iTunes

Kendrick Lamar to perform at iTunes Festival SXSW

As first noted by Jim Dalrymple of The Loop, Apple has added Kendrick Lamar to its star list of performers at the upcoming iTunes Festival SXSW next month in Austin, Texas.

Support acts ScHoolboy Q, Isaiah Rashad, Band of Skulls and Capital Cities have also been added to the list of performers.

Lamar, 26, is a popular American hip-hop artist who first gained major attention in 2010, after the release of his fourth mixtape, 'Overly Dedicated'.

The Los Angeles based lyricist also delivered a flawless set during last year's iTunes Festival at London’s historic Roundhouse venue, where more than 400 artists performed in front of more than 430,000 fans, according to MTV...

Apple releases iTunes 11.1.5 with compatibility improvements and bug fixes

Apple has released an update for iTunes this afternoon, bringing the software to version 11.1.5. Don’t get too excited though, it appears to just be a maintenance release with only a handful of improvements.

Those improvements include a fix for a problem that may have been causing iTunes to quit unexpectedly when a device is connected, as well as better compatibility with iBooks for users on OS X Mavericks...

Soundgarden will perform at iTunes Festival SXSW in Austin, Apple confirms

Earlier in the month, Apple said it will be bringing the iTunes Festival to the United States, marking the show's first appearance on U.S. soil as iTunes Festival used to be a UK-only affair. But as Apple's influence grows and its brand gets more powerful, the company reckoned the time has come to bring iTunes Festival to the United States.

In addition to the previously announced acts, Apple on Wednesday added Soundgarden, the popular Seattle, Washington rock band, to its star-ladden list of performers. Soundgarden performing at the show will also mark the 20th anniversary of one of the band's best albums, Superunknown ($9.99 in the iTunes Store)...

I love the 90’s: episodes of Doug, Ren & Stimpy and more go free on iTunes

As a kid who grew up in the 90's, I spent a lot of my free time watching cartoons on Nickelodeon. I'm not too familiar with the stuff that's on now, but I know there was some really good shows on back then like Doug, Rugrats and Hey Arnold!

So you can imagine how excited I was when I came across the Nickelodeon Animation Showcase promotion in iTunes this afternoon. Apparently, Apple has made a deal with the network to offer episodes from some of the 90's TV shows for free...

Apple announces the very first iTunes Festival to be held in the US

Apple this morning announced via a press release iTunes Festival SXSW, the very first iTunes Festival to be held in the United States. The music event will be held March 11-15, 2014 at ACL Live at the Moody Theater, which is the home of Austin City Limits.

The lineup of stars includes Coldplay, Imagine Dragons, Pitbull, Keith Urban, ZEDD "and more to come". It gets even better as all five nights of the event will be available as a free live and on-demand stream via the iTunes Store on the iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac or PC devices.

Additionally, music lovers will be able to stream the event in high-definition through the iTunes Festival app on iOS devices and the Apple TV set-top box...

Apple posts update for iTunes Connect web portal

Apple has posted an update for its iTunes Connect portal this evening. Developers use this portal to track and manager their App Store apps, and tonight's update has brought about a new Sales and Trends sections that allows them to better parse sales data.

The move should appease developers, who have long-complained that the iTunes Connect portal lacked useful reporting tools. In fact, many developers have forgone using iTunes Connect entirely for app figures, opting for other analytics services like App Annie...

iTunes Inc. would rank #130 on Fortune 500

If Apple's iTunes were a separate company, it would rank 130th on Fortune’s annual list of the Top 500 companies in the United States. It's also half the size of Google's search business! The high-volume, low-margin store raked in an astounding $4.4 billion in revenue during Apple's fiscal 2014 first quarter ended December 28, 2013.

And according to independent analyst Horace Dediu of Asymco, total iTunes revenue in 2013 topped - wait for it - an incredible $23.5 billion. That's an awful lot of money for an online-only content store...

Apple launches iTunes Radio in Australia

Apple has officially launched its streaming music service iTunes Radio in Australia this morning, making it the first non-U.S. country to gain access to the service since it was introduced last fall.

It was reported in October that Apple had plans to rollout iTunes Radio to the U.K., Canada, Australia and New Zealand in early 2014, and this appears to be the first step of that International push...

Bank of America and U2 team up for Product (RED) iTunes free song promo

U2, the famous Irish rock band from Dublin, has teamed up with Bank of America in a new promotion where the latter donates $1 for every free iTunes download of U2's new single titled Invisible to (Product) RED's charity which fights against AIDS.

The promotion was announced via a Super Bowl ad and was designed to help end mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Product (RED) was founded in 2006 by U2 frontman Bono, together with Bobby Shriver of the ONE/DATA, as a way of raising awareness and funds to help eliminate AIDS in Africa...

How to remove the ‘Store’ button in the Music app on iOS 7

In an effort to generate iTunes sales on iOS devices, Apple has long placed a Store button in the top menu bar of its Music app. As you would expect, tapping on Store exits the Music app and brings you to the iTunes Store for everything from songs and albums to movies and TV shows. It's a convenient link from one app to another on iOS devices, but some users might not find use in it. If you're one of those people, a new jailbreak tweak called NoStoreButton7 is a quick fix for you…

Apple releases iTunes 11.1.4 with Wish List and language improvements

Apple has released an update for iTunes this afternoon, bringing the software to version 11.1.4. Don’t get too excited though, it appears to just be a maintenance release with a handful of enhancements.

Those enhancements include the ability for you to view your Wish List while in your library, as well as improved support for Arabic and Hebrew languages. There are also the usual stability improvements...

Apple’s iBooks Textbooks and iTunes U Course Manager expand to new markets

Today is a big day for Apple's strides in education as the company in a media release announced a significant expansion of its educational content.

iBooks Textbooks are now available in a total of 51 countries around the globe while iTunes U Course Manager is available to customers in 70 countries, Apple said.

Starting today, iBooks Textbooks and iTunes U Course Manager are rolling out to new countries in Asia, Latin America and Europe, including Russia, Thailand and Malaysia...