apple-best-of-2013
Apple on Monday night announced the winners of its 2013 iTunes Store Awards, which include the best apps, books, music, movies and TV shows from its digital store. Courtesy / Apple

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) on Monday night announced the winners of its annual iTunes Store Awards (previously called “iTunes Rewind”), which are the best apps, books, podcasts, music, movies and TV shows from Apple’s digital store from this past year.

Of the 2013 iTunes Store Awards winners, “Duolingo” was named the iPhone App of the Year, which is the first time a language-learning app has won the award, while “Disney Animated” won the iPad App of the Year award for its $9.99 behind-the-scenes tour of the Disney cartoon library. As far as games were concerned, “Ridiculous Fishing – A Tale Of Redemption” picked up the iPhone Game of the Year award while the atmospheric, side-scrolling platformer “Badland” won the iPad Game of the Year.

Highlighting the winners from the music category were Justin Timberlake, who was named Best Artist for his “The 20/20 Experience – The Complete Experience,” while the Best Album of 2013 went to Macklemore & Ryan Lewis for their album “The Heist.” The Best Song of 2013, according to Apple, was “Royals” by Lorde (the song is currently a free download from Apple’s “12 Days Of Gifts” app), while the Breakthrough Album of 2013 was “Good Kid, M.A.A.D City” by Compton, Calif.-based rapper Kendrick Lamar.

Rounding out Apple’s iTunes Store Awards were some of the best movies, TV shows and books of 2013. “Gravity,” Alfonso Cuaron’s space thriller, won for Movie of the Year, while “Breaking Bad,” which was named the highest-rated TV series of all-time by the Guinness World Records after its final episode reached a whopping 10.3 million viewers in September, was named Best TV Show of the Year. In the world of books, George Saunders’ “Tenth of December” won Best Fiction, Bill Bryson’s “One Summer” took Best Nonfiction and Sony Pictures Television won Best Multi-Touch Book for its “Breaking Bad: Alchemy,” which includes more than 120 pages of original content, script pages, death timelines and exclusive interviews with the show’s creator, Vince Gilligan.

Here are the 2013 winners for the annual iTunes Store Awards.

Apps:
-iPhone App of the Year: Duolingo - Learn Languages for Free
-iPhone Game of the Year: Ridiculous Fishing - A Tale of Redemption
-iPad App of the Year: Disney Animated
-iPad Game of the Year: Badland

Music:
-Best Artist: The 20/20 Experience - The Complete Experience by Justin Timberlake
-Best Album: The Heist by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
-Best Song: Royals by Lorde
-Breakthrough Album: Good Kid, M.A.A.D City by Kendrick Lamar

Movies:
-Best Movie: “Gravity
-Best Animated Movie: “Despicable Me 2
-Best Male Performance: Chiwetel Ejiofor, "12 Years A Slave"
-Best Female Performance: Cate Blanchett, "Blue Jasmine"

TV Shows:
-Best TV Show: Breaking Bad
-Best Breakthrough: Scandal
-Best Discovery: Orphan Black
-Best Reality TV: Duck Dynasty

Books:
-Best Fiction: Tenth of December by George Saunders
-Best Nonfiction: One Summer by Bill Bryson
-Best Teen Novel: The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson and Ben McSweeney
-Best Multi-Touch Book: Breaking Bad: Alchemy by Sony Pictures Television

Apart from the award winners, the top paid App Store app of 2013 was “Minecraft – Pocket Edition,” while “Candy Crush Saga” was Apple’s top free game and the top grossing game of 2013.

Notable award winners from last year’s iTunes Store Awards included “Action Movie FX,” which was the iPhone App of the Year, “Paper by FiftyThree,” which was the iPad App of the Year, Frank Ocean won Best Artist of 2012 for his album “Channel Orange,” Grizzly Bear’s “Shields” as Album of the Year, “The Avengers” as Blockbuster of the Year, and “Breaking Bad” also won TV Show of the Year.

Follow Dave Smith on Twitter