Starbucks and Apple have announced a new ‘Pick of the Week’ promotion. The promotion offers Starbucks customers a chance to download and listen to complimentary new music and videos each week. Featured artists thus far include a pretty good lineup including Carly Simon, Counting Crows and more.

Every Tuesday more than 7,000 Starbucks locations in the US (sorry Canada) will stock a new ‘Pick of the Week’ download card redeemable at the iTunes Store. The card will get you a complimentary song or video hand-picked by Starbucks and iTunes. The first pick is Counting Crows’ new song ‘Washington Square.’

Once the Pick of the Week cards are distributed via Starbucks locations, customers have up to 60 days from the date of issue to redeem via iTunes.

Eddy Cue, President of iTunes commented:

“Pick of the Week provides an incredible way for Starbucks customers to discover great new music and videos for free on the iTunes Store.. With the world’s largest online catalog of music and video there is truly something for everyone.”

I kind of like this idea. I like Starbucks. I own more than one Mac… I run iTunes… and I enjoy music. If this promotion was only available in Canada I’d be all over it

Read the Press Release >

written by Mr. Mayor \\ tags: iTunes, Pick of the Week, Starbucks

The rumors have been going on for some time now… But it looks like the iTunes subscription rumors are coming up yet again. Yipee!

According to a report over at the Financial Times, Apple is currently in discussions with major music labels about a new model that would give all of us free access to the entire iTunes music library in exchange for paying premiums for iPod and iPhone devices. Really? Hmmm… now that IS intriguing!

Since iPhone already runs on a monthly billing cycle, a subscription option would more than likely be the best option there.

A report from engadget noted that the major holdup is apparently ‘Apple’s hesitation to pay big bucks in order to access the labels’ libraries’…

I sincerely hope this actually happens… Unlimited music downloads for a monthly fee would be incredible. Premium pricing for an iPod and/or iPhone would be ok too, but I would much prefer the subscription service.

What do you think? Discuss this in the forums >

[via engadget]

written by Mr. Mayor \\ tags: iPhone, iPod, iTunes, iTunes Subscription

All parties involved in the so-called Beatles/iTunes deal have now all denied any talks taking place. Apple Inc. has flatly denied the rumors and have called them ‘unsubstantiated speculation’. A spokesman from Apple also commented ‘this is not news nor is it a scoop’. Enough said.

The Beatles’ label Apple Corps and parent company EMI have both refused to comment on the matter.

British newspapers brought this story to light over the weekend when they published the rumors.

The reported deal is rumored to be worth over $400 million. At that amount, Apple would have to sell around 41 million full Beatles albums to earn back that amount. That’s a lot of music.

To speculate (and I love to speculate), I’d still expect a deal to shakedown at some point in 2008. Even Sir Paul himself has commented that the Beatles’ catalog should be available sometime this year.

[via Billboard]

written by Mr. Mayor \\ tags: Beatles, iTunes, Paul McCartney

Rumor has it that Sir Paul McCartney has reached a deal with Apple to offer up the Beatles catalog in the iTunes store. The deal is worth a reported $400 million. That’s big bucks… Not that Sir Paul is hurting for cash.

I can hear you saying ‘How much of a cut does Ringo get I wonder?’ Well, there are many parties that are bound to benefit from the deal. Including the families of the deceased Harrison and Lennon… Ringo (who is not dead yet as far as I can tell) and Michael Jackson also stand to bring in a tidy profit.

Rumors have been floating around on this for quite some time now… This one is reported to be the ‘real deal’…Sir Paul has even been quoted as saying the catalog of music would appear online sometime in 2008. It’s probably just a matter of time before we see ‘Yellow Submarine’  popping up on iTunes. Guaranteed it will be the news of the day when it happens.

[via arstechnica]

written by Mr. Mayor \\ tags: Beatles, iTunes, Paul McCartney

Insiders at Facebook have leaked that they are investigating the possibility of their very own music store… Which would, in effect, be direct competition for iTunes.

It is interesting that they have recently launched their Facebook Music service, which allows you to follow artists and buy the music via iTunes. This might have been the ’seed’ that has got Facebook execs thinking.. ‘Hey, lets cut out iTunes and put up our own store! More money for us!’. I’m sure the discussion was more in-depth than that, but you get the picture.

Any way you slice it, Facebook is reportedly in talks with major labels to offer unique content of their own. The deal is rumored to include free ad-backed streaming audio similar to what you see on MySpace profile pages. Also, paid MP3 downloads would be available and usable on any OS.

What do you think? Facebook is certainly used by millions and millions and millions… They have the audience and leverage to give something like this a shot in my opinion. They key will be, what can they do to make it better, easier and more unique than iTunes? Or do they even care… Put up a good store backed by many labels, and start taking chunks out of the market Apple has dominated for the past while!?

[via electronista]

written by Mr. Mayor \\ tags: FaceBook, Facebook Music, iTunes

When the Steve announced the iTunes Movie Rentals service at MacWorld, he promised that it would offer at least 1,000 movie rentals by the end of February… and, within those 1,000 rentals, at least 100 of them would be HD rentals. Well, February has come and gone, and those goals were not met.

Using the Apple TV to count HD rentals, MacWorld’s Christopher Breen found a total of 91 HD titles (100 was the target). Another disappointing fact is that not all of these 91 HD titles feature Dolby Digital 5.1… a feature Apple had also promised.

For the total number of rentals available, things get worse. The Apple TV movies section reported a total of 351 movies for rent according to Christopher. 378 were available in the ‘all movies’ section, and only 399 when using ‘power search’. Looks like they have a very long way to go to meet the targets they set out and promised back in January at MacWorld!

One can only suspect that the studios are to blame for the delays on new titles and releases. Licensing issues with the studios could be a problem, and I would not be surprised if one or more studios are delaying the process. No matter which way you slice it, Apple might have mis-judged how compliant and easy it would be to work with the studios on this one. Once all the ‘kinks’ are worked out I’m sure we’ll see the number of movie rentals skyrocket.. but until then… Apple is left with an over promised, and under delivered iTunes Movie Rental Store.

[via arstechnica]

written by Mr. Mayor \\ tags: Apple TV, iTunes Movie Rentals