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Quick Takes: iTunes LP Submissions Ending, Free Apple Music With Select New Vehicles, and More

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In addition to our standalone articles covering the latest Apple news and rumors at MacRumors, this Quick Takes column provides a bite-sized recap of other headlines about Apple and its competitors on weekdays.

Tuesday, March 6

Apple confirms it will stop accepting new iTunes LP album submissions at the end of March: Apple says existing LP albums will not be removed and will remain available to download via iTunes on Mac or PC.

itunes-lp-800x344.jpg

Commentary: iTunes LPs, introduced in 2009, are interactive albums with multimedia such as lyrics, liner notes, artist and band photos, performance videos, and more. A lot of this content can now be found in Apple Music, so it's no surprise that Apple is beginning to phase out this long-forgotten feature.

Get up to six months of free Apple Music with the purchase of a new Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, Jeep, or Ram: The offer is available between May 1, 2018 and April 30, 2019. CarPlay is a standard feature in all of those vehicle brands, while some models include built-in BeatsAudio speakers.

fca-apple-music-800x438.jpg

Commentary: The six-month offer only applies to first-time Apple Music subscribers. If you've already taken advantage of Apple Music's standard three-month trial period, you'll only receive an additional three months of complimentary service. Volkswagen is also offering a similar deal in Europe.

Microsoft begins accepting pre-orders of new Surface Pro with LTE Advanced: The new Surface Pro gains cellular connectivity, with support for 20 LTE bands, but it's otherwise the same as the previous generation. The tablet-notebook hybrid starts at $1,149, but only a higher-end $1,449 model is available currently.

surface-pro.jpeg

Commentary: While the Surface Pro isn't part of Apple's ecosystem, the tablet has received favorable reviews from The Verge and CNET, and some customers may prefer its versatility over the cellular-enabled iPad Pro.

House near Apple Park smashes Sunnyvale real estate record: A two-bedroom, one-bathroom house in Sunnyvale, near Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, California, recently sold for $2 million in cash. At $2,358 per square foot, it's reportedly the highest price per square foot for a home in Sunnyvale ever.

apple-park-800x449.jpg

Commentary: Sunnyvale is situated in the heart of Silicon Valley, where companies like Apple, Google, and Facebook are headquartered. With these tech giants often offering six-figure salaries, it's no surprise that real estate prices continue to rise in the area. The previous record was $2,175 per square foot, according to the MLS.

For more Apple news and rumors coverage, visit our Front Page, Mac Blog, and iOS Blog. Also visit our forums to join in the discussion.

Article Link: Quick Takes: iTunes LP Submissions Ending, Free Apple Music With Select New Vehicles, and More
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2018/03/06/quick-takes-itunes-lp-and-more/
I was making the equivalent of 160K now in 2000 in silicon valley and living in SFO in a small studio on telegraph hill for the equivalent of $2250 (in todays's money). If you don't have family, the valley is fantastic and you can easily get by. But, if you have any family and your not partnered with an engineer making as much as you do, it's nearly impossible to live decently, imagine spending 70-100K to rent a house... That's a whole engineer's worth of salary after taxes... Hopefully the second person can pay for everything else!!

I knew people working in marketing who had to share a house, or sleep the whole week in a camper and then go during the weekend went back to their houses in Richmond or Sacramento.
 
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Apple ridiculed the Surface Pro and mocked the "kick stand", but as someone who carries three devices when traveling (iPhone, iPad and Windows laptop) I think a laptop that can work well as a laptop and tablet will be the future. One less piece of equipment to carry/charge.

I'm not saying the Surface Pro is there yet, but I think the appeal of carrying a laptop and a phone, sans tablet, will be the popular.
 
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KPandian1 said:
Wow! Free Apple Music for six months if I cough up $30,000+ to an unreliable automaker! Where do I sign up?

How out of touch with reality is FIAT?
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You're way over-simplifying things.

First of all, this is no different than a free year of satellite radio that most dealers offer. It isn't meant to sell the car - it's just a nice bonus to go along with it that helps Apple gain subscribers. Nobody in Fiat's board room said, "You know what would sell more cars?! $60 in free music streaming."

Second, there are plenty of Fiat vehicles under $30k. But I'm guessing you already knew that and just needed an exaggerated number to support your ridiculous argument.

They're not the ones out of touch here. You are.
 
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so, with XM/Satellite Radio, it uses over-the-air streams for radio.

with Apple Music in the car...is this via your OWN Data plan? I guess since AppleMusic is playable outside the car that is the case. Whereas the standard XM subscription is not useable outside the device.
 
"often offered 6 figure salary"? er.... our average engineer salaries are around $200k a year. if you only make $100k per person in a family of two people making a total of $200k you will probably starve or have 2 hr commute in bay area. my wife and i make a total of $500+k and we cannot afford to live near our office. we have to live in a $1.3m tiny crappy house far away because we don't want to spend $3m for a 50 years old house in palo alto
 
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usersince86 said:
It would take more than 6 months of free Apple Music to get me to buy a new car (from Chrysler or any other company) :D
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If I did get one of these cars, I would skip the offer. I have no desire for Apple music.
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Eduardo1971 said:
RIP iTunes LP.
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Eventually, it will be RIP iTunes :(. Apple only seems interested in Apple music.
 
It hasn’t looked good that iOS never got iTunes LP support even though the iPad is a better device for lying back and browsing through iTunes LP content whilst listening to the music, either through the iPad itself or the hifi. Than a laptop/desktop is.

That each succesive release of iOS has failed to support the format should have revealed the writing on the wall.

I’ve already extracted the booklet .jpg files from Beatles US Albums and Box Sets for iPad browsing alongside the usual .pdf digital booklets. Time to do the same with others (Beatles BBC, Pink Floyd iTunes Experience editions, initial Queen Deluxe albums and similar). Although the article says iTunes LP support is not going away and can still be downloaded, I’d expect this to disappear from the store and desktop iTunes no longer supporting it.

That iOS hasn’t supported pdf digital booklet downloads directly from the iTunes Store suggests that digital booklets may not be too far behind being dropped either.

A great shame as iTunes LP could impress when done well even if one had to be sat in front of a desktop copy of iTunes to use it, rather than lounging on the sofa with an iPad. Bought more than one expensive digital box set, in part because the liner notes etc were available with the digital purchase.
 
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Eduardo1971 said:
As someone who was actually excited about iTunes LP back when it was first announced-I’m now sad to officially read this.

Saw this coming a while ago but still it’s pretty sad.

RIP iTunes LP.
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I wonder if they targeted their LP service at the wrong artists and audience. New albums haven't been around long enough yet, for people to have listened to them 4000 times and been left wanting more, warranting such a deep dive into LP content. Showing up with a new album today and a pile of extras/making of/behind the scenes content comes off as a bit premature, unwarranted & overly scripted by marketers.

Not saying you have to be sitting on a dark side of the moon before an LP is justified, but, in an avenue where there's already too much content for consumers to be exposed to, process and select from, LP can't be another channel of quantity over quality.
 
Two questions:

- Who's paying for these (is Apple giving them away for free, or do the automakers get the subscription for a discounted price)?

- Is Apple going to pull a Spotify and count these subscriptions towards their total subscriber base?
 
mtneer said:
Isn't that what Amazon wants to do with their HQ2?
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Depending on where you are in life, you want to be careful with what you wish for. A major (non-tech) company moved to within 10 miles of my house and brought most of it's employees from a more expensive real estate market. Home values are up 50-100% in my area as these folks realized how much house they can get in this market.

Sound great, right? Yeah, except I have two school aged children and am not moving anytime soon. So now I'm stuck in the house I have paying twice as much in property tax as I was just 4-years ago. If, a big if, the house hold this value for 10-15 years, I'll get that back, but...
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bchery21 said:
Can a tech giant move their headquarters near me and raise my property value?!
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EDIT: This is the message I wanted to reply to.
 
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TimUSCA said:
Second, there are plenty of Fiat vehicles under $30k. But I'm guessing you already knew that and just needed an exaggerated number to support your ridiculous argument. They're not the ones out of touch here. You are.
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"March 6, 2018 , Auburn Hills, Mich. - FCA today announced it will offer consumers in the U.S. an incredible Apple experience in their cars starting May 1, 2018, which includes up to six months free of Apple Music* with the purchase of any new Chrysler, Dodge, FIAT, Jeep® or Ram vehicle with standard CarPlay support".

If FIAT can insert clauses highlighted above into their statements announced to the public as a selling point (read the actual article), I am allowed to round my number to $30K when referring to a car with CarPlay built-in as standard equipment, not an exaggerated price for such a car in the USA!

Fiat cars can priced in the teens in the USA, or its Alfa Romeo at three to more than six times the price.

This offer is not from Apple, while the offer of free satellite radio is usually from the provider, channeled thru the automaker.

You are now welcome to remove the stick from its current location.
 
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