Apple is expected to open at least five new international versions of its iTunes Music Store on Thursday, the second anniversary of the iTunes store. During a radio interview, actor/musician Russell Crowe reportedly said that an Australian iTunes Music Store would open this week. German site Music.ch then reported that Apple will launch iTunes Music Stores in Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway on Thursday.
Read MoreIn addition to the US, UK, France and Germany, Apple’s iTunes Music Store is now listing the following supported countries: Austria, Belguim, Finland, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain. Oddly, Canada is presently missing. Further details are expected at Apple’s special music event, which will begin at 1:00 p.m. ET.
Read MoreCNET News.com reports that Apple plans to stop allowing users of older versions of iTunes to connect to its music store. Those trying to access the iTunes Music Store using versions other than 4.6 are greeted with a warning and urged to upgrade to the latest version of iTunes. “You are using a version of iTunes that will soon no longer be supported,” the message reads.
Read MoreForbes’ Arik Hesseldahl says that Apple could put the legal dispute with the Beatles behind them if it would spin off the iTunes Music Store: “Apple could make this entire thing go away by spinning off the entire iTunes Music Store as a subsidiary and stop promoting it under the Apple name. This would harm its prospects not one bit. No one who’s been awake during the last year hasn’t heard of an iPod or seen it in one of those TV ads in heavy rotation.
Read MoreApple today announced that the iTunes Music Store now has over one million songs available for download in the US, becoming what the company says is “the first and only online digital music service to offer consumers a million song catalog.” The iTunes Music Store features music from all five major record labels and over 600 leading independent labels from around the world.
Read MoreApple on Friday denied a report in the New York Post that it plans to raise the prices of some tracks on its iTunes Music Store to US$1.25 a song. “The rumors aren’t true,” Natalie Sequeira, an Apple’s spokeswoman, told CBS Marketwatch. “We have multi-year agreements with the record labels and our price remains 99 cents a track.”
Read MoreApple’s iTunes Music Store (iTMS) has added a new option that lets you browse music by yearly Billboard Hot 100 Charts (1946-2003). Apple has also added the iTunes Top 100 Albums of 2003 to the store. The top 10 for 2003 were: “On and On” by Jack Johnson, “Sacred Love” by Sting, “Life for Rent” by Dido, “Bare” by Annie Lennox, “Room On Fire” by The Strokes, “Everything to Everyone” by the Barenaked Ladies, “Afterglow” by Sarah MacLachlan, “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below” by OutKast, “In the Zone” by Britney Spears, and “Verve Remixed 2” by various artists.
Read MoreFortune magazine has named Apple’s iTunes Music Store its Product of the Year. “Unlike most rival services, the iTunes Music Store gives customers the freedom to store music indefinitely, burn custom CDs, and transfer songs to the Apple iPod portable player,” writes Peter Lewis. “With the success of its iTunes Music Store, Apple is almost single-handedly dragging the music industry, kicking and screaming, toward a better future.
Read MoreApple’s iTunes Music Store was included in BusinessWeek’s Best Products of 2003 list. “Its quick success attracted a slew of imitators, but Apple Computer’s iTunes Music Store remains the class act for downloading music. With an easy-to-use design, a powerful search function, and reasonable restrictions on usage, Apple figured out what the record labels couldn’t: how to get people to pay for music over the Net.” Read More
Several MacMinute readers have informed us of problems with the iTunes Music Store. “While searching for music tonight, the links on the iTMS appears to be linking to other music,” said Jon Marr. “For example, hitting Enrique’s new album ‘Seven,’ I first got a link to Outkast’s music. I restarted my iTunes and the same thing happened. I restarted my computer, searched for the same album I got linked to someone else’s album. Then no matter which album I searched for, I was forever linked to that one album.” Update: As of 11:15 a.m.
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