Topic: iTunes on the Revolution? What do you think?

[capamerica]

I was talking about this with one of my friends the other day. I just got done reading a article where Reggie was saying how much Nintendo admires the way Apple works and markets itself and how they are using some of their same styles. But what really got my idea rolling was when I saw the picture of the Nintendo DS Lite box which looks alot like the iPod box.

Thats when I got the idea, What if Nintendo teams up with Apple to give the Revolution iTunes support.
Think about it Sony has their music download services Connect and Microsoft has MSN Music. So Nintendo is the only one without a music services.

Also the recent pictures of the Revolution that showed USB ports on the back, they must have thought about using it for MP3 players at some point, why else have 2 USB ports on a console?

Now okay sure Nintendo could just not offer any music play back features but in this day and age it would be kind of dumb for them not to. heck I'm surprised they haven't released the Play-Yan here in the USA. Not offering MP3/Music playback is just like not offering DVD playback in a console, its just dumb and a strike agenst you. So what if Nintendo were to have the Revolution have FULL support of the iPod and iTunes, Microsoft has been making a big deal about how the iPod can hook up to the Xbox360 even thou you can't play any of your iTunes purchased music on it. Apple doesn't have any connection to the Console market, which is a HUGE market and most likely where a good chunk of iPod owners are. If Apple wants to keep this group of iTunes and iPod users they really need a hand in the console market so their competitors don't start stealing them away. So not only would a deal like this help Apple it would also help Nintendo by being able to say that you can listen to your iPod and iTunes music on the Revolution. Infact if they want to go the extra mile they could tie in the Nintendo Game Store in with the iTunes music store (On the Revolution Only) so you can buy your games AND buy music and videos too. Also by using the iTunes music store they could have a way to protect their games from being pirated online. The games could be stored on your Memory card or even an iPod and in-order to uses them you have to authorize other peoples Revolutions just like how you would Authorize someone's Computer to listen to a song or watch a movie you purchased off of iTunes.

It would be a Win Win situation for both Apple and Nintendo.

Oh and lets please reframe from any iPod or iTunes bashing, I don't care what your preference is. If Nintendo were to team up with anyone wouldn't it be smart to go with the group that has the LARGEST share of the market by a landslide.

[TMW]

iTunes on the Rev would only be EXTREMELY SUPER SUGOI AWESOME if you could play the songs you downloaded as background music for certain games.  

[Requiem]

Also, the SD card is pretty limiting. You'd most likely have to get a external hard-drive.

[BlkPaladin]

If something like this happens they will more than likely opt for connecting the iPod to the back ports of the Revolution since something like that would need a driver on board anyway you look at it, and that is the least encombersome.

[KDR_11k]

Apple barely breaks even on iTunes because the RIAA demands such outrageous fees that the rest barely covers expenses, it's used to sell the iPod (that's also the reason why all other music download services failed, they can't make money because the RIAA takes it away). ITunes on the Rev would be like Mario on the Mac. And I remember what happened the last time when Nintendo had to allow others to use its franchises because of a deal they made. Namely the CDi.

MP3 and AAC are proprietary formats and cost license fees on each machine made. Not sure if Apple even licenses AAC.

[Dirk Temporo]

So... Put an unnecessary feature on the console... Or download songs myself using the free Kazaa Lite, and put them on a jump drive to use myself.

Hard choosing there.

PS: capamerica: Your avatar makes me happy. In the pants.  

[capamerica]

Quote
Originally posted by: KDR_11k
Apple barely breaks even on iTunes because the RIAA demands such outrageous fees that the rest barely covers expenses, it's used to sell the iPod (that's also the reason why all other music download services failed, they can't make money because the RIAA takes it away). ITunes on the Rev would be like Mario on the Mac. And I remember what happened the last time when Nintendo had to allow others to use its franchises because of a deal they made. Namely the CDi.

Apple does infact make a profit on iTunes. When iTunes first started yes Apple just broke even. But that was a while ago and since then they are now turing a profit on iTunes. This is the reason why Apple has started work with allowing some non-Apple hardware to use iTunes. Like Motorola's cellphones, they are at a point where they are finding themselves making money with iTunes and don't need to rely heavily on iPod sales.

I didn't say anything about Apple using Mario or any Nintendo franchise. And they would most likely never ask to use any of them since they have no need for them. The most we would see from it is MAYBE Apple getting exclusive rights to having all Nintendo music up on iTunes, Just like how they have a good chunk of Square's Library up right now.

Quote
Originally posted by: KDR_11k
MP3 and AAC are proprietary formats and cost license fees on each machine made. Not sure if Apple even licenses AAC.

Sure MP3's have the one time license fee for distribute & sell of decoders and encoders, But they don't have to pay on a per-song base just a per-iTunes and per-iPod base. And keeping this in consideration, Apple gives iTunes away for free and they have been doing that well before the iTunes music store even showed up. The license fees is very minimal and wouldn't effect the price of a Revolution.

AAC isn't owned by Apple and most of your Media Players do recognize it. FairPlay on the other hand is Owned by Apple and is code into every AAC files that is purchased from iTunes.

Quote
Originally posted by: Dirk Temporo
So... Put an unnecessary feature on the console... Or download songs myself using the free Kazaa Lite, and put them on a jump drive to use myself.

Hard choosing there.

People said that the DVD Playback was a unnecessary feature, but not having it did effect the sale of the GameCube and it was a major complaint among gamers. I'm not saying that you would only be able to play music purchased with iTunes and I didn't say you would only be able to use the iPod. What I'm saying is that Nintendo could get True support for the iPod and iTunes which would give them a BIG advantage facing Sony and Microsoft in the music area. Which Both are promoting as features of their consoles. iTunes supports normal MP3s and you can hook up a non-iPod MP3 player up and iTunes will see it, you just can't put iTunes purchased music on it.

Heck I've only purchased like 30 Songs on iTunes yet I have nearly 46days worth of music. I only buy music when I support a artiest.
I should note that a good chunk of my music isn't avalable on iTunes (USA) as well. If I had access to iTunes (JP) I would have alot more music.

Quote
Originally posted by: Dirk Temporo
PS: capamerica: Your avatar makes me happy. In the pants.

Thanks, It makes me happy in the pants too.

[Rhoq]

Quote
Originally posted by: capamerica
Now okay sure Nintendo could just not offer any music play back features but in this day and age it would be kind of dumb for them not to. heck I'm surprised they haven't released the Play-Yan here in the USA. Not offering MP3/Music playback is just like not offering DVD playback in a console, its just dumb and a strike agenst you.

First let me begin by telling you, that just like I am a Nintendo "fanboy" (for lack of a better term, I suppose) am also an Apple "fanboy". I've been a "Mac man" since System 6 (MacOS 6.x) in the early 1990s. I've owned nothing but Apple machines and only use a PC, if I absolutely have to (ie. when I'm at work). I would love it if Apple and Nintendo formed some sort of partnership. I think iPod/iTMS support on the Revolution is a great idea.

Now going back to the "Play-Yan", I disagree. While the product itself was needed - it's really "too little, too late" at this point. It pretty much equates to Nintendo making an annoucement that the GameCube can access the Nintendo WiFi connection and it's entire library can be played on-line. Something that should have been made available from the get-go, but wasn't.

I have a 5th Generation iPod. I play my DS while listening to it on the bus and/or train. If I had a Play-Yan, I wouldn't be able to play and listen at the same time. My iPod can play video too (not that I watch any videos on it). If I want to watch a movie during my commute, I'll bring my portable DVD player with me. As far I'm concerned, the Play-Yan is not needed.

[Terranigma Freak]

Man, for a second, I thought you said iBuzz on the Revolution...

[MaryJane]

they should just put mp3 playback on the rev plain and simple. then do what so many other companies are doing, the rev will work with any mp3 player, but market it as being ipod compatible.  

[Ian Sane]

I'm one of those rare people who still buys CDs so I'm not really familiar with what people want in an MP3 player.  But I was under the impression that a big part of the appeal is that MP3 players are small and portable.  Is there really much use for a console to have that functionality?  If you listen to music at home I assume you're already going to have a CD player or a PC.

Still MS is offering the ability to customize game soundtracks (a feature I would never use and would refuse to support if I was a dev because to me the game music is a crucial part of the experience) so it would be nice to match features.  But if it came down to this or HD support I would rather have HD since it more directly relates to games.  Without HD support it is impossible to play Rev games in HD but even without this functionality I can listen to MP3s.  We're not really deprived of a feature without it, just a convenience.

[norebonomis]

optical media is dead. dvd and blueray/ why? just tell me why?

[MaryJane]

if you scratch an mp3 player, the music doesn't skip, it'll just have a scratch on it. plus i've always found it annoying to constantly change cd's i had a cd player for a month and then started looking for an mp3 player, this was way back in the day, like 97 or 96 even, the first mp3 player i bought had 6gb of space, which was huge back then, but it looked like a piece of an asteroid fell into the atmosphere and didnt completely burn up.

anyway, for a lot of games especially my fav. rpg's the music is very important, for other games, namely sports games with ridiculously annoying commentary (Madden: You see getting an interception is a really good thing not only does it pump up your defense, it gets the offense excited as well. no sh!t) i listen to my mp3 i unplug the audio cable for the gc and plug in the ones that came with my mp3 player, the gc video still plays, but my own music without madden's annoying comments, it'd be easier to do this from inside the console if i could.  

[Smash_Brother]

Hmm, Sony has their "walk-whatever" mp3 player, MS is pushing the connectivity between their PoS player and media player, and Nintendo has...nothing.

If they truly intend to push the concept to "non-gamers", adding mp3 support via Apple would be an excellent idea. Apple handles all of the connectivity and the "dirty work". The Rev appears to have USB ports on the back, making connection with an iPod possible.

HD is still limited to roughly 10% of the market. Mp3s, on the other hand, are so saturated that it's ridiculous.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Quote
Originally posted by: Terranigma Freak
Man, for a second, I thought you said iBuzz on the Revolution...

Terranigma, you are a freak

[animecyberrat]

Ok well first off I think Itunes on the rev will work perfectly considering its already going to have a web browser and it has USB ports on it, you would of course onloyuse it as the place to store your songs and then transfer them to you MP3 player, but you would have to have a rather large memeor card in it to do so because they way Ipod works is when you update your playlist it remvoes any songs that arent there off the ipod to replace with those that are, so they haev to physicaly be stored on the PC/or whatever that the songs are being transferd over to the mp 3 player and consideriing rev only ash 52 MB of memeory its not even at all a  feasble possibilitiy, because wiht out a memiry stick that can hold the songs your screwed.


however it woudl be a nice feature for the poor folks who buy Ipod mini and only want just barely enough songs to fit on it.


And Cds are so out dated. You can store hundreds of cds on an Ipod, litteraly. I have a 4 GB Ipod and I have 500 songs on it, I used to have a 20 GB Ipod and as hard as I tried I couldnt even fill a third of it.

And for Ian, since you said you dont knwo how it works ill explain it to help you geta  better picture. the Rev if it supported I tuens woudl only STORe the songs, to trasnfer to your mp3 player, Ipod mini or Play AYn if it ever comes to US. and thats why it would suck, because you woudl HAVE to have them always saved to your memey unless you never wanted to update and ad songs. So you see its a piontles feature that knwoing Nintendo wont happen. unless they decided to give you a 2 GB Memory stick with your rev, then and only then woudl it even be feesable.


BUT if you have an ipod aleady than your better off just storing your sonsg on your pc and trasnfering form there.

[MaryJane]

i don't see storing the songs on the rev as too good of an idea, as you brought the rev itself doesn't have much storage space, i say connect any mp3 player to it (i don't have an ipod and i kind of hate them because of how stupid itunes is) and hav the music play through the rev, also if you could use the rev like a browser for the mp3 player, rename songs, delete songs, maybe be able to download a song from a game unto ur mp3 player that'd be the sh!t. but no itunes, worst transfering program ever! why not just use drag and drop so much simpler, and you don't lose songs or get any you don't want when connecting to someone else computer.

[capamerica]

Storing & buying Music on the Revolution was not my main idea, it was more of a after thought and would be like a bonus or something, I didn't fully think that part out.

My main idea was for the Revolution to have Full iPod and iTunes support this way people could use the Revolution as a sort of Dock and be able to listen to their music through the Revolution. Right now there is no console that can listen to music off of a iPod that was purchased off of iTunes, the Xbox360 can only listen to normal MP3s off of a iPod all ACC files with FairPlay are skipped over. Another option with the Revolution is you could stream your iTunes playlist off your computer. Since the Revolution has a built in wireless network it could tie into your home network and if it found you had iTunes on your PC or Mac you could then listen to what you had on that.

Having MP3 support is good, but having iTunes/iPod support I think would be far better. The iPod's market share accounts for more then 78% of All MP3 players in the USA and over 42 million iPods have been sold Worldwide. Just think about how many of those people are gamers that could buy a Nintendo Revolution.

I know one thing that pissed me off with the Xbox360's support of music was that I couldn't listen to any music I purchased off iTunes. I don't buy alot of music off iTunes but all the music I do own are songs that are my all time favs. With out the iTunes support I can't listen to them on my 360.

[Smash_Brother]

They'd be throwing non-gamers a huge bone with this, too.

[MaryJane]

Quote
Originally posted by: capamerica


Having MP3 support is good, but having iTunes/iPod support I think would be far better. The iPod's market share accounts for more then 78% of All MP3 players in the USA and over 42 million iPods have been sold Worldwide. Just think about how many of those people are gamers that could buy a Nintendo Revolution.

hmmm very true, i was being selfish. this kind of goes with the whole thing of catering to the largest market, and i'm not part of that. oh well they should do something though that includes music support, and itunes would be the best way to go since so many people have it.