iPod Tracker

Apple announced that it sold more than one million videos in less than 20 days following the announcement of video downloads on the 31st of October. Pixar have since announced that they have sold 125,000 shorts through the iTunes Music Store in under a month.

New information suggests that the chart-topping series “Lost” is outselling cult classic “Desperate Housewives” by a margin of 2 : 1, according to comments attributed to Bernard Gershon – SVP and GM of ABC News Digital Media Group.

We’ve known for some time now that iTunes has been growing in popularity as it leads the revolution in digital music. The tight integration of iTunes and iPod seems to be working so well that sales have grown to the point that iTunes has cracked the top 10 list of US music resellers.

“The ongoing and growing popularity of Apple’s iTunes Music Store now positions the company as a leading music retailer, and continues to legitimize legal digital music retailing. With the growing interest in digital music, forecasts of more iPod demand this holiday, plus the stocking-stuffer appeal of iTunes gift cards, we can expect Apple to increase its share even more by year’s end.” said Russ Crupnick – a music and movies industry analyst for The NPD Group.

The top 10 list of US music resellers as of the 22nd of November look like this:

1. Wal-Mart
2. Best Buy
3. Target
4. Amazon.com
5. FYE
6. Circuit City
7. iTunes
8. Tower Records
9. Sam Goody
10. Borders

iTunes 4.9, complete with built-in support for Podcasts, has been ade available through Software Update or via download on Apple.com.

With iTunes 4.9, you can now browse and subscribe to podcasts from within the iTunes Music Store. Podcasts are frequently updated radio-style shows downloadable over the Internet. You can also transfer podcasts to iPod, for listening on the go.

MacShrine reports many references to an iPod Phone within the software. Speculation is naturally mounting as we approach the Apple event. Surely the iPod Phone must be about to get an official unveiling.

Spymac reports a new promo to run this summer for US customers only. Called the Slurpee Summer Prize Fest, Apple and 7-Eleven will be giving away 8 million songs.

Similar to the promo ran with Pepsi, each cup will have an alphanumeric code which can be redeemed on the iTunes Music Store for a free download. The promo is co-sponsored by Coca-Cola, who also run their own online music store called mycokemusic.

Any free codes must be redeemed by August 31st.

A new report from the NPD Group suggests that iTunes is growing in popularity and commands a large percentage share of all music downloads – including P2P networks.

In a survey of 40,000 online panelists, Apple’s iTunes Music Store came in at a joint 2nd with LimeWire. WinMX came first – used in 2.1 million households as compared to iTunes and LimeWire with 1.7 million. Russ Crupnick, President of the NPD Group’s Music and Movies division commented:

“One of the music industry’s questions has been when will paid download stores compete head-to-head with free P2P download services, that question has now been answered. iTunes is more popular than nearly any P2P service, and two other paid digital music offerings have also gained a level of critical mass. These digital download stores appear to have created a compelling and economically viable alternative to illegal file sharing.”

Such upbeat news must be music to Apple’s ears given their massive announcement yesterday.

A Reuters report suggests that Apple will launch their iTunes Music Store for Japan in August.

The major record companies have reportedly signed up to a deal, with only Sony left to convince now. Tracks will be available to download for 150 Yen / $1.40.

Japan is an important marketplace for Apple with strong sales of the iPod and laptops. A localized iTMS for Japan will further help Apple in Japan.

According to a MacWorld.co.uk report, Apple and AOL are in negotiations over the revenue share between the companies.

Apple and AOL have been in a partnership since the 15th of June, 2004. The agreement allows Apple to gain customers from AOL Music, a very popular service provided by the ISP.

Problems seem to have arisen around tracking of individuals and what they download from the iTunes Music Store, after clicking through from AOL Music. An AOL spokesman was stated as saying:

“We have never ruled out working with other download services or even adding one of our own, as AOL Germany has.”

A ThinkSecret report mentions the possibility of the iTunes Music Store expanding into the Russian market. Such a move makes sense, in terms of the high numbers of tech-savvy users living in Russia.

However, Russian users are already used to super-cheap services such as AllOfMP3.com who are known to offer music downloads at insanely cheap prices – so cheap that Russian police were going to close them down.

Whether the Russian public are as brand orientated remains to be seen. iTunes may simply be too expensive compared to the much cheaper Russian competition.

Yahoo! launched their own music download store today. Yahoo! Music Unlimited offers a choice of 1 million tunes for download, with a subscription of $6.99 per month – significantly undercutting similar pricing from both Napster and Real Networks. Currently the service is only available to US customers.

Yahoo! Music Unlimited uses Microsoft’s proprietary Windows Media Audio format and as such is incompatible for playback on the Apple iPod.

Roxio today released Toast Titanium 6.1 for Mac OS X 10.2 or above. This release includes various bug fixes and enhancements to burning.

However, Roxio have disabled the ability for Toast Titanium to burn iTunes downloads. Confirmation from the Roxio press statement:

Customers [are no longer allowed] to create audio CDs, audio DVDs, or export audio to their hard drive using purchased iTunes music store content.

Roxio also commented that this action was taken after discussions with Apple.