RSSApple Starts Selling Music Videos
By Ed Oswald | Published May 10, 2005, 11:19 AM
Fueling speculation of its next moves, Apple, with the newest version of iTunes released late Monday, began to sell music videos as part of some album downloads. Interestingly enough, these videos are without digital rights management, meaning they can be shared freely.
The music videos can be downloaded following the purchase of an album, either including one video, or several short clips. The videos have a 480x272 resolution at 30-frames per second.
Officially, downloadable music videos to play on a Mac or PC are available from Dave Matthews Band, Gorillaz, Morcheeba and The Shins. However, research by BetaNews, as well as reports by Apple news Web site The Mac Observer, found some 50 videos across the service.
Several analysts have said that a video-enabled iPod is the next logical step for Apple as it looks for ways to drive its digital music business. Thus far, however, video-enabled devices have not sold well.
Portable Media Centers, which are based on Microsoft technology, from companies such as Creative have been plagued by poor sales and a lack of videos formatted for the device.
It is unknown at this time if the video download option will become a bigger part of the iTunes service, or whether Apple has plans to extend video downloads past music videos and into other genres as well.
Since music videos are worth nothing anyway, this comes as no surprise. One might argue that these pointless and usually annoying "commercials" have been the death of good music, but who cares anymore?
Score: 0
I love music video's. My current collection exceeds 250 vids. But I prefer Ripping them from dvd's thus having pure dvd(vob File)qaulity. If they(apple) would sell vob files for let's say .99 cents each(like they do music), i would buy alot of them. We would be talking about getting ahold of all the original music video's for the last 20+ years. I don't see a market for a ipod video. But i do see a market for a ivideo hard drive based media device for the tv. 200 bucks might be the sweat spot(80gigs=320video's at vob qaulity). The music industry doesnt make anything on video's. In fact they lose money on them. All they are is a form of advertizement for the Music itself. I would love to have the qaulity of a Apple product for playing video's on my tv. I must point out i do not pay for music at all. I've file shared all 4000 of my songs. But for the ability to get Perfect video i would be eager to pay. I wouldnt be adverse to paying 1000 bucks for 1000 video's. Bottom line, this is a untapped market. Music video's sold in stores are few and far between. As for a ivideo player features it should have wireless conectivity to the pc or mac,for downloading new content and burned purchased content. Must also be capable of playing mp3's. Being in a home theatre setup this would be crucial. Must be no more compicated then a reg. external hard drive. User upgradable storage would be nice. I wouldn't mind tossing in 500 gig hard drive some day.
Score: 0
"Since music videos are worth nothing anyway, this comes as no surprise. One might argue that these pointless and usually annoying "commercials" have been the death of good music, but who cares anymore?"
agreed. music videos are nothing but promotional material. there is no reason for all that crap. i would be happy to see all that junk taken off the air waves. all those rap videos stink. just a bunch of hooligans dancing around with slutty women in thier gold jewelry that could pay to feed third world countries.
if i was making music videos (and i am) they would match the words with visuals and the moods of the music. they would "visualize the music" they would give the listener something to think about that relates to the theme of the song. in the ones i have done so far you dont even see the band. why would i want to watch them play thier music on TV? its not like they really play anyways, they are just "airbanding" over the music track. i can think of one really good example of just how fake music videos are, that incident on SNL with Ashley Simpson.
"200 bucks might be the sweat spot"
ah, i think you meant sweet spot
"I must point out i do not pay for music at all."
not that i could careless, but you are obviously one of the reasons why the music industry looses that money you talk about on the videos.
"But for the ability to get Perfect video i would be eager to pay."
why? why would you pay for something that you already seem to not pay for? you dont pay for the music, obviously you already rip DVDs for the videos, why would you pay to download them?
so why would Apple set up a service to let you download good quality video, even for $.99?
Score: 0
It's dumb, you are going to pay to download a video but yet be free to distribute? That is absolutely stupid! Also at the resolution it is poor size. What if someone wanted to burn them to Dvd and Make their own Music DVD the sizes would not be right~!
Score: 0
If you have cable tv or a dish, you are already paying for something you get for free. Why buy music when you can listen to a radio. (and don't give me the argument that you listen tothe whole CD - good for you) Studies show that consumers buy CD's for 1 or 2 songs. This is why downloading is so popular.
It is all about choices! There are more choices in downloading music, watching cable, or music videos. It is about accessing it at anytime and enjoying it. I wouldn't download the videos either, but can see companies like Apple, Yahoo, and AOL doing so. Trying to stay that one step ahead of their competitors and increase profits.
Score: 0