Norah Jones performed (playing guitar instead of piano) and Steve Jobs made his first major pubic appearance today at Apple's major music announcement. The assembled crowd of journalists greeted Jobs with thunderous applause usually reserved for conquering heroes.
Top music news from the press conference included:
Jobs reminded the crowd that iTunes is the #1 music retailer in the world having sold more than 8.5 billion tracks since launch and with a 100 million credit cards on file
- A new iTunes LP that includes liner notes, photography, video, etc. According to reports they come at a much higher $16.99 price. If true, I see consumer rebelling.
- One example given of how the new LP format can be used was a Dave Matthews record with hand drawn art by DM himself giving every song has its own illustration.
- 30,000 ringtones a for sale from all four major labels at a "breakthrough price" for ringtones of $1.29
- A "genius" function for the iPhone and iPod touch that (among many other things) creates playlists based your history and the history of others.
- A new iTunes 9 operating system.
- Some social functions have been added ti iTunes 9: you can gift music, add to a wish list and send it directly to Facebook or Twitter.
- The iTunes store got a sleeker redesign and new artists pages
- Home sharing enables sharing music and other media across a home netowrk of up to 5 computers.
- The iPod has a 73.8% market share. Microsoft has less than 2%.
- A revamped iPod Touch line at lower prices starting at $189
- iPod classic: The thin model is upped from 120GB to 160GB at the same price of $249.
- The Nano gets a video camera, FM radio and pedometer added
