Apple say they have now flogged more than 12 million video downloads via their iTunes Music Store, which is a lot. This is both good and bad news for the music business. It means that Apple is helping record labels turn music videos into a revenue stream - which is the good news. But it also means the sale of TV shows is becoming an increasingly important part of the iTunes mix - which means new competition for iPod owners' weekly download spend, threatening record labels' digital music revenue stream almost as soon as it has been established. Furthering that threat - Apple have announced a deal with the CBS owned Showtime Networks which will make a number of new TV shows available for download via the iTunes Music Store - wonderful.
Elsewhere in Apple news, the computer firm has announced it is launching a 1GB iPod nano - a smaller capacity player that takes the nano into the more budget player price range - they will retail in the US at $149, compared to $199 for the 2GB player.