster and Rhapsody have been unable to compete effectively.

While iTunes’ competition hasn’t exactly been thrilled with the digital giant, the music labels have also expressed their dissatisfaction as well. Of primary concern is the 99 cent lock that Apple CEO Steve Jobs continues to insist on. Although the record labels do receive a financial majority from each track sold, this has only marginally offset the rapid decline in CD sales witnessed over the last several years (since approximately 1999.) To effectively counter the ongoing decline in sales, the music labels argue, variable pricing must be implemented. Just like any other market in an open economy, higher demand objects should be priced differently than objects of lower demand.

With New York State Attorney General Eliot Spizter’s current investigation into authorized music pricing and accusations of price fixing, the chances of Apple losing its iron grip on the authorized digital market any time soon is unlikely. 1 billion downloads equates to a lot of money, a lot of music and a lot of satisfied customers. Yet it took Apple nearly three years to reach this milestone – a benchmark reached in unauthorized file-sharing communities in less than a week.

Starbucks plans to provide stations for customers to buy digital songs and download them into their music phones and personal MP3 players.

24 January 2006 by axxxr (http://www.esato.com/)

These additions to the Starbucks retail portfolio further extend the concept of the initial Hear Music Coffeehouse, which opened in Santa Monica, Calif. in March 2004.The new stores represent the full integration of a classic coffeehouse experience with an extensive digital and physical music inventory and underscore the Company’s steadfast commitment to extending its Entertainment initiative. The unrivalled combination results in a compelling third place destination for customers to connect over coffee as well as explore, discover, personalize and buy quality music in a warm and inviting environment.

“Starbucks has changed the rules of engagement for the music industry," said Howard Schultz, Starbucks chairman. “By fully integrating the Starbucks Experience with the discovery of music, the new Hear Music™ Coffeehouses offer a music retail environment unlike any other and represent a significant milestone for the Company."

“The new Hear Music Coffeehouses truly transform the way consumers discover and acquire music, both physically, through our CD inventory, and digitally, through our media bars," added Ken Lombard, president of Starbucks Entertainment. “We're building upon the success of the Santa Monica Coffeehouse, by incorporating customer feedback to extend the experience even further by adding enhanced ambiance, more space and new technology."

Starbucks Hear Music has been recognized as a significant force in the music industry over the past year. Highlights include co-releasing the triple platinum, GRAMMY Award-winning Ray. http://www.starbucks.com/

Samsung Helix XM2go Portable Satellite Radio/MP3 Player

Mike Slocombe 22 Feb 2006 (http://digital-lifestyles.info/)

Announced at the CES 2006 show earlier this month, the Samsung Helix XM2Go has now appeared for pre-orders on Amazon.com (US).

There's been quite a lot of excitement about the Helix, which comes with an alluring feature set, offering a portable satellite receiver and mp3 player/recorder in a highly pocketable package.
The big news about this unit is its ability to receive XM satellite radio transmissions, letting users combine live XM radio with their personal digital music collections (MP3s and WMA).
XM Satellite Radio may not mean a lot over here in Europe-land, but in America it's the country's most popular satellite radio service, offering 160 digital channels, including news, sports, talk and entertainment, traffic & weather with "the deepest playlist in the industry" covering over 2 million titles.

The good news is that the service is commercial free - the bad news is that it's a subscription service, with plans starting at $12.95 a week.

The Samsung Helix XM2Go lets users record up to 50 hours of broadcast on its built-in flash memory, with users able to build their own playlists on the device, mixing XM radio content with their own digital music.

A handy built-in memory buffer lets listeners save an entire XM radio song even after the song has already played halfway through, and a built-in FM transmitter means that music can be beamed to any FM radio frequency, making it easy to listen to XM content on any home or car stereos.

The Helix offers a neat TuneSelect feature, which alerts users when one of their favourite artists or songs is being played on an XM channel and there's also built-in support for the XM + Napster music service.

This lets users 'tag' a song they hear on the XM radio, and then buy and download the tune song via Napster.

The attractive looking device measures a cutesy 3.7 x 2.2 x 0.6 inches, weighs in at a lightweight 4.5 ounces, with a large 2.2 inch 180 x 180 TFT colour screen dominating the front of the unit.
It's not cheap at $399.99, (~e335, ~£229) but that's the sort of price early adopters can expect to pay for such a cutting edge gizmo.

Shipping is expected in early April, with the optional YA-CP100 car kit retailing for $69.99 (~e58, ~£40).

Check the volume on your MP3 playerHome theaters also a problem

QUALITIES OF LIFE: HEALTH

Check the volume on your MP3 playerHome theaters also a problem

By Karen ShidelerKnight Ridder/Tribune newsPublished February 19, 2006

WICHITA, Kan. -- If Ray Hull's "artificial ear" is telling the truth, it's time to invest in hearing-aid companies. Our iPods and other personal music players are destroying our hearing, he says.
But it's our fault, because we turn the volume up and leave it up, and we insist on ear buds that concentrate the sound.

Our home theater systems are a problem too.

Hull is a professor at Wichita State University and a nationally recognized expert on noise and hearing loss. He was quoted in a number of national publications a few years ago in connection with his study showing that the noise level in most aerobics classes could cause hearing loss.
Lately, he has been asking people to lend him their ear buds, without changing the volume setting, so that he can check sound levels with his "artificial ear" testing equipment. It measures how sound is received in a human ear.

He has found sound levels as high as 120 decibels. That, he said, is the equivalent of standing 100 feet behind a Boeing 707 at full thrust for takeoff. At that setting, your hearing can be permanently damaged after 3.7 minutes--about the length of one song.

With ear buds, "there's no escape from the intensity," Hull said, so the inner ear "essentially anesthetizes itself."

It's the same effect you get when you walk into a nightclub and thinkm "Wow, this place is loud," but 15 minutes later don't notice the noise. The damage is still being done.

Dangerous Decibels, an Oregon public health project, estimates that of the roughly 40 million Americans with hearing loss, 10 million cases can be attributed to noise.

To protect your hearing, Hull suggested turning your music player on full volume, then quickly backing it off about 30 percent. "That's going to be much safer," he said. Even at that level, give your ears a rest after an hour.

For home theater systems, consider ear protection or turn down the volume. To be sure it's at a safe level, you can check it with a sound-level meter that will cost you about $50, Hull said. A level no higher than 90 to 95 decibels for a 1 1/2-hour movie should be safe.
And if the thought of needing hearing aids at a young age isn't enough to deter you, Hull points out that loud noise can damage your balance as well.
"Sound can do terrible things," he said.

Copyright © 2006, Knight-Ridder/Tribune (KRT)

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