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iTunes: Now it does video
Making a move to music movies

By Jo Best

Published: Tuesday 10 May 2005

The all-conquering iTunes Music Store looks to be morphing into a multimedia download shop.

The latest update, released earlier this week, reveals that the song shop has now turned video vendor.

The new iteration of iTunes comes complete with "new features" for the music store and updated QuickTime video support, leading to speculation that the update is paving the way for Apple to sell music video or longer film downloads alongside its traditional single and album business.

Apple is already utilising the updated capabilities to sell a small number of video downloads as extras to single purchases. For shoppers buying the Gorillaz's album through the US store, iTunes throws in four short video clips.

Other artists to get the iTunes video treatment in the US include Morcheeba and The Shins, of which the latter can also be purchased in the UK alongside the band's current single.

While most of the videos are thrown in as freebies, choosing to download a single by the Thievery Corporation with the accompanying music video will cost a dollar more than just downloading the single alone.

And, unlike Apple's controversial stance on its pure music downloads, the videos are all sold without any digital rights management attached.

Several digital music sellers are already eyeing up a move to movie clips as the next logical extension of their business, among them Tesco and Napster.