There are definitely a lot of happy Beatles fans out there today, as Apple Inc. (AAPL) announced that it would finally be selling Beatles material through its iTunes store.

Fans have been waiting, not-so-patiently, for this to happen for years now, and today it has finally arrived. Apple wrote on its website that "In 1964, the band that changed everything came to America. Now they're on iTunes."

Apple, Inc. (AAPL) has been trying to negotiate a new pricing approach with media companies, and Apple watchers are anticipating a September 1st media event will be where Apple announces new iTunes strategies. What might these be? The September 1st event has a picture of a guitar, indicating it has a music focus, which has lead people to thinking Apple will be announcing some form of subscription based streaming music package.

Since Apple has been negotiating with Disney for a 99 cent 'rental' price point for TV shows, other analysts are guessing that Apple may also reveal this new pricing strategy for watching individual TV episodes. Right now TV episodes are purchasable, for $1.99 in standard definition or $2.99 for high definition episodes. Creating a 99 cent rentable episode breaks a customer price barrier, and could lead to more traffic.

Live Nation Entertainment (LYV), a business centered on music concerts, one that counts Madonna and U2 among its portfolio of artists, promoted its fourth-quarter numbers earlier in the week. After browsing the data, and considering comments on guidance, I'm not sure I would want to buy the stock, even after seeing that it closed on Friday at a 52-week high.

According to BusinessWeek, Live Nation booked an operating loss of $64 million during the three-month period (adjusted operating income was positive, however). Sales went down well over 4%. Free cash flow for the full year, though, as detailed in a table right at the beginning of the press release, came in at nearly $59 million. That table also provides financial information for Ticketmaster, which recently merged with Live Nation.

Warner Music Group (WMG) was out of favor with the market today. At the time of this writing, shares of the company were down over 16% on big volume. Wall Street did not appreciate the fourth-quarter release.

According to TheStreet.com, a loss, on an adjusted basis, of 3 cents per share was recorded. Analysts were hoping for a profit of 5 cents per share. The cited article goes on to report a not-so-comforting outlook for the near future. And in further bad news, TheFlyOnTheWall.com mentions a downgrade on the stock.

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) makes it easier to search for websites, e-mail messages, passages from books and videos. Where you haven't heard much about Google's search capabilities -- or Google in general -- is the music business.

But, that's about to change. On Wednesday, the search giant announced that it was partnering with music services such as Pandora, Lala, News Corp's (NASDAQ: NWS) MySpace, and Rhapsody by RealNetworks (NASDAQ: RNWK) to help users find, listen to and ultimately buy music on the web.

RealNetworks (NASDAQ: RNWK) is profitable again! The online media company that provides music and other entertainment cut its way into the black, getting rid of the costs that were getting in the way. It wasn't much of a profit, only $1.5 million for the third quarter, not even a full cent per share, but it's a hell of a lot better than the $4.5 million loss it sustained in the third quarter of 2008.

Revenue fell 8% last quarter to $140.3 million, just shy of the analyst average of $140.9 million. This trend is likely to continue through the fourth quarter. Music, technology product and game revenues were down. The profit was instead eked out of the supply chain and headcount.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) hit another big milestone today, announcing that its App Store had hit 2 billion total downloads.

The number is pretty impressive to say the least, and will continue to rise at a rapid pace. Apple now has 85,000 applications available for download, and its services are currently being offered in 77 different countries. That number is up from the 65,000 applications that were available this past July.

I thought I'd take a look at two companies that reported earnings earlier in the week that share a couple things in common. First, they deal with music. Second, their prospects have been defined, in part, by the surge of Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPod/iTunes zeitgeist.

Let's begin with Warner Music Group (NYSE: WMG). According to Reuters, Warner Music Group lost 25 cents per share from continuing businesses in Q3. Analysts wanted to see a loss of only 16 cents per share. In last year's Q3, the company lost 6 cents per share. Not a good trend. Warner Music Group's management unfortunately fails to impress.

Live Nation (NYSE: LYV), a promoter of concerts and merchandise, took the stage on Thursday and played the entire set of its latest earnings numbers for Wall Street's rock fans. Unfortunately, some of the musical metrics were completely off-key.

For the first quarter, Live Nation said that revenues dipped by over 6%. Currency translations affected the top line, so if you strip them out, you get an increase of nearly 3%. The loss from continuing operations expanded by an earsplitting 40% to $1.29 per share. According to this news article, analysts were looking for a loss of only $0.82 per share.

Live Nation (NYSE: LYV), the big, famous concert promoter that counts Madonna as a member of its roster, reported dismal Q4 results on Monday after the bell. A huge write-down in goodwill related to a bad decline in market capitalization led to a loss per share of $4.33. That was many times more than the year-ago loss of 25 cents per share in the similar period. According to this source, Live Nation lost 89 cents per share on an adjusted basis. Wall Street was thinking that maybe the promoter would lose 22 cents per share. Quite the disparity there, eh?

Looking through the press release, I see that there's a lot going on in terms of acquisitions and adjustments. Overall, I came away less than thrilled with the business. I wasn't taken by the statement of cash flows, and I have to wonder how difficult it will be to close on the Ticketmaster (NASDAQ: TKTM) merger. There's talk of antitrust issues.

Guns n' Roses long-awaited "Chinese Democracy" album has been a flop, sticking Best Buy (NASDAQ: BBY) with hundreds of thousands of unsold copies that "seem destined for the bargain bin", according (subscription required) to the Wall Street Journal.

In the first two weeks, the CD has sold 318,000 copies. Problem: Best Buy bought 1.3 million copies up-front.

But with 1.3 million copies sold up-front to the exclusive retailer, Axl Rose may not have seen a need to go and promote the album aggressively. He reportedly declined interviews with Rolling Stone and The New York Times. Best Buy agreed not to return any CDs, so Interscope is off the hook as well.

An insider at Interscope, the band's label told The Sun that he thinks the album would have done much better if Rose was prepared to do some promotion, especially since he worked 15 years on the album.

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry reported Wednesday that despite the growth of digital sales in 2007, the format is still not "making up for the decline in CD sales or the effects of piracy." Sales figures for music were also the lowest in ten years, as the IFPI did not start publishing sales figures until 1997. Total global sales for 2007 were $19.4 billion, with CDs and DVDs pulling in $15.9 billion (down 13%), and digital downloads $2.9 billion (up 34%).

The chairman and CEO of the IFPI, John Kennedy, also revealed that "digital sales are growing healthily but, crucially, not fast enough to arrest the overall decline of the market." The report also noted "physical and digital piracy cost the U.S." arm of the music industry $5.3 billion, with digital piracy counting for 70 percent. Kennedy indicated that 39% of U.S. teenagers used file-sharing networks to illegally download music, with over 30 billion illegal downloads taking place around the globe. The IFPI has been at the front of a movement to "engage the support of Internet service providers" in order to curb users from illegally downloading via threats from ISPs.

Despite digital sales slow growth as physical sales continue to plummet, the advances made in accessibility and quality of music in 2007 should prove beneficial for the industry. With labels and music companies dropping anti-piracy technology in the face of continued illegal downloads, there remains apparent trust and hope in consumers. A 34% increase in one year may seem small, but if digital marketing can continue to improve in that fashion then the music industry may not have too much to lament.

If you haven't checked out HBO's Flight of the Conchords, you're missing a wonderfully droll, clever series. The show follows the exploits of a pair of New Zealand musicians trying to break into the American music scene. Their song Business Time might provide a welcome break during your, er, business time.

As a family, we try to sit down together every night for dinner. It's a small thing, but it's the only time all day that the seven of us can both talk and listen. I walk in from work listening to my iPod and the kids ask me, "Whattya listening to?". The answer, I explained, is Yael Naim, recent holder of a top single New Soul.

Turns out that Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL)'s Steve Jobs personally picked her tune to launch the new MacBook Air, which seemed to have launched her status. Almost overnight, New Soul became the top selling song on Apple's music download site/software, iTunes. It turns out that this stint at the top was short lived as Apple, it seems, enjoyed its own form of New Years present as users rushed to redeem iTunes gift certificates. Nevertheless, while Apple has contributed to Yael Naim's success, she has also contributed to Apple's as well.

And with this surge of continuing sales for Apple's music division, Apple has recently ousted big-boy Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) as the #1 music retailer in the U.S. Ars Technica breaks out the numbers: 30% of retail music is now purchased online, and Apple has the largest share of retail sales including Wal-Mart and walmart.com sales.

Pretty impressive, eh?

"I'm a new soul, I came to this strange world hoping I could learn a bit bout how to give and take..."

Zack Miller is the managing editor of IsraelNewsletter.com and a former equity analyst for a leading multinational hedge fund.

Billboard reported yesterday that Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) has entered a "special promotion" with Sony BMG, owned by Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE) and Bertelsmann Music Group, to launch a digital music service offering high quality MP3 files for just one artist and one album: John Legend and his Live from Philadelphia album. The album comes without the anti-piracy Digital Rights Management software and sells for $10; there is no option to purchase single tracks. The CD version of the album is currently available at Target, as an "only at Target" special.

Song BMG seems ready to make the headlong entrance into high quality MP3 sales, even if this deal is a special promotion for an album only available at one retailer. Target is one of the limited companies also offering Sony BMG's new album cards that let buyers download high quality DRM-free MP3s. Sony BMG also entered a new agreement with Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) last week to sell the same quality tracks in the new MP3 store the online retailer has opened.

An interesting aspect of this promotion is that the album in question is available "only at Target" in both physical and now digital formats. This is not an unfamiliar method of selling an album: the Eagles' Long Road Out of Eden was only released in Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) stores and on the company's website. Previous albums released in only one physical retailer also saw release in various digital stores, like Collective Soul's Afterwords, released at Target and in Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL)'s iTunes Store. The verdict on this method is quite good, after Billboard chart regulations were changed in late October, which allowed the Eagles' album to hit number one above the most recent Britney Spears release, which was available in numerous outlets and online.