Goodbye iTunes Single of the Week?

from studio soda

It's been my habit to check the iTunes store every Tuesday to see its Single of the Week.  This feature on the store offers a free download of music from different artists old and new, and from different genres.  

I noticed just this week that there have been no new Single of the Week since the start of 2015. A quick surfing of the Internet bolstered that it has indeed been discontinued. Offered since 2004, it's here where I first heard of Cobbie Calliat and most recently the fabulous boys from Alabama, St. Paul and the Broken Bones.

But not all of the Single of the Week offered to us were outstanding.  Some really invited the "what were you thinking" reaction to the really hurtful comments left by some users of the service.  I'm beginning to think that these sometimes nasty comments might have contributed to the decision of the Apple honchos to end the service. 

Whatever the reason for its apparent demise, it is still disappointing that another source of free music for my iPod is gone.   I will surely miss this weekly treat (or trick) from the iTunes Store.  For the artists and their companies, there will always be Spotify and YouTube to let us sample their new music.

Apple Gives Free U2 Album: People Freak Out

I woke up one morning and found U2's new album, Songs of Innocence, ready for download to my iTunes library.  At first, my sleepy head had to make sense of the event. I didn't pre-order or purchase any U2 album recently, so it must be a mistake.  I downloaded it anyway, and while waiting for it to finish, I scoured the Internet for information.

I found out it was a gift from Apple as a way of thanking its 500 million iTunes clients. Besides, the guys from Cupertino must still be giddy over their recent announcement of the iPhone 6 and 6Plus, as well as the Apple Watch – which of course, deserves another post.

So back to the album. Who doesn't like music that's given free legitimately?  Well, it turned out there's a lot of them.   After a couple of hours, I started getting posts on my Twitter feed from angry iTunes users who were disgusted with the free download.  Apparently, many of those who received the gift took it as an invasion of their privacy, and/or Apple made a decision for them to download and listen to the album.  Others were simply non-U2 fans.  They want the music out of their devices pronto. 

There was so much clamor against the download that the band's manager even said in an interview that if people do not want it, they could just delete it, which I agree with.  In fact, I still do not understand what the too much anger was for.  Maybe they also hated that they have to manually delete the contents from their gadgets.  Anyway, the din must have been too loud and reached the Headquarters in Cupertino that the people there developed a tool for people who want to delete the album from their devices. Here's a link if you're one of those not thrilled about this gift.

This just proves that one cannot please everybody – not even with the gift of free music.  I think the comic strip from The Joy of Tech sums up the situation very well. As for me, I am keeping the album. It may not be as great as the earlier outputs of the band, but there are still some that are above the average music one hears every day.  I just hope the experience doesn't stop Apple from surprising us with another gift in the future.  

PH Finally Gets its iTunes Store

Apple announced this week the launch of iTunes in several Asian countries including the Philippines.  This is good news for us who have an iOS device or two as we now have access to songs, apps and movies that were previously unavailable to us.  These include music from local artists, of course.  Not only that, we can now also shop for books under the iBookstore.

It is only about time that we have our own iTunes Store.  Before this, I can only populate my iPod through ripping my CD.  The only way I can download music and books from iTunes is to ask my sister to get me an iTunes Music Store prepaid card or buy one from an online seller at a higher price.  Now, I can use my local credit card to gain access to all of the goods.

Moreover, Asia is one of the fastest growing markets for Apple products.  Since many of their gadgets now come sans optical drives, Apple users here have no option but to download iOS and Mac OSX software from iTunes or the Appstore.  

iTunes music store has been online since 2003 and after almost ten years, it's here.  Well, better late than never.  Welcome to the Philippines iTunes!

Hello, hello remember me?: Evanescence returns with a self-titled album

It's been almost six years since their last album so it wasn't surprising that Evanescence lead singer Amy Lee would scream "Hello, hello, do you remember me?" in the chorus of the opening track of their new self-titled album.  In fact, the first cut pretty much set the mood for the entire album.  This is Evanescence and they're back even if it's only Amy that's basically left of the original members.

This new turnover must have led to the somewhat new sound of some of the tracks, leading me to believe that Amy must have asked some of her new band mates to help in the songwriting.  There are no hard driving anthems like "Bring Me to Life" but it seemed that "rock hard" was the order of the day.  So rock hard the band did.  So hard that in some tracks, the guitars drowned the orchestral strings the band is known for.  Those of us who love Amy's soaring, breathy vocals, however, have plenty of cuts to listen to and like.  In fact, this was put to full use in the ballads, including the last bonus cut (I am using the de luxe version for this blog), "The Secret Door."  Not to mention the angst filled lyrics that sometimes border (at least some of the songs) in melodrama.  Also, many of the songs have lyrics that   focus, if not obsess on death and the afterlife.  Evanescence is a goth band after all.

The album is Evanescence through and through which could be both good and bad.  Bad for those who wanted to hear something new from them. For fans like me who want to hear more of their signature sound, this is one good album to get reacquainted with the band and their music that we love.

You can download the De Luxe version of Evanescence from iTunes.

Apple Releases iTunes Match on Beta for Developers (UPDATED)

Apple released today a developer beta version of its upcoming iTunes Match.  Steve Jobs already announced this service during his introduction of the iCloud at the WWDC in June.

As explained by Apple, the system "stores your complete music library in iCloud, allowing you to enjoy your collection anywhere, anytime, on any iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch or computer."

from apple.com

iTunes Match will scan your iTunes music library and checks which of these songs are available in the iTunes Store.  It will include music you bought from the store, ripped from your CD collection, and even those obtained from other sources.

The company boasts of more than 18 million song titles in its catalog so most likely, the songs you have in your collection are already available.  Otherwise, you will have to unload those unavailable to iCloud.  You can then listen to your music anytime, anywhere at 256 kbps iTunes Plus quality,  as long as you are connected to the Internet.

At US$25 per year, the service will allow you to free a lot of space on your devices since you won't need to store your music on your iPad, iPod Touch, or MacBook to enjoy them.  At the moment, only developers have access to this feature and those who would participate in the beta testing will have a bonus of three months free access to iTunes Match.  It is set for release in the fall alongside iCloud.

UPDATE 9/1/11:  Apple vehemently denies that iTunes Match will stream music to your devices.  Initial reports from Beta testers seem to confirm this. It appears that once you listen to your music via iTunes Match, it automatically downloads and stores then to your iPad, iPod Touch or Mac.