[acrockett149]

Apple has held talks with recording companies about licensing music videos to sell through its iTunes store, a possible prelude to an iPod version that plays video.

Wall Street Journal 7/18/05

I don't have access to the whole article. Maybe someone else does and can post the whole thing.

[JayReding]

Actually, it's there already - you can stream music videos in iTunes as it is. The only difference would be that these ones would be sold, and likely in higher quality than the streaming versions.

We also know that Apple was looking for a video engineer for the iPod line, so the idea of an iPod Video isn't all that far off anymore...

[scrouds]

Apple has held talks with recording companies about licensing music videos to sell through its iTunes store, a possible prelude to an iPod version that plays video, a widely expected gadget that apple has told some entertainment-industry executives that it could announce by september

it goes on to say that Jobs bitched out watching movies on small screens but not tv/music videos, just like he bitched out flash mp3 players before releasing the shuffle.

pricing on iTMS should be around $1.99 with possible video/song bundles with them going on sale as early as september

"apple recently liscenced a chip from a subsidy of broadcom that could be used to display video on portable devices, or power more sophisticated graphics..."


those are some of the points. idk if the online article is different, this i pulled from the paper one.

[Brad]

But... wait... Apple already bundles the download of a video together with the song purchase on iTunes for some items. Has that just been the testbed for a wider selection? Weird.

[trans3062]

Who cares about music videos? Bring on the movies.

[Brad]

*shrug*

I just hope iTunes gets a major facelift before that happens. Tacking video support into an application whose interface is designed for playing lists of music is not something that should be taken lightly, but it looks like Apple can't be bothered by things like "good interface design" these days.

[thegelding]

actually i have wanted music video downloads for some time...

making a dvd of the best video for a certain time (summer 2005, winter 2004 ect ect) always seemed like a no brainer to me, yet nobody seems to have done it

g

[almostwise]

Originally Posted by trans3062 Who cares about music videos? Bring on the movies.

Yeah, but if this new iPod does Videos, wouldn't it also do movies?

[Brad]

I believe trans3062 is wanting a Movie Store to purchase whole 2-hour feature films. This is another beast entirely and would mean having lengthy discussions with the MPAA, Paramount, Fox, Disney, etc. and not a bunch of music folks.

[JayReding]

Originally Posted by Brad I believe trans3062 is wanting a Movie Store to purchase whole 2-hour feature films. This is another beast entirely and would mean having lengthy discussions with the MPAA, Paramount, Fox, Disney, etc. and not a bunch of music folks.

That's the rub. Apple could launch an iTunes Video Store tomorrow - they already have the ability to use H.264 to encode movies at decent quality at 1/2 MB/sec and stream them through iTunes. I keep hearing rumors about an AirPort Express that can stream video in the same way that AirTunes streams audio. The technologies are all here - it's just the damn lawyers that are screwing things up for everyone...

[Franz Josef]

An interesting LA Times article about M$'s lovefest with Hollywood and their desire to avoid losing the son of iPod battle. The humility is palpable.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...,3776901.story

[Brad]

Originally Posted by JayReding Apple could launch an iTunes Video Store tomorrow - they already have the ability to use H.264 to encode movies at decent quality at 1/2 MB/sec and stream them through iTunes.

That's not enough, though. A video store would imply purchasing a license to the video and saving a copy locally, not just streaming it, unless Apple flips a total 180° on its views of "purchasing" digital media. That means Apple needs a whole lot more bandwidth to handle the throughput of actual downloads unless they expect people to wait 2+ hours for a single download.

It also means a lot more overhead on the CPU of the servers since those large files will need to be protected on the fly as well. The current music videos are not protected at all and are plain old .mov files. Commercial movies would have to be protected.

It also means assuming a large enough portion of users have a big enough pipe to purchase in order to make it a profitable venture. At least the iTunes Music Store is still usable by dial-up and other narrowband users. A Video Store, however, would demand not only broadband but a very fast broadband connection.

It also means enough people have the incentive to purchase. The iTMS had the iPod and over a year of iPod sales to get people turned on. An iTVS has nothing so far. Also, iTMS started in an world where everyone was downloading music illegally, from pre-teens to adults, from hackers to soccer moms. Pirate movie downloads are certainly around, but it's nowhere in the volume that music was. So, the demand is obviously smaller.

[JayReding]

From what I've heard, those hurdles have already been dealt with. Technologies like BitTorrent make distributed downloads fairly painless, and people would be willing to set a movie to download overnight and then play it the next day. Look at how slow Netflix's "bandwidth" is. Conventional broadband would be fast enough to download a movie compressed with H.264 at around 1-2 MB/sec overnight - and possibly even to stream that movie on demand.

The legal issue is the biggest hurdle, then perhaps the market issue. However, it's pretty clear by now that Apple is making incremental steps towards an iFlicks Video Store or something of the like, so they must think the market's large enough to support such a venture.

[Franz Josef]

Originally Posted by JayReding The legal issue is the biggest hurdle, then perhaps the market issue. However, it's pretty clear by now that Apple is making incremental steps towards an iFlicks Video Store or something of the like, so they must think the market's large enough to support such a venture.

Cringely would have us believe ( http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20050714.html ) it's Clickstar - the Morgan Freeman / Intel JV - which will be the basis for a movie store. Whether true or not, it does shed light on an interesting angle for the Intel co-operation : Intel as much more than a purveyor of the finest chips.

[The Return of the 'nut]

Originally Posted by JayReding From what I've heard, those hurdles have already been dealt with. Technologies like BitTorrent make distributed downloads fairly painless, and people would be willing to set a movie to download overnight and then play it the next day. Look at how slow Netflix's "bandwidth" is. Conventional broadband would be fast enough to download a movie compressed with H.264 at around 1-2 MB/sec overnight - and possibly even to stream that movie on demand.

I don't see Apple doing it if it will take an overnight download to do.


I think a subscription service would work better for movies anyways. A flat fee per month for unlimited movie streaming is pretty good. and then an extra fee to burn it to dvd to own it.

but who knows, movies dont have the replay value and wont have the instant gratifiication music has had

[DMBand0026]

Originally Posted by Brad *shrug* I just hope iTunes gets a major facelift before that happens. Tacking video support into an application whose interface is designed for playing lists of music is not something that should be taken lightly, but it looks like Apple can't be bothered by things like "good interface design" these days.

That's big disadvantage #1 to iTunes becoming so popular. Apple is kind of in a bind as far as the look and feel of the app go. Change it too dramatically and you can bet people will be in an uproar and they'll start staying "this isn't iTunes, I hate it now, I never should have bought this iPod...ect" Believe me, people are generally irrational like that.

I'd like to see iTunes get a facelift as much as anyone, but I don't want to see people draw incorrect conclusions about the functionality of iTunes or the iTunes/iPod combo as I know they would. Besides, I'm sick of looking at the Green icon

[BarracksSi]

I'm just getting into this thread, so my apologies if I'm repeating what anyone else said...

Originally Posted by Brad But... wait... Apple already bundles the download of a video together with the song purchase on iTunes for some items. Has that just been the testbed for a wider selection? Weird.

They do that a lot, actually. There are technologies & concepts scattered throughout the OS that are early implementations of future features. For example, the underlying principle (if not the basic mechanism itself) of Spotlight already existed in iTunes from the very beginning. Also, the PDF capabilities of OSX enabled Exposé, Dashboard, fast scrolling & resizing in iPhoto, etc etc.

The high-definition video standard is already in place, and it could certainly be used for portable videos that look good on a bigger screen.

The pieces are already there for portable video -- they just need to add the content. Like a new house -- the walls are built, the plumbing is active, the wiring is in place, so they need to furnish it and move in.

[rasmits]

I'd rather see some TV shows for download or something. Sort of a TiVo/Podcast-ish subscription. Not like TV networks make much money on a TV show after it's been shown on air, and they could make a few bucks on it.

Plus it's a smaller download then a full sized movie, and everyone has time to watch a 15 or 30 minute TV show every once in a while. You could make sure you never miss a Family Guy episode ever again, and you'd have the ability to burn it to DVD or watch it anywhere.

I think that's the direction they're most likely to go.

[abrooks]

Originally Posted by rasmits I'd rather see some TV shows for download or something. Sort of a TiVo/Podcast-ish subscription. Not like TV networks make much money on a TV show after it's been shown on air, and they could make a few bucks on it.

I see this being very possible, VoD is becoming a reality, I mean who actually wants to sit in front of the TV all day to watch there favourite programs ,
why not just subscribe and download as and when you wish, I'm almost certain this will come before Movies, likely to be wrong though :smokey:

[Franz Josef]

More detail on possible content for video iPods. No way to confirm veracity but things do seem to be gathering pace. Perhaps this is Jobs way to prevent overall fall-off in Apple sales pre Intel switch.

http://macdailynews.com/index.php/we...video_content/

http://business2.blogs.com/business2blog/

"Steve Jobs has spoken with Disney President and soon-to-be CEO Bob Iger about ways to license various Disney content for a video iPod, according to an internal Disney email I have obtained. That could include anything from clips from ESPN and ABC News to short cartoons," Business 2.0's Erick Schonfeld reports in his blog (his source is B2.0 editor-at-large Paul Sloan). "If the past is any measure of what’s to come, Jobs will enter the arena late (as he did with the iPod) only to leapfrog over the competition with some entirely different device. And that could leave everyone from Microsoft’s Bill Gates to Sony’s Howard Stringer once again racing to copy their far smaller rival."

[morningstarrising]

There are tweo reasons why Steve is meeting with the future Disney head...

Iger Meets With Jobs of Pixar, Jobs of Apple Steve Jobs may be switching hats in his meetings with incoming Disney CEO Robert Iger. Jobs, who is chairman of both Pixar and Apple Computer, has reportedly engaged in preliminary talks with Iger about working out a deal that would continue Pixar's successful partnership with Disney. In addition, reports spread on the Internet Tuesday that he may also be meeting with Iger to discuss ways of licensing Disney movies and ABC television shows for a video iPod that Apple is said to be developing. Jobs is said to be particularly interested in bringing classic Disney cartoons to the iPod. The Wall Street Journal said Tuesday that Apple is also seeking to license video content to sell online at its iTunes store.

[Franz Josef]

Yeah - and each role reinforces and adds credibility to the other.