abirdtold.me

iPods with cameras? Maybe. iTunes with new features? For sure. iTunes with Beatles? Nope. I’m sure that Apple (AAPL) will indeed sell the Fab Four’s music via its digital music store one day. But it’s not happening at Apple’s keynote presentation tomorrow.

The Beatles estate, Electronic Arts (ERTS) and Viacom’s MTV (VIA) will be releasing a new version of “Rock Band” that features the bands songs tomorrow. And on the same day, EMI Music Group will be releasing all of the band’s music on remastered compact discs. But that’s it, a source familiar with the band’s plans tells me. For now.

Beatles-to-iTunes is a story that never goes away. And some day, it will turn out to be true — there’s no good reason for it not to happen. But predictions that it will happen have been tied to wafer-thin logic.

Two years ago, the Web was convinced an announcement was in the offing because of the wording of an Apple keynote invitation. This year, even sober-minded publications are noting the timing of Apple’s keynote event, and the Rock BandRock Band reviews and CD launches, and concluding that an iTunes launch makes sense, too…
Read on at allthingsd.com

This is completely a rumor, but an awesome one. Citing a “pretty reliable” source, Boy Genius Report is saying that the next version of iTunes will add a bunch of new, highly requested features. Specificially, BGR’s source says iTunes 9 features BluBlu-ray support, a new way to organize iPhone apps within iTunes, as well some kind of integration with TwitterTwitter, FacebookFacebook and possibly Last.fm.
Each of those features have been talked about for some time now on the web. But as BGR notes, the talk of Blu-ray does line itself up well with an AppleInsider report from yesterday that very vaguely suggested Apple has new iMacs due shortly with features that have long been on the wish-lists of Mac owners. Blu-ray is certainly on that list, and seems like a pretty good candidate, despite Steve Jobs’ calling the format a “bag of hurt” as recently as October of last year… Read on at TechCrunch.com

Reuters has a new report today about the Cocktail plan. After you wade through the usual PR speak from music execs about how this will change the digital music experience for consumers, you get to the real nugget of information:
Will the Cocktail format drive greater digital album sales? Probably not, but that’s not what the music industry is expecting from it. Instead, label sources position it as a way to further monetize existing digital album purchases. While pricing information isn’t available, Cocktail-formatted albums will almost certainly cost more than the standard album available on iTunes… Read on at TechCrunch.com

The Apple rumor mill never stops. This week, the Financial Times is claiming that Apple is working hand-in-hand with record labels to redesign how it sells music albums on its iTunes store. According to the FT’s sources, Apple is working with EMI, Sony, Warner and Universal on a project code-named “Cocktail.” The goal is to provide a more interactive album-purchasing experience, one that is distinctly different from that of buying just one song, by “bundling liner notes and video clips with the music.” Users would have an interactive “book,” presumably built into iTunes, including photos, lyric sheets and liner notes. But will such inclusions spur record sales? Having lyrics built into a track might save a trip to one of the billions of lyric sites on the Net, but shouldn’t that stuff be included anyway? Sites like Last.FM make music listening more interactive, letting you share what you’re listening to with friends — but with iTunes and the iPod having 70 percent market share in the U.S., the killer app for any social music service would be full iTunes integration… Read on at gigaom.com

Finnish startup Linkotec is close to debuting the public beta version of dazzboard, a browser-based media manager that it says has all the goodness of iTunes but without the disadvantages of Apple’s closed environment. Read on at TechCrunch…