News.blog: Apple to bring ads to iTunes?

Apple is planning to introduce ads into the iTunes music store, according to a report released on Monday by Advertising Age.

The ads will be limited, at least at first, to a small area of the iTunes screen and will only be seen when streaming a podcast on a PC, according to the report. But it's not hard to envision ads spreading to other parts of iTunes as users grudgingly grow accustomed to the pitches. Satellite radio, once touted as ad-free, is increasingly filled with ads as the satellite companies struggle to make money, although that isn't a problem for Apple.

Some podcasts available on iTunes have radio-style ads that appear before or during the content, but this would mark the debut of a visual ad. The millions of users on iTunes are a nice market for potential advertisers, who are also thinking about how to reach consumers who bypass traditional advertising with things such as the TiVo service.