Goodbye, iTunes: Once-revolutionary app gone in Mac update

SAN FRANCISCO — It’s time to bid farewell to iTunes, the once-revolutionary program that made online music sales mainstream and effectively blunted the impact of piracy.

That assumes, of course, that you still use iTunes — and many people no longer do. On iPhones, the functions have long been split into separate apps for music, video and books. Mac computers follow suit Monday with a software update called Catalina.


Music-subscription services like Spotify and Apple Music have largely supplanted both the iTunes software and sales of individual songs, which iTunes first made available for 99 cents apiece. Apple is now giving iTunes its latest push toward the grave. For anyone who has subscribed to Apple Music, the music store will now be hidden on the Mac.

Sidelining the all-in-one iTunes in favor of separate apps for music, video and other services will let Apple build features for specific types of media and better promote its TV-streaming and music services to help offset slowing sales of iPhones.

In the early days, iTunes was simply a way to get music onto Apple’s marquee product, the iPod music player. Users connected the iPod to a computer, and songs automatically synced — simplicity unheard of at the time.

“I would just kind of mock my friends who were into anything other than iPods,” said Jacob Titus, a 26-year-old graphic designer in South Bend, Indiana.


Apple launched its iTunes Music Store in 2003, two years after the iPod’s debut. With simple pricing at launch — 99 cents a single, $9.99 for most albums — many consumers were content to buy music legally rather than seek out sketchy sites for pirated downloads.

But over time, iTunes software expanded to include podcasts, e-books, audiobooks, movies and TV shows. In the iPhone era, iTunes also made backups and synced voice memos. As the software got bloated to support additional functions, iTunes lost the ease and simplicity that gave it its charm.

And with online cloud storage and wireless syncing, it no longer became necessary to connect iPhones to a computer — and iTunes — with a cable.

Titus said he uses iTunes only to hear obscure Kanye West songs he can’t find streaming. “At the time it seemed great,” he said. “But it kind of stayed that same speed forever.”

The way people listen to music has changed, too. The U.S. recording industry now gets 80% of revenue from paid subscriptions and other streaming. In the first half of 2019, paid subscriptions to Apple Music and competing services rose 30% from a year earlier to 61 million, or $2.8 billion, while revenue from digital downloads fell nearly 18% to $462 million.

“The move away from iTunes really does perfectly mirror the general industry move away from sales” and toward subscriptions, said Randy Nelson, head of insights at Sensor Tower.

Rachel Shpringer, a 35-year-old patent agent in Los Angeles, spent years curating playlists on iTunes. But over time, she realized that was cutting her off from new music. She now gets music through a SiriusXM subscription.

The Mac’s new Music app, which gets the old iTunes icon, is the new home for — drum roll — music. That includes songs previously bought from the iTunes store or ripped from CDs, as well as Apple’s free online radio stations. It’s also the home for Apple’s $10-a-month music subscription.

Apple Music subscribers will no longer see the iTunes music store, unless they restore it in settings. Non-subscribers will see the store as a tab, along with plenty of ways to subscribe to Apple Music. (On iPhones, iTunes Store remains its own app for buying music and video.)

The iTunes store for TV shows and movies will still be prominent on Macs, though now as part of the TV app. Video available to buy or rent will be mixed in with other movies and shows — including exclusive offerings through Apple TV Plus.

The new Podcasts app gets a feature that indexes individual episodes, so you can more easily search for actors or fads that don’t appear in the podcast’s text description. The Mac previously got separate apps for voice memos and books, including audiobooks. The iPhone syncing and backup functions traditionally found in iTunes have been incorporated into the Mac’s navigation interface, Finder.

source: technology.inquirer.net

‘My Husband’s Lover’ accomplished much, but ended unsatisfyingly

GMA 7’s soap “My Husband’s Lover” ended last week after a successful four-month run. Moving, grueling and baffling at different points, the series expectedly ended with its manly gay characters finally getting their much-deserved happily-ever-after. But the less than grandiose resolution left this viewer unsatisfied.

The series dealt with the love triangle involving Lally (Carla Abellana), her husband Vincent (Tom Rodriguez), and his lover Eric (Dennis Trillo). In the first month or so, the characters’ bonds were sturdily established, the illicit relationship the source of much-appreciated conflict and tension.

After the revelation of the affair—which was executed rather impressively—we hoped that it would continue to explore subplots and arcs that could stem from that main plot. The show did, to an extent, but disappointingly, it didn’t always succeed in presenting other ideas as creatively.

One of the things that “My Husband’s Lover” did right was the sensitive tackling of controversial, gay-related topics.

For one, there is a clear clarification that homosexuality is not an abnormality or disease, as declared by a psychiatrist character. This fact strengthened Vincent’s acceptance of his gayness, much to the chagrin of his cure-seeking mom Elaine (Kuh Ledesma).

Another issue it expounded on is the difference between gay men and transgenders. Vincent talked to Lally about his cousin Zandro (Keempee de Leon), who dresses and identifies as a woman.

Third, it dispelled the myth that only gay men can get stricken with HIV. Vincent’s extremely homophobic dad Armando (Roi Vinzon) was diagnosed positive for the virus; he was initially shocked to discover that his affairs with women could lead to such a consequence.




It’s unique and brave in that respect, having inserted such long-established “facts” into the narrative. It was a breath of fresh air; it depicted a variety of issues positively as opposed to prior demeaning portrayals of gay people as punchlines and perverts.

The storytelling was adventurous (the camerawork, transitions and compositions were artistic) although there were times when it just got clunky.

Vincent figured in a number of iffy parts, including his abduction scene. He was forced by his father to attend military camp; the henchmen attempted to beat the gay out of him, to no avail. This long ordeal came off as stretched out and sometimes comical; Rodriguez, however, was consistent with his long-transfixed pained look through that arc and after Vincent’s failed suicide.

Forgiveness was a recurring theme. After much drama, Lally forgave Vincent and Eric; Elaine forgave her villainous hubby; Vincent forgave his dad eventually as well. The violent, gay-bashing general didn’t deserve it, but the show chose redemption over more lasting comeuppance, which felt forced.

The Tom-Dennis pairing spawned an album, “TomDen,” currently an iTunes hit. There is also a DVD collection of “MHL” episodes being released, which contain deleted scenes. Milking the show’s success is timely and perhaps fitting, but we wish the series itself had ended in grand fashion. While flawed, it was mostly a source of “alternative” entertainment, and accomplished much in so short a time. Still, “My Husband’s Lover’s” loyal viewers deserved better. Sure, it was an okay finale, but the show, without showing important glimpses or flashes of the happy repercussions, just ended.

source: entertainment.inquirer.net

Lady Gaga debuts ARTPOP at iTunes Festival

LONDON – With flying pigs and wigs, Lady Gaga debuted her “ARTPOP” songs at the iTunes Festival.

The pop star performed seven new songs, as she headlined the event at London’s Roundhouse Sunday night.

It is Gaga’s first solo show since she had hip surgery in February.

The concert started with her swinging over the audience in a cage and involved many on-stage costume changes, elaborate wigs and dancers in hazard suits wearing pig masks, hanging from the ceiling.

The songs included “Jewels & Drugs” —a rap number featuring T.I.— pop song “Sex Dreams” and ballad “I Wanna Be With You.”

Also the title track of Gaga’s new album, “ARTPOP,” which is released Nov. 11.

iTunes Festival continues throughout September with Elton John, Justin Timberlake and Katy Perry on the line-up.

source: entertainment.inquirer.net

More money made from digital royalties than radio for first time

Digital music royalties, from services such as iTunes and Spotify, have overtaken radio royalties for the first time.

PRS For Music have published figures showing that not only have digital music royalty revenues overtaken radio, but that they are growing faster than any other area. While traditional broadcast media showed only 3.1% growth, UK digital revenues increased by 32.2%.

The figures also showed that digital music players are actually the biggest source of income for singer-songwriters in the UK - as opposed to playing gigs at pubs and other live events.

Robert Ashcroft, CEO of PRS for Music said, "Copyright remains fundamental to the continued success of our members both at home and abroad, while the ever-increasing importance of licensed online services such as Itunes and Spotify underlines the value of music to the internet economy."

The Olympics meant that revenue royalties from live events fell drastically, particularly as Glastonbury did not take place last year, as they were 14.2% less than in 2011. However, with Glastonbury returning and Hyde Park planning a series of gigs, this is likely to see an increase in 2013.




The biggest source of income for UK music creators is international licensing revenue, even though it has fallen by 4% - as British artists such as Adele and Mumford & Sons helped contribute to a total of £180.1m.

Fortunately, the age of annoying mobile phone ringtones seems to be at an end. While five years ago, the revenue on ringtones was at £5.7m, it has now fallen to £900,000.


source: gigwise.com

The Best iPhone Applications

Anyone with an iPhone who has spent time in the Application Store on iTunes knows there are thousands of applications available for Apple´s phone, making it very hard to pick the best, as even some of the not so great ones, get a lot of downloads.

1. Things – A listing application; Things helps to organize & schedule & prioritize the to-do´s by due date, searchable tags along with a "today" screen listing the top-priority to-do´s in an easy access location. Things makes task management easy, simplified & yet powerful. So everything that you do in Things syncs back to the application on your Mac via Wi-Fi, so you stay organized wherever you go making your to-do´s a seamless & painless affair.

2. Wikipanion – Wikipanion is the best & fastest Wikipedia browsing application on the iPhone. It´s a simplified version of Wikipedia without leaving out any of the site's extra features. Simply put, the iPhone gives the ability to wiki via the many Wikipedia linked applications in the Application Store.

3. Road Trip – How many of us know what should be done to take care of our cars & how it should actually be done. Keeping track of your vehicle´s health is important & Road Trip is the fastest, easiest logbook application for tracking your car's fuel economy, maintenance & expenses.

4. ZenBe – A list making applications providing collaborative to-do lists with multiple iPods or iPhones & the web. The ability to connect & synchronize with other ZenBe applications & the ZenBe online interface, make it most useful. Create them, use them & sync them, coordinating your lists & multiple iPhones & keep track of progress as each item on the list is checked off throughout the day.

5. I Can Haz Cheezeburger – The entertainment application. It links to the online Cheezeburger Network sites as in FailBlog, Totally Looks Like, LOLCats & LOLDogs, Engrish Funny, & others providing endless humor on the go.

6. WeatherBug Elite – The premier source for the best weather-reporting application currently available, provides users access to the largest network of professional weather stations in the US & thousands of locations around the world.

7. Free Memory – The iPhone is great at multitasking. This at some occasions could lead to applications crashing. The Free Memory gets into the running process list & instantly frees up 40 MB of active memory, preventing the iPhone from freezing up & dropping its functions.

8. AT&T Easy Wi-Fi – This application simplifies the process of logging onto AT&T's Wi-Fi hotspots all over the country. Simply install the application, register once & from then on whenever in the range of the AT&T Wi-Fi hotspot, you will be logged on to the internet.

9. Kindle/Stanza – A digital book reader application. One of the many applications, that lets you download (for free or cheap) & read complete books.

10. Yelp! – The perfect application to help find whatever you need close to you. Look at business hours, contact info, reviews & maps to the location. A lifesaver!

Earn a free iphone today by taking advantage of our offers.

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The Beatles Release Songs as Ringtones in iTunes Store

The Beatles have signed a deal with iTunes to release ringtones for each of the songs on 1, their career-spanning collection of Number One singles. The 30-second ringtones are available in the digital store now for $1.29 each, the same price as an individual song from the band's catalog.

The Beatles' music has been available in the iTunes store since November of 2010, but only after many years of negotiations. Though the band has since sold a huge number of mp3 downloads at the digital retailer, they may have waited too long to get in the ringtone business, as the market has been in decline since smartphones and ringtone-making apps have become more popular.

source: http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/blogs/gear-up/the-beatles-release-songs-as-ringtones-in-itunes-store-20120222

Cocktail

It’s hard to imagine a life without CDs, especially if you have collected tons of them. But we’ll have to brace ourselves for the inevitable; we’re getting closer and closer to that day. Piracy and the development of other downloadable digital formats have tightened the noose on this 1980s creation. With the clear signs of its imminent death, it will take a miracle for it to survive.

Only time will tell if audio companies will still manufacture CD players in the future. If they do stop, it’s going to be one helluva nightmare if you haven’t ripped your CDs to any media storage yet. Truth is, many music lovers have already made the jump, either by ripping to or downloading from iTunes (or Windows Media) their CD collection and seem to be happy with the move.

Many of you might wonder why this self-proclaimed analog enthusiast is writing about digital audio. I must confess that there are times I still enjoy listening to music recorded on CDs. There’s no argument that vinyl is the more superior music format. But there are song selections that are hard to find on vinyl.

Many readers have been asking me if they can get high-quality sound reproduction from ripped or downloaded music. Of course, some have taken notice of the proliferation of high resolution servers and their supposed “vinyl-like” sound. I’ve searched the Net for answers and was floored by the selling prices of these so-called hi-res servers.

All you need are a good sound card (I recommend the mid to high-end model of Sound Blaster), a large storage (500GB up) hard drive, fast processors, iTunes or Windows Media installed in your computer, a computer speaker system (Cambridge Soundworks, if you can find one) and a lot of patience in copying your CD collection. After that, you’re good to go.

In case you belong to that group of listeners who want to hear their ripped music in larger and the exclusive listening environments, then you have to get wired to big speakers. If you can afford that kind of setup, by all means go for the pricey servers. I haven’t heard one yet so I cannot give you an honest-to-goodness sonic evaluation.

But there’s one particular hi-res affordable server that has gotten my attention. On paper, it seems to me to be worth checking out. It’s the Cocktail Audio X10 which can directly play CDs and rip their music to its 500GB hard drive (upgradable to 1TB). You can stream and replicate files from devices hooked to one another and get to listen to internet radio, too.

One good thing about it is that you can have it from a local dealer (Audioamplified) so the constant worry about warranties is no longer a problem. Except for Apple’s lossless, it supports AAC, FLAC, Mp3, WAV and 24-bit high resolution audio. Two USB inputs afford you the opportunity to listen to and reproduce music to and from other components.

It appears to be a solid but light enough apparatus.

One of the reviews I read heralds the product as a fantastic way to store music and audio files in one place and have easy remote control access to them at the touch of a button.

Cocktail is a boxed mechanical hard drive which can seamlessly hook up to any hi-fi system and home network, via Ethernet. With this, one can play music anywhere in the house.

From among the myriad of hi-res music servers I’ve searched, on paper, Cocktail seems to be better than the other brands. I haven’t heard it sing, much less touch or see it physically. This article is in response to many of your queries about high resolution servers, and how they can help you store your favorite music and relieve you of worrying about where to keep your CD collection (which by now may occupy half the space of your music or living room). You can either keep the physical disc for posterity or throw them away for recycling.

Although I do not have first-hand knowledge about Cocktail, one thing I can assure you is that Audioamplified (audioamplified.com) is a reputable audio shop. You can listen to the Cocktail Audio at their Libis, Quezon City, store. The shop also allows home auditions so I suggest you check it out.

article source: philstar.com

Red Hot Chili Peppers - I’m With You

American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers much anticipated album "I’m With You" is set to be released on August 29, 2011. It can be streamed on iTunes for free.

"I'm With You" is the Red Hot Chili Peppers' 10th studio album since 2006′s Stadium Arcadium and will feature Josh Klinghoffer as guitarrist. The album was produced by legendary producer- Rick Rubin.

Apple - The Brand?

Ever since the early 2000's, Apple has been a major force in the MP3 and Mobile Phone market. Even Apple's PCs and notebook computers; long relegated to a niche status; are punching above their weight in the PC market. Their unique (some would argue 'magic') business model has made them one of the top companies in every industry they enter.

First and foremost, this company's brand name is very important to the success of Apple. Apple's brand marketing has been one of the key components to its success. A company's brand is the identity it presents to the public. This corporate identity plays an important role in how consumers view a company and its products. Smart companies put a lot of thought into brand management, crafting a brand character that will draw in customers. As such, many companies in the computer industry have looked to Apple as a benchmark for their business practices and policies.

Ongoing research and product development plays a major role in Apple's business strategy, always willing to try something new, seemingly always coming up with tomorrow's items today and often releasing at least one new product per year. It has almost become a yearly routine for them to announce their newest products in a spectacular launch event that attracts die-hard Apple fans, often travelling from all around the globe to witness the event. And always at the forefront is their charismatic leader, Steve Jobs.

They started in computers, but their big break came when they launched their famous MP3 player. Their computers were considered very good, but seemed to be attracting only a niche market, rather than everyday home use. It was not until the 2000's that they gained popularity with the younger generation, and having an Apple computer was considered 'cool'. As they have ventured into multiple markets, they have many different products and add-ons available in their stores and online. Their venture into the mobile phone market has proven to be a renowned success. It is this product variety that has made them very successful, since they now strive to be the best in whatever industry they enter.

And as the release of the iPad 2 so soon after the release of the original iPad shows us, what continues to astound everyone is Apple's ability to forever improve on what many of us already considered perfection. Yet strangely, it is still considered ok, dare I say fashionable, to own an Apple product that is four years old and first generation. Even a four-year old iPod is still arguably the best of its' kind.

But Apple does not hide behind a website only. They now have a very physical presence on the high street. Most major cities boast a technological wonder of a shop with an Apple logo above the door. Sleek in design, wonderfully crafted Apple decor, a trademarked Genius Bar and what can only be described as a plethora of pretty products greet all visitors. A fantastically beautiful location, lots of glass and exposed stone and views of the entire store from one spot seems to be a trademark.

Their customer service is also considered second to none. If something needs repairing, make an appointment at an Apple Store; explain your problem and the issue is almost magically resolved. A 24-hour customer service line for technical issues is also available.

But what has undoubtedly been a worldwide marketing success, not just for Apple, but more importantly for everyday normal folk, is the release of the Apple Software Development Kit (SDK). This has opened development to the iPhone, iPod, iTouch and now the iMac to outside developers. Anyone with an original idea can now create an App and share it with the world (subject to Apple's stringent acceptance criteria of course). It seems the only thing you can't find in the Apple iTunes Store is the kitchen sink (although I'm seriously considering developing this app!). Currently, there are more than 300,000 Apps available to download on the iTunes Store.

Rest assured whatever Apple decides to do next will be a big event and Steve Jobs will be at the forefront.

I'm simply an Apple convert. Not what you would call a fanatic, but very appreciative of the power of the iPhone. App Development is the next step.

Read more here about how iphone app development is available to everyone at www.theiphoneappdevelopmenttutorial.com

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