Apple is planning a music-themed event in San Francisco next Wednesday, which means updated iPods or possibly a new cloud-based version of iTunes could be in the works.

The Cupertino, Calif.-based company emailed reporters a special invitation featuring an acoustic guitar with the Apple logo for the Sept. 1. event; Apple usually reserves time in September to unveil updates to its iPod and iTunes products.

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It’s a common question: what service is better for downloading music: iTunes?  Amazon.com?  Some other service we’ve never heard of?  It turns out that the two 800-pound gorillas really are the best, so we thought we’d put these two head to head and see where they stack up and where they take a punch to the chin.

And, no, we will not be comparing them to torrents.  Torrents are like one-night-stands: you can get whatever you want if you know where to look, but you’ll probably have some shameful virus following you around for months afterward.

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Music downloading exploded right around 2000. After years of music being locked up in CDs and on radio, suddenly, the largest music library in the world was at the fingertips of the Internet. In the process, it destroyed the music industry, changed rock music, and pretty much set the rules for media in the twenty-first century.

And now, it could either explode even more… or become obsolete. It’s hard to see downloading going away entirely, but here are four reasons we think it’s going to get a lot harder to get people to spend a dollar a song, and why there might be a silver lining in each of these clouds.

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Hop over to Lala this morning to legally stream/ download your favorite tunes or albums (though, if they’re already your favorites, you probably already own them, and are just going there to secretly listen to the new MGMT you just can’t force yourself to buy) and you’ll run straight into a very interesting message instead of the usual Lala homepage, one that carries with it a possibly very deep significance for the future of online access to music:

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Apple‘s iTunes has sold it’s 10 billionth song when consumer, 71-year-old Louie Sulcer purchased the Johnny Cash song, “Guess Things Happen That Way,” today. As the 10 billionth consumer, Sulcer has also received a $10,000 gift card from iTunes – an enticing factor which swayed consumers to buy a few more songs than usual this past week.

However, what’s more interesting is the fact that the top most downloaded songs of all time greatly contrast the genre and era of the winner’s choice. Although iTunes was only launched in 2003, the songs that made the top 20 don’t necessarily represent the wide spectrum of music fiends. Take a look below to see what we’re talking about.

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This is a bit of news that shouldn’t come as a surprise to most of you, according to a recent study by the University of Reading, 75% of students would rather pay to download their music, than pay to stream music from a site or  purchase it in a store. I could have told you that! Not only that, but the students want to download from the cheapest website, meaning they don’t want to pay the extra money for iTunes and their digital rights management fees.

A new site, TunesPro.com, was recently launched and is competing with other music downloading services. The target base for the site is the younger generation who know where to download free music, but are swayed by the possibility of corrupted files and viruses. TunesPro has one advantage in it’s favor, for many songs, it only charges a mere 19 cents per song with a steep discount with the purchase of an entire album. The record companies do pick the prices, so there is a higher price for songs that come from, presumably, the larger record companies, but the site has agreements with many record companies in an attempt to keep prices as low as possible. Continue Reading

It’s safe to say that that most of us are able to catch up on our TV shows thanks to the wonderful world of streaming online. In fact, there are many who may not even have cable due to the convenience of streaming television shows today. If your show is not available on the network’s website, then it’s probably on Hulu.

It’s somewhat like the evolution of mp3s. Songs used to come in a package called a “COMPACT DISC” – CD for short. Anyone remember those? Just because CDs are becoming extinct as mp3s dominate music form thanks to iTunes, Apple now seems to think they can take place of your cable box, too.

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Yesterday was a big day for Apple. The iPod Nano got outfitted with video, the iPod Touch doubled in size, and most importantly, Steve Jobs was back from his liver transplant and in full fighting force. While there was no official announcement of The Beatles coming to iTunes, there was still plenty of excitement, and thanks to Wired we have the whole rundown.

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The Tap is back.

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the film This is Spinal Tap, beloved mockumentary band Spinal Tap have released a new seven-minute short film called Stonehenge: ‘Tis a Magic Place. The film is available to download exclusively from iTunes starting today for $1.99.

The seven minute short marks iTunes’ first original film, where Spinal Tap, having put Stonehenge on the map in their legendary song about the world heritage site, pay their first visit to the monument.

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