Apple Special Event Live Update
Last week Apple sent press and VIPs invitations to a special event at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, Calif. Apple CEO Steve Jobs took the stage this morning to welcome attendees.
"Thank you all for coming and welcome to our music event today," Jobs said. "Apple's leading the digital music revolution, but at its core, it's all about the music. I just want to recognize a good friend of mine and incredible musician in the audience today, 16-time grammy award winner, the incomparable Yo Yo Ma."
State of the Union
Jobs told the crowd that Apple has sold more than half a billion songs through its iTunes Music Store to date. "We are selling songs at a rate of 1.8 million songs per day," he explained. "iTunes has an 82 percent market share here in the US."
Jobs reiterated an Apple press release offered earlier today that it has 80 percent of the legitimate online music download market in the UK, and said that iTunes is doing "extremely well around the world." There are iTunes Music Stores in 20 countries, he said, representing 85 percent of the global music market.
Apple recently began supporting podcasts through iTunes, and Jobs told the crowd that the service now feature more than 15,000 podcasts in its directory, growing by 1,000 per week. More than 7 million podcast subscriptions have been made to date. "This phenomenon is just exploding," he said.
The iTunes Music Store now has more than 2 million songs, said Jobs, the larget online music library in the world. "We've never shared [this] with anyone before: How many accounts do we have on itunes? We have just crossed 10 million accounts. And they come with credit cards," said Jobs.
The average iTunes account holder has purchased 60 songs, said Jobs, and most of them have been added in the past year. "That makes iUunes one of the largest internet stores in the world," he said.
Jobs spoke about new additions to the iTunes' audiobook collection, including the complete Harry Potter set. He also introduced a collectibe iPod engraved with a Hogwarts crest -- Hogwarts is the school that fictional magician Harry Potter goes to.
Jobs then introduced famed pop star Madonna in a transcontinental live chat using iChat AV. Connected from London, Madonna explained that she "tried to hold out as long as possible. But I got tired of not being able to download my own music." Madonna and Steve Jobs announced that all fifteen of her albums will be available for purchase and download through iTunes, by album and by song.
iTunes 5
Jobs then rolled out iTunes 5, an update to the popular software Apple makes available for Mac and Windows users alike. He described the new version's interface as sporting "a little bit of a refined look."
Users can now organize playlists into folders
