Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Live from Apple’s “Let’s Rock” Event: iTunes 9, iTunes LP
Speaking at Apple’s music event, CEO Steve Jobs, in his first public appearance since his medical leave of absence, introduces iTunes 9. After noting that iTunes is the largest music store in the world, boasting some 100 million accounts, Jobs rattles off some of the software’s new features. Among them: Genius Mixes and improved synching. The latter enables more specific synching and supports a new way of managing applications for the iPhone and iPod touch with a nice drag-and-drop feature. Very easy to organize and reorganize applications. The crowd really likes this one.
When Steve Jobs described the iPhone at D5 as “the best iPod we’ve ever made,” he set the bar high for future iterations of the iconic device. Now, in the run-up to tomorrow’s invitation-only Apple event, the question is: Will Apple reach the bar? And with what? The answer, if the latest rumors prove true, depends on your feelings about iPods with cameras.
Apple’s long-rumored tablet device may arrive at market before the winter holidays, not after them. This according to the Financial Times, which has managed to flesh out some recent reports coming out of China. According to the FT, the “full-featured” tablet is being prepped to launch alongside a next-generation digital album format Apple is cooking up with the four largest recording companies, one designed to gin up sales of CD-length music.
U2 manager Paul McGuinness must be beside himself. Despite the band’s best efforts to prevent its new album, “No Line on the Horizon,” from appearing prematurely on the Internet, copies are being distributed there a week prior to its scheduled release. It’s not the fault of the ISPs, never mind that they are, according to McGuinness, “destroying the recorded music industry” by failing to tackle piracy.
U2 manager Paul McGuinness likes to blame those crazy longhairs in Silicon Valley for aiding and abetting music piracy, but perhaps he should be pointing the finger at his own boss.
In a 2004 email to Steve Jobs, RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser asked the Apple CEO to consider a “tactical alliance” with his company. License us your Fairplay digital-rights management system, allow our customers to play their digital music collections on the iPod, wrote Glaser, and we’ll make the iPod our primary device for the RealNetworks store and for RealPlayer software.
Turns out the long-playing (LP) record album may not be as much of an anachronism as once thought. As CD sales slip into the mud, and digital music outlets pop up on the Web as quickly as Starbucks stores, vinyl is staging a comeback.
