San Jose Mercury News Lets Slip Possible New Music Sharing Service From Apple

by , 4:15 AM EST, March 4th, 2003

Holy shades of ATI, Batman! It would seem that the Los Angeles Times, in conjunction with the San Jose Mercury News, has let slip what is most likely an upcoming announcement from Apple. The LA Times published a piece, carried by the Mercury News, that offers commentary on a new music downloading service from Apple. The only problem is that no such service has been announced, as of yet.

This has happened in the past, but in conjunction with Apple's OEM vendors. ATI accidentally allowed a press release to be issued that included mentions of new PowerMacs from Apple some two days before those new PowerMacs were announced. Apple moved some of its product line to NVIDIA shortly thereafter, and it was officially a Big Deal™.

The LA Times story was dated for March 4th, and seemed to have been published shortly after midnight. Apple traditionally releases most of its new products early on Tuesday mornings, but not until after 8:00 AM on the East Coast. The story says that Apple has unveiled a music trading service that has the blessings of the record labels. That service makes buying songs that are traded as easy as Amazon.com. From the story:

Top executives at the major record companies have finally found an online music service that makes them excited about the digital future, sources said Monday.

The new service, developed by Apple Computer, offers Macintosh users many of the same capabilities that are already available from services previously endorsed by the labels. But the Apple offering won over music executives because it makes buying and downloading music as simple and nontechnical as buying a book from Amazon.com, one source said.

"This is exactly what the music industry has been waiting for," said one person familiar with the negotiations between the Cupertino computer maker and the labels. "It's hip. It's quick. It's easy. If people on the Internet are actually interested in buying music, not just stealing it, this is the answer."

Rumors of a service such as this have been published by Mac rumor sites, but were quickly dismissed by most Observers. The LA Times piece is whole other world, and was most likely accidentally published early. Stay tuned to TMO today for any new developments on this subject. You can read more in the full article at the Mercury News' partner Web site, SiliconValley.com.

San Jose Mercury News Story