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Scared Of The Cloud?

Adam Jackson at GigaOm recently ranted on why he's scared of Apple and Amazon and the coming content cloud. He gives the usual reasons: corporate control. Locked-in content. Potential business failure and content loss.

But why the focus on Apple and Amazon? It's not their fault that iTunes and the Kindle store have DRM'ed content.

Adam needs to be ranting at Time Warner and Viacom and New Corps and Bantam and Random House. It's the studios and the publishers who are hanging onto the old models, much as the music studios did earlier on.

It's the studios and the publishers who demand that their precious content be locked down and protected from their own customers.

Actually, when you get right down to it, it's the studios and the publishers who're afraid of the cloud.

The iTunes store accounts for a mere 6% of Apple's revenue. In case you're bad at math, that means that 94% of their revenue comes from selling hardware: iPods, iPhones, iPads, and Macs. Cheap, easily available content helps Apple sell hardware. That's their bread and butter.

Not netting all of twenty cents on a single music track or TV show rental.

iTunes store revenues in the previous quarter were on the order of $1.5 billion. Not bad. But when the studios and publishers take 70% or more right of the top, you're now left with $450 million. Not as good, but still not bad.

But now subtract administration costs. Development costs. Server infrastructure and bandwidth costs. And suddenly the pie gets quite a bit smaller. Apple wants people to buy content from iTunes, sure. But they want to make sure they're doing so from iPads and iPhones and Apple TVs.

iSuppli reported that Apple makes $250 per iPhone. That's one device. Just one sale. To match it, Apple would need to sell or rent 1,250 songs or TV shows.

So don't rant at Apple. Rant at the studios and the publishers. Tell them you want DRM-free, device-independent content. Tell them to get off their well-cushioned behinds and to get with the program.

The music industry did it. So can they.

It won't be comfortable. It won't be easy.

But it's necessary.

[GigaOm]

Upgrade To iTunes 7.7 Before Buying iPhone 3G

The "App Store" upgrade from iTunes 7.6 to iTunes 7.7 is now available via Software Update.

In retrospect, it's obvious that iTunes 7.7 would be released before Apple shipped the iPhone 3G, as Apple's own instructions on upgrading from 2G to 3G require you to sync and backup your existing phone's settings, and then use that backup to "restore" your new 3G phone's settings.

And for that to work, you're going to need new software.

So if you're planning on moving up to a new 3G phone tomorrow you need to run, don't walk, to your Apple menu. From there run Software Update and then download iTunes 7.7. With that under your belt, you'll be set to install the iPhone 2.0 software update when it's released later today.

Install 2.0, then do your backup and you'll be ready to sync up your new iPhone 3G tomorrow.

It's unfortunate that Apple didn't allow more time between the release of 7.7 and 2.0 and the July 11th iPhone release date, but they didn't, so start downloading NOW.

One can only hope Apple's servers are up to the load...

[UPDATE] They weren't...

iTunes, HBO, and Variable Pricing

Once upon a time, content pricing on iTunes was strict and unwavering. Every song was $0.99, no less, no more, and the music labels went along. They screamed and complained and cried... but they went along.

After all, it was Jobs way or the highway.

But in full deal-making mode, Apple just announced that HBO has joined the iTunes universe, with programs from some series priced at the "standard" $1.99 TV rate, and others a buck higher at $2.99.

And now, some pundits proclaim, the floodgates are open, with anyone and everyone now about to demand special dispensation.

But will they? And even if they do, will Apple grant it?

New iTunes Synchronization Features For iPhone

With iTunes 7.6 you now have several new ways to sync music, movies, and TV shows to your iPhone.

First, you can now turn syncing off.

That's right, now you can finally manage everything by hand, dragging songs, playlists, and individual video files directly to the iPhone icon. Just check the "Manually manage music and videos" checkbox on the iTunes summary page for your phone.

Second, in addition to the venerable sync "X most recent unwatched" options they've added the ability to sync the least recent unwatched episodes.

Why would you want this?

Quick Tip: Set Download Priorities In iTunes 7.6

Purchased a couple of movies and TV shows and some music all at the same time?

And now you're waiting with nothing to do?

In iTunes 7.6 that's no problem. Just drag the songs to the top of the Downloads list and they'll be done first. Rearrange the movies and shows to your liking too.

Then you can listen to your new music while you wait.

Apple Nabbed Studios For iTunes RENTALS

Much has been made of the fact that Apple managed to get all of the major movie studios onboard the iTunes rental gravy train.

According to the press release, signed up are 20th Century Fox, Disney, Warner Bros., Paramount, Universal Studios, Sony, MGM, Lionsgate, and New Line Cinema.

And much was made of the pricing, $2.99 for "library" titles, $3.99 for first-run titles, and HD titles a dollar more.

But no mention whatsoever has been made of any changes to the pricing structure for iTunes movie purchases. This despite the fact that the current fixed-pricing scheme has been a notorious sticking point in previous studio negotiations.

Which leads us to our question: Will you be able to buy titles from everyone involved, or are these agreements strictly for iTunes rentals?

And if you can buy them, has the iTunes store pricing structure changed?

Either way, the answers will tell us some interesting things about the industries' relationship with Apple.

[via Apple]

Do We Need A Portable Media Format?

One of the contracts Apple is signing with select studios allows for the addition of a "portable media file" to DVDs.

This is a smaller "pre-ripped" file designed to be quickly copied to iPods and iPhones and other digital media devices, allowing them to play the content legitimately.

But do we really need such a thing?

Do we even want such a thing?

What Wal-Mart Can Teach Apple

As you may or may not know, the end of 2007 also saw the end of Wal-Mart's video download business.

I put it in those terms because their online store closed with little-to-no fanfare. One day it was there, the next—poof. There was a closed-for-business sign hanging forlornly on the front page.

I also suspect that many of you didn't know they even had a download business to close.

So why did it fail? How could the world's largest retailer blow such a major opportunity in a still-emerging market?

And what lessons, if any, can we and Apple learn from poking and prodding around in the ashes?

Movie Rentals: Coming Soon To A Mac Near You?

Over on Roughly Drafted, Daniel is proposing a new subscription-based video rental system for iTunes, much like a NetFlix "five-out-at-a-time" plan.

Using his solution, you pay a monthly subscription fee to have several slots that can be filled with movies or TV shows. Selected movies are downloaded to your computer, and from there can be "checked out" to your iPhone or iPod or Apple TV.

Like NetFlix, you can keep your rental as long as you like, and watch it as many times as you like. When done, you check everything back in and select the next movie to be downloaded.

This fixes several problems with existing movie rental schemes, and solves one major issue that I believe is holding back digital video purchases.

Higher Prices On iTunes? It's About Time!

In yesterday's NBC-Universal story we concluded that a discussion of iTunes pricing model was long overdue.

Today, it appears that we were right on the money, as rumors have spread that 20th Century Fox is in negotiations with Apple to bring its content to iTunes.

One condition of the deal, however, is that Apple raise the average selling price of a movie.

Don't worry folks. This is a good thing.

NBC Programming Vanishes From iTunes

Apparently forgoing any last-minute late-night contract negotiations with Apple, NBC has packed up its things and slipped away in the night.

This means that all NBC-Universal channels have all been dropped from the iTunes store, including Bravo, mun2, NBC, NBC News, CNBC, NBC Sports, Sci Fi, Sleuth, Telemundo, and the USA Network.

Goodbye to The Office, Battlestar Galactica, and of course, Heroes.

First Direct-To-iTunes Motion Picture Premiers

Set in lower Manhattan, Purple Violets is a relationship comedy about four friends from college ready for change. But perhaps more importantly, this marks the first time a full-length motion picture will premiere exclusively on iTunes.

Written and directed by Ed Burns, the film was screened at New York's Tribeca Film Festival. But even though Violets drew positive reviews from critics and attendees it only received lukewarm offers from distributors.

"The specialized movie business has changed so dramatically in the last five years," Burns said. "My style of filmmaking is dying on the vine. These small, talky movies have a hard time finding an audience theatrically, so you need to adapt. There are still people who want to see this nontraditional type of film, and now there are nontraditional ways to get them out there."

All of which lead him to Apple.

Amazon Introduces Kindle; Apple Introduces Nothing

Monday brings the formal introduction of the Kindle, Amazon's new e-ink based electronic book reader. CEO Jeff Bezos thinks that there's an untapped market out there just waiting for the right device and the right company to bring ebooks to the masses.

And he's betting that Amazon is that company.

Is he right? Let's take a look.

Apple Sneaks In A New iTunes Movie Feature

One of the 300+ new features in OS X Leopard is the ability to "float" the DVD Player window on top of all of the other windows on your desktop so that you can watch DVDs while you work. Cool.

But what about movies and TV shows downloaded from iTunes?

Funny you should ask.