Apple has filed an application for the trademark "iTunes Live". This could be a routine trademark application from the gang at Cupertino, or, and we much prefer the or, it could mean some exciting developments for its iTunes service.

The trademark application was filed for two classes:

- Online retail store services in the field of entertainment featuring pre-recorded musical, audio and audiovisual content.

and

- Entertainment services, namely, arranging and conducting of concerts and live musical performances.

So, there could be big changes on the horizon for Apple's music monster. Already there have been a few in-store gigs at Apple stores worldwide, such as Bloc Party's appearance at the Regent Street store in 2008 and Wolfmother's gig at the Sydney store earlier this year. Maybe the plan is to do more of these and stream them live via iTunes.

Or maybe it could just mean the streaming of gigs that aren't simply confined to Apple's locations. Concerts from all around the world could be streamed via iTunes.

It might not have anything to do with streaming at all, it might simply be the inclusion of exclusive live recordings. The iTunes festival 2010 starts in 51 days - could we be treated to exclusive live content recorded from these?

Whatever the outcome, we'll be sure to let you know as soon as we do. For the record, our money is on live streaming from exclusive iTunes gigs. What do you lot think?