(This blog post is intended for active EPF users)

There are a few new developments we would like to alert you to. The first is that we have released an updated feed that now includes links to the 30 second sound samples and is compressed in a format that won't be effected by the continued growth of the feed.

Use your credentials to log in at http://feeds.itunes.apple.com/feeds/epf/v3 to start using the new files. These files are also in a new format (.tbz) which is tar-bzip2 and will not be affected by the 2 and 4GB limits that the zip format faces.

The current EPF feed will be phased out over the next couple months so we encourage you adopt the new feed as quickly as possible.

It is also important to note that partners are starting to have problems when unzipping the data feed files that are over 2GBs. This issue is typically resolved by upgrading to a 64 bit version of the unzip software.

Finally, we want to bring your attention to the recent introduction of the popularity tables to the EPF. These are available for each genre for songs, albums and applications.