Apple's iTunes makes 'Friends' with Warner Bros.
- — 27 July, 2006 08:35
Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store added six new shows from Warner Bros. Entertainment, including the first season of the hit show "Friends" and sci-fi series "Babylon 5."
Also added Tuesday were the first seasons of classic Warner Bros. cartoons "The Flintstones" and "The Jetsons." Warner Bros. also made available the pilot episode of a new DC Comics Inc. series "Aquaman," and highlights from the comedy show "MADtv"'s eighth, ninth, and tenth seasons. All episodes sell for US$1.99 each, and can be played on the iTunes application or on video-enabled iPods.
Tuesday also saw one of the biggest early opponents of digital music piracy finally make its catalog available online. The works of Metallica, one of the world's all-time best-selling hard rock acts, were uploaded onto iTunes, with each song selling for US$0.99. The group's early and vocal opposition to Napster's file-sharing software, before it was reincarnated as a legitimate rival to iTunes, gives Apple's service a further nod of legitimacy as the conduit of choice for legal digital music.
However, the group's 1993 three-CD live box set, "Live Sh*t: Binge and Purge," and its 1999 double-disc collaboration with the San Francisco Symphony, "S&M," were not included in Tuesday's releases, although single tracks appear as bonus tracks on some of the albums offered.
