iTunes Plus coming to 3 remaining majors?

Apple is discussing deals with the three major music labels yet to sign on to iTunes Plus to remove the locks on their music as well, alleged sources tell CNET. Two reported contacts describe “preliminary” negotiations that would expand Apple’s deal for music without copy protection beyond EMI and independents to include Sony, Warner and Universal. The talks are said to have been spread over the past several months for at least two labels and aren’t certain to result in a favorable income.

The report claims that the switch would use MP3s as the choice of format to produce truly cross-platform files usable anywhere, though such a switch would be unusual for Apple. Current iTunes Plus files are encoded in unprotected AAC, which itself is a standard and is playable on competing devices such as Microsoft’s Zune lineup and Sony Walkman players.

A change to music free of Digital Rights Management (DRM) on iTunes would represent a dramatic shift away from copy protection in digital music but also a relatively late shift for Apple. Online retailers such as Amazon MP3, Napster, Rhapsody and Walmart have all either launched or converted to DRM-free music stores in the past as they have seen relatively little uptake for protected Windows Media or other non-Apple formats.

Certain cases, such as Universal’s initial ventures with Rhapsody and Walmart, are believed by some to have been deliberate attempts to heat competition with iTunes by giving rivals iPod-ready music as well as to gauge the impact of opening music to competition.

It would also partly dismantle complaints from Norwegian officials and other government bodies accusing Apple of an unfair tie-in between iTunes songs and iPods that prevents competing players and software from working with Apple products.

iTunes 8.0.1: Problems Syncing the iPhone, iPod touch

Several users have reported problems syncing their iPhones after updating to iTunes 8.0.1. The most common error message is as follows: “an unknown error 13014.”

As one reader writes:

“I just downloaded and installed iTunes 8.0.1 on my iMac running 10.5.5, and synced my non-3G iPhone. I immediately received an error message stating that “The phone ‘[my iPhone's name]‘ cannot be synced. An unknown error occurred (13014). Thinking I’d probably be able to fix it by resetting the phone, I did so.

“Now, 15 minutes into the reset, the phone is syncing nicely with no major issues, except that I’m still getting prompted that it can’t be synced about every 15 seconds or so. It’s even kind enough to queue up the errors so that if I ignore them for a few minutes I can go back and just click ‘OK’ half a dozen times and then go back to whatever I was working on. No idea of the cause, outside of the iTunes upgrade.”

Users are reporting similar issues with the iPod touch.

An apple poster Wade Dansby writes:

“I have the exact same issue with my iPod touch. As soon as I downloaded and installed the new iTunes update, all the problems started. Have tried restoring settings several times. To no avail.”

In some cases, simply restarting the host computer and restarting the iPhone can resolve this issue. In other cases, this procedure is unsuccessful.

How to free custom ringtones for iPhone 3G using only iTunes?

Create free ringtones for your iPhone using only iTunes and songs you already have on your computer (This method only works with songs that are DRM free. To create ringtones using DRM protected songs please follow this guide to strip the DRM off first). This method has been tested and works with iTunes 8.0 and iPhone firmware.

To create custom ringtones using only iTunes:

1. Right click on the song you are going to make into a ringer and select “Get Info”.

2. Go to the options tab and go down to the “Start Time” and “Stop Time” check boxes. Check both boxes and input the time you want your ringer to start/stop. The ringer has to be 30 seconds or less. Click OK when you’re done.

3. Right click on your newly “clipped” song and select “Convert Selection to AAC”. The song will be re-encoded using the start and stop times determined (If your menu item does not read “Convert Selection to AAC” and reads “Convert Slection to MP3″ (or some other format) please go to iTunes -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Importing and change the “Import Using” drop down menu to “AAC Encoder”).

4. After the song is done encoding navigate to your iTunes Music folder, locate your song, and drag it to your desktop. After the song is on your desktop go back to iTunes and delete the clipped version from you iTunes library (It won’t delete it from your desktop, it will only remove it from iTunes).

5. Go back the song on your desktop and right click on your song and chose “Properties”. Go to the name and extension section and change the extension from .m4a to .m4r (or you can just change the extension right from your desktop).

6. After the extension is changed simply double click on the file to add it to your iTunes library under the ringtones section. Sync your phone with iTunes and you’re done!

Note: Remember to go back into iTunes and uncheck your custom start and stop times for the original version of your song.

There has an video guide for iPhone ringtones with iTunes 8.0:

Apple built for the house

For the last couple years, Apple’s iTunes Store has taken center stage as the Internet’s most used online music store. After the rise and fall of such “illegal” online music sources such as Napster and other P2P networks, Apple decided to give the rough, uncharted market of online music purchasing a shot.

You see, Napster and other peer to peer file sharing networks either charged no fee, or a low monthly fee, and none of that money made it back to the music labels, publishers, and producers. But in its usual pioneering way (see the Apple II, iPod, iPhone, etc…) Apple came up with a solution that would please the record companies, and the consumers who sought cheaper alternatives to buying music other than their local record store. Enter The Apple iTunes Store! All songs were available for download at $0.99 from a library big enough to make CD Warehouse jealous. And from then on, it was an unstoppable monster, gaining momentum when the video iPod was released and agreements were made with movie and television production studios, giving users the option to download their favorite TV shows, and movies as well.

Then came application and game downloads for your iPod and iPhones, another revolutionary online method of distribution, and made Apple and a lot of small time developers fairly wealthy (well, wealthier in Apple’s case). Nothing seemed like it could stop the download colossus until the National Music Publishers Association started kicking up dust around Washington asking that its record companies and producers receive more royalties than it’s current $0.09 a track from Apple’s iTunes profit.

Apparently they made enough noise for the Copyright Royalty Board to hear them, and the three judge panel is expected to make a ruling very soon. Now, what does that mean to all of us outside of the industry politics? There are a few possible scenarios if the board votes in favor of the NMPA.

The $0.99 standard price tag on mp3s would have to be raised to keep up Apple’s profitablity while giving the Music Publishers a raise in the royalties. Or secondly, and hopefully this could only happen in another demension, Apple would shut down iTunes, explained fairly well in this comment by Eddie Cue in today’s CNN Money article by writer Devin Leonard:

If the [iTunes music store] was forced to absorb any increase in the … royalty rate, the result would be to significantly increase the likelihood of the store operating at a financial loss – which is no alternative at all, Cue wrote. Apple has repeatedly made it clear that it is in this business to make money, and most likely would not continue to operate [the iTunes music store] if it were no longer possible to do so profitably.

Once again, only time can tell what will be decided, or if Apple really has the gall to upset millions of iTunes users in shutting down the Internet’s largest online media download store. How would that effect their iPod/iPhone sales? What would the rest of us do to quench our thirst for cheap media downloads? Start using Amazon’s music service? Rhapsody? [shudders] Maybe Apple needs to just start its own record label and hire the top talent in the industry and cut out the middle man. Then they’d probably have an anti trust lawsuit on their hands. Oh the tangled webs we weave…

iTunes 8.0 New Features

Apple recently released their iTunes 8.0 with “new” features. But what new features? It seems as though pretty much nothing changed. I’ve scowered through iTunes looking for improvements and things they got rid of. Let’s start with the most obvious first.
Many people will have noticed a new way to browse your music called “Grid View.”  It shows all your music in a grid and displays them by album showing their artwork (as long as you have them).

Apple added a new visualizer that uses 3D gravity & magnetism effects. You can quickly switch to the visualizer by pressing “Ctrl+T.”

The new update enables support with 2.1 firmware iPhones, iPod Touch 2G, and the new Nanos.

In the iTunes Store, iTunes 8.0 allows for quality TV Shows to be downloaded & bought for just $2.99. More and more of these affordable high quality videos are being added everyday so why don’t you go check them out.
Probably the most unique and special feature to hit iTunes, is Genius Playlist Creation and Sidebar. You can get more info on that here.

Lastly the one thing that wasn’t mentioned is that they removed the movie convert feature to watch on Apple TVs, iPods, and iPhones. You no longer see a “Convert Selection to Apple TV” or “Convert Selection to iPhone/iPod” when right clicking a movie. Why did they get rid of this feature? Nobody knows… It may be because of the long time it takes for the movie to be converted. Only non-iTunes DRM protected files can be converted into other formats, and probably Apple realized other 3rd party software is best for this (Videora, Crusoft, etc). Apple is getting rid of our rights in the technology world. App Store submissions constantly get rejected, their service agreements and private policies become stricter and stricter… When will it ever end?