Apple announced that they rule the world. Well, close… The company announced that they beat out Wal-Mart  as the #1 music retailer in the US. Its not really a big surprise, seeing as how iTunes is probably more of a household name than Wal-Mart. Plus, on iTunes, you can buy songs with bad words on them! Since music and movies are heading to 100% digital anyway, you can always count on Apple being the biggest and best to take care of business. iTunes currently supports 50 million customers and has sold over 4 billion songs. If you do the math, thats pretty good.

-Jake

Have you ever noticed the music scores in all of Apple product ads? Chances are, you have never heard of the artist or album playing in the background of the white backdrop advertisement. One example I can think of, off the top of my head, is the most recent advertisement with the very popular Macbook Air. It’s a very simple premise, where a faceless nobody is taking an Air out of an inter-office envelope, opens it, and thats it. But little do they know,  the reason people stay tuned is to hear the 30 second clip of artist Yael Naim singing. You know, that you did NOT know who the heck she was before that commercial. But guess what? Her album has debuted at number 9 on the top 100 Billboards upon its release. That is the genius of Apple advertising. Most of the best music in the world is independent, and Apple is and will use that to their advantage. These catchy tunes are not only short of amazing but cheap! So the genius of this premise is: Apple pays half than what they would for “big label” artist rights, and the Indie artist, which they choose goes to sell out most of the crap that is on the top 40’s these days. Who wants to hear Nickelback in the background of a Mac ad anyway. Smart business for Apple, good news for Indie artists.

-Jake

We are packing to head to Austin, TX tomorrow for SXSW. It is an annual ritual and i will be bringing daily happenings from there and updating as often as possible on the SXSW section of the page. Tune in starting tomorrow! 1st stop: “The Big DIGG Shindig”

-Jake

In case you have not heard, the Beatles entire catalog will FINALLY be available for download via iTunes very soon. Sir Paul McCartney has signed a $400 million dollar deal with Apple to release the music on iTunes. In my opinion the catalog is worth much more, and Apple will make that money back in no time. But for the rest of us, this is somewhat of a dream come true. This should spark an era of digital downloading, where people will actually pay for music that they truly want, or believe deserves to be paid for.

The $400 will be split between the remaining Beatles and/or their families. Michael Jackson and Sony EMI will also get a cut for being catalog shareholders..I’m quite sure McCartney will be getting the biggest chunk (but with his recent divorce he wont be coming out much more rich). All i have to say is .. ITS ABOUT TIME! I am upset George Harrison isn’t alive to experience it [As a side note he will be given a documentary directed by Martin Scorsese who did Bob Dylans: No Direction Home]. I will update this post when a date on the music release is announced.

-Jake