The MP3 Player Blog

A few Apple updates:

Deal has some ABC affiliates feeling uneasy
USATODAY.com - Less than two weeks after replacing Michael Eisner as Disney’s CEO, Bob Iger began to put his stamp on the company Wednesday with a potentially precedent-setting deal. Iger sent several signals by agreeing to sell current episodes of some of his company’s biggest TV hits on Apple’s iTunes.

Apple releases video iPod, may change TV rules
USATODAY.com - Giving the iPod a bold new look, Apple Computer (AAPL) on Wednesday unveiled a video version of the music player that now lets it show everything from TV shows - including Desperate Housewives and Lost- to music videos and short films.

Here’s some interesting articles touching on download services and the Sony PSP:

Download DRM-Free Music with CommonTunes and BitTorrent
Comunity-based media distribution service, CommonMedia, has announced that it is offering up DRM-free content on their sites CommonTunes and CommonFlix through BitTorrent distribution. What does this mean? It means that there’s another alternative out there for consumers who aren’t happy…

Sony PSP As Your Primary Digital Audio Player
Let’s face it: at $200 or more for a really good digital audio player these days, we want as much bang for our buck as we can get when laying down that much cash. Luckily, there are more and more…

Important Apple Updates:

Deal has some ABC affiliates feeling uneasy
USATODAY.com - Less than two weeks after replacing Michael Eisner as Disney’s CEO, Bob Iger began to put his stamp on the company Wednesday with a potentially precedent-setting deal. Iger sent several signals by agreeing to sell current episodes of some of his company’s biggest TV hits on Apple’s iTunes.

Apple’s big gains not big enough
SiliconValley.com - Apple Computer on Tuesday reported that profit in the latest quarter quadrupled, buoyed by strong sales of Macintosh computers and “staggering'’ demand for its newest iPod — but that wasn’t good enough for Wall Street.

Look for this trend to become even more common across other carriers:

Sprint to sell song downloads at $2.49 a pop (USATODAY.com)
USATODAY.com - Sprint Nextel introduced a music store for cellphones Monday, the first to offer direct-to-phone wireless downloads. Sprint’s store offers music downloads for $2.49 each, compared with 99 cents a song at Apple’s iTunes Music Store or RealNetworks’ Rhapsody.

Here’s some new articles I’ve just published from Carol on the various types of music download services that you can use to fill up your players (some legal, other’s not).

• MP3 Ripping from CDs
• P2P File Sharing
• Legal MP3 Music Downloading

Hope these shed some light on some issues!

Nano Scratches Nothing New(s) (Ziff Davis)
Ziff Davis - The glorious new iPod nano’s screen may be prone to scratching. A sure sign of the apocalypse?

Music Download Sales Flourish (PC World)
PC World - Legal downloads more than triple in 2005, amid falling CD sales and piracy cases.

The Motorola ROKR E1 Apple iTunes phone was finally released.

Of course it’s space for only 100 songs is a bummer, it still is a start for those wanting to take their iTunes songs on only one device.

Personally, I’d just go for an iPod nano or Shuffle.

Looks like KaZaa is the new Napster, as record companies focus their cross-hairs on them. By a court order, this file-sharing network is being forced to modify its software to prevent piracy.

The problem is, most users have shifted from KaZaa to other platforms; just how users of Napster moved on.

Honestly, this sounds like a cycle where you cut off 1 head and 10 spring up in it’s place.

Now if record companies were serious about providing cheap songs in a legal fashion online with few listening restrictions, then things would began to look up. They’re focusing on a side-effect and not the actual problem.

A device Sirius is to debut allows subscribers of their satellite radio to record satellite radio music and store their own MP3s.

Certainly these emerging trends weren’t expected, although they may be happening sooner than expected.

The device, dubbed the S50, is a little pricey at $360.

Many consumers “unrealistically” believe music download services should be free.

Perhaps that’s why these cheap-skates resort to illegal P2P swapping.

But more importantly, more consumers aren’t willing to spend more on downloads today. This certainly means a decrease in prices should spur more downloads, which would increase mainstream usage.

In addition, companies should attempt to serve purchasers beliefs and not simply the interests of record companies. Many consumers don’t purchase because they’re afraid they won’t be able to listen to their music on their brand of device.

Then again, consumers are a fickel bunch.