Apple today announced that more than three billion songs have been purchased and downloaded from the iTunes Store.i

iTunes is the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store. iTunes recently surpassed Amazon and Target to become the third largest music retailer in the US.

“We’d like to thank all of our customers who have contributed to this incredible milestone,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes.

Audio recording and editing software RecordForAll got the top honor in the Best Sound Program category at the 2007 Shareware Industry Awards. The Awards recognize software programs marketed as shareware, allowing users to try the software before buying.

RecordForAll competed against ALSong by ESTsoft, D’Accord iChords by D’Accord Music Software and Winamp Pro by NullSoft.

“RecordForAll’s win clearly illustrates the growth and interest in RSS and podcasting as a communication medium,” according to the RecordForAll.¬†”The recognition of an audio tool designed specifically for podcasters, shows how podcasting has evolved into a popular communciation medium.”

Led Zeppelin, one of the last remaining holdouts against digital music downloads, has announced plans to release Mothership, a new greatest-hits package. More significantly, all 24 tracks on the release will also be available for digital download, marking the first time that any Zeppelin has been made available legally online.

In addition to digital downloads, multiple physicall options will be available:

• Standard Package – 2-CD set ($19.98 SRP)
• Deluxe Edition – 2-CD/ 1-DVD featuring the premiere-version (90 minutes) of live performance footage culled from the “Led Zeppelin DVD” ($24.98 SRP)
• Collector’s Edition – 2-CD/1-DVD ultra-deluxe, collectible limited edition ($TBA)
• Vinyl Edition – 4 LPs, high-end, audiophile quality vinyl with collectible memorabilia ($74.98 SRP)

While we’re psyched about the digital downloads, the vinyl edition sounds pretty sweet……

“A high-end cell phone shouldn’t have to have low-end customer service,” says Mindy Bockstein, chairwoman and executive director of the¬†New York’s¬†Consumer Protection Board.

The Board announced complaints against Apple, echoing an iPhone¬†lawsuit filed recently by an Illinois man. The iPhone’s battery must be replaced by Apple when the battery no longer holds a charge. Apple charges $79 plus $6.95 shipping for out-of warranty battery replacement.

“I encourage Apple to redesign the iPhone in order to provide for a replaceable battery,” said Bockstein in the Board’s letter to Steve Jobs.

Bockstein also told Jobs that Apple should provide free rental phones as customers wait for repairs to the iPhone. “Consumers should not have to rent an iPhone for $29 because their expensive iPhone failed to perform as expected and needs repair.”

She also said Apple should extend its 14-day return policy to 30 days¬†and shouldn’t charge a 10-percent restocking fee on returned phones.

 

At the Summer NAMM Show, Tascam introduced two new MP3 players that are specifically designed for musicians, the MP-BT1 Bass trainer and the MP-VT1 Music and Vocal trainer. Both feature variable-speed playback, which lets you adjust the speed of playback, independent of the pitch.

The MP-BT1 Bass trainer comes with a Hi-Z Bass input, multi effect for Bass, 7 bands Graphic EQ, Bass cut on MP3 Playback, and Bass range Booster & Enhancer on MP3 playback and more. The MP-VT1 Music/Vocal trainer features a Microphone input, Built-in reverb & echo on input, Input for mic volume and more.

Each Tascam MP3 trainer supports 1GB memory (up to 240 songs), Key control, Seamless IN-OUT Loop, Instrument cancellation with selectable pan point and frequency band range, chromatic tuner, and more. By connecting to any Mac or Windows computer using the USB port the MP-BT1 and MP-VT1 features a drag and drop song folder to import your songs and a Lithium Ion rechargeable battery (8 hours of playback time).

Pricing and availability are TBA.

Geek News Central’s Todd Cochrane, a long-time podcaster and the author of a book on podcasting, has taken a look at the state of podcast sites and podcast feeds and found widespread quality problems.

“The amount of garbage sites out there astounded me,” said Cochrane.

Cochrane looked at the podcast feeds and sites of podcasts nominated for awards at his Podcast Awards site. He found that many podcasts suffer from basic problems:

• 82% of the sites checked had feed errors.
• Of those with errors, 61% of those feeds were completely invalid according to FeedValidator.org.
• 81% of those sites that had RSS feed errors were hosted on a WordPress blog.
• 93% of the bad feeds were being served up by FeedBurner.

In addition to feed errors, Cochrane notes that many podcasters are still not providing clear links to their podcast feeds, or are providing only iTunes links; many podcast feeds are way too big, with one topping 1.1 megabytes; and most podcasters fail to provide a way to contact the host to provide feedback.

Podcasting and video podcasting startup PodTech has had its share of negative coverage recently, being described by some as “the Valley’s worst video network.” The company has been struggling to get additional funding, has recently let some of its staff go and has been criticized for the quality of its content.

PodTech CEO John Furrier’s attempts to put some positive spin on the company’s situation, though, appear to have backfired. Even worse for PodTech, the situation has devolved into a A-list blogger catfight between former Microsoft blogger and current PodTech employee Robert Scoble and TechCrunch’s Mike Arrington.

“Techcrunch got a lot of things wrong,” said Scoble, “including that we’re getting out of the content business.”

“If I got the story wrong, its because John wasn’t being clear in how he describes the company,” responded TechCrunch’s Arrington. “It’s bullshit to call this out publicly.”

Arrington responded with a TechCrunch post, telling PodTech “I’m not your VP Marketing,” adding “I personally find 90% of Podtech content just slightly more entertaining than watching paint dry.”

PodTech needs to forget about spinning its situation, and instead focus on its content. If PodTech is staying in the content business, like Furrier and Scoble have said, the company needs to figure out how to deliver good content that has some mainstream appeal, and it needs to do it quickly.

Google said Friday that its long-promised content filtering system to combat piracy was coming soon.

Google made the announcement at a hearing Friday in the billion dollar copyright-infringement lawsuit that Viacom filed against Google. Google attorney Philip S. Beck told the judge the company was working “very intensely” on a video recognition technology. According to the attorney, the technology will be a sophisticated as fingerprint technology used by the FBI, and will be rolled out in the fall.

Google has had a massive ongoing issue with content being illegally posted to YouTube, and has said that it intends to provide tools to streamline the process of identifying illegally posted videos. Other sites, like MySpace, have had similar problems and have introduced content filtering systems.

An Oakbrook, Illinois man is suing Apple and AT&T over the planned obsolescence of the iPhone’s battery, which is designed to rechargeable to full capacity 300-400 times. According to the suit:

The battery enclosed in the iPhone can only be charged approximately 300 times before it will be in need of replacement, necessitating a new battery annually for owners of the iPhone.

We’ll have to see if this goes anywhere – but it would be nice if Apple would at least equip its stores to do on the spot replacements to minimize inconvenience for people that spent $500-600 on their phone.

Pioneering podcaster and PodTech CEO John Furrier has posted a defense of the company, which has struggled to become profitable, failed to find new investors and has had to let go some of its content creators. The company has also been subjected to scathing coverage recently, especially from “tech gossip rag” Valleywag, which described PodTech as “the Valley’s worst video network.”

PodTech raised $5.5 million in 2006, and has spent much of the last year developing video podcasts by geek-tech personalities like Irina Slutsky, Robert Scoble and Jason Calacanis. While PodTech has featured well-respected techies, none has yet demonstrated that they have mainstream appeal.

PodTech’s View

In a blog post this morning, Furrier offers his “basic facts” about PodTech:

1. 38 full time employees
2. Rent approx 12,000 sf office space in Palo Alto
3. PodTech Studio in Palo Alto for video production and show development
4. Record revenue growth every quarter
5. 45 corporate clients and growing
6. Fullly funded to hit projected cash flow positive (break even and profitable) with our current mix in business not including new products that we are developing
7. Focus of the company:
   1. editorial content;
   2. develop media franchises through signing (aggregation) of professional producers and in house development (our studio);
   3. continue to be the leader in social media for our clients;
   4. innovate on the social media ad models that we are developing; and
   5. media technology platform
8. I and the board are looking for a CEO specifically someone who can take the day to day operations off my hands and build a team to scale the company. This will allow me to focus externally on developing media and working with leading marketers and advertisers. This is a very similar situation that Ross Mayfield recently posted about – CEO 2.0.  I’m proud of PodTech’s market position, team, platform, and our client base. For the company it’s about getting to cash flow positive and then scaling. The business is doing well but we do need to improve in many areas.
9. The changes will continue. PodTech is in the middle of massive change and growth.  I expect that change will be part of our company culture.
10. We are not getting out of the content creation business but will continue to focus on aggregation.

One of the key points in Furrier’s message is that PodTech is in the business of developing and signing podcasts in order to create profitable Internet media franchises. PodTech’s new CEO will face a lot of challenges, but the biggest is likely to be turning the company into one that can deliver great podcasts with broad appeal.

More discussion at TechCrunch, MakeYouGoHmm