iTunes Pass Arrives But It Is Not What You Think

When I see the words "iTunes Pass", I think of Zune Pass. Say what you will about the Zune but one of its strengths over the iPod is the subscription service it offers. For a monthly fee, you can download all the music you want. You can listen to it as much as you want until you either stop paying or the songs are no longer available in the store. Not a bad way to experience music if you don't really care about owning the content.

Well, Apple has launched iTunes Pass and you can get it today! Whoa, wait, stop partying in the streets. Stop hugging each other with excessive joy! It's not quite what you think. Read on.

iTunes Pass is a new service that get you new music and special bonus features for a particular band. The launch of this service is for Depeche Mode's new album, "Sounds Of The Universe". $18.99 gets you a pre-order for the album's release, the new single from the album and a remix that you can download today, and from now until June 16th, 2009, you'll get more songs, videos, remixes, and who knows what else.

If you are a fan of Depeche Mode, this might be a good deal. Chances are, come June 16th, you'll end up with more content than $18.99 would get you otherwise. If you are interested in taking advantage of this iTunes Pass, click here (this link opens in iTunes). Also, if you are indeed a fan of Depeche Mode, feel free to continue the party in the streets and all that. It's cool.

Multiple iTunes Accounts And Apple TV

Here's a scenario for you. You've got an Apple TV and you sync your iTunes library to it. Someone else in your household also has a computer with an iTunes library. While you can only sync one library to the Apple TV hard drive, you can stream content from other computers very easily. One problem. Apple TV only authorizes with one iTunes account. Thanks DRM!

Thankfully, there is an easy way around this. On the computer that syncs with the Apple TV, open iTunes and click Store from the menu bar. Click Authorize Computer. The following window will appear. 

Simply enter the username and password for the iTunes account being used on the computer streaming the content to the  Apple TV. This will authorize the computer to access content from that account. Since Apple TV is attached to this computer by syncing, the credentials will follow.

Upgrade Your iTunes Library At Your Own Pace

Funny, I was just complaining about this yesterday. When Apple announced that iTunes was going DRM free they offered to let customers upgrade their current DRM'd songs for 30 cents a song. Unfortunately, this offer was an all or nothing proposition. You had to upgrade all of your songs at once.

As of today, you can now upgrade the songs you want, when you want. This is great for people who have a large library of iTunes purchased music.  Even if you want to get all of your songs DRM free, spending the upgrade cost all at once could be prohibitive.  Now you can do your upgrade over time. 

Now, which songs do I want to upgrade first?

500 Million And Counting

Apple has announced that its wildly popular App Store has served 500 million apps since it opened July 10, 2008.  Currently there are 15,000 apps to choose from in the store and they range from productivity apps, games, utilities, and more.  According to AppleInsider, downloads have doubled since early December.  It's not unreasonable to guess that this increase is due to holiday sales of the iPhone and iPod touch.

The App Store is Apple's online marketplace for distributing applications for their popular iPhone and iPod touch platform. It is accessible from the devices themselves or via iTunes. Applications on the store are written by individuals, large companies, and even Apple. Apps are available either free of charge or for various prices determined by the developer.

Have you downloaded apps from the App Store?  Any particular favorites?  Please feel free to post them in the comments!