Apple as well as others are considering upgrading the audio on tracks to get close to master-level audio quality, according to sources. The heads of Labels are negotiating to bring the underlying bit depth from 16-bit to 24-bit. This would bring the audio quality from CD-level to the same detail as the master tracks from the studio.

Interscope-Geffen-A&M head Jimmy Iovine at the HP webOS event briefly confirmed a push towards 24-bit audio through music stores and hinted that Apple and others might have to upgrade the iPhone, iPod and other devices for the extra depth.

Last week the App Store hit its 10 billionth download and Apple was to give the person who downloaded the 10 billionth app a $10,000 gift card. The lucky downloader of that 10 billionth app was Gail Davis of Orpington, Kent, UK. She is a very lucky woman.

But when an Apple rep called Davis and started telling her that she had won, she hung up thinking that it was a prank. “I thought it was a prank call. I said, ‘Thank you very much, I’m not interested’ and I hung up.” But her kids told her that it was for real and luckily the Apple rep called back again. That was a close one. Her kids would have never forgiven her.

Credit card fraud is always going on somewhere and the latest example is a UK teen who recently got caught using stolen credit cards to purchase about $750,000 worth of music. His own music that he and his band offered on Amazon and the iTunes music store between January 2008 and June 2009. By doing so, he earned himself some nice royalty fees. Not that this will help him when he is behind bars.

The group allegedly downloaded the songs 6,000 times during that period. Crime doesn’t pay kids. And if you have to buy your own music to make it sell, maybe you should get a new gig.

Apple has now started extending iTunes preview clips to 90 seconds on songs that last for two and a half minutes or longer. It’s only effective in the US iTunes Store. So when you are checking a song out, you have a little extra time to decide if you like it or not.

It used to be that if a song was much longer than two and half minutes it wouldn’t get much radio play. Times have sure changed. Head to the iTunes store and preview away.

The Beatles’s first appearance on a digital store has led to a dramatic uptick in sales, according to data from Apple. About two million individual tracks and 450,000 albums were sold on iTunes in the first week alone.

Information collected by Billboard gave 1969′s Abbey Road the lead, both as the top-selling album and for “Here Comes the Sun” as the top-selling song. Many consider Abbey Road to be their best album. Now a newer generation of listeners can be exposed to the band, while others can re-discover them.

Just like we told you yesterday, the Beatles are now on iTunes. You can find the Beatles page live right now. It looks like the entire catalog is available in a $149 box set complete with iTunes LP content, and there’s also a few videos.

Steve and Yoko must be friends now. As a bonus the “Live at the Washington Coliseum, 1964″ video will stream for free for the rest of the year. Beatles fans are very happy today.

The Beatles are legendary. Sadly many kids have yet to discover them thanks to their absence from iTunes. But fear not, your kids will have the chance to have a listen on iTunes yet. This comes seven and a half years after Apple launched the iTunes store.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that The Beatles catalog will be among tomorrow’s iTunes announcements. WSJ’s sources warn that plans could change at the last minute however, and that the talks between Apple, Beatles reps, and EMI were taking place as recently as last week. Still, you have to keep the faith. It’s just time to do it.

Looks like Apple has informed music labels that it is preparing to extend the length of iTunes Store song previews in the United States to 90 seconds. This would be for songs that are at least 2 minutes and 30 seconds long. Shorter songs will continue to offer the current 30-second samples. I don’t know about you, but I’m glad to hear it, no pun intended.

Apple’s email says that by continuing to offer their music on the iTunes Store, labels are indicating their acceptance of the new terms. Any labels who do not wish to agree with the terms must withdraw their music from the iTunes Store.(As if they have a choice. Where else would they go?)

It isn’t really a surprise, but Apple has announced iTunes 10, complete with a brand new logo. The standout feature of iTunes 10 is Ping. Think a music-centered social network like Last.fm.

It will let you get your social fix by following people, even artists, establishing a “circle of friends,” do the whole comment thing, check out custom song and album charts, and find over 17,000 concert listings. Ping is also making the jump to the iPhone and iPod touch, and it’s available with iTunes 10 today.

There had been previous rumors, but now a new source claims that Apple is deeper into negotiations with Fox’s parent company News Corp., as well as “other media companies”, regarding deals for the plan, which would give one or two days of viewing at half the price of a purchase. CBS and Disney are also considering it.

The rumors around iTV persist as well. It would cost just $.99 and have a “smaller hard drive,” a flash drive, and would rely more heavily on streaming than locally stored media. Some other detailed rumors have said that it would still stop at 720p, but that it would run a variant of iOS and could have an app platform.

So you don’t have an iPhone 4 yet, unless you were lucky enough to have it delivered, but if you did receive Apple’s latest handset, you probably noticed that it doesn’t come with a tool to edit all the 720p footage you just shot.

That’s where iMovie for iPhone comes in handy. It just went live. So feel free to hit up the App Store and buy it for $4.99.

It’s not easy being an internet geek. We get that. And we feel for you. But please, get out once in a while. Meet someone. That’s a much better alternative to buying this iMaria app. It’s a sort of Playmate virtual girlfriend for the nerd that lacks everything.

iMaria is happy to stay at home and cook, or go out. It’s all good. She’s a virtual English girlfriend with a cute accent and a great personality, as well as a great pair of… And obviously it’s all very tame and lame thanks to iTunes no-porn policy. Which makes you even sadder if you buy this. Have fun watching her peel virtual potatoes in the virtual kitchen. Probably the highlight of your day.

Apple announced a new packaging concept called iTunes LP. Basically you can buy an entire album including things like liner notes artwork and other extras, making the package similar to old vinyl albums.

Too many of you aren’t old enough to remember albums, but when you bought the entire album you got a bunch of bonus material as an incentive to buy it. And iTunes LP is the digital version. The album covers are cool, plus pages for songs that feature lyrics, all that stuff. Even liner notes. We aren’t sure if it will mean more sales, but it’s cool.

In part of today’s announcements from Steve Jobs and Apple at the “It’s Only Rock and Roll” event, they’ve announced the latest version of iTunes – iTunes 9.

This new version (at first glance) most notably has a a new look to it, making navigation a little easier and get around (provided you aren’t too used to the old version). They’ve also added a way to preview from anywhere in the store instead of having to find the right place.

iTunes LP is something something new with iTunes version 9, bringing back some of the features we used to enjoy with LP’s that have been lost with online music, such as lyrics, notes, video, photos and apperently some other things that were not mentioned up front. Genius mixes are another enhanced feature in this new version, playing automatically generated …

Apple’s latest announcement gets high-def movie purchases to the iTunes Store. HD TV shows were already available to buy, but HD movies were rental-only. Until now anyway. HD movies will cost you $19.99, and though it isn’t known for sure yet, they’re likely the same H.264 compressed 720p quality.

Purchases will come with both an HD file and an iPod/iPhone-ready SD file and Apple says that HD rentals will now be on the store within 30 days of retail release.