Apple today announced its plans for Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving when all retailers will be hosting flash sales on many of their products. As usual, the deals aren't as good as other major stores are offering, but they are worth mentioning.
As part of its RED campaign for World AIDS Day, Apple will be giving away free gift cards with the purchase of select products on Friday. The cards can be used on apps, books and other iTunes content, and their values will depend on what you buy.
Chase is launching a new promotion to entice its cardholders to try out Apple Pay. As noted by MacRumors, the bank is notifying customers that they're giving away free iTunes music this weekend to anyone who adds their card to Apple's payment service.
From November 21 to 23, those who add their Chase Visa card to Apple Pay will receive early access to David Guetta's new album "Listen." Once verified that their card has been added, users will receive an iTunes redemption code via the Chase mobile app.
To celebrate the release of their new album called Sonic Highways, all the Foo Fighters albums are currently on sale on iTunes, with most of them starting at just $6.99. If you want to complete your Foo Fighters collection, now is the right time to do so.
An old man like me tends to believe that the earlier Foo Fighters albums are the best, but the younger crowd might disagree. At any rates, these are some albums you should definitely consider.
Spotify seems to have surpassed iTunes in Europe where royalty payments from the popular streaming-music service is now earning artists more revenue than Apple's stagnant music store, which to this date continues to sell music downloads and does not offer all-you-can-eat subscriptions.
At least that's the key takeaway from a survey conducted by Kobalt Music Publishing, which collects royalties on behalf of 6,000 songwriters and music makers in Europe.
According to the data cited Wednesday by The Wall Street Journal, Spotify in Europe brought artists an average of thirteen percent more revenue versus iTunes during the first quarter of 2014.
The data seems to corroborate recent findings by the Recording Industry Association of America which found that digital music sales on iTunes dropped between thirteen and fourteen percent globally since the start of this year, with Apple officially confirming the drop in its SEC filing.
In a somewhat ironic twist of fate, Disney is helping blur the lines between Apple's and Google's respective ecosystems with Tuesday's release of its Movies Anywhere app for Android, now available free of charge in the U.S. Google Play Store. That's right, the app now lets folks buy and enjoy Disney content on both iOS and Android devices.
The movie-curating app debuted as an iOS exclusive in February 2014 with support for free streaming of any Disney, Pixar and Marvel content previously purchased from Apple's iTunes Store. Any of the 450 Disney movies you bought using the app would immediately register as purchased inside the iTunes Store.
Now that Disney Movies Anywhere is available for both iOS and Android, not only can you watch your Disney movies across Apple's and Google's platforms, but also purchase any Disney, Pixar or Marvel Universe movie on Google Play and have it available on iOS and vice versa.
Heads up movie lovers and Batman fans, the iTunes Movie Store is offering a great deal on the popular Dark Knight trilogy. For a limited time, you can get all three movies: Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises in HD for just $14.99.
Given that $15 is typically the standalone price tag for each of these movies, the promotion will net you a savings of $30. The three films, which star Christian Bale, come highly recommended too, with all of them rated an 85% or higher on Rotten Tomatoes.
With Halloween coming up tomorrow, Apple has discounted a number of horror movies in its iTunes Store down to $9.99. It's also added Saw: The Complete Collection to its Movie Bundles section, which includes all 7 movies from the popular franchise for just $29.99.
Given that each Saw movie typically sells for $12.99, this deal is a savings of more than $60. But if you're not a fan of the Jigsaw killer, there are plenty of other notable movies on sale, including genre classics such as Poltergeist, The Shining, and The Blair Witch Project.
If you've been on the lookout for the latest deals on iTunes Gift Cards, head over to PayPal’s Digital Gifts eBay store as it's currently offering 20 percent off iTunes Gift Cards in several denominations. The $25, $50 and $100 cards are now available with a twenty percent discount so you'll end up paying $20, $40 and $80, respectively.
That's a nice 20 percent saving right off the bat on anything you purchase on Apple's content stores. iTunes Gift Cards can be used to buy Mac and iOS apps, electronic books, movies, TV shows, music and other digital items carried on Apple's content stores.
You can also apply your iTunes credit toward the purchase of iCloud storage upgrades and use it to buy stuff in apps via In-App Purchases.
It's official: digital music sales on the iTunes Store decreased sharply this year, Apple has now officially admitted in an annual filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission covering its just-ended fiscal 2014 year.
Although sales of apps and In-App Purchases generated more revenue year-over-year, going from $9.3 billion in net sales during 2013 to a total of $10.2 billion during fiscal 2014, this was “partially offset by a decline in sales of digital music”.
Apple's SEC filing serves as a confirmation of last week's report by The Wall Street Journal which claimed that sales of digital music on iTunes had decrease between thirteen and fourteen percent since the beginning of 2014.
iTunes has been redesigned completely to coincide with OS X Yosemite’s design enhancements. The result is a much flatter and cleaner looking app that’s devoid of many of the shadows and layers present in previous iterations.
Just recently, the iTunes Store, which resides within the iTunes app, received an update to match the flatter appearance. This has resulted in a more consistent look across the entire app.
Check out our video walkthrough after the break, which highlights some of the changes in the latest version of iTunes— iTunes 12.
If you need another proof that Apple made the right move dropping more than three billion bucks on Beats's audio accessories and music-streaming service, here's one.
According to people familiar with the matter who spoke to the Wall Street Journal on Friday, the decline of digital music sales on iTunes is accelerating with latest data showing between a thirteen and fourteen percent dip globally since the start of this year.
By comparison, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry estimated that global revenue from music downloads fell just 2.1 percent in 2013. Clearly this development doesn't bode well for iTunes, but can Apple do anything about it? Read on for the full reveal.
Following the release of OS X Yosemite this afternoon, Apple quickly pushed out iTunes 12.0.1. As you know, Yosemite includes a refreshed edition of iTunes marked as version 12, and this is an update for the folks who are using the new software.
Not much is mentioned in the change log in terms of what's new in 12.0.1, but it does note that at least one of the changes has to do with security. And given its release time, and .1 build number, we imagine that it includes other bug fixes as well.