Tuesday, May 10, 2005

iTunes/iPod Rumors

iTunes Music store is selling videos now

One blog (Wysz's Thoughts) points out that Apple's iTunes Music store now appears to offer the ability to sell videos as well as songs. This takes advantage of iTunes 4.8 new features allowing it to manage and play video files.

This feature is demonstrated in the Feel Good Inc single (iTunes Link) which was used in the most recent iPod Ad (Rollerskating).

The videos for this particular artist are provided with the album purchase only and are not available for individual purchase. Purchasing the album provides you with 4 short .mp4 videos. These particular videos are 480x272 pixels, 30FPS with 44kHz audio.

These videos are simply animated shorts rather than music videos - and in this particular instance - do not utilize any Digital Rights Management.

At this point, videos appear to be "extras" to provide incentives for customers to purchase full albums. Apple does not appear to be selling videos individually at this time. Similarly, Apple offers PDF Booklets for some other album purchases (ex: In Between Dreams by Jack Johnson).

Of interest, the Warning Shots' Video adds a $.99 premium to get both the song and video ($1.98 total). Meanwhile, the Warning Shots song is available by itself for $.99.



Experts warn of iPod hearing loss

Hearing experts are concerned that the prevalence of digital music players may cause hearing problems in the future.

A report on The Scotsman warns music player owners, particularly iPod users, to turn their music down. The concerns stem from the way technology has marched on since the iPod debuted on the market. It offers a huge hard drive that is capable of carrying the very widest song selection, and also has a longer battery life than preceeding generation personal stereos such as the Walkman or CD players. [Read more]



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