Itunes Music Store Protocol Article Index for
Itunes 		Shopping
Itunes 		Website Links For
Music 		 

Information About

Itunes Music Store Protocol
APPAREL
BABY
BEAUTY
BOOKS
CAR TOYS
CELL PHONES
DVD'S
ELECTRONICS
GOURMET FOOD
GROCERIES
HEALTH & PERSONAL
HOME & GARDEN
JEWELRY
MUSIC
MUSIC INSTRUMENTS
OFFICE PRODUCTS
SOFTWARE
SPORTING GOODS
TOOLS & HARDWARE
TOYS
VIDEO GAMES
SHOPPING HOME
MORE SHOPPING...



The iTunes Music Store is an Online Music Service run by Apple Computer through its ITunes application. Opened on April 28 , 2003 , the Store proved the viability of online music sales. As of February 2006, the Store had sold over 1 billion songs, or more than 80% of worldwide online music sales. Downloaded files come with restrictions on their use, enforced by FairPlay , Apple's version of Digital Rights Management .



FEATURES AND RESTRICTIONS

  • Pricing: One set price for songs (actual price varies by the user's country; e.g., 99¢ in the U.S. , $1.69 in Australia , €0.99 in the EU or 79 pence in the UK ) with the exception of the Japanese store, which sells songs for either ¥150 or ¥200). Most albums cost $9.99 in the US. Volume discounts of up to 20% are available for purchases of more than 25,000 songs (10,000 for educational institutions).1

  • Platform(s): Any Operating System or device supported by ITunes ; Mac OS X (not Mac OS Classic ), Windows 2000 , Windows XP , Windows Server 2003 , and some Mobile Phone s.

  • Downloading: Yes.

  • Burning/Copying: Yes.

  • Streaming: 30-second previews can be streamed; purchased songs cannot.

  • Format: Protected , Audible audiobooks at 32 kbit/s.

  • s. (Formerly: three – then five – computers per 24 hours; and 10 unchanged playlist burns.)

  • Preview: 30 seconds.

  • Trial: N/A

  • Protocol: iTunes Music Store Protocol (itms://) for opening the iTunes application and the requested store page to buy music. Example: itms://ax.phobos.apple.com.edgesuite.net/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum. itms:// is not a real protocol, but refers to HTTP URLs that need to open in iTunes.

  • Catalog: More than 2,900,000 songs (includes Audio Book s), 60,000 podcasts, 9000 music videos, 70+ television programs; (originally iTMS contained about 200,000 files).

  • Features: Allowance, Just for you, gift certificates and gift cards, iMix (user-submitted playlists), Podcasts , Billboard charts, radio charts, advanced search, music videos, short films, television shows, and movie trailers.

  • Availability: To buy files through iTMS, a users must have a pre-paid deal or a credit card whose billing address is in Australia , Austria , Belgium , Canada , Denmark , Finland , France , Germany , Greece , Republic Of Ireland , Italy , Japan , Luxembourg , the Netherlands , Norway , Portugal , Spain , Sweden , Switzerland , United Kingdom , and United States . Other people can download podcasts and previews only.

  • Customer Support: Apple provides no customer support for the iTunes Music Store over the phone (Slate attempted to uncover one2). All customer service inquiries are done over the web.3



BACKGROUND

Debuting on April 28 , 2003 , the iTunes Music Store was the first online music store to gain widespread media attention. Unlike previous services such as Rhapsody and MusicNet , Apple's store allows the user to purchase songs and transfer them easily to the IPod through iTunes. The iPod remains one of the only digital music players (besides some Motorola cell phones) that can work with the iTunes Music Store, although some other digital music players will work with iTunes.

The store began after Apple cut deals with all four major record labels, EMI , Sony BMG (which at the time was still the separate Sony Music Entertainment and BMG ), Universal and Warner Bros . Music by more than 600 Independent Label artists were later added; the first was Moby on July 29 , 2003 .

The total offering includes more than 2,000,000 songs, including exclusive tracks from more than 20 artists, including Bob Dylan , U2 , Eminem , Sheryl Crow and Sting . Each song can be downloaded for 99 US cents. Free 30-second previews are available of every song. Most albums are priced at 9.99 US dollars, although some longer-than-average albums cost more, and others less. The user can burn downloaded songs to an unlimited number of Compact Disc s, and specific playlists up to seven discs.


CATALOG CONTENT

Currently, several dozen new songs are added each Tuesday. Apple also releases a 'Single of the Week' and usually a 'Discovery Download,' on Tuesdays, which are available for free for one week. It allows the purchase of albums on pre-order status, beginning with '' X&Y '' by Coldplay .

The iTunes Music Store also includes over 9,000 audio books, encoded at 32 kbit/s. 90 second previews are offered for every book.

There are no tracks from The Beatles , Led Zeppelin , AC/DC , Metallica , Tool , or Radiohead in the iTunes online catalogue (with the exception of an album collaboration between Tony Sheridan and the Beatles, and two Radiohead songs). Led Zeppelin and Radiohead are not included due to a belief (by the bands) that their songs should not be available outside of albums, (though there is an "album-only" option available on some albums on iTunes prohibiting the download of individual tracks) while The Beatles' record company Apple Records is currently in a legal battle with Apple Computer over the name "Apple". There are, however, biographies within the Music Store for both Led ZeppelinThe Led Zeppelin biography on the iTunes Music Store is available here . and The Beatles.The Beatles biography on the iTunes Music Store is available here .

As of August 2005 , the Japanese store offers no songs from Sony Music Entertainment . However, some musicians like Motoharu Sano are trying to sign with Apple independently. On September 6 , 2005 , SME announced its plan to sell songs in iTMS but did not say when.5

Similarly, the Australia n store didn't offer any songs from Sony BMG until January 17 , 2006 , when Sony and Apple finally reached an agreement.

In 2004 , CDBaby (an online music store which features more than 100,000 independent artists) signed a deal with Apple and managed to get every artist who sells albums there (of those who wanted digital music distribution) on iTunes.

As of December 2005 the iTunes Music Store includes more than 3,000 videos and 2 million songs.6


Video

In October 2005 , Apple announced the latest iPod would be capable of playing video files, which would be sold online through iTunes. These videos included 2000 Music Videos and episodes of popular Television programs. Working a deal with Disney to be the first supplier of TV shows, the first shows available included all the episodes of '' Lost '' and '' Desperate Housewives '' with each episode becoming available the day following its original airing on broadcast TV. Several short animated films by Pixar are also available.

The selling of videos on iTunes sparked considerable debate as to whether there was a paying audience for programming available for free on TV. As MP3 Newswire pointed out, users are not so much paying for the TV programs themselves. Instead they are really paying for a service that offers the convenience of someone else digitizing free broadcast episodes for them for their portable device, each episode in commercial-free form, and a convenient place to select and download individual shows. Through an updated version of QuickTime Pro , users can create their own videos for the iPod, including digitized versions of programs recorded on their VCR if they wish to take the time and effort and save the cost. As of November 2005 , 3 out of the top 5 podcasts in the Dutch iTunes Music Store were VODcast s.

On December 6 , 2005 , Apple added additional shows from NBC Universal (which includes NBC , the Sci Fi Channel and USA Network ). Initial offerings were NBC's '' Law & Order '', '' Surface '', and '' The Office '', and segments from '' The Tonight Show '' and '' Late Night With Conan O'Brien ''; USA's '' Monk ''; Sci Fi's '' Battlestar Galactica '' (and the Miniseries preceding it); and "vintage" NBC series '' Alfred Hitchcock Presents '', the 1969 '' Dragnet '', '' Adam-12 '' and '' Knight Rider ''. Apple announced that future NBC Universal content would be made available, including '' Saturday Night Live '' sketches and shows from its Bravo channel.

On January 3 , 2006 , more content from ABC , ABC Sports and ESPN was added to the store, including '' BCS Bowl Games '', '' SportsCentury '' interviews, '' This Is SportsCenter '' commercials, '' Wildfire '', '' Kim Possible '', '' The Proud Family '', '' America's Funniest Home Videos '', '' Schoolhouse Rock! '', '' Ebert & Roeper ''. Some Disney Animated Short Movie s were also added, including the Academy Award -winning '' The Three Little Pigs '' and '' The Ugly Duckling ''.

On January 26 , 2006 , Apple added additional shows from Comedy Central , MTV , Nickelodeon , and The N . Added shows included Comedy Central's '' South Park '', '' Drawn Together '', and Best of Comedy Central's Stand Up, MTV's '' Beavis And Butt-head '', '' Laguna Beach '', '' Wonder Showzen '', '' Gauntlet 2 '', '' My Super Sweet 16 '', '' Jackass '', and '' Punk'd '', Nickelodeon's '' SpongeBob SquarePants '', '' Dora The Explorer '', and '' Zoey 101 '', and The N's '' South Of Nowhere ''.

On February 14 , 2006 , Apple added exclusive Swimsuit videos from Sports Illustrated Magazine. On February 21 , 2006 , the pilot of upcoming NBC drama '' Conviction '' was released for free exclusively on iTunes.

On March 14 , 2006 , Apple added the first ever feature length movie to the iTunes Music Store. Disney Channel 's film High School Musical was made available for $9.99 (the entire movie) or $1.99 for each of six music videos based on it. On March 28 , 2006 , Apple added exclusive videos from IMG Media on Olympus Fashion Week in New York and Mercedes Fashion Week at Smashbox Studios in LA.


Television shows currently available



MARKET SHARE AND MILESTONES

  • The store sold about 275,000 tracks in its first 18 hours and more than 1,000,000 tracks in its first 5 days. When released for Windows, iTunes was downloaded more than 1,000,000 times in the first 3 days and more than 1,000,000 songs were sold in that period.

  • On December 15 , 2003 Apple announced that it had sold 25 million songs since the launch in April.

  • In January 2004 at the Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco , Steve Jobs announced (Sellers, 2004) that an unnamed person had purchased $29,500 USD worth of music.

  • On March 15 , 2004 , Apple announced that iTunes Music Store customers had purchased and downloaded 50 million songs from the iTunes Music Store. They also reported that customers were purchasing 2.5 million songs a week which translates to a projected annual run rate of 130 million songs a year. The 50 millionth song was "The Path of Thorns" by Sarah McLachlan .7

  • On April 28 , 2004 , the iTunes Music Store marked its one year anniversary with 70 million songs sold, the clear dominance in the paid online music market and the slight profit.8 The store also offers hundreds of movie trailers and music videos, in an attempt to boost soundtrack sales. In the conference, Steve Jobs reiterated that a subscription service is still not the interest of customers and reported that only 5 million of the 100 million songs offered in the Pepsi giveaway campaign were redeemed, which he blamed on technical problems in Pepsi distribution.

  • According to an Apple Press Release released on August 10 , 2004 , the iTunes Music Store is the first store to have a catalog of more than one million songs.9 Also, the iTunes Music Store at that point maintained an over 70% market share of legal music downloads.

  • On September 1 , 2004 the iTunes Music Store had surpassed 125 million songs sold.10

  • On October 14 , 2004 the iTunes Music Store had surpassed 150 million songs sold.11http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2004/oct/14itunes.html

  • On December 16 , 2004 the iTunes Music Store had surpassed 200 million songs sold. Ryan Alekman of Belchertown , Massachusetts , USA , bought the 200 millionth song, which was one of the tracks on U2 's digital Box Set "The Complete U2".12

  • On January 24 , 2005 the iTunes Music Store sold a quarter of a Billion songs worldwide.13

  • As of March 2 , 2005 , the iTunes Music Store had surpassed 300 million songs sold.14

  • On May 10 , 2005 Apple announced that it had sold over 400 million songs.15

  • On July 5 , 2005 Apple announced that the countdown to half a Billion songs had begun.16

  • On July 18 , 2005 Apple announced that it had sold 500 million songs. Amy Greer of Lafayette , Indiana , USA , bought the 500 millionth song, "Mississippi Girl" by Faith Hill .17

  • On October 31 , 2005 Apple announced that iTunes Music Store customers had purchased and downloaded 1 million videos since the launch of video support on October 12 , 2005 .18

  • On December 6 , 2005 Apple announced that iTunes Music Store customers had purchased and downloaded over 3 million videos.19

  • On January 10 , 2006 Apple announced that the iTunes Music Store had sold 850 million songs and 8 million videos.20

  • On February 23 , 2006 Apple announced that the iTunes Music Store had sold 1 billion songs and 15 million videos. The billionth song was “Speed of Sound” by Coldplay , purchased by Alex Ostrovsky of West Bloomfield , Michigan .21



INTERNATIONALIZATION

Originally only Mac OS X users who had credit cards with a U.S. billing address could buy songs with the service, but Steve Jobs , the CEO of Apple, announced plans to support both Windows and non-American users. The Windows version of iTunes and support for the Windows platform from the iTunes Music Store were announced on October 16 , 2003 , with immediate availability. Beginning in 2004 , the service has become available in a number of countries outside the U.S.:
  • On 15 June 2004 , the iTunes Music Store was launched in France , Germany , and the United Kingdom . Songs were priced at 99 Euro cents ( €0.99) for France and Germany , and 79 pence (£0.79) for the United Kingdom . According to an Apple Press Release, the European iTunes Music Stores sold a combined total of 800,000 songs in one week, with 450,000 of those songs sold in the UK.22

  • On , Belgium , Finland , Greece , Italy , Luxembourg , the Netherlands , Portugal , and Spain . This extended availability to all countries in the Eurozone except for the Republic Of Ireland , where the iTMS became available on 6 January 2005 . These countries also pay €0.99 for songs, and all these stores share the same catalog and are available only in English. The French, German, American, and British stores are localized for their respective countries and have different catalogs. On 3 December 2004 the British Office Of Fair Trading referred the iTunes Music Store to the European Commission because it prevents consumers in one EU country from buying music from stores in other EU countries, in violation of EU free-trade legislation; the immediate cause of the referral was because the €0.99 price charged in the Eurozone equates to 68 pence in sterling, rather than the 79 pence actually charged there.

  • The iTunes Music Store was launched in Canada on December 3 , 2004 ; Canadian customers pay $0.99 ( CDN ) per song.

  • On 10 May 2005 , the iTunes Music Store "went live" for Norway , Sweden , Switzerland and Denmark , after about two weeks of speculation about these countries (and Australia ) receiving the store.

  • Apple officially launched the iTunes Music Store in Japan on 4 August 2005 , with 1 million songs available; 90% of songs are priced at 150 yen.23 In the next four days the store had sold one million songs–the pace faster than that of the U.S. store.24 This opening to the world's second largest music market, where iPod controls about 30% market share, came after a long delay. In addition, Apple failed to have one set price for singles. Pundits have speculated that this may indicate the introduction of new price structure to the rest of the stores in future, in favor of record labels who would like to see higher prices for new songs.

  • The iTunes Music Store was launched in Australia on 25 October 2005 . Individual songs are priced at AUD $1.69 per track, album prices vary but are generally priced at $16.99. The recent release of video-capable IPod s also saw the store launch with Music Videos and short films by Pixar available for $3.39 each, although TV episodes are not currently available. Stores in the Coles Myer retail chain sell iTunes Music Cards in denominations of $20, $50 and $100. Access was inadvertently given to some people in New Zealand , too.25 Failed negotiations with the Sony BMG label (which had delayed the launch of the Australian iTMS significantly) meant that none of that label's artists were available at the time of launch. Sony music was later added starting on January 17 , 2006 .



FILE FORMAT


Songs are encoded using FairPlay -encrypted 128 kbit/s AAC streams in an Mp4 wrapper, using the .m4p extension. In practice, the sound quality is roughly comparable to songs encoded at 160 kbit/s ( CBR ) using Fraunhofer MP3 or 160 kbit/s using Microsoft's Windows Media Audio WMA format.

While licenses to the AAC compression and the mp4 file format are readily available, Apple has not agreed to license their proprietary FairPlay encryption scheme to other hardware manufacturers until recently, so only Apple's iPod was able to play AAC files encrypted with Apple's FairPlay technology, apart from computers with iTunes or Quicktime installed. On September 7 2005 Motorola and Apple announced the Motorola ROKR E1 , which comes with built in iTunes software and can also play songs from the iTMS. About two months later the second cell phone with iTunes, the Motorola RAZR V3 i, was announced. The Motorola SLVR L7, released in early 2006, became the second actual phone available on the commercial market to support songs encoded by iTunes or purchased on the iTMS.


DIGITAL RIGHTS MANAGEMENT