Along with the obviously exciting product updates and announcements at Apple’s September event was the familiar face we all know and love, Steve Jobs. After sincerely thanking the donor of his liver and Apple community for helping him make it through his tough time in dealing with health, he went on to offer some fairly interesting numbers about Apple and their products. Ranging from the iPhone to iTunes, they help to give an insight into where Apple will be focusing.

We all know by now how Kid Rock feels about the iTunes Store, but what if you’re not a former star fighting for relevancy in an industry that’s otherwise forgotten about you? What if the industry has yet to even acknowledge you?

A couple years ago, I interviewed three indie bands—Zolof the Rock and Roll Destroyer, Bishop Allen and Splitsville—about the process of getting into the iTunes store and how they’re using it to appease and increase their fan base. I’m posting the article again here in a slightly updated form, as the answers I recieved may shed some light on the iTunes process, and will maybe help Kid Rock learn that perhaps music sales aren’t always about just making money.

Discover the spirit of rock and roll after the break.

Real Networks and Viacom’s Rhapsody will be launching a $50 million MP3 downloads business to challenge iTunes’ 70% market share, Reuters is reporting.

Digital music seller Rhapsody is launching a $50 million marketing assault on Apple’s iTunes, offering songs online and via partners including Yahoo Inc and Verizon Wireless, Rhapsody said on Monday.

The songs will be sold in MP3 format, which means users of the Rhapsody service will be able to play them on iPods.

More after the break.

Apple is reporting that its iTunes music store has now registered over 5 billion downloaded songs from the online music store. Recently crowned as the number one music store by market research firm NPD Group’s MusicWatch. In addition to having sold over 5 billion songs, the online music store is also reporting that around 50,000 more »