In many cases in the US, the bonus videos are bundled with albums, often at a $1 premium. Examples include Billy Corgan's "TheFutureEmbrace," Coldplay's "X and Y" and Missy Elliot's "The Cookbook," each priced at $11.99.
"Anything else you can give to a consumer that they don't get on a CD is really cool," says Chris Sims, a music video editor at Timecode Entertainment in Los Angeles. "A bunch of artists see this as an option."
The iTunes store also does a better job of promoting movie trailers, which Apple has shown for years on its QuickTime site. The iTunes movie trailer page shows clips from new films as well as from DVDs. It also lists 17 major studios by name and links to each of their trailers.
Although the movie clips are free, the trailer page also sells film soundtracks and audio books. That's the Holy Grail of entertainment marketing: the cross-promotion of movies, soundtracks and books.
In one deal offered exclusively on the US iTunes store, you can watch the movie trailer of Steven Spielberg's "War of the Worlds", buy the soundtrack for $9.99 and get an audio book of H.G. Wells' classic, starring the cast of "Star Trek", for $12.95. The next logical step — assuming the business hurdles can be crossed — would be to include the movies themselves.
The hardware side of Apple's video plans is more vexing. Many analysts have speculated that Apple will release a video iPod. That may support the new music videos finding their way into iTunes, but is unlikely to form the backbone of a full movie distribution service, according to those interviewed.
In the past, Jobs has downplayed the video iPod. "A lot of these other things that people are talking about building in, such as video and things like that, are foreground activities," he says last year. "You can't drive a car when you're watching a movie, you know? It's really hard."
But the popularity and picture quality of Sony's PlayStation Portable device could force Apple's hand. Sources says Apple has looked at prototypes of portable video players in its labs, and future versions of iPods could play music videos, if not full-length movies.
As a first step, Apple could turn the Mac into more of a home media player, industry executives says.
