EMI and Apple Corp. (not to be confused with Steve Jobs’ Apple) have jointly the announced the release of a limited edition Beatles Stereo USB Apple which will be available worldwide.
The 30,000 USB flash drives will include the “critically acclaimed re-mastered audio for The Beatles’ 14 stereo titles, as well as all of the re-mastered CDs’ visual elements, including 13 mini-documentary films about the studio albums, replicated original UK album art, rare photos and expanded liner notes.”
The 16GB drives will include a full Flash user interface and the tracks will be available in FLAC 44.1 Khz 24-bit and 320 Kbps MP3s.
The Apples go on sale December 7th and will cost 200 GPB (about $330 USD).
You can check the full track listing here: Beatles USB Stereo Apples
Result for: apples
Nokia is set to launch Australia’s first subscription music service tomorrow in an effort to use its huge music industry clout to knock Apples’ iTunes platform from the top.
The service however, should see issues as it has been revealed that songs bought from the store will be incompatible with the dominant market leader for portable media players, the Apple iPod.
Price could be another problem if you do not use the subscription plan, as each track will cost $1.70 and albums will sell for $17. However, for $10 a month, Nokia will “allow customers to stream an unlimited number of full-length tracks directly from a player built into its music store website.”
The songs can be downloaded via compatible Nokia phones or on the PC and then synced over. Nokia says the 5310, 5610, 5700, N78, N81, N82, N91, N95, N96 and N76 handsets are all compatible, and other phones will work as long as they support Windows Media Player.
All 2.5 million songs in the catalog will have WMA DRM which will restrict the use and distribution of the songs, going against the current trend of removing DRM from music offerings. The iPod does not support DRM infested WMA files and therefore will not play anything purchased from the store.
Karen Farrugia, Nokia Australia’s music services manager, noted that locking out iPod owners would limit potential target market but the company still hopes to topple iTunes.
“At this time we are launching Windows Media DRM-protected files and we will look in the future to introduce an MP3 service … we’re in discussions with labels to really work on that,” she said.
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Sony Computer Entertainment president Kaz Hirai has restated that hopeful gamers will not see a PlayStation 3 price cut this year and that the console is a “very good value proposition”.
“The answer is yes, if you’re asking, ‘Are these the prices we’re going with this Christmas?’” Hirai added. “When you really compare apples to apples, then I think we have a very good value proposition.”
Sony’s decision to not cut the price of their console for the holiday season could put them under pressure from Microsoft which has recently cut the price across the board for their rival Xbox 360 console. The current global economic downturn could also put added pressure on Sony.
Hirai believes the videogame market will do just fine even with the economic downturn. “As long as we can generate excitement, then we will be less affected than other industries,” he said but also added, “we’re getting to the point where price becomes more important”.
Without dropping the price however, Sony has added more value to its PS3 line by selling an 80GB model with a free game for the same price as the currently priced 40GB model.
