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SAN FRANCISCO – With a little help from his friends (in the music business), Steve Jobs introduced a new version of Apple Computer's iTunes jukebox and online music store for Windows PCs.
During a slick presentation in downtown San Francisco Thursday morning, Mick Jagger, Bono and Dr. Dre joined Jobs to endorse a new version of Apple's iTunes software and music store for the Mac and Windows.
In front of an enthusiastic crowd of several hundred reporters, music executives, software developers and Apple employees, Jobs also announced a Pepsi-sponsored giveaway of 100 million songs through the iTunes store.
The campaign, which Pepsi described as the biggest music promotion ever, will be launched during next year's Super Bowl. Winning soda bottle caps will be redeemable for a song online.
Wearing trademark jeans and black turtleneck, Jobs said the "second generation" of iTunes is identical on both Mac and Windows platforms. Now, however, Apple's lauded software and online service is open to the 97 percent of computer users who don't have a Mac.
"ITunes for Windows is the best jukebox for Windows, ever," said Jobs with typical humility. "It's been hailed as the best jukebox out there, and now it's available for Windows."
The Windows software is available immediately for free from iTunes.com.
Like the Mac version, iTunes for Windows offers songs a la carte at $1 a pop, and albums for $10. Songs can be shared between three computers – any combination of Macs or Windows PCs – and copied with few restrictions to CD or iPod. On the Mac, the service has won praise for its ease of use and liberal usage rights.
Patched in from Dublin by iChat videoconferencing, Bono said the new service was a "really, really cool thing."
"That's why I'm here to kiss the corporate ass," said Bono, drawing a huge laugh and applause from the crowd. "I don't do that for everyone."
"Thank you so much," said Jobs sarcastically.
Speaking from London, Jagger said it was "great to be involved in this."
Jagger said it was a shame digital downloading of music had gotten off to a bad start with legal battles and illegal file-sharing services. He said he hoped initiatives like the iTunes music store would be successful.
"Hopefully it can go forward and be something everyone is happy with," he said.
In a big push for iTunes – which will compete with similar offerings from Napster, Musicmatch and others – AOL joined Pepsi in promoting the new service. AOL's popular music site, visited by 16 million AOL subscribers a month, will sell music exclusively through the iTunes store.
Susan Kevorkian, an analyst with IDC, said until now, "we haven't seen much promotion and marketing around these paid music services."
"Apple's done a great job getting very influential marketing partners that will raise awareness for consumers," she added. "I think they've got a great product to offer consumers."
Apple has boosted the online store's offerings, promising 400,000 "quality" songs by the end of the month (Jobs said more could have been added, but Apple is being discerning). It now offers music from 200 independent labels as well as the Big Five publishers. And it now sells 5,000 audio books and spoken-word recordings, including material from NPR.
Jobs demonstrated the ability to send gift certificates from $10 to $200 by e-mail and an "allowance" feature that grants kids a monthly stipend to spend at the store. "There are so many parents we've heard from who want to wean their kids from illegal downloads on the Internet but they don't want to give them their credit card," Jobs said.
Since iTunes' launch in April, the service has sold 13 million songs, which accounts for 70 percent of all music sold on the Internet, Jobs said. With the addition of Windows users, Jobs said the company hopes to sell 100 million tunes before the end of next April – a goal that will be greatly aided by the Pepsi giveaway.
Jobs also announced a pair of new accessories for the iPod from Belkin – a $50 microphone for voice recordings and a $100 memory card reader for digital photos.
"We're going to fight illegal downloading by competing with it," said Jobs. "We're not going to sue it. We're not going to ignore it. We're going to compete with it."
