Search Results for: apple music

David Pakman, CEO of eMusic, will leave the subscription service at the end of the year. Pakman explained his departure on Monday, and yesterday disclosed that his next destination would be VC firm Venrock. Pakman championed DRM-free music, viewing the measures as anti-consumer. This has been a phenomenon, along with his commitment to editorial investment – a stark contrast to Apple’s iTunes music store which one reader after launch called “an airport kiosk without the cigarettes and chewing gum.” Pakman grew the eMusic subscriber base from 10,000 to 400,000 in his four years as boss, turning it into the second… Read more »

MySpace, the world's largest social networking site, on Wednesday unveiled a long-expected joint venture with all four major music companies in a bid to compete with Apple Inc's market-leading iTunes store. MySpace Music is designed to win fans with a mix of unlimited free music, comprehensive music catalogs, concert tickets, merchandising and other entertainment features. The launch of the new service had been dogged by speculation on the start date and the ongoing search for a chief executive. But the biggest challenge for the new venture was signing a deal with the fourth-largest music company EMI Music, which had held… Read more »

Britain’s largest pay-TV firm BSkyB is to launch an online subscription music service and has signed the world’s largest music group Universal as its first partner, in a deal that could challenge Apple. The service will offer downloads to keep and unlimited listening through streaming for a single monthly subscription service. The tracks will be in the MP3 format, meaning they can be used on many devices including the iPod and mobile phones. BSkyB will form a new joint venture to launch the service in Britain and Ireland, building on its relationship with millions of customers and Universal’s hundreds of… Read more »

When it was unveiled in June, Apple’s new iPhone didn’t appear to offer anything new for music fans. But thanks to the subsequent launch of the App Store on iTunes, iPhone users can download a host of applications to add new functions to the device. Many of them are music-oriented and all are made specifically for the iPhone. The weekend after the new iPhone’s release, more than 10 million applications were downloaded through the App Store. Some are free, some carry a fee, and most also work on the Wi-Fi-compatible iPod Touch. Here are some of the more notable music… Read more »

Apple just got some new competition from online music provider Rhapsody, which is now making its music library available in MP3 format through a brand-new music download store, meaning songs can be transferred to an Apple iPod. “We’re no longer competing with the iPod,” Rhapsody Vice President Neil Smith said. “We’re embracing it.” The move takes direct line at Apple’s immensely popular and profitable iTunes online store. The new Rhapsody site matches Apple’s 99-cent a song download charge, or $9.99 album pricing. But it allows users to listen to an entire song before purchasing, compared to Apple’s 30-second preview. The… Read more »

Feist dominated Canada’s music awards on Sunday, scooping up five Junos for a year in which the singer-songwriter shot to international stardom when Apple Inc. used her single “1234” in iPod TV ads. Feist, 32, won the top Canadian music honors for single of the year for the breezy “1234,” album and pop album for “The Reminder,” as well as artist and songwriter of the year. She collected the trophies and performed at the Juno Awards show at the Saddledome arena in her hometown of Calgary, Alberta, two blocks from a community hall where she began her musical career as… Read more »

As I write this, iTunes ranks as the 2nd largest seller of music in the U.S. — only Wal-Mart’s physical stores sell more. Digital revenue is real, and there is a lot of it being earned. Sales from iTunes alone can provide a band enough revenue to achieve true financial success. Don’t take my word for it, just look at some of the sales by the following unsigned artists utilizing the Net for both digital distribution and marketing: Kelly sold over 500,000 songs in five months, Eric Hutchinson sold 120,000 songs in three weeks, The Medic Droid sold over 25,000… Read more »

Folksy French-Israeli singer Yael Naim found commercial success after her song “New Soul” played in Apple’s MacBook Air laptop ads, pushing the song to No. 7 on U.S. music chart Billboard’s Hot 100. She already had gained fame for what some saw as a comic choice to cover pop singer Britney Spear’s “Toxic,” singing a soulful, poignant version of the commercial hit while playing piano. But Naim, 29, whose self-titled new album was just released in the United States two months earlier than originally planned following the success of the Apple ad, says she’s not worried about being seen as… Read more »

Apple and the company that owns the rights to the majority of the band’s music catalogue have denied the current string of reports claiming music from The Beatles will appear soon on iTunes. Reports claiming music from the band will show up online soon – clearly emanating from within Paul McCartney’s inner circle – have been circulating for the past week. Last night, an Apple representative dismissed the claims, telling Billboard: “This is not news nor is it a scoop.” More denial, too, from Sony/ATV Music Publishing, a joint venture between Michael Jackson and Sony which owns the rights to… Read more »

Apple Inc.’s online iTunes music store is now the number-two music retailer in the U.S. behind Wal-Mart Stores Inc. as measured by unit volume, market researcher NPD Group said Tuesday.NPD said that iTunes moved into second place due to the amount of music it sold during 2007, which was based on a 12-track CD equivalency for song downloads. The market researcher began tracking music sold stateside during the middle of 2006. In the fourth quarter of that year, Best Buy Co. took second place behind Wal-Mart, while Target Corp. took third place and Apple’s iTunes store fourth place, NPD analyst… Read more »