ITunes Store

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iTunes Store

Opened:	April 28, 2003
Pricing:	Music/TV & Music Videos/Movies USA: 99¢/$1.99/$9.99+ Canada: 99¢/$2.29/NA UK: £0.79/£1.89/NA Eurozone: €0.99/€ 2.49/NA AUS: $1.69/$3.39/NA JPN: ¥150+/¥400/NA NZL: $1.79/$3.59/NA
Platforms:	Mac OS X (not Mac OS Classic), Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, some mobile phones
Format:	Protected AAC (.m4p) @ 128 kbit/s, audiobooks 32 kbit/s, Protected MPEG-4 Video (.m4v),
Restrictions:	Music - streaming to five computers every 24 hours, unlimited CDs (seven with an unchanged playlist), unlimited iPods.
Catalogue:	3.5 million+ songs, 65,000+ podcasts, 10,000+ music videos, 200+ TV shows, 20,000+ audiobooks, 9 iPod Games, 100+ Movies
Preview:	30 seconds (Music, TV & Video) / 90 seconds (Audiobooks) / 30+ seconds (Movies)
Streaming:	Previews only
Protocol:	iTunes Music Store Protocol (itms://)
Availability:	See article
Features:	Allowance, “Just For You”, Celebrity Playlists, gift certificates and gift cards, iMix, billboard charts, radio charts, advanced search
Customer support:	Web only; see article
Website:	www.apple.com/itunes

The iTunes Store (known as the iTunes Music Store before September 12, 2006) is an online music service run by Apple Computer through its iTunes application. Opened on April 28, 2003, the Store proved the viability of online music sales. As of September 2006, the Store has sold more than 1.5 billion songs, accounting for more than 80% of worldwide online digital music sales. Downloaded files come with restrictions on their use, enforced by FairPlay, Apple's version of digital rights management.

Contents 1 Features and restrictions 1.1 Pricing 1.2 Availability 1.3 Customer support 2 Background 3 Catalog content 3.1 Video 3.2 iPod games 4 Market share and milestones 5 Internationalization 6 File format 7 Digital rights management 8 Promotions 9 Other platforms 10 Criticism 11 See also 12 Notes and references 13 External links

[edit] Features and restrictions

[edit] Pricing

(Unless otherwise noted, all prices in this article are in US$. Dollar amounts provided for the Canadian, Australian and New Zealand stores are in local currency.)

All songs are sold for a single price in all countries but Japan: 99¢ in the U.S. and Canada, $1.79 in New Zealand, $1.69 in Australia, €0.99 in the eurozone and £0.79 in the United Kingdom. In Japan, songs sell for ¥150 or ¥200. Previews, thirty seconds in length, are available for free prior to buying a song. Most albums cost $9.99 in the U.S. Volume discounts of up to 20% are available for purchases of more than 25,000 songs.

Television episodes are available for $1.99 each, as are music videos and short films.

Feature-length movies sell for $12.99 during their first week of release and $14.99 afterwards. Older movies cost $9.99.^[1][2]

There is also a weekly promotion where one to three songs are available to download for free. Free downloads are available on Tuesdays, and remain free until the following Tuesday. Some artists choose to have select songs available for no charge as well, such as the single "When the President Talks to God" by indie band Bright Eyes.

[edit] Availability

To buy files through the store, a user must pay with an iTunes gift card or a credit card with a billing address in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom or the United States. Other people can only download free podcasts and previews.

[edit] Customer support

Apple provides no customer support for the iTunes Store over the phone. All customer service inquiries are handled online.^[3]

[edit] Background

Debuting on April 28, 2003, the iTunes Music Store was the first online music store to gain widespread media attention. Apple's store allows the user to purchase songs and transfer them easily to the iPod through iTunes. The iPod remains one of the few digital music players (besides some Motorola cell phones) that are intended to work with the iTunes Store, although some other digital music players will work with iTunes. The iTunes Music Store launched initially with about 200,000 files available for download.

The store began after Apple signed deals with the five major record labels at the time, EMI, Universal, Warner Bros, Sony Music Entertainment and BMG (the latter two would later merge to form Sony BMG). Music by more than 600 independent label artists was added later, the first being Moby on July 29, 2003.

The store has more than 3,500,000 songs^[4]], including exclusive tracks from more than 20 artists, including The Killers, Bob Dylan, U2, Eminem, Brie Larson, Sheryl Crow and Sting. The user can transfer downloaded songs to an unlimited number of iPods and burn compact discs from playlists up to seven times.

[edit] Catalog content

New songs are added to the iTunes catalog everyday, while the iTunes Store is updated each Tuesday. Apple also releases a 'Single of the Week' and usually a 'Discovery Download' on Tuesdays, which are available for free for one week.

As of 2005, Apple Computer places future release albums on pre-order status. This is the first time an album of its kind integrates bonus songs and music videos not found in the physical version. The additional songs are only available to those who pre-order the album, and after its release, the songs are removed. These types of albums include a digital booklet. This was the first indication that iTunes would gain video playback in the near future with the inclusion of videos in pre-order albums. The first such album was X&Y by Coldplay.

The iTunes Store also includes over 20,000 audio books, encoded at 32 kbit/s. Ninety second previews are offered for every book. These books are provided by Audible.com. This is the same format available if the user signs up directly with Audible.com and chose the "iPod" format. The main difference is that it is unnecessary to sign up for a subscription to get audiobooks as is the case with Audible. A small discount is provided through buying audiobooks through the iTS, but on a selective basis by Apple in comparison to an "always on member discount" if one has an Audible subscription.

The iTunes Store lacks music from some popular artists, such as AC/DC, The Beatles, Garth Brooks, Kid Rock, Led Zeppelin, Radiohead, Tool, and Jethro Tull. The Beatles' record company Apple Records is currently in a legal battle with Apple Computer over the name "Apple." (On May 8, 2006, a ruling was declared in favor of Apple Computer, but Apple Records said it will appeal the ruling. Despite this, plans have been announced by Neil Aspinall to completely remaster and release the entire Beatles catalog on an unspecified online music service, as well as release some previously unheard work by the band. No date has been set as of yet.Garth Brooks currently has a contract that distribute his music exclusively through Wal-Mart, making him the first major artist to have such a deal. There are, however, biographies within the Music Store for both The Beatles^[5] and Led Zeppelin^[6]. The iTunes catalog does contain certain exceptions including a Tony Sheridan collaboration album with The Beatles; Kid Rock's first album, Grits Sandwiches For Breakfast; and two Radiohead songs.

It has been reported that the Beatles' music catalog might be appearing on iTunes soon, as Apple is negotiating with Britain's EMI group over an online distribution deal that might be exclusive for a limited time. [1]

iTunes added the entire Metallica catalog (minus Metallica's S&M collaborative album with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, which was added to the store later) on July 25, 2006, ending what was arguably the most significant holdout to iTunes' track-based sales model. On August 29, 2006, the entire catalog of Linkin Park, including its collaborative work, was finally added. Also on September 5, 2006, Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band added its classic hit album, Night Moves and on September 12, 2006, Seger will release his new album, Face The Promise.

As of August 2005, the Japanese store offers no songs from Sony Music Entertainment. However, some musicians, such as Motoharu Sano, are trying to sign with Apple independently. On September 6, 2005, Sony announced that it plans to sell songs through the iTS but did not give a specific date.^[7] Similarly, the Australian store did not offer any songs from Sony BMG until January 17, 2006, when Sony and Apple finally reached an agreement.

In 2004, CDBaby (an online music store which features more than 100,000 independent artists) signed a deal with Apple and managed to get every artist who sells albums there (of those who wanted digital music distribution) on iTunes.

In November 1, 2006, Apple created a new category for Latin content, "iTunes Latino". Telemundo and Mun2 made some of their popular programs available for purchase, becoming the first Hispanic television content in the store. It offers music, music videos, audiobooks, podcasts and television shows in Spanish in a single concentrated area. The brief descriptions given to the content is in Spanish as well as several sub-categories.

Downloaded songs come with song information (name, artist, album) already filled out, though iTunes provides a service to do this for songs not purchased from the store. Songs also come with album artwork. As of the release of iTunes 7, the artwork can be obtained for songs not purchased from the store for free if the user has an iTunes Store account. Purchased songs do not come with lyrics already typed in to the application's window for them; nor does iTunes provide a service for acquiring the missing lyrics. However, they can easily be obtained using a third-party Web site or Dashboard Widget.

[edit] Video

In October 2005, Apple announced the latest iPod would be capable of playing video files, which would be sold online through the iTunes Store in the U.S. These videos included 2000 music videos and episodes of popular television programs. Apple made a deal with Disney to be the first supplier of TV shows, the first shows available included episodes of Lost and Desperate Housewives with each episode becoming available the day after it originally aired on broadcast TV. Several short animated films by Pixar are also available.

The selling of videos on iTunes sparked considerable debate as to whether there was a paying audience for programming available for free on TV. As MP3 Newswire pointed out, users are not so much paying for the TV programs themselves. Instead they are really paying for a service that offers the convenience of someone else digitizing free broadcast episodes for them for their portable device, each episode in commercial-free form, and a convenient place to select and download individual shows. Through an updated version of QuickTime Pro, users can create their own videos for the iPod, including digitized versions of programs recorded on their VCR if they wish to take the time and effort and save the cost.

See also: List of television shows available in iTunes Store

On September 12, 2006, Apple began selling feature-length movies through the store and removed the word "music" from the store's name. The service debuted with a catalog of 75 films from four Disney-owned studios: Disney, Pixar, Miramax and Touchstone Pictures. The service is currently U.S. only, with Apple planning to internationalize the service in 2007.^[8]

On the same date, Apple increased the resolution of videos and movies sold on the iTunes Store from 320x240 (QVGA) to 640x480 (VGA).^[9]

[edit] iPod games

On September 12, 2006, the iTunes Store began to offer additional games for purchase with the launch of iTunes 7, compatible with the 5th generation iPod with iPod software 1.2 or later. Currently, these include: Bejeweled, Cubis, Mini Golf, Mahjong, Pac-Man, Tetris, Texas Hold 'Em, Vortex, and Zuma. The games cannot be played in iTunes.

[edit] Market share and milestones

• The store sold about 275,000 tracks in its first 18 hours and more than 1,000,000 tracks in its first 5 days. When released for Windows, iTunes was downloaded more than 1,000,000 times in the first 3 days and more than 1,000,000 songs were sold in that period.
• On December 15, 2003 Apple announced that it had sold 25 million songs since the launch in April.
• In January 2004 at the Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco, Steve Jobs announced (Sellers, 2004) that an unnamed person had purchased US$29,500 worth of music.
• On March 15, 2004, Apple announced that iTunes Music Store customers had purchased and downloaded 50 million songs from the iTunes Music Store. They also reported that customers were purchasing 2.5 million songs a week which translates to a projected annual run rate of 130 million songs a year. The 50 millionth song was "The Path of Thorns" by Sarah McLachlan.^[10]
• On April 28, 2004, the iTunes Music Store marked its one year anniversary with 70 million songs sold, clear dominance in the paid online music market and a slight profit.^[11] The store also offers hundreds of movie trailers and music videos, in an attempt to boost soundtrack sales. In the conference, Steve Jobs reiterated that a subscription service is still not the interest of customers and reported that only 5 million of the 100 million songs offered in the Pepsi giveaway campaign were redeemed, which he blamed on technical problems in Pepsi distribution.
• According to an Apple Press Release released on August 10, 2004, the iTunes Music Store is the first store to have a catalog of more than one million songs.^[12] Also, the iTunes Music Store at that point maintained an over 70% market share of legal music downloads.
• On September 1, 2004 the iTunes Music Store had surpassed 125 million songs sold.^[13]
• On October 14, 2004 the iTunes Music Store had surpassed 150 million songs sold.^[14]
• On December 16, 2004 the iTunes Music Store had surpassed 200 million songs sold. Ryan Alekman of Belchertown, Massachusetts, USA, bought the 200 millionth song, which was one of the tracks on U2's digital box set "The Complete U2".^[15]
• On January 24, 2005 the iTunes Music Store sold a quarter of a billion songs worldwide.^[16]
• As of March 2, 2005, the iTunes Music Store had surpassed 300 million songs sold.^[17]
• On May 10, 2005 Apple announced that it had sold over 400 million songs.^[18]
• On July 5, 2005 Apple announced that the countdown to half a billion songs had begun.^[19]
• On July 18, 2005 Apple announced that it had sold 500 million songs. Amy Greer of Lafayette, Indiana, USA, bought the 500 millionth song, "Mississippi Girl" by Faith Hill.^[20]
• On October 31, 2005 Apple announced that iTunes Music Store customers had purchased and downloaded 1 million videos since the launch of video support on October 12, 2005.^[21]
• On December 6, 2005 Apple announced that iTunes Music Store customers had purchased and downloaded over 3 million videos.^[22]
• On January 10, 2006 Apple announced that the iTunes Music Store had sold 850 million songs and 8 million videos.^[23]
• On February 23, 2006 Apple announced that the iTunes Music Store had sold 1 billion songs and 15 million videos. The billionth song was “Speed of Sound” by Coldplay, purchased by Alex Ostrovsky of West Bloomfield, Michigan.^[24]
• On September 12, 2006 Steve Jobs announced in his "It's Showtime" keynote that Apple had 88% of the legal U.S. music download market, 1.5 billion songs downloaded and 45 million videos sold.

By some accounts^[25], iTunes is expected to reach 2 billion song downloads sometime in early 2007.

[edit] Internationalization

Originally only Mac OS X users who had credit cards with a U.S. billing address could buy songs with the service, but Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple, announced plans to support both Windows and non-American users. The Windows version of iTunes and support for the Windows platform from the iTunes Music Store were announced on October 16, 2003, with immediate availability. Beginning in 2004, the service has become available in a number of countries outside the U.S.:

• On 15 June 2004, the iTunes Music Store was launched in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Songs were priced at 99c (€0.99) for France and Germany, and 79 pence (£0.79) for the United Kingdom. According to an Apple Press Release, the European iTunes Music Stores sold a combined total of 800,000 songs in one week, with 450,000 of those songs sold in the UK.^[26]
• On 26 October 2004 nine countries were added to the iTunes Music Store in a large EU store expansion: Austria, Belgium, Finland, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain. This extended availability to all countries in the Eurozone except for the Republic of Ireland, where the iTMS became available on 6 January 2005. These countries also pay €0.99 for songs, and formerly shared catalogues. Recently some such as the Italian or Portuguese store were localised (language-wise). Some of these stores also currently lack music videos (e.g. Portugal). The French, German, American, and British stores are localized for their respective countries and have different catalogs. On 3 December 2004 the British Office of Fair Trading referred the iTunes Music Store to the European Commission because it prevents consumers in one EU country from buying music from stores in other EU countries, in violation of EU free-trade legislation; the immediate cause of the referral was because the €0.99 price charged in the eurozone equates to 68 pence in sterling, rather than the 79 pence actually charged there.
• The iTunes Music Store was launched in Canada on December 3, 2004; Canadian customers pay $0.99 CAD per song.
• On 10 May 2005, the iTunes Music Store "went live" for Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Denmark, after about two weeks of speculation about these countries (and Australia) receiving the store.
• Apple officially launched the iTunes Music Store in Japan on 4 August 2005, with 1 million songs available; 90% of songs are priced at 150 yen.^[27] In the next four days the store had sold one million songs–the pace faster than that of the U.S. store.^[28] In addition to a long delay, Apple failed to have one set price for singles. Pundits have speculated that this may indicate the introduction of new price structure to the rest of the stores in future, in favor of record labels who would like to see higher prices for new songs.
• The iTunes Music Store was launched in Australia on 25 October 2005. Individual songs are priced at AUD$1.69 per track, album prices vary but are generally priced at $16.99. The recent release of video-capable iPods also saw the store launch with music videos and short films by Pixar available for $3.39 each, although TV episodes are not currently available. Stores in the Coles Myer retail chain sell iTunes Music Cards in denominations of $20, $50 and $100. iTunes Gift Cards (as they are now known) are now also available in many more stores such as JB Hi-Fi, David Jones and the Woolworths chain of stores. Access was inadvertently given to some people in New Zealand, too.^[29] Failed negotiations with the Sony BMG label (which had delayed the launch of the Australian iTMS significantly) meant that none of that label's artists were available at the time of launch. Sony music was later added starting on January 17, 2006.
• On November 1, 2006, the store started offering a range of Latino content including television shows and music. ^[30]
• The iTunes Store (along with a local Apple Online Store) was officially launched in New Zealand on December 6, 2006, although New Zealand users had briefly been able to buy from the Australian store when it first opened until that loophole was closed. Individual songs are priced at NZD $1.79, music videos at $3.59 and most albums at $17.99.^[31]

[edit] File format

Songs are encoded using FairPlay-encrypted 128 kbit/s AAC streams in an mp4 wrapper, using the .m4p extension. In practice, the sound quality is roughly comparable to songs encoded at 160 kbit/s (CBR) using Fraunhofer MP3.^{[citation needed]}

While licenses to the AAC compression and the mp4 file format are readily available, Apple has not agreed to license its proprietary FairPlay encryption scheme to other hardware manufacturers until recently, so only Apple's iPod was able to play AAC files encrypted with Apple's FairPlay technology, apart from computers with iTunes or Quicktime installed. On September 7, 2005 Motorola and Apple announced the Motorola ROKR E1, which comes with built in iTunes software and can also play songs from the iTS. About two months later the second cell phone with iTunes, the Motorola RAZR V3i, was announced. The Motorola SLVR L7, released in early 2006, became the second actual phone available on the commercial market to support songs encoded by iTunes or purchased on the iTS. A bug in version 7.0 of the iTunes software caused some issues with iTS content, but this was quickly resolved in Apple's iTunes 7.0.1 release.

A rumor site speculated that customers buying new music in the iTunes Store may at some point have the option to download certain files encoded in Apple Lossless Format for a slightly higher price. [2]

Currently the digital booklets included with some albums are in PDF. With the present iPod software, these files are not readable on an iPod.

[edit] Digital rights management

Apple's FairPlay Digital rights management (DRM) is integrated into iTunes, which manages songs purchased from iTunes Store. Users are not allowed unlimited CD burns of playlists, or to play the songs on more than five computers within 24 hours. However, they are allowed to copy the songs to an unlimited number of iPods.

With the introduction of iTunes 4.5, Apple raised the number of machines allowed to use purchased music from 3 to 5. They also cut the number of times a user can burn CDs of the same playlist from 10 to 7. This adjustment was the result of the renegotiation Apple had with major labels.

Apple's DRM technology is far from unbreakable. SharpMusique has been written to bypass it and allow the files to be used without technological restriction.^[32] More simply, a user can convert protected files to unprotected MP3 format by burning them to an audio CD, then ripping them back to iTunes. (Some audio quality is lost in this transcoding from one lossy format to another.) A quicker, though equally lossy way of transcoding the files is to record the "Wave Out Mix" using an audio recording program (such as Audacity) while playing the song on iTunes - and then encoding it to a format of the user's choice.

Competitors accuse Apple of using iPod, the iTunes Store, and "FairPlay" (Apple's DRM-protected implementation of the AAC open standard) to establish a vertical monopoly to lock iPod users into using the iTunes Store exclusively (and vice versa). This "lock" has two aspects:

• Apple has maintained tight control of its FairPlay encryption. Other online music stores cannot sell music files encoded with FairPlay, and competing devices from companies such as Creative Labs and iRiver cannot play such files. This means that consumers who want to listen to songs downloaded from the iTunes Store must either have an iPod or convert the files to an open format.
• The iPod does not play files encoded in Microsoft's WMA format or RealNetwork's Helix-protected format. iPod owners who want to play music in these formats must circumvent the files' DRM. (It should be noted that until 2006 Microsoft did not allow manufacturers supporting WMA to also support non-Microsoft formats like Apple's AAC; this left Apple unable to support WMA. Most WMA devices still do not support AAC, even in its open, non-DRM protected form.)

In July 2004, RealNetworks debuted an application named Harmony, which converted files purchased from RealNetworks' RealRhapsody service into a FairPlay-compatible format that an iPod could play. In response, Apple accused RealNetworks of "adopt[ing] the tactics and ethics of a hacker to break into the iPod."^[33] and released a firmware upgrade that rendered fourth-generation iPods and iPod mini incapable of playing such files. RealNetworks has vowed to develop another workaround.

On January 3, 2005, an iTunes online music store customer sued Apple, alleging the company broke U.S. antitrust laws by freezing out competitors.^[34]

In 2006, a controversy erupted about a French draft law aimed at reinforcing the protection of works of art against "piracy", or illegal copying; some clauses of the law could possibly be used to request Apple to provide information about its FairPlay system to manufacturers of competitor players. Apple and associated lobbying groups protested the draft law, going as far as to suggest that it condoned "state-sponsored piracy". Some U.S. commentators claimed that the law was a protectionistic measure against the iPod.

[edit] Promotions

On Super Bowl Sunday, February 1, 2004, Apple launched a promotion with Pepsi in which they gave away 100 million songs, through tokens on selected soft drink bottle caps. Unfortunately for Apple, Pepsi failed to properly distribute the bottles to major metropolitan areas until only weeks before the promotion ended, despite a one-month extension of the deadline by Apple. The promotion, however, was repeated beginning January 31, 2005, with 200 million songs available, and an iPod mini given away every hour.

On July 1, 2004, Apple announced that, starting with the sale of the 95 millionth song, an iPod would be given away to the buyer of each 100 thousandth song, for a total of 50 iPods. The buyer of the 100 millionth song would receive a PowerBook, iPod, and $10,000 gift certificate to the iTunes Music Store.

Ten days later, on July 11, Apple announced that 100 million songs had been sold through the iTunes Music Store. The 100 millionth song was titled "Somersault (Dangermouse Remix)" by Zero 7, purchased by Kevin Britten of Hays, Kansas. He then received a phone call from Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who offered his congratulations, as well as a 40GB 3rd Generation iPod laser-engraved with a message of thanks.

Inspired by Pepsi's marketing success with iTunes giveaways, Coca-Cola partnered with 7-Eleven to give away a free iTunes song with every 32 oz. Slurpee frozen beverage until July 31, 2005. Songs could be redeemed until August 31, 2005 by entering a code printed on the Slurpee cup into the iTunes Music Store application. Coca-Cola did this in spite of having its own music store, myCokeMusic.com, that competes with the iTunes Music Store in Europe.

On July 5, 2005 Apple announced that they were counting down to half a billion songs. The buyer of every 100 thousandth song up to 500 million would receive an iPod mini and a 50-song gift card. The grand prize for the person who downloads the 500 millionth song was 10 iPods of their choice, a 10,000-song gift card, 10 50-song gift cards and 4 tickets to the Coldplay world tour. Twelve days later, on July 17, Apple announced that 500 million songs had been sold through the iTunes Music Store. The 500 millionth song, purchased by Amy Greer of Lafayette, Indiana, was "Mississippi Girl" by Faith Hill.

On July 28, 2005, Apple and Gap announced a promotion to award iTunes music downloads to Gap customers who tried on a pair of Gap jeans.^[35] From August 8 to August 31, 2005, each customer who tried on any pair of Gap jeans could receive a free download of their favorite song from the iTunes Music Store.

On February 7, 2006, Apple announced that they were counting down to the billionth song download and began a promotion similar to the previous 500 million countdown. Whoever downloaded the billionth song would receive a 20-inch iMac, 10 60GB iPods, and a $10,000 iTunes Music Card. The billionth song was purchased on February 22, 2006 by Alex Ostrovsky of West Bloomfield, Michigan. The purchased song was "Speed of Sound" as part of Coldplay's X&Y album.

On July 25, 2006, Facebook and iTunes began offering a promotion where members of the Apple Students group would receive a free 25 song sampler each week until September 30 in various music genres. The idea behind the promotion was to get students more familiar and enthusiastic with each service as autumn classes approach ^[36]. However in order to prevent abuse of the promotion, the weekly code that Facebook provides stops working after it has been redeemed one million times. The promotion has caused some discontent among international students, as the code is only valid in the U.S. music store.

[edit] Other platforms

Although iTunes is only supported on Windows and Mac OS X operating systems and devices, users of other platforms have been able to buy music from the iTunes Store by a variety of methods. iTunes is known to run passably well^[37] using the Wine (software) compatibility layer, but this method only works with x86 PCs. This has spurred the development of alternative programs to access the iTunes Store, notably PyMusique and its successor SharpMusique. Apple has not been particularly welcoming of such developments, in March 2005 forcing users to upgrade their versions of iTunes in order to shut out an early version of PyMusique from the system^[38] but the latest version of SharpMusique still works as of August 2006

[edit] Criticism

The iTunes Store has been criticized by groups such as Downhill Battle, who claim that the service, while claiming to provide a superior and legal alternative to piracy by offering per-song downloads, does nothing to correct problems with the music industry's business model. Their protest website iTunes iSbogus criticizes Apple's misuse of the opportunity presented by an internet marketplace - calling iTunes a "facelift for a corrupt industry".^[39]

The pricing structure for videos available on the iTunes Store has also been the subject of criticism from some users. For example, an hour-long episode of a TV series, like 24, is priced at US$1.99 per episode, while music videos, typically around 3 to 4 minutes in length, cost the same amount.

On June 6, 2006 The Consumer Ombudsmen in Norway, Sweden and Denmark launched a common open letter to Apple regarding the EULA of iTunes through the Norwegian Consumer Ombudsman Bjørn Erik Thon.^[40] The iTunes case is based upon an official complaint filed by The Consumer Council of Norway on the 25. of January 2006.

The main allegations were that:

• The EULA is unbalanced to disfavor the customer. Scandinavian law requires any written agreement to favor both parties. The weak party also enjoys protection from exploitation according to Norwegian consumer laws.
• The iTunes Store's use of Digital Rights Management limits the number of devices purchased songs can be played on.
• iTunes' contract entitles the company to at any time change the terms of the contract without notice, including the selection of players or software that must be used for iTunes files, and also the number of times a customer can change or copy already purchased files. (This is standard practice in many EULAs.)
• The EULA is both vague and hard to understand for the customers.
• The EULA states that the legal relationship between the company and customers is regulated by English contract law. It is unreasonable to expect Norwegian consumers to have comprehensive knowledge of English law. Products marketed to Norwegian consumers in Norway are subject to Norwegian law—a right that cannot be waived by a clause in a company's standard customer contract.
• The EULA removes iTunes' responsibility regarding damage to the consumers computer due to software errors even though responsibility cannot be waived in Scandinavian Law. (Again, this is standard practice in many EULAs.)

Apple responded July 31, 2006.^[41]

[edit] See also

• Live from London (iTunes)
• AllOfMP3.com - alternative online music store
• Hymn - software to remove FairPlay copy-protection from iTunes Store files
• Microsoft PlaysForSure - marketing certification scheme to promote Microsoft's WMA music format
• MSN Music - alternative online music store
• Napster - alternative online music store
• Audible.com - online store for downloadable audio books
• eMusic - alternative online music store
• Beatport - alternative online music store
• Magnatune - alternative online music store
• iTV - Set top device that plays media from iTunes

[edit] Notes and references

[edit] External links

• Apple - iTunes Store
• Visualization of iTunes Store sales figures