U2's free iTunes album surprises at Apple launch

LOS ANGELES -- Veteran Irish rockers U2 pulled off the largest album release in history at Tuesday's Apple Inc. event to launch new products, after making its latest record available for free on Apple's iTunes online stores to half a billion iTunes users.

The Grammy Award-winning band performed its latest single "The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)" at the Cupertino, California event, at which Apple unveiled two new iPhones, a smart watch and a mobile payments system.

U2 released its new 11-track "Songs of Innocence" live on stage with Apple chief executive officer Tim Cook. The album immediately appeared in iTunes users' music libraries.

However, the giveaway to more than 500 million iTunes users will not count toward official music sales figures at Nielsen SoundScan because it was distributed for free.

The band will release "Songs of Innocence" and a deluxe version featuring four new tracks and acoustic performances to the rest of the world on Oct. 14, its label Interscope Records, said on Tuesday.

Billboard, which will include the album in chart listings only after its October release, said on Tuesday that "Songs of Innocence" will also miss the Grammy awards eligibility period, which runs from Oct. 1, 2013 to Sept. 30 this year, and only applies to "commercially released" records.

In July 2013, rapper Jay Z released his album "Magna Carta Holy Grail" for free to a million users of Samsung smartphones via a special app. However, the 1 million copies were not eligible for Nielsen or Billboard's weekly charts of best-selling albums.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Beatles hits become mobile phone ringtones

SAN FRANCISCO -- Hits from The Beatles have finally joined the chorus of ringtones available for mobile phones.

Catchy 30-second snippets from more than two dozen of the famed 1960s British rock band's top tunes are available exclusive at Apple's online iTunes shop, a message Wednesday at official website thebeatles.com.

"Fans around the world can, for the first time, purchase ringtones for the Beatles' 27 UK and US #1 hits, exclusively on iTunes," the message announced.

"You can even assign your favorite tracks to your favorite people," it continued.

The ringtones were priced at $1.29 each and could be downloaded for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices. The list of Beatles songs included "Can't Buy Me Love" and "Let It Be."

The Beatles arrived on iTunes in November of 2010 after what late Apple's Steve Jobs described at the time as "a long and winding road."

A decade had been spent getting the music of "Fab Four" -- Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr -- released in digital form for Apple's wildly popular mobile devices.

The vast catalog of Beatles hits had been held back for years from Internet download sites amid legal squabbles, although their songs have long circulated as unlicensed downloads available from unlicensed peer-to-peer networks.

article source: interaksyon.com