Happy Birthday!

Congratulations Apple. On this day last year you launched the iTunes Music Store and changed the face of digital music. In typical music industry fashion, it took a computer company to prove that people would actually pay for downloads and now such music luminaries as Wal-Mart and Coca-Cola are trying to get in on the action. Music fans have used the service to drive up iPod sales and also legally download over 70,000 million songs.

In order to celebrate, Apple today rolled out an updated version of iTunes and the Music Store. The iTMS now boasts an online music catalog of over 700,000 songs from all five major music companies and over 450 independent music labels, as well as groundbreaking new features including:

-- "iMix," a new way for users to publish playlists of their favorite songs on the iTunes Music Store for other users to preview, rate and purchase. iMix creates a virtual iTunes community, enabling users to discover new music recommended by fellow music fans and rate the iMixes published by other iTunes users;
-- "Party Shuffle," a new playlist that automatically chooses songs from a user's music library, displays just-played and upcoming songs, and allows users to easily add, delete and rearrange the upcoming songs on the fly. Party Shuffle is the ultimate DJ at any gathering, and a great way for users to get reacquainted with their personal music library;
-- Radio Charts from more than 1,000 radio stations, enabling users to easily find and buy the top songs played on local radio stations in major US markets and buy directly from the charts with just one click;
-- A new Music Video section featuring more music videos than ever, and a new Movie Trailer section with the most popular movie trailers on the Internet and links to buy songs from the soundtrack or audiobooks related to the movie;
-- The rights to play songs purchased from the iTunes Music Store, including songs previously purchased, on up to five personal computers, two more than before;
-- The ability to create and print stunning CD jewel case inserts for albums or compilation discs, combining album art and track lists using professionally designed templates. For compilation CDs, iTunes will automatically generate a mosaic of album covers based on the chosen songs; and
-- Automatic WMA to AAC conversion, enabling Windows users to automatically create iTunes versions of their songs encoded in unprotected WMA. Converting an entire music library into iTunes and syncing it onto iPod(TM) is now a snap.

Apple is marking the first anniversary of its iTunes Music Store by thanking its customers with a free song of the day for the next eight days from artists who have helped make iTunes a runaway success, including Foo Fighters, Avril Lavigne, Courtney Love, Annie Lennox, Jane's Addiction, Counting Crows, Renee Fleming and Nelly Furtado. Following the anniversary celebration, the iTunes Music Store will continue to offer a "Free Single of the Week" from up-and-coming bands, spotlighting emerging artists and offering iTunes customers a risk-free way to discover new music.

The iTunes Music Store continues to lead the industry with exclusive tracks from more than 150 artists, and starting today, offers dozens of out-of-print recordings from Motown Records, including the first 45 singles and 45 hard-to-find albums from the Motown archive -- available digitally for the first time.

In addition, The Beastie Boys have made their entire catalog available online spanning seven albums and over 122 tracks. Their upcoming album will also be available digitally upon it's release this summer.

Go tech cult go!

More on this and other developments later as I'm taking yet another Powerpoint class today and we're learning how to "Set A Motion Path". The instructor is looking at me with an evil eye. Cheers!