Why would Steve Jobs rent music on iTunes?

It’s all the talk on tech and music blogs: The report in Wednesday’s Financial Times that Apple is negotiating with the big music companies for a deal that would give customers free access to the entire iTunes music library. In exchange for what? There are several answers to that question in the FT account, and that’s the problem. (Fortune)

Apple mulls unlimited music bundle

Apple is in discussions with the big music companies about a radical new business model that would give customers free access to its entire iTunes music library in exchange for paying a premium for its iPod and iPhone devices. Apple, which is thought to make relatively little money from the iTunes store compared with its hardware sales, is also understood to be examining a subscription model. (Financial Times)

BBC releases fix for iPlayer hack

The BBC has issued a fix to stop people downloading programmes from the iPlayer website that were intended for streaming on an iPhone or iPod only. The content for the phones and iPod is streamed as an MP4 file without copy protection and hackers quickly realised that they could access the file using a simple plug in for Firefox. (BBC News)

Warning bells sound over Apple iPod sales

Apple's shares fell more than 17 per cent in regular trading yesterday before recovering slightly to trade 10.65 per cent lower by market close, as analysts expressed concern over weaker iPod shipments than had been hoped for. Apple said on Tuesday that it had shipped just over 22.1m of its signature portable music players during the three months ended December, up just 5 per cent over the same period last year. Yesterday's fall wiped more than $16bn off Apple's market capitalisation. (Financial Times, Forbes)

SeeqPod IPhone Button Allows Instant Access to Free Music

We've been following SeeqPod for a while as the company has honed its music search engine, which lets you play the internet's hidden music on your computer, IPhone, or iPod Touch. After installing the latest firmware (in iTunes), you can add an SeeqPod icon to your iPhone or iPod Touch menu that offers direct access to the service. Once you search for or browse to a song (enter a band you like in the Discover menu to find new stuff), songs load as Quicktime movies on the iPhone. (Wired Blog)

The Macworld Flipside: Apple's iPod Sales Growth Slowing

In his Macworld keynote, Steve Jobs boasted that Apple has sold 4 billion songs via iTunes and that it has sold 4 million iPhones since last June. But no mention of iPod sales. Why not? One reason: iPod sales growth is slowing. Year-over-year sales growth has declined for the past three consecutive quarters: From 50% in the Dec. '06 quarter to 17% in the Sept. '07 quarter. If Apple hits the Wall Street consensus when it delivers Q1 results on Jan. 22, it will sell a record 24.7 million iPods. But that means y/y sales growth will be just 17% again. A year ago, Apple reported that Q1 iPod unit sales increased 50% y/y; in the Dec. 2005 quarter, y/y growth was 207%. (Silicon Alley Insider)

Has Apple Seen the Height of its Success with Music?

At yesterday's MacWorld keynote, Steve Jobs unveiled no new major music initiatives at iTunes or with the iPod line. Jobs said that iTunes had passed the 4 billionth track download, but that represents a slight slow down of growth. No IPod numbers were shared, but again analysts suspect that sales growth is slowing. Those same analysts were less than impressed by the announcements that Jobs did make yesterday including movie rentals at iTunes and an amazingly thin new MacBook Air. The stock market reacted sending Apple's stock down $5.45 by the end of trading on Tuesday. Music industry observors had hoped for an Apple subscription music service or expansion of its wirelesss download platform, but Apple hinted at no such initiatives. (WebProNews)

Tooble bridges the YouTube to iTunes to iPod divide

One thing iPhone and iPod Touch users have been enjoying over the past year has been a finger optimized version of YouTube that pulls in videos on demand. However, users of older video-enabled iPods have been left to fend for themselves using a bevy of services to pull down videos from popular hosting sites and reformat them to fit using third-party conversion apps. A new service called Tooble that aims to streamline this process is showing off its wares on the Macworld Expo show floor. (WebWare)