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Hands-On Report:
Apple Music Store & New iPods
By Brian Nakamoto
April 29, 2003
The Steve Show
Apple’s invitation to MacsOnly! hinted that today’s special event would be “music to [our] ears.” My ears are still ringing! Steve Jobs was the rock star. His concert broke-in the brand new Moscone West venue, and more importantly, rocked the stagnant music industry. On April 28, 2003, Apple applied its innovation to the way we buy music (online). Here’s how it went down…
Innovate
Steve Jobs’ first slide was simply: “Innovate.” His next slides reviewed the 17-inch PowerBook G4 and used Walter Mossberg’s quote from the Wall Street Journal in which Walt mentions that the 17-inch PowerBook is sleeker than a Dell laptop that has lesser features.
Steve said that Safari, Apple’s speedy web browser, has had over 3 million downloads since its first public beta release. He also highlighted Apple’s iLife suite of photo, music, movie and DVD software, Keynote, which he noted that he was using, and FinalCut Pro 4, their professional movie editing software.
Acquire, Manage, Listen
Steve then focused on the areas that Apple are innovating with music: iTunes and iPod. He also mentioned that Apple was the first computer company to win a Grammy Award.
Steve said that Apple’s “Rip, Mix, Burn” marketing caused confusion among people without teenage kids. He said that some people thought “rip” meant “rip off.” This drew laughter from the audience. As if talking to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), Steve clarified that “rip” means to the hard drive to everyone under thirty [years old]. He went on to explain that you could then use your music with iTunes, and burn a CD to play on your stereo. Thus, to make sure that everyone could understand, Steve changed the “Rip, Mix, Burn” slogan to “Acquire, Manage, Listen.” The crowd loved the sarcasm.
Listen
Steve started by stating that the iPod has sold over 700,000 units making it the number one MP3 player in the world. They have been revolutionary like the Sony Walkman. Then Steve unveiled the third generation iPods being sure to make a point that the competition has yet to catch up with the first generation iPods.
Steve showed that the new iPods would be available in 10 GB, 15 GB, and 30 GB models. Steve stated that the 30 GB model holds 7,500 songs, is only 0.62 inches thin, and 5.6 ounces. When Steve made the analogy that the new iPod is thinner and lighter than two stacked CDs in their jewel cases, an audience member behind me exclaimed, “Wow,” and Steve acknowledged, “Yeah, it’s ‘Wow.’”
Steve’s slides demonstrated that all of the controls on the iPod are touch sensitive, just like the previous model’s solid state scroll wheel. The four main buttons on the front of the new iPods also illuminate when the backlight is used on the display, which has higher contrast than their predecessors.
Steve went on to point out that the FireWire connector moved from the top to bottom of the iPod so that it can use the new iPod cradle. In place of the FireWire port on top is a new remote control interface, and the familiar hold switch and mini-stereo audio lineout jack for headphones. The new iPod cradle also supports a mini-stereo audio lineout jack whose volume is independent of the iPod so it can be controlled by a stereo.
Steve said that there would be a software update in June to take advantage of USB 2.0 on the new iPods. He cracked a joke that it’s not ready now because Windows is less predictable. The USB 2.0 cable plugs into a special $19 FireWire cable because USB 2.0 “doesn’t have enough power” to recharge the iPod. The iPods still come with the same AC power supply that interfaces with the iPod’s FireWire cable. Separate cable aside for USB 2.0 users, the audience was glad when Steve announced that the Mac and Windows iPod versions would ship in the same box.
Steve moved on to software starting with Dolby AAC (Advanced Audio Codec) support on the iPod. AAC is the audio codec used in the MPEG-4 standard. Music encoded in AAC at 128 Kbps sounds near-CD quality and is much better than an MP3 encoded at the same bitrate.
Steve demonstrated additional iPod software enhancements including On-The-Go Playlists—finally make custom playlists on the iPod. In fact, it’s now possible to even customize the iPod interface menu itself by choosing what functions to show and hide. The iPod’s alarm clock can now beep as it does when being placed in its cradle, and there are two new games: Solitaire and Parachute. Both games are surprisingly intuitive to play with the iPod’s wheel. Perhaps the best feature in Steve’s iPod demo was that the backlight could now be activated with the new Menu button so no more fiddling with the Backlight menu.
Steve summarized the iPod portion of his presentation with the prices:
10 GB / 2,500 songs / $299 (cradle, case and remote sold separately)
15 GB / 3,700 songs / $399
30 GB / 7,500 songs / $499
Steve announced that the new iPods would be available this Friday, May 2 in “large supplies” followed by an international release on May 9.
The Apple retail stores will be holding special events on May 2 starting at 6 PM in the stores’ local time zones. The dance club-like flyer advertises:
Live DJ
Free event poster
Win an awesome JBL sound system
Limited-edition T-shirt
And more. Right here.
In the after event, I gleamed some additional iPod factoids from Apple representatives:
- The new iPods use iPod Software 1.3 that will also be available via Software Update for all previous models.
- The 30 GB iPod is slightly thicker than the 10 and 15 GB iPods that are the same width. Thus, the 30 GB iPod does not fit in the 10 and 15 GB iPod cradle.
- The price for iPod engraving has been lowered to $19.
- The headphones are the same as the ones bundled with the last generation iPods with one demand driven exception—the removable ear foams are black instead of gray.
- There will be a $24.95 adapter for the Burton ski jacket because the new iPods have a new remote interface.
Numerous third parties will be coming out with third generation iPod accessories. Belkin will have a DC power auto adapter, and another company has developed a wireless remote control that lets you control the iPod while it is in its cradle attached to a stereo, for example.
Manage
Steve unveiled iTunes 4, software to manage our music. Like the new iPods, iTunes 4 now supports AAC “state of the art audio codec” encoding. iTunes 4 also marks the release of Rendezvous support that Steve originally demonstrated last year. iTunes 4 can share playlists among three Macs on a wireless or wired network. DVD archiving (not DVD Audio) of music onto a DVD, and CD artwork are new in iTunes 4 as well.
Steve’s demo of iTunes 4 and Rendezvous was filled with humorous sound bites as Phil Schiller played the roll of Steve’s son home from college and Peter [LastName] played the roll of Steve’s nephew. Steve used hilarious inflection when he referred to an iTunes stream: “It’s not copying it because that would be verboten.” He couldn’t emphasize enough that shared music is not retained; the owners must be present to share via Rendezvous.
Acquire
Finally, Steve switched to the topic everyone had been waiting for. He began with some background. Now we get our music off of CDs. Then in 1999 came Napster that showed there was demand for acquiring music online, but it was shutdown in 2001 because people were not sharing music legally. Kazaa quickly filled its place but it too is used to share music illegally. (I thought it was interesting that Steve used a screenshot of Kazaa running on Windows XP as if to subtly hint that Mac users don’t steal music.) He recapped that Napster’s upside was that it showed what people want, but the downside was that it’s stealing.
Steve outlined what people want. On the pro side, features included: vast selection, unlimited burning, unlimited copying to MP3 players, and free. On the con side: unreliable downloads, poor quality (“ripped by seven year olds”), no previews, no cover art, and it’s stealing. Steve said, “It’s best not to mess with karma.”
Steve reviewed the current online subscription music services, Pressplay and Rhapsody. Both had major limitations according to Steve. For starters, he said, “These services treat you like a criminal.” Subscriptions are the wrong path because people have always bought music, and people have always listed to it how they want to.
Steve let on that Apple had started working on their music service one to one and a half years ago. He emphasized that Apple had negotiated “landmark deals” with “The Big Five,” the five largest music labels: BMG, EMI, Warner, Sony, and Universal. Steve said that he wasn’t sure how things would turn out considering that the technology and content industry had been at odds when they started.
Steve proudly announced that now there are 200,000 music tracks online at their music service, and they’re loading in more everyday. Unlimited CD burns are allowed for personal use although one must modify playlists every ten burns, a number Steve said most people would never reach. He also said that music can be used unlimited on all models of iPods, and can be played on up to three Macs with Rendezvous. Music can be de-authorized and re-authorized, and can be used in any Mac application such as those in Apple’s iLife suite. Steve used an iPhoto slideshow as an example.
Considering the price, Steve drew great applause when he got to the price of 99¢ per song—no subscription fees. He put price into perspective by comparing a $3 Starbucks latte to 3 songs. “Pretty affordable,” said Steve, and the audience seemed to agree.
To recap, Steve showed that Apple had overcome most of the drawbacks of the illegal and subscription music services:
200,000 Songs
Unlimited CD burning
Unlimited iPods (as opposed to just any MP3 player)
Up to 3 Macs (good enough for most people)
99¢ a song (which Steve conceded as not free but affordable)
“The download is slow as molasses and craps out halfway through. I’m sure no one has tried this,” Steve said as he made another analogy that spending an hour to get four songs that cost $4 from Apple means that you’re under minimum wage.
Steve then segued into what is required for Apple’s music service. This included the ability to move data that Apple already does with their popular Trailer movie site. They’re using 128 Kbps AAC encoded from master tapes so that some tracks sound even better than CD fidelity. They have free thirty-second previews and album cover art for every CD. Plus, it’s not stealing—it’s good karma.
Steve pointed out that only Apple and Amazon have 1-Click ordering. Their music store can be searched, or browsed by genre, artist, or album. U2, Eminem, and over twenty other exclusive artists have allowed Apple to sell their music. The music is easy to acquire because it’s built into iTunes 4.
Steve’s quick demo received big applause when he used his steve@mac.com account to preview and buy some songs. He slyly mentioned that he had a fast network connection so the downloading might not be as fast for us. He also cracked another subtle joke while highlighting that people will discover all kinds of new music: “I don’t listen to World Music.” Of course, Steve is known to like World Music. While searching, Steve would mistype so he finally drew laughs when he said that it’s “easy to find stuff—gotta spell though.” More entertainment ensued when he singled out the song “Radar Love” and commented, “We might want to buy the song but I bet no one wants to buy the album.” Although Steve showed how easy it is to also buy an entire album. The total cost for some complete albums appeared to cost less than 99¢ per track.
Steve continued to browse the diverse collection that included “Books and Spoken” where he found a Steve Martin sound bite to parody: “I forgot that stealing music was illegal.” Eminem was used as the example to point out that both explicit and clean versions of songs are available. Eminem was one of the featured exclusive artists, and Steve showed off that some exclusive streaming videos are available too.
“You’ll fall in love with music again… So you’ll spend some money,” Steve joked while he blasted the music.
Rock ‘n’ Roll Reborn
To conclude, Steve summarized that only Apple could deliver oceans of bits as demonstrated by their Trailers site, handle millions of transactions (“hopefully”) as proved by the AppleStore Online that does over a billion dollars in sales, integrate with a popular jukebox (iTunes), and work seamlessly with iPods. “Only Apple could have created this store,” proclaimed Steve.
Steve disclaimed that it’s currently only U.S. only, but was quick to point out that you “need a credit card with a U.S. address” as if hinting to international users how they could still buy music. Steve also mentioned that iTunes 4 and iPod Software 1.3 would be available in thirty minutes. As an aside, he introduced the idea of “Buy, Mix, iPod,” a remark that perhaps fell flat with the audience.
Of course, Steve was big on the store being Mac only since “most innovations come to Mac first.” However, Windows users will get something by the end of the year. And a Steve Jobs presentation wouldn’t be complete without a video. This time Ian Robinson from MTV fittingly hosted it from the Apple retail store in New York’s SOHO. (I noticed that the background stage lighting did a neat 180-degree rotation away from the main screen when the lights dimmed.) The video had multiple endorsements from U2’s Bono, Wynton Marsalis, and Alanis Moririssette. Bono made perhaps an unintentionally funny comment when he lamented that he didn’t want to need “a PhD in button pushing to get music.”
Steve followed the video with several television ads in progress that seemed to have been inspired by American Idol.
After much applause, Steve left the stage and Sheryl Crow’s “Soak Up The Sun” played.
. . [Go to Macs Only!'s Daily News]
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