The iTunes Store
The iTunes Store is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple Inc. Opening as the iTunes Music Store on April 28, 2003, it proved the viability of online music sales and is now the number-one music vendor in the United States. As of June 2008, the store has sold 5 billion songs, accounting for more than 70% of worldwide online digital music sales. Some downloaded files come with restrictions on their use, enforced by FairPlay, Apple's version of digital rights management.
Contents
Features and Restictions
Pricng Models
Since the introduction of the iTunes Store, individual songs were all sold for the same relatively low price with no subscription fee. This contrasted to most systems in place at the time that also charged a subscription fee. The pricing model has basically remained this way in all countries though in some places song prices can vary based on artist. Music in the store is in the Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) format, which is the MPEG-4-specified successor to MP3. Songs with DRM are encoded at 128 kilobits per second (kb/s). Songs from EMI and many indie labels are available without DRM and encoded at the higher-quality rate of 256 kb/s. For a time, these versions—known as "iTunes Plus"—commanded a premium price but have since returned to the flat-rate model. Previews, thirty seconds in length, are available free, prior to buying a song. Complete albums are also available for a flat rate regardless of the number of songs on that album. Podcasts are free. In addition, volume discounts of up to 20% are available for purchases of more than 25,000 songs.
Feature length movies and television episodes are available for purchase. Movies tend to be priced below a DVD of the same film while television episodes are approximately double the cost of a song.
Finally, some games are available for some models of iPods for various prices, but none as expensive as a feature length film.
At the Macworld 2008 keynote, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced iTunes Movie Rentals. Movies are available for rent in the iTunes Store 30 days after they have been released on DVD and are available for a cheaper rate. However, they only are accessible for 24 hours after you begin viewing them. This feature is not yet available in all countries like Australia.
Weekly Promotions
There is also a weekly promotion in which one to three songs are available to download for free to logged-in users. Free downloads are available on Tuesdays, and remain free until the following Tuesday. Some artists choose to have select songs available for no charge. This is not available at all iTunes Stores worldwide. Some iTunes television programs have begun the same technique to encourage brand loyalty; although those stay longer. In fact, the iTunes Store used to have a link to "Free TV" on its home page and the TV Shows section's home page which links to a complete listing of free TV shows, however it has disappeared (the page has remained online). Apple still sells free TV episodes; some channels have their own pages of "Free Season Premieres".
Availability
To buy files through the store, a user must pay with an iTunes gift card or a credit card with a billing address in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, or the United States. Apple also offers other payment methods (like Paypal), which differ from country to country. Residents in other countries can only buy a gift card from a merchant or download free podcasts and previews. If someone buys a gift card, an address in the country of the gift card must also be provided.
iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store
The iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store shown on an iPod Touch. The release of the iPhone and iPod touch brought the introduction of the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store. This version of the iTunes Store allows owners of Wi-Fi capable iPod touches and iPhones to purchase music directly on the portable music device.
Customer Support
Apple provides customer support for the iTunes Store over the phone through AppleCare, Timothy Noah of Slate has also found a customer service line. Most customer service inquiries are handled online, via Report a Problem link in iTunes Application.
Background
Debuting on April 28, 2003, the iTunes Music Store was the first online music store to gain widespread media attention. Apple's store allows the user to purchase songs and transfer them easily to the iPod through iTunes. The iPod is the only digital music player (besides some Motorola mobile phones and the iPhone) that is intended to work with the iTunes Store, although some other digital music players will work with iTunes. The iTunes Music Store launched initially with about 200,000 files available for download.
On 5 September 2007, Apple introduced the iPod touch which included the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store. An update for the iPhone which included the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store was released on 28 September 2007.
Catalog Content
Music
The store began after Apple signed deals with the five major record labels at the time, EMI, Universal, Warner, Sony Music Entertainment, and BMG (the last two would later merge to form Sony BMG). Music from more than 2,000 independent labels was added later, the first from Moby on July 29, 2003.
The store has more than 8,000,000 songs, including exclusive tracks from numerous popular artists. Not all artists are available on iTunes, including some popular ones such as The Beatles, Garth Brooks, Tool, and AC/DC as well as a lack of complete or entire albums from some artists.
New songs are added to the iTunes catalog every day, while the iTunes Store is updated each Tuesday. Apple also releases a 'Single of the Week' in both English and sometimes Spanish and usually a 'Discovery Download' on Tuesdays, which are available for free for one week.
Perhaps the most notable case of music being removed is of Frank Zappa; a significant portion of his music was added to the iTunes store in August 2005 and then in August 2006 removed.
Downloaded songs come with song information (name, artist, album) already filled out, though iTunes provides a free service by Gracenote to do this for songs not purchased from the store, although they must be imported with iTunes. Songs that have an entry in the iTunes Store also come with album artwork. As of the release of iTunes 7, the artwork can be obtained for songs not purchased from the store for free if the user has an iTunes Store account. Purchased songs do not come with lyrics already typed in to the application's window for them; nor does iTunes provide a service for acquiring the missing lyrics.
"Album Only"
Some songs are available from the store by "Album Only," meaning the song can only be acquired through the purchase of the entire album, whereas most songs can be downloaded separately from the album they belong to. Soundtracks often have many "Album Only" tracks. Movie soundtracks normally include songs owned by many different labels, making licensing more complex. For example, Forrest Gump: The Soundtrack includes songs from Peacock Records, Argo Records, and Capitol Records, among many others. Greatest Hits by Red Hot Chili Peppers has only one song, "Higher Ground," that is not available for download on a per song basis. The easiest way around this is for the user to search for the artist and find the particular song(s) they want on another release, which is sometimes available without having to purchase an entire album.
Sub-divisions
When entering the U.S. music store, there are multiple sub-divided stores that one can go into. These stores are either found under ‘More In Music,’ ‘Genres,’ ‘Pre-Orders,’ ‘Celebrity Playlists’ and ‘Free Downloads.’ Within ‘More In Music,’ one can enter various random stores such as Starbucks Entertainment and iTunes Essentials. iTunes Essentials contains groupings of music based upon the artist of the music (Artist Essentials), the genre or history of the music (Genres and History), or any other similarities (My Groove). Each grouping of music is essentially a pre-made playlist. The songs in the playlist are all listed in order of their importance, starting with the artist's most well-known song. These playlists usually contain either 45 or 75 songs equally distributed in three sections: The Basics (the biggest, best, and most important songs), Next Steps (usually composed of popular songs just beyond the hits) and Deep Cuts (under-appreciated songs). Occasionally, specific Artist Essentials do not have a Deep Cuts section. This usually depends on how many releases the artist has completed over the years. Within ‘Genres,’ one can enter music stores that only have one genre such as blues or reggae. There are a total of 20 genres in the U.S. music store. ‘Pre-Orders’ lists albums that one can pre-order before the album is released. ‘Celebrity Playlists’ contains lists of songs chosen and described by celebrities. ‘Free Downloads’ are songs that subscribed iTunes Store users can obtain for free.
On November 1, 2006, Apple created a new category for Latino or Hispanic content, “iTunes Latino”. Telemundo and Mun2 made some of their popular programs available for purchase, becoming the first Hispanic television content in the store. It offers music, music videos, audiobooks, podcasts and television shows in Spanish in a single concentrated area. The brief descriptions given to the content is in Spanish as well as several sub-categories. Gibraltarian Flamenco Metal band Breed 77, released an exclusive album called Un Encuentro to coincide with the launch of “iTunes Latino”. It features 11 songs, all from previous albums, but all sung in Spanish.
Audiobooks
Main Article: Audiobooks The iTunes Store also includes over 20,000 audiobooks, encoded at 32 kilobits per second. Ninety-second previews are offered for every book. These books are provided by Audible.com. This is the same format available if the user signs up directly with Audible.com and chose the "iPod" format. The main difference is that it is unnecessary to sign up for a subscription to get audiobooks as is the case with Audible. A small discount is provided through buying audiobooks through the iTunes Store, but on a selective basis by Apple in comparison to an "always on member discount" if one has an Audible subscription.
Video
In October 2005, Apple announced the latest iPod would be capable of playing video files, which would be sold online through the iTunes Store in the U.S. These videos included 2000 music videos and episodes of popular television programs. Apple made a deal with Disney to be the first supplier of TV shows, the first shows available included episodes of Lost and Desperate Housewives with each episode becoming available the day after it originally aired on broadcast TV. Several short animated films by Pixar are also available.
The selling of videos on iTunes sparked considerable debate as to whether there was a paying audience for programming available for free on TV. As MP3 Newswire pointed out, users are not so much paying for the TV programs themselves. Instead they are really paying for a service that offers the convenience of someone else digitizing free broadcast episodes for them for their portable device, each episode in commercial-free form, and a convenient place to select and download individual shows. Through an updated version of QuickTime Pro, users can create their own videos for the iPod, including digitized versions of programs recorded on their VCR if they wish to take the time and effort to save the cost.
iPod Games
On 12 September 2006, the iTunes Store began to offer additional games for purchase with the launch of iTunes 7, compatible with the iPod classic or iPod nano with video playback. Launch titles included: Bejeweled, Cubis, Mini Golf, Mahjong, Pac-Man, Tetris, Texas Hold 'Em, Vortex, and Zuma. The games cannot be played in iTunes. On 19 December 2006, iTunes released two more games for purchase: Sudoku and Royal Solitaire. On 27 February 2007 iTunes released Ms. Pac-Man. On 24 April 2007, Apple Inc. released iQuiz. Additional 'Trivia Packs' can be added to iQuiz through the use of the iQuiz Maker software. On 22 May 2007, iTunes released a version of the Lost video game, based on the TV series of that name. Also, on 17 July 2007 The Sims Bowling was added. On July 29, EA released The Sims Pool, before Sony BMG's first game "Musika" on August 7, 2007. A game called Phase, which is similar to Guitar Hero and made by Harmonix, was added to the store on September 13, 2007. The game allows users to use their own songs in the game. A role-playing game, Song Summoner: The Unsung Heroes, was released by Square Enix on July 7, 2008.
iTunes U
iTunes U was announced at Cupertino, California on May 30, 2007. iTunes U features free content such as course lectures, language lessons, lab demonstrations, sports highlights and campus tours provided by many top US colleges and universities.
App Store
- Main Article: App Store
With the launch of iPhone 3G and the 2.0 firmware for iPod touch and iPhone owners, the App Store allows people to purchase applications through the iTunes desktop software or the App Store on their iPhones. As of July 11, there are over 500 applications with 150 of them free. The applications can only be run on iPhones or iPod touch. Each application is also protected with iTunes FairPlay DRM. Developers of these applications receive 70% of the income and free applications are distributed without charge to the developer.
File Format
Most songs are encoded using FairPlay-encrypted 128 kbit/s AAC streams in an mp4 wrapper, using the .m4p extension. AAC achieves better sound quality than the MP3 format when compared at the same bitrate.
While licenses to the AAC compression and the mp4 file format are readily available, Apple generally has not agreed to license its proprietary FairPlay encryption scheme to other mobile device manufacturers, so only devices from Apple are able to play the Fairplay-encrypted songs sold at the iTunes Store. The only exception were three mobile phones sold by Motorola in the years 2005–6: the Motorola ROKR E1, the Motorola RAZR V3i, and the Motorola SLVR L7.
Currently the digital booklets included with some albums are in PDF. With the present iPod software, these files are not readable on iPods.
As of 29 May 2007 tracks on the EMI label have been made available in a DRM-less format called iTunes Plus. These files are unprotected and are encoded in the AAC format at 256 kb/s, twice the bitrate of standard tracks bought through the service.
