iTunes Europe Adds Major Indie Labels

[MacRumors]

In a press release (http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2004/jul/21indie.html), Apple announced today that it has signed licensing agreements with three of the largest European independent music labels, Beggars Group, Sanctuary Records Group and V2. This adds tens of thousands of new tracks to each of the 3 European stores, growing each of the catalogs significantly.
With three of the most influential independent record labels on board, iTunes Music Store customers in Europe now have access to an impressive catalog of independent artists including Basement Jaxx, The Crystal Method, Interpol, The Libertines, Morrissey, the Pixies, Prodigy, Stereophonics, Paul Weller and The White Stripes.

[Docrjm]

Time to bring on the Canadian Store!

[johnnowak]

*couldn't care less*

Isn't this MacBytes material? I mean... this is a rumor site, not a Mac news site, no? I don't mind important news, but this isn't very important (there still is a huge lack of decent music). iPod/iTunes stories are now beating Mac hardware rumors 10 to 1.

[musicpyrite]

World dominance!!!

This is good for iTMS, now if Apple would just agree to the music piracy thingy.

[jbembe]

I hope we can have access to them here in the U.S. and that we can see the top of the indy charts. I'd love to find out more about these groups that are popular overseas!!!

[brykken]

*couldn't care less*

Isn't this MacBytes material? I mean... this is a rumor site, not a Mac news site, no? I don't mind important news, but this isn't very important (there still is a huge lack of decent music). iPod/iTunes stories are now beating Mac hardware rumors 10 to 1.

I disagree, I think this is very important. Many more in Europe will now be drawn to iTunes which = +money for apple = +cool stuff for us.

[michaelrjohnson]

*couldn't care less*

Isn't this MacBytes material? I mean... this is a rumor site, not a Mac news site, no? I don't mind important news, but this isn't very important (there still is a huge lack of decent music). iPod/iTunes stories are now beating Mac hardware rumors 10 to 1.

Firstly, here on MR there are a large number of European members. (Hi all!) This is extremely relevant to them.

Secondly, iPod/iTunes, as well as Mac computers are made by Apple. This site was created before there were even rumors of an iPod so it would seem natural that the site would grow to keep up with Apple.

On-topic: This is great news for iTMS (partial) Europe. The addition of Indies is a much needed/requested feature. Moreso in Europe than in the US, I believe. But all the same, the future still looks bright for iTMS!

[edesignuk]

Stereophonics! Great! :cool:

[ijimk]

This is always a good thing more music on itunes the better. GO ITUNES!!!!!

[mudflapper]

Indeed, this is great news. There is so much bad music out there. I don't give an ass-whiff about Celine Dion. However, mention the Pixies and I start vibrating like Beavis.

Now I can actually purchase some music at ITMS. Nice.

Thanks Apple.

[JohnStrass]

In a press release (http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2004/jul/21indie.html), Apple announced today that it has signed licensing agreements with three of the largest European independent music labels, Beggars Group, Sanctuary Records Group and V2. This ads tens of thousands of new tracks to each of the 3 European stores, growing each of the catalogs significantly.
Cool. Gary Numan had some on Beggar's so maybe we will see it there. More indies!!!!!

[dontmatter]

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(end entry)

(PS-does ITMS show you what label an album is from? it would be great if we could watch the stats of that, over time, and see indie labels become more and more dominant)

[druggedonions]

For me this news is as good as the new iPods.
Go Apple and go independent record labels. I wonder when the catalogue will get added?

[edit] they already have way-hey

[patrick0brien]

-This is a "Good Thing" (c)

[jholzner]

Has anyone checked out the "just added" on the US Store? It was HUGE this week...more than twice any prevsious week they have listed. Is this to catch up to the OD2 announcement? Go Apple!

[guet]

One day these music stores will be truly worldwide. It's a real shame that at the minute they're so balkanised. :mad:
Still, this is good news for those of us in Europe who have been impatiently waiting for more music to be added to this music store.

I signed up for the UK store and can't get hold of French music that I like, without going through the rigmarole of setting up two accounts, one for each country. I can buy it on Amazon however as a CD. A lot of music in Europe now is trans-national - many albums have songs in several languages, and sell equally well in several countries (ok, perhaps not Johnny Hallyday :p ). The only reasons for this are bureaucratic and political, not technical, so here's hoping that after a couple of years of successful sales this can happen.

I'm looking forward to the cinema store (in a few years), which will hopefully do away with that silly DVD region system. It's time media conglomerates woke up to the global marketplace and starting selling similar products to all countries which are interested.

[dontmatter]

FYI, the music is on the US store too. Don't know that it wasn't, earlier, though

[mrzippy]

This is great news, but I just did a search on the UK store for the examples given in the press release.

I cannot find any Basement Jaxx, Interpol, The Libertines, White Stripes or Prodigy in the store.

The Crystal Method, Morrissey, the Pixies, Stereophonics and Paul Weller were there.

Neil

[/|\]

I feel that metal music is strongly missing at the music store, and much of the metal which is there has been encoded really bad, for example, check this one:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=157817&selectedItemId=157807

Steve love to say that p2p networks have songs which sounds like they were encoded by kids. Well, that example above from the music store sounds worse than what a kid would have done, a kid have working ears at least.


One label that would help the situation a lot is "Nuclear Blast" (http://nuclearblast.de/). They feature artists like Edguy, Dimmu Borgir, Exodus, Grave Digger, Helloween, Hammerfall, In Flames, Primal Fear, Stratovarius, Sonata Arctica, Therion and many others. But no sign of them at any of the stores :-(

More metal, properly encoded for a change, and I'm a loyal customer..

[Jesus on OSX]

The White Stripes and Pixies are independent? Since when?

Or independent in Europe maybe? Because both, if not all the aformentioned bands/artists are distributed by "big five" in the States in some form. Not the entire discography, but majority of albums anyway.

[kenaustus]

I'm looking forward to the cinema store (in a few years), which will hopefully do away with that silly DVD region system.

It's not the DVD region system that is the problem, it's the multiple TV system problems in various countries that cause the problem. When that is fixed you will be able to have one standard DVD. My PowerBook does adjust to the various systems - automatically changes for Australian DVDs.

[Mudbug]

This is great news, but I just did a search on the UK store for the examples given in the press release.

I cannot find any Basement Jaxx, Interpol, The Libertines, White Stripes or Prodigy in the store.

The Crystal Method, Morrissey, the Pixies, Stereophonics and Paul Weller were there.

Neil

I think this is a good example of how some tracks are available in some Euro stores, while not in others.

[mrzippy]

The White Stripes and Pixies are independent? Since when?

Or independent in Europe maybe? Because both, if not all the aformentioned bands/artists are distributed by "big five" in the States in some form. Not the entire discography, but majority of albums anyway.

I am going by the Apple press release, but I think they are independent in the UK.

Surely just because they are distributed by the big five has nothing to do with it, they don't own the rights.

[mrzippy]

I think this is a good example of how some tracks are available in some Euro stores, while not in others.

Maybe but it's Apple that said they should be there.

[duvalin]

Now, isn't that an oxymoron?

[Redboy]

I think the ability to search by label is #1 on my wish list.

[The Red Wolf]

If independent labels sign in Europe it means they may sine for release here. About 98.2% of the music I listen to doesn't come from the mainstream M-TV Radio style of music. Where is in Industrial? Gothic? How about Ethereal? Synth-pop? Future-pop anyone? EBM? They're not even presets in iTunes proper for adjusting the equalizer. Not that I use the presets, I create my own, but they're not there. Bauhaus is part of Beggars Group, so is Dead can Dance. Not to mention the other bands of the old 4AD label. It's not everything Metropolis and InfraRot would be nice indie labels... But the door is open. You can't get mad at Apple for adding indie labels when it's the foundation for future labels to join. 9.99 (currency units, as the ITMS is international now) is much cheeper than 17.95 don't you think? Too bad currently you get to pay 9.99 for albums on the Maverick label (that I don't care for) and 17.95 for the music I want. Digital Music Stores offer no backordering. If the music is there, it can be downloaded. I've waited for small indie labels to get something out of backorder status for over a month at times. On demand anyone? On demand for indie labels anyone? Way to go Apple.

[Sharewaredemon]

I wonder what apple is going to do about od2's announcement of 1.3 million songs?

Come on ITMS canada!

[machan]

so, can anyone tell me why radiohead is still not available on itunes?

[ProfSBrown]

I think this is a good example of how some tracks are available in some Euro stores, while not in others.
The deals been done, but the music isn't nescassarily up yet. If the deal was announced today, I'd be suprised if it wasnt a few weeks before they showed up :(

[danieluk]

[CaptainScarlet]

If independent labels sign in Europe it means they may sine for release here. About 98.2% of the music I listen to doesn't come from the mainstream M-TV Radio style of music. Where is in Industrial? Gothic? How about Ethereal? Synth-pop? Future-pop anyone? EBM? They're not even presets in iTunes proper for adjusting the equalizer. Not that I use the presets, I create my own, but they're not there. Bauhaus is part of Beggars Group, so is Dead can Dance. Not to mention the other bands of the old 4AD label. It's not everything Metropolis and InfraRot would be nice indie labels... But the door is open. You can't get mad at Apple for adding indie labels when it's the foundation for future labels to join. 9.99 (currency units, as the ITMS is international now) is much cheeper than 17.95 don't you think? Too bad currently you get to pay 9.99 for albums on the Maverick label (that I don't care for) and 17.95 for the music I want. Digital Music Stores offer no backordering. If the music is there, it can be downloaded. I've waited for small indie labels to get something out of backorder status for over a month at times. On demand anyone? On demand for indie labels anyone? Way to go Apple.

SO TRUE!!! Where in the hell is Metropolis Records?!!?!?!?!??!?!?!


I emailed them over a year ago and they said were in works with Apple on a agreement....Well were are they!?!??!!?

I would have loved to buy the new front line assembly on iTunes...and not Best Buy...



CS.....

[jesuscandle]

so, can anyone tell me why radiohead is still not available on itunes?

They don't want to be.

[big_boldge]

Im just glad to see more music for me to download!

[1badapple]

come one come all
the more variety the better the music

[Sabbath]

Good to hear, the more music the better and especially the more variety the better. This is one area where online stores have a massive advantage not having to hold stocks or obscure titles, so they should really be aiming to have a bigger catalogue than anywhere. Unfortunately few (if any) of the bands I like are on these labels, but hopefully it will mean we will see more and more music.

I need the indy indies to be added rather than these major indies :rolleyes:

[mobilebandit]

Can I access iTunes Europe? I am in America and there really isn't any american albums I would buy, but lots of Brit bands are appealing to me.

[formatc]

It is obvious Apple is moving forward, working out these complex deals.

I'm sick of people whining about this artist or that format. Get off your ass/bum and go buy a CD.

****.

[stevehaslip]

excellent news! finally all the people i like are there! :D

[machan]

They don't want to be.

did they ever give any reasoning to this? i would think they'd be all over it with their public affection for apple and the internet and all.

[saabmp3]

It's not the DVD region system that is the problem, it's the multiple TV system problems in various countries that cause the problem. When that is fixed you will be able to have one standard DVD. My PowerBook does adjust to the various systems - automatically changes for Australian DVDs.

The TV's account for a small percentage of the reason why region codes exist. It's mainly because the big film companies don't want it to be easy to buy a DVD in one country months before it's released in another country. Your powerbook only adjusts for multiple regions because either australia is the same region as your home country or because you hacked the region code on your drive. Nothing special here, move on.


BEN

[druggedonions]

did they ever give any reasoning to this? i would think they'd be all over it with their public affection for apple and the internet and all.

I think it was because they didn't want to lose the album format. The same reason Red Hot Chili Peppers aren't on there.

[JGowan]

*couldn't care less*

Isn't this MacBytes material? I mean... this is a rumor site, not a Mac news site, no? I don't mind important news, but this isn't very important (there still is a huge lack of decent music). iPod/iTunes stories are now beating Mac hardware rumors 10 to 1.you care enough to read below the headline, enter the thread and bitch about it.

[joeboy_45101]

so, can anyone tell me why radiohead is still not available on itunes?

Originally they were, and they were one of the most downloaded bands. But they decided for some reason or other to not be on there anymore.

:confused:

[Windowlicker]

drum & bass is coming there, yes!!! :D

they've got danny byrd, calibre etc.. and these tracks are released on vinyl :)))) this is pretty much what i've been wishing! :D

can't wait to get the service to finland now!

[Don't panic]

It's not the DVD region system that is the problem, it's the multiple TV system problems in various countries that cause the problem. When that is fixed you will be able to have one standard DVD. My PowerBook does adjust to the various systems - automatically changes for Australian DVDs.

the DVD region system IS a problem if you like to watch imported movies. Australia is in region 4, US in 1. Europe/japan in 2.
In the powerbooks (and most -all?- other computers), after 5 changes between regions it locks on the last one and it can only be (legally) unlocked by apple (for a fee).
Even that way, you only have limited "unlocking" (4 times if memory serves me right) and then it gets stuck foreverandeveruntiltheendoftimes.

And the logic has always escaped me, as this does obviously nothing to block pirates, but prevents me from watching titles that will never be distributed here. Very annoying.

as far as PAL/SECAM/NTSC that's not an issue for most players nor with computers.

Sorry for the off-topic, but this DVD region codes is one of my major minor peeves.
I could not not comment.

[Stella]

Can I access iTunes Europe? I am in America and there really isn't any american albums I would buy, but lots of Brit bands are appealing to me.

Select Store at the home page of iTMS inside iTunes.

To buy anything you need credit card registered in the appropriate country, of course.

[dontmatter]

I think it was because they didn't want to lose the album format. The same reason Red Hot Chili Peppers aren't on there.

yeah, but... then there are all those albums you can only buy as an album, right? Couldn't apple just make all their stuff only come in album format?

[Ted13]

It's mainly because the big film companies don't want it to be easy to buy a DVD in one country months before it's released in another country.
If that's so, why do they region code movies from the 1930s and 1940s -- they still haven't been released in Europe? :rolleyes:

The reason for region coding has everything to do with the studios' penchant for control and their ability to charge different prices in different countries.

On topic: great news! Now I'm waiting for music that never made it to CD to start appearing at the iTMS.

[Chobit]

the DVD region system IS a problem if you like to watch imported movies. Australia is in region 4, US in 1. Europe/japan in 2.
In the powerbooks (and most -all?- other computers), after 5 changes between regions it locks on the last one and it can only be (legally) unlocked by apple (for a fee).
Even that way, you only have limited "unlocking" (4 times if memory serves me right) and then it gets stuck foreverandeveruntiltheendoftimes.



Use VLC, play any region without having to use apple's region changing dealy if I remember correctly.

[JoePike]

Somebody in the UK or someplace is grinning ear to ear as they buy a Prodigy album on the Euro-iTMS. No music collection should be without it, in my humble opinion. The White Stripes, on the other hand.....ugh.

[mr.steevo]

*couldn't care less*

Isn't this MacBytes material? I mean... this is a rumor site, not a Mac news site, no? I don't mind important news, but this isn't very important (there still is a huge lack of decent music). iPod/iTunes stories are now beating Mac hardware rumors 10 to 1.

Hi,

I agree with the former, but not the latter. This IS news, not a rumour. But as for its level of importance, that is up to the individual.

Where's the New Cube?

s.

[Don't panic]

Select Store at the home page of iTMS inside iTunes.
To buy anything you need credit card registered in the appropriate country, of course.

what's the logic behind this?
I mean, If my credit is good to buy songs in the US (for example, it applies in any directions), why does apple NOT want my money for songs that they have in other catalogs but not int the US one. (I almost can see a reason if they have overlaps, almost).

Any songs that is unique, should be available to every store. If it's not unique, than you have to buy it at the store corresponding to the credit card. Why would anybody (Apple, labels, artists) oppose such an arrangement?

[Don't panic]

Use VLC, play any region without having to use apple's region changing dealy if I remember correctly.

I'll check it out. thanks

[pcharles]

I disagree, I think this is very important. Many more in Europe will now be drawn to iTunes which = +money for apple = +cool stuff for us.

Am I correct in understanding that if we, in the US, wish to purchase these songs we must activate the British or European versions of iTunes and buy the songs in Euros or Pounds? At the current exchange rate that would be about $1.50. In addition to that we could end up paying 17% VAT plus 6% local sales tax.

Anyone tried this and have an idea how it works?

Thanks,

Paul

[mrzippy]

Somebody in the UK or someplace is grinning ear to ear as they buy a Prodigy album on the Euro-iTMS. No music collection should be without it, in my humble opinion. The White Stripes, on the other hand.....ugh.

As my previous post stated the Prodigy is still not on the UK iTMS, along with a couple of the other artists that Apple says they have got now.

An odd press release if the songs are not all available to download.

Neil

[Sabon]

When a band signs with a label it is RARE that the label has rights in both Europe, UK, and USA. Normally they sign with another label for another country.

[Mattnh]

I disagree, I think this is very important. Many more in Europe will now be drawn to iTunes which = +money for apple = +cool stuff for us.

As soon as they (=Apple) get the Store to work in Europe...
Coverage is pretty poor with only 3 countries out of...

I'm not from any of them, by the way. :mad:

[Abstract]

Hi,

I agree with the former, but not the latter. This IS news, not a rumour. But as for its level of importance, that is up to the individual.

Where's the New Cube?

s.

Well I agree with him. Why not make use of MacBytes? This is news, not a rumour.

However, I'd like to point out that this is important news for many.

[sparks9]

One day these music stores will be truly worldwide. It's a real shame that at the minute they're so balkanised. :mad:
Still, this is good news for those of us in Europe who have been impatiently waiting for more music to be added to this music store.

I signed up for the UK store and can't get hold of French music that I like, without going through the rigmarole of setting up two accounts, one for each country. I can buy it on Amazon however as a CD. A lot of music in Europe now is trans-national - many albums have songs in several languages, and sell equally well in several countries (ok, perhaps not Johnny Hallyday :p ). The only reasons for this are bureaucratic and political, not technical, so here's hoping that after a couple of years of successful sales this can happen.

I'm looking forward to the cinema store (in a few years), which will hopefully do away with that silly DVD region system. It's time media conglomerates woke up to the global marketplace and starting selling similar products to all countries which are interested.

hmm I think Apple said that they would open a pan european music store in october.... I hope they mean one big store common for all the EU countries. That would be great.

[g4cubed]

*couldn't care less*

Isn't this MacBytes material? I mean... this is a rumor site, not a Mac news site, no? I don't mind important news, but this isn't very important (there still is a huge lack of decent music). iPod/iTunes stories are now beating Mac hardware rumors 10 to 1.
Yes this is a rumor site, but not everything worthy of a front page story has to be rumors. I think this is great news. The more the merrier.

Off topic
Hi,
I agree ....

Where's the New Cube?

s.
That's what I say too.... ;)

[virividox]

this is great thing

[Mudbug]

as I was posting new songs to www.dailytunes.com tonight - I ran into this little issue - sometimes songs are only available from certain countries of origin, depending on which iTMS you use. While this seems obvious (and it is, of course...) the part that was interesting to me is the error message I got trying to access a song that isn't in the US catalog (the URL was submitted to dailytunes). See attached image for what I'm talking about.
linked song in question - there were others (http://www.dailytunes.com/songs/20040721223129.html)

1994?!? maybe there is something about that Y2K thing after all ;)

[Stella]

No, you are incorrect. You can only buy music from your country's iTunes Store... so if your in the US, you can only buy from the US store.


Am I correct in understanding that if we, in the US, wish to purchase these songs we must activate the British or European versions of iTunes and buy the songs in Euros or Pounds? At the current exchange rate that would be about $1.50. In addition to that we could end up paying 17% VAT plus 6% local sales tax.

Anyone tried this and have an idea how it works?

Thanks,

Paul

[Stella]

DVD Regioning stinks.

if I buy a DVD in the UK and and then move to Canada, for example, do the movie / TV companies really expect me to buy the same DVD in Canada? Because I'm damned well not!! I'll convert the DVDs player to Region free... its my legally purchased DVDs and I'll play them where ever in the bloody world I like!!!!!

DVD Region'ing is also a way of keeping up prices.. DVDs are far cheaper in north american than in Europe.. so if Europeans buy DVDs from north america, say, Canada, movie companies are losing money.

There are plenty of firmware hacks to convert the Macs DVD Players to region free.. then you are free to play whatever region'ed DVDs you have purchased.

DVD region'ing is all a big scam...

Sorry for going off topic... but since the DVD region farce was bought up up.. I thought i'd have a rant!

[Stella]

Music Rights...

Just because Sony US allows Apple to sell music on iTMS doesn't automatically give the right for Apple to sell the same tracks on iTMS Europe. Apple have to negioate with record companies for each country...

In iTMS France and Germany there are plenty of Oasis albums, but none in the UK Store... similarly, lots of Mike Oldfield albums in UK store, but only a couple in the US store..

Stupid really, because I could travel over the pond and buy music from European shops with no problem... but no, not over internet.

what's the logic behind this?
I mean, If my credit is good to buy songs in the US (for example, it applies in any directions), why does apple NOT want my money for songs that they have in other catalogs but not int the US one. (I almost can see a reason if they have overlaps, almost).

Any songs that is unique, should be available to every store. If it's not unique, than you have to buy it at the store corresponding to the credit card. Why would anybody (Apple, labels, artists) oppose such an arrangement?

[Doctor Q]

1994?!? maybe there is something about that Y2K thing after all ;)Unix measures time in seconds since the beginning of 1970, so I thought December 28, 1994 might be a certain round number in some base. At this very moment (Doctor Q looks at his Unix watch) it is 1,090,467,665 (40ff3751 hex) in Unix time. Some dates are special in decimal, some in octal or hex. For example, 01:46:40 UTC on September 9 in 2001 was 10^9 seconds after the start of Unix time, and 03:14:07 UTC on January 19in 2038 will be the end of Unix time in 32 bit arithmetic.

But December 28, 1994 (depending on time of day) is about 788,647,600 decimal (2f01ceb0 hex) which doesn't seem special in any particular way.

Notice also that the comma in their message is in the wrong place. They said "December, 28 1994" when they meant "December 28, 1994". So even the meaningless error message has an error in it! :eek:

[anuj]

*couldn't care less*

Isn't this MacBytes material? I mean... this is a rumor site, not a Mac news site, no? I don't mind important news, but this isn't very important (there still is a huge lack of decent music). iPod/iTunes stories are now beating Mac hardware rumors 10 to 1.

Pretty soon there will be no rumor sites, because there'll be significantly less rumors. Apple's shifting mindsets. Count my word.

[Savage Henry]

Artists like The White Stripes and Jamie Cullum are quite happy to point out that their albums are not made with any computers whatsoever for they want to maintain the pure sound from the old fashioned non-digital way.



And now Cullum and Stripes are happy to put all their music made in the analogue domain on to iTunes in nice 128bps digital format.


Well, I find it interesting anyway......

[RogueLdr]

Artists like The White Stripes and Jamie Cullum are quite happy to point out that their albums are not made with any computers whatsoever for they want to maintain the pure sound from the old fashioned non-digital way.
<snip>
I'll remember this the next time I see the computer encoded White Stripes CD at Best Buy. ;)

Seriously though, do the White Stripes feel that their true fans would only buy their recordings on vinyl? If so, I wonder how their conscience handles the fact that the royalty checks they receive are almost entirely derived from CD sales... :confused:

[Dahl]

The White Stripes and Pixies are independent? Since when?

Or independent in Europe maybe? Because both, if not all the aformentioned bands/artists are distributed by "big five" in the States in some form. Not the entire discography, but majority of albums anyway.
Keyword here is "distributed", Pixies (on 4AD in Europe) were distributed by Electra in the US.

[Dahl]

I feel that metal music is strongly missing at the music store, and much of the metal which is there has been encoded really bad, for example, check this one:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=157817&selectedItemId=157807

Could it be the the album given to Apple wasn't remastered before they got it? That MANOWAR album is from '87, it's from the early days of CD's and probably sounds like crap on CD as well.

[garybUK]

Music Rights...
In iTMS France and Germany there are plenty of Oasis albums, but none in the UK Store... similarly, lots of Mike Oldfield albums in UK store, but only a couple in the US store..


Funny how uk bands like oasis (from my home city of manchester) are not available on the uk itms. Also bring on the prodigy. I also want the BBC to release more audiobooks... come on harry potter :P

[MacSA]

*couldn't care less*

Isn't this MacBytes material? I mean... this is a rumor site, not a Mac news site, no? I don't mind important news, but this isn't very important (there still is a huge lack of decent music). iPod/iTunes stories are now beating Mac hardware rumors 10 to 1.


I agree with you to a certain extent, no body is taking about Apple Computers anymore, I wouldn't be surprised if there were people out there that thought iPod and iTunes were the only things Apple produced.

[Savage Henry]

I'll remember this the next time I see the computer encoded White Stripes CD at Best Buy. ;)

Seriously though, do the White Stripes feel that their true fans would only buy their recordings on vinyl? If so, I wonder how their conscience handles the fact that the royalty checks they receive are almost entirely derived from CD sales... :confused:

That's what I can't work out. These artists endorse the non-digital construction of their music, but then practically only sell the stuff via compact disc.

So I think I'll join you with a :confused:

[jam4brains]

Although I love iTunes, I have to get frustrated when a search on the UK store for "pearl jam" (for example) turns up no results, yet on the USA store theres loads, but I can't buy 'em!

annoying.

[hob]

That's what I can't work out. These artists endorse the non-digital construction of their music, but then practically only sell the stuff via compact disc.

So I think I'll join you with a :confused:

What's there to be confused about? So they made it on analogue equipment. I don't have a record deck, do you? They've chosen to make it on analogue, but distribute it on digital formats (as well as analogue) so that those of us who like to listen to it on our iPods or other electronic equimpent can! It's just them being nice :)

[hob]

Although I love iTunes, I have to get frustrated when a search on the UK store for "pearl jam" (for example) turns up no results, yet on the USA store theres loads, but I can't buy 'em!

annoying.

Hear Hear! Same with The Crystal Method, and whoever said that Pixies were up is wrong - it's still the ONE track!!

[amnesiac1984]

Music Rights...

Just because Sony US allows Apple to sell music on iTMS doesn't automatically give the right for Apple to sell the same tracks on iTMS Europe. Apple have to negioate with record companies for each country...

In iTMS France and Germany there are plenty of Oasis albums, but none in the UK Store... similarly, lots of Mike Oldfield albums in UK store, but only a couple in the US store..

Stupid really, because I could travel over the pond and buy music from European shops with no problem... but no, not over internet.

THats the stupid thing though. If your buying CD's you can. I can order all my music off Amazon US and have it shipped over here no problem, it doesn't even cost much to ship (takes a while though, 15 days)

[Dunepilot]

What's there to be confused about? So they made it on analogue equipment. I don't have a record deck, do you? They've chosen to make it on analogue, but distribute it on digital formats (as well as analogue) so that those of us who like to listen to it on our iPods or other electronic equimpent can! It's just them being nice :)

Point 1) They're not being nice. They're manufacturing music that can be played on one of the prevailing musical media (i.e. Compact Disc). Therefore, they're also allowing themselves to make a living out of being recording artists. Whatever I think of Jamie Cullum's music, or of the White Stripes, it's just business sense on the band, and the record company's part to make music available on CD. If bands have a special affinity for analogue recording combined with analogue distribution, they may make a special version of the album on vinyl in order to appeal to like-minded purists. The Mars Volta intended to do this with De-Loused in the Comatorium; I haven't seen it myself but apparently the LP version includes the full concept-story behind the album.

In fact, Omar from The Mars Volta is involved in a really cool record label, gold standard labs (http://www.goldstandardlabs.com) , and It's labels like this that REALLY need to be added to iTunes. This is stuff that people enthuse about, has lasting value beyond the pop charts, and is less likely to be found on the peer-to-peer networks. It's really important that these genuinely independent labels get on board the iTMS, because it will drive their sales and dramatically increase exposure of artists from niche genres.

Point 2) As hob pointed out, the business of recording and distributing in certain media is quite separate. There is a very compelling explanation for recording to analogue media, by analogue methods, given by Steve Albini at http://www.mtsu.edu/~nadam/downloads/Stevealbiniweb.html. If you have an hour or so to spare, this is a fascinating video of Albini's lecture to recording students. He doesn't talk about how warm analogue recordings sound, or any of the ephemera like that, but he comes to the conclusion that there is a strong case for analogue recording methods because they have greater longevity than something recorded to a hard drive, or other digital medium, and therefore analogue recordings are much better from an archival point of view.

(He does seem to be a vinyl fan himself given that it's the preferred distribution of Shellac recordings, but that doesn't change the matter of recording and distribution being quite separate).

Dune

[Daaavek]

I feel that metal music is strongly missing at the music store, and much of the metal which is there has been encoded really bad, for example, check this one:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=157817&selectedItemId=157807

Steve love to say that p2p networks have songs which sounds like they were encoded by kids. Well, that example above from the music store sounds worse than what a kid would have done, a kid have working ears at least.


One label that would help the situation a lot is "Nuclear Blast" (http://nuclearblast.de/). They feature artists like Edguy, Dimmu Borgir, Exodus, Grave Digger, Helloween, Hammerfall, In Flames, Primal Fear, Stratovarius, Sonata Arctica, Therion and many others. But no sign of them at any of the stores :-(

More metal, properly encoded for a change, and I'm a loyal customer..

Word!!! Where's the metal!!!

[Windowlicker]

I feel that metal music is strongly missing at the music store, and much of the metal which is there has been encoded really bad, for example, check this one:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=157817&selectedItemId=157807


uh oh! that was horrible! the guy who's made it must have made some serious mistake there.. you should inform apple about this.. maybe they would fix it?

anyhow so far I haven't heard a track sounding so bad before (on itms that is)..

[Dunepilot]

uh oh! that was horrible! the guy who's made it must have made some serious mistake there.. you should inform apple about this.. maybe they would fix it?

anyhow so far I haven't heard a track sounding so bad before (on itms that is)..

Horrible amount of reverb on the drums, but that's the 80s for you.

[Rocketman]

In a press release (http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2004/jul/21indie.html), Apple announced today that it has signed licensing agreements with three of the largest European independent music labels

I find all this good iPod news to be great for Apple Computer Inc. I find the news to be timely and interesting.

I also find it to be off-topic from "macrumours.com". A Mac is a type of personal computer.

I note this website has tabs for "mac rumours", "page 2", "buyer's guide", "shop", and "forums".

Perhaps it is time to give dominant "iPod" content its own tab?

Pardon my practical comments.

Rocketman

[PrometheusG5]

I wonder why Apple hasn't been able to get some of the big acts on the major labels (the first name that comes to mind is Madonna, but I'm sure there are other big or other well known artists, e.g., Don Henley...).

[Dunepilot]

I find all this good iPod news to be great for Apple Computer Inc. I find the news to be timely and interesting.

I also find it to be off-topic from "macrumours.com". A Mac is a type of personal computer.

I note this website has tabs for "mac rumours", "page 2", "buyer's guide", "shop", and "forums".

Perhaps it is time to give dominant "iPod" content its own tab?

Pardon my practical comments.

Rocketman

Fair comments. I think it's a bit indicative of the way apple-interest is going in general, sadly.

[shamino]

And the logic has always escaped me, as this does obviously nothing to block pirates, but prevents me from watching titles that will never be distributed here. Very annoying.
That's the exact reason. It is to limit distribution. A studio (like MGM) will license different distributors in different countries. They usually get an exclusive license for their respective region. Which is why you don't see two companies publishing the same movie in the same country.

These contracts usually have clauses that say company X may not sell outside of country/region Y.

But the stores (and customers) are not bound by these contracts. A store in the UK can ship DVDs to the US, and vice versa. The studios don't like this for some reason (just like the fact that record companies don't like me buying legit Japanese-published CDs in the US)

The region code system was invented to provide a technical solution to a perceived problem that they could not solve through the legal system

It's the same thing with CSS - it does absolutely nothing to stop you from copying a disc, but (in conjunction with laws like the DMCA) it does prevent you from legally playing the disc on players made by companies that haven't paid the CSS license fees.

[shamino]

Not too long ago, it was big news that indie labels in Europe were refusing to sign on to ITMS.

Now three big ones have signed.

Has anything changed? Did they negotiate a better deal with Apple? Did they cave in and decide to accept the deal already on the table? Something else?

[EuroMetal]

This is great that the iTMS is expanding but there is still a large chunk of the music scene that is still missing. Metal!. Three major labels that need to be brought on board are Metal Blade, Century Media, and Nuclear Blast! Bring em on and "Up the Irons!"

[suneun]

The only albums i've wanted to buy have been goth/industrial/similar-stuff genre music*. But iTunes doesn't really carry such things. The main label, Metropolis Records, carries a lot of the bands I listen to. I e-mailed them today, and they told me that they'll be on iTunes starting October. Yey!

* I know, I'm a goth/industrial wanna-be, but I'm excited about getting Wolfsheim, Project Pitchfork, and some other stuff.

[joeboy_45101]

wired.com is featuring a really interesting article on the development of the iPod. Most interesting is that they reveal that Steve Jobs is partly deaf, apparently the reason why the iPod is louder than most other digital music players. I don't know, maybe this is common knowledge. It was new to me. :)

[Doctor Q]

wired.com is featuring a really interesting article...Here's the link: Inside Look at Birth of the IPod (http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,64286,00.html).

[Porchland]

Unix measures time in seconds since the beginning of 1970, so I thought December 28, 1994 might be a certain round number in some base. At this very moment (Doctor Q looks at his Unix watch) it is 1,090,467,665 (40ff3751 hex) in Unix time. Some dates are special in decimal, some in octal or hex. For example, 01:46:40 UTC on September 9 in 2001 was 10^9 seconds after the start of Unix time, and 03:14:07 UTC on January 19in 2038 will be the end of Unix time in 32 bit arithmetic.

But December 28, 1994 (depending on time of day) is about 788,647,600 decimal (2f01ceb0 hex) which doesn't seem special in any particular way.

Notice also that the comma in their message is in the wrong place. They said "December, 28 1994" when they meant "December 28, 1994". So even the meaningless error message has an error in it! :eek:

You need a girlfriend.

[Shagrat]

Could it be the the album given to Apple wasn't remastered before they got it? That MANOWAR album is from '87, it's from the early days of CD's and probably sounds like crap on CD as well.

It certainly does sound like crap! Don't think it's anything related to encoding, though! :) :) :)

Oh yes, Stella, The name of the beer is spelt Stella Artois!

(Welcome to Pedant's Corner!)

[/|\]

Could it be the the album given to Apple wasn't remastered before they got it? That MANOWAR album is from '87, it's from the early days of CD's and probably sounds like crap on CD as well.

I have it on CD. The quality has some stuff to wish for, but is still way, way better than what apple give us in the store.

The same clip as in the music store, encoded from the CD right in iTunes:
http://ae.nocrew.org/x/manowar.m4a
http://ae.nocrew.org/x/manowar.mp3

And the Musicstore link to the same clip again:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=157817&selectedItemId=157807

128kbit/s just as in the store. I don't usually encode at these low rates so my actual iTunes playlist sound much better. Sorry, but the encoding is really bad in the store. Steve should stop making fun of p2p networks encodings if he can't get it right himself..

[Knox]

128kbit/s just as in the store. I don't usually encode at these low rates so my actual iTunes playlist sound much better. Sorry, but the encoding is really bad in the store. Steve should stop making fun of p2p networks encodings if he can't get it right himself..

I believe it's up to the record companies to either encode or hire someone to encode the music, not Apple.

They do have a specific feedback option for "Audio Quality" for cases where the encoding is bad -

http://www.apple.com/feedback/itunes.html

[itsumo]

I agree with you to a certain extent, nobody is talking about Apple Computers anymore...
I disagree with you. How did all of us switchers hear about Apple Computers if no-one talks about them? ;) I sure wasn't sitting there thinking "I like the look of those iPods - say, I wonder if they make computers?" :)

I wish the threads of global capitalism weren't quite so complex, so we could all download the music we liked. But they are, and we're stuck with it. It's good that Apple is making progress, but you can always order a cheap CD on-line if you can't find something...

[iMeowbot]

Has anyone checked out the "just added" on the US Store? It was HUGE this week...more than twice any prevsious week they have listed. Is this to catch up to the OD2 announcement? Go Apple!
Loudeye/OD2 are major content suppliers to iTMS, so increases in their catalog can only help Apple's offering.

[jared_kipe]

Sweet, now we can all go out and download Basement Jaxx