Jay-Z’s ‘4:44’ album makes its way to most streaming services

After a week of Jay-Z’s 4:44 being a Tidal and Sprint exclusive, the new album comes to most major streaming services. We say most as Spotify is missing from the list of services it’s available in. We’re not surprised as the hip-hop mogul pulled his catalog from the service a few months ago. He seems to be in better terms with Apple as 4:44 is available on both iTunes and Apple Music. The album is also available on Google Play Music and Amazon Music. Some of the services even have “The Story of O.J.” animated video.

Source: Engadget

Apple redesigns iTunes website, too

The Apple App Store isn’t the only one that’s gotten a new look. Apple has finally updated the iTunes website to make it look more like Apple Music and the iTunes app on Mac and PC. You see larger images this time and more information about the artists. You can now easily listen to song previews, read editors’ notes and artist bios, preview videos, and the like. It can prompt you to either check out the song or album on iTunes or Apple Music app. The site also now promotes Apple Music by giving you an option to start a free trial of their streaming service. And instead of saying it’s an iTunes Preview, it now shows that it’s an Apple Music Preview.

Source: 9to5Mac

Apple now makes it easier to stream rented movies across different devices

Apple is employing a “rent once, watch anywhere” approach to movie rentals in the iTunes Store. The latest iTunes 12.6 update for the desktop will no longer restrict you to watch a movie you rented on the iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, or PC you rented it on. This feature will be available to work on devices with iOS 10.3 or tvOS 10.2. These haven’t been officially released to the public yet but with this update, we won’t be surprised if the rollout is soon.

Source: The Verge

Canadian audiobook listeners prefer Amazon and Audible over iTunes

David Clare/Flickr

A new study from BookNet Canada explores the local consumers’s audiobook listening habits and methods for discovering new titles. It was found in this follow-up to a 2014 study that most users found audiobooks on websites of retailers as well as from recommendations by friends. However, it doesn’t mean these are the top places for downloading. People still prefer to borrow from public libraries or make use of free downloads to acquire new audiobooks.

But for those who do purchase audiobooks from retailers, the popular retailers to turn to are Amazon and Audible. Amazon is used 21 percent of the time this year (compared to 21.5 percent in 2014 and Audible is used to buy audiobooks 20.7 percent of the time (compared to 14.2 percent in 2014). Apple’s iTunes sees a 3 percent dip in use from 2014—they’ve gone from 17.7 percent in 2014 to 14.7 percent this year.

Source: Forbes