As Apple hyped that its iTunes music store had sold it half-billionth song on Sunday - and nearly single-handedly brought podcasting to the masses earlier this month - reports have emerged that Apple would be adding video to its iTunes and its iPod music players, writes MarketWatch.

Since May, the iTunes software has allowed users to play videos, movie trailers and even home movies, reports ZDNet. The store has already begun selling a handful of music videos, and more are being added each week.

These clues and others have led some industry insiders to believe that Apple soon do for videos and movies what iTunes and the iPod have already done for music and podcasts. For advertisers, that would mean a potentially massive audience with portable access to seemingly endless content - and nearly so advertising opportunities.

With the iPod now offering music and photo capabilities, the speculation has been that Apple is on the verge on releasing a video-playing version of the iPod, as early as this September. The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple has held discussions with the major recording companies about selling music videos through iTunes.

But Apple must be able to tackle the business, not just the technology, of movies and Hollywood, whose executives worry about copyright protection on the web and don't want to jeopardize DVD sales. Still, some filmmakers agree that legal internet sales of movies could transform their business.

"The business is going to go down, down, down before they finally realize what Steve Jobs and a few others have already realized - that there is a way to make a business model out of this and then people won't steal it quite so readily," Star Wars director George Lucas said last month on CNBC.