Within days of the iTunes 9 and iTunes LP announcement, people had already thoroughly hacked apart the iTunes LP format only to discover it was just a clever combination of images, HTML, CSS and Javascript. Because any web developer could create an iTunes LP, it seemed strange that indie labels were left out in the cold, with LPs having a high cost of entry and no distribution of their LPs on the iTunes Store.

We do have a report this morning of Apple announcing that they'll be opening up the LP format, but a few inventive artists appear to have leapfrogged that step towards glasnost. It was only a matter of time before someone starting offering iTunes LPs in other ways, and iTunesLP.net is that someone. They're already offering up Disney's Fantasia in the iTunes LP format, but no music is included.

Installing the LP is as easy and double-clicking the downloaded file, but for the music to play properly it must be correctly tagged and named, and of course you need a legitimate way to get the music in question. Even though the site only offers 1 LP currently, it has plenty of tutorials and directions on how to create and distribute your own.

As long as no copyright laws are being broken, I think creating and distributing these LPs is a great idea. It offers users the chance to create visually stunning LPs for older music that the labels wouldn't bother with, and it offers indie labels the chance to get iTunes LPs out there, even if they're not yet available directly in the iTunes Store. With Apple's new policy towards opening up the LP format, this may be a brief opportunity for the workaround, but it's nice to see.

At times, iPhone developers might like to test out applications without going through the formality (or challenges) of ad hoc distribution. Ad hoc distribution was introduced by Apple to allow software testing on up to 100 registered devices. It is, admittedly, a bit of a pain.

Developers must collect device information (the "UDID", aka their unique device identifiers), register that device at the iPhone developer portal, create an special provisioning certificate, add a special entitlement, and build an ad-hoc only version of their software to distribute along with that certificate.

If all that seems like a hassle, well, yes it is. It is, however, the proper, authorized, and recommended way to distribute pre-release software, whether for testing or reviews. But there is another way.

If you know for sure that your target audience is another developer, the process becomes way easier. You can simply compile a normal development build of your application and send a copy of that build to another developer.

That's because each registered developer has the ability to sign applications. Although the app was built to work with just the in-house devices you've registered for development, another developer can re-sign that application using the simple command-line script shown here.

#! /bin/bash 
export CODESIGN_ALLOCATE=/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform\
/Developer/usr/bin/codesign_allocate
 
codesign -f -s "iPhone Developer" $1.app

This script uses Xcode's codesign utility to sign the already compiled version of the application. Once applied, you can then install the application through Xcode.

So is this a general distribution solution? No. And thank heavens for that; free trading of app binaries would rapidly lead to piracy. This approach allows developer-to-developer testing and collaboration only. The development signing is limited to the units you have personally registered.

If you want to try this out, follow the link at the start of this post. It leads to a testing folder I keep around and occasionally stock with software that I need tested. It also includes a copy of the script, which you must make executable (chmod 755 signit).

Developer Alex Sokirynsky wrote a blog post this morning saying Apple rescinded his authority to provision new ad-hoc licenses for his software, Podcaster.

The blog post has since been removed, possibly because it violated his developer NDA.

Sokirynsky believes that the licenses already provisioned will continue to work, and expressed disappointment -- but not surprise -- that Apple shut him down.

He also said he would continue updating Podcaster, even though it's unclear if he has a means to distribute it. Podcaster users can contact Sokirynsky if they have questions about their device's ad-hoc status.

Sokirynsky did not say how many devices he provisioned, though we do know it's at least 1,300.

About 70 percent of the apps available today through the App Store are either free or less than $5, according to an analysis of 552 applications performed by PinchMedia.

Of the 552 total, they counted 135 free apps. Apps for sale ranged in price from 99 cents to $69.99. The most common price points were:

• 99 cents (85 apps)
• $9.99 (82 apps)
• $4.99 (62 apps)

They have a nice bar graph at their site, and plan to keep the data fresh as new apps are added to the App Store.

[Via Craig Hockenberry]

Pretend you're a struggling musician. How much money would you rather take home for each track sold? £0.70 or £0.005? Not even a close contest, is it? Jacqui Cheng of Infinite Loop writes about a huge disparity between UK music services. iTunes just totally pwns the competition when it comes to artist and label payments. Cheng links to this Macworld story which suggests that iTunes is doing a far better job of getting money to artists than many other online music stores. If I were a struggling UK musician (as opposed to a person who can merely carry a tune in a bucket, or perhaps two buckets) I know where I'd spend my marketing dollars and which service I'd be promoting the hell out of.

If you visit the iTunes store on a regular basis, you'll know that the iTunes home page is jam packed with shiny happy banners. These ads highlight just a few dozen of the songs, albums, TV shows, and movies available to iTunes shoppers. And to have a product blessed by front-page placement is practically a guaranteed jump in sales. An album featured on the iTunes home page may sell five times more copies in a week than it will in a month without that promotion according to a recent Wall Street Journal Online article by Nick Wingfield and Ethan Smith. So who gets on the front page and how?

It's not what you'd expect. According to the article, Apple doesn't sell their promotional spots to recording companies outright. Instead, they trade visibility for exclusive song access, discount pricing and access to stars for things like interviews and celebrity playlists. There's a lot of back-room dealing going on with lots of shiny happy money at stake but there's also simple passionate music-love. If Apple's team loves you and loves your music, new unknown musicians can get a huge boost through the iTunes store.

Thanks Mike

Online video sales may take in about a third of a billion dollars this year. Sony wants in on the action. According to today's Financial Times, Sony is making plans to enter the video download market, specifically to provide content for its existing 20 million plus PSP installed base.

Amazon's movie download service, as well as video content providers like MovieLink and CinemaNow have pretty much been resounding failures. So what will Sony do differently? For one, they intend to distribute their movies in a memory-stick friendly form, storing up to 10 feature films on a 4GB stick. For another, they won't require any hardware upgrades to the existing equipment in order to purchase and play movies.

I'm pretty unclear about how they intend to manage their digital rights with this setup. And 10 movies on 4GB sounds over-compressed. A two-hour iTunes movie is about a gigabyte in length. 400MB sounds more like what you'd expect coming out of iSquint or Handbrake. It would, of course, be lovely if their content would play back on the iPod as well as the PSP, but I'm not holding my breath.