Review of iTunes Music Store 757
First, the disclaimer: I'm an Apple supporter, having used them as my desktop system since my parents got a IIe back when they were new. I run several Unix servers, but my desktop of choice has always been Apple. Also, while I like listening to music, I'm no audiophile, and can't usually tell the difference between a 192kbps MP3 and the CD it is encoded from. My best speakers are on my computer, and they are Monsoon flat panel 3-piece set.
Ok, on to the review. iTunes Music Store requires the new version of iTunes of course, for which Apple has updated the brushed metal interface again (Apple, why do you come up with this great Aqua interface and then never use it?). My first stop on any new program is always the preferences, and Apple's added some new options for this version: "Sharing" and "Store." I don't have any other computers worth streaming music too, so that's off, and I turn off the one-click shopping. I like having a shopping cart.
The store itself is presented as a special playlist in iTunes, just click and it connects. It presumes a fairly wide iTunes window, wider than I usually use, but the stuff I wanted was all on the left side so I'm fine. The default store layout is obviously Amazon-inspired: new additions, up and coming, editor's picks, and most popular all being highlighted. Genre is a pull-down menu on the top left: all the picks change and the background color. Click on an album to view it in a two-pane view: info above and songs below. There are easy links back at any point, or up the hierarchy. Double click on a song to hear the preview (not just the first 30 seconds, they seem to actually choose them).
That's the basics. There are two levels of search: the search box in iTunes and a Power Search available from inside the store. The Power Search lets you search by song, artist, album, genre, and composer. Users of Limewire will find it familiar. Clicking Browse puts up three panes across the top: genre, artist, album. Once an album is selected the songs are available below.
On to the interesting stuff: actually buying songs. I select a song I've got a poor p2p copy of and click buy, and it asks me to sign in with my Apple ID, or create one if I don't have one. This is where I have my first problem. I have an Apple ID, but entering it puts up a message saying I've never used it with iTunes Music Store before (well, duh) and asks me to review the terms and conditions. Then it directs me to the account creation screen, with my info already filled in.
Of course, the account creation screen won't let you create a duplicate account, and asks me to log in. Can we say endless loop? How about bug that should be fixed?
I create a new email address, and make a new account. No problem. Log in, select the song and a couple others. Click "Buy Song," enter credit card info (which is then saved into the account, on Apple's server) and the songs download quickly. I had one more blip: one song had trouble downloading (I assume server load) and was told to try again later, with a menu option. It worked several hours later.
The selection is broad, but not yet very deep. Many albums I found are in partial status, with only one or two songs. Several artists I was looking for were not listed at all. Considering this is just roll-out that isn't a major issue (they weren't big artists, at least not in the U.S.). Everyone should be able to find at least some of their picks available.
Also, some albums are listed as "Explicit" or "Clean." Notice I said "albums": if one song in an album has a label they all seem to, though I didn't do an exhaustive search. Since this is structured as song-centric, I feel they should have labeled on a song-by-song basis.
Enough with the marketing stuff, this is /. The files, as was mentioned in the announcement, are in AAC format. Let's see what we can do with that, shall we?
First options: inside iTunes. iTunes can convert one format to another normally, trying it on a 'protected' AAC file returns an error. Also, trying to burn an MP3 CD with one on the playlist just skips burning the AAC files (or returns an error if they are the only files.) Fair enough, we didn't really expect the capability to circumvent all controls to be built in... (Though you can of course burn regular CDs.)
Next, let's see what can be done with the file itself. They are saved, just like any other iTunes music file, in the iTunes music folder. The icon has a little lock on it, to indicate its 'protected' status. A few clicks later and the file is owned by guest:nobody chmod 777 and in a world readable folder. (Assigned to guest.)
So much for one definition of protection. [Ed: I renamed the file to .m4a (not protected) and set the permissions to the same as my other tracks, and iTunes would still not let me convert it to MP3.]
I can also play that file as another user on the same machine. I would try other machines, but I only have the one Mac at the moment.
The only other Mac player I can find that claims to play AAC is only for Mac OS v9, and does not appear to recognize the bought file, so no help there. I do however have an app that hijacks the audio stream before the speakers and allows you to play with equalizers, balance, etc. Oh, and it lets you save the result as an MP3 as well as playing it through the speakers.
I fire it up and a few minutes later I have an MP3 that I can't tell from the AAC. So much for that definition of protection.
Is this service for everyone? Probably not if you are a hard-core audiophile and can tell the difference between a 128kbps ACC and the original, but for most of us: it works. I can do what I want with the file, even get it to MP3 if I need it, though it is hard enough that I have to actually think about doing it (which means I won't do it unless I need to). I'd love it if it were cheaper, but I probably would not buy twice as many songs at half the price. Finding songs is easy, buying them is easy. (For reference: $0.99 per song does not include taxes, taxes will be listed in the invoice you are emailed.)
I'll probably spend too much money there.
More (Score:5, Informative)
Re:If only I could afford a mac... (Score:2, Informative)
hey the EMac is $1000 and comes with a combo drive and 17 in monitor.
and laptops from apple are so much better than the PC counterparts. makes me sad that I listened to my wife and did not buy the powerook when I bought my laptop...she wanted a PC
ID Problem (Score:5, Informative)
1) Goto http://www.apple.com
2) Go into the apple store
3) Signin using your userid
4) Add your credit card info to you apple ID
5) (optional?) I turned on 1-click shopping too, not sure if it mattered
6) Go back into iTunes and go through the registration process. You should be able to use your existing ID now.
I can definitely tell you that this worked for me but your milage may vary depending on the gremlins living in your house.
Re:Same price, fewer costs (Score:5, Informative)
But yes, the record companies, not having their distribution costs do stand to make a pretty penny.
My problem with signing up. (Score:2, Informative)
I gave up and from the reviews I won't bother again. I also can't say I feel very safe with Apple keeping my credit card numbers in their servers indefinately.
Does anyone happen to know if the transaction is even encrypted? What's to stop someone from snooping my account and ordering themself a ton of songs under my name?
I think I'll get my music the old fashioned way, go buy a CD in a store.
Re:Did you get charged twice ? (Score:5, Informative)
I was not charged twice.
iTunes Music Sharing (Score:5, Informative)
This lets you, for example, play back any of your MP3s or playlists stored on a central desktop server running iTunes from any of your other home machines, via whatever network setup you have. The music is streamed to your laptop via Airport, for example. That's pretty cool.
But there's more! You can also connect to any server, even those outside your subnet, using the Advanced>>Connect to Shared Music command, and then typing daap:// followed by the server you want to reach. Some browsers (I tested this with Camino) will even support passing such a URL on to iTunes. This is freakin' amazing. Commercial free radio, on demand. You choose what to play from each station's playlist! Now all we need is some sort of service to search/find running iTunes "hosts." Or, wait for the lawyers to kill it... it's too good to be true.
Caveat: to play an AAC purchased from the Apple Music Store in any case, you must be one of the 3 "authorized" machines.
Re:Question (Score:5, Informative)
Apple added this restriction to make it difficult to use iTunes to produce hundreds (or more) copies of a single playlist. You can burn a playlist to CD up to 10 times.. after the 10th copy, you have to make a change to the list- add or remove a song or two before the software will allow you to burn another CD. I have not tried this, but that's the way Steve Jobs described in during his presentation. I do not know if simply removing a song from the list and adding it again constitutes change, but I bet there is someone somewhere who has tried it out.
Re:Question (Score:3, Informative)
just make a new playlist with the same damn songs because iTunes counts the exact playlist file not the AAC files or other playlists with the same set up.
Re:Question (Score:3, Informative)
It means exactly that.
When you go to burn a cd, you make up a list of songs to go on the CD. That's called a "playlist". What they're saying is that you can burn *that particular playlist* to a cd ten times without having to change it. Change the playlists all you want, burn all the *different* cd's you want, just not the *same* cd ten times in a row.
Change it? Yeah, you know, remove a song from the list, add a song to the list. That sort of thing. The idea is to prevent you from burning off 1000 copies (or whatever) of the same playlist, which you quite obviously wouldn't use yourself.
"That's too restrictive! Fuck you apple!" Yeah right. That's pretty good of Apple if you ask me. I mean, who wants ten of the same damned cd of songs on the go at once? If you were really uptight, you'd just go do a disc copy on the first (audio) disc you made in the first place.
Re:I've said it once and I'll say it again... (Score:5, Informative)
Do you burn a given playlist more than 10 times? Do you have more than three Macs you will use to listen to that music? You can put what you buy on an UNLIMITED number of iPods (ok, nobody has a ton of them, but still) and 128kbps AAC sounds better than an MP3 of the same bitrate. Not quite the 320kbps you "require" but still very good.
It's amazing how people always complain. People, it's not going to get better than this. Do you really think Apple could have struck a deal with the five record labels without some sort of DRM?
Re:Right idea, wrong price (Score:5, Informative)
No, they do not (Score:4, Informative)
Re:My problem with signing up. (Score:2, Informative)
It worries me slightly too. I'll be keeping a close watch on my balance on that card. (Hmm, maybe I should get a card just for this?)
It is listed as encryped, though I haven't actually run tcpdump or anything on it.
Re:My problem with signing up. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:My problem with signing up. (Score:3, Informative)
The security number typically on the *back* of your credit card. You'll see it on the signature line, next to the last 4 numbers of your CC#. So if your card number is:
1234 4321 4567 9876
You'll see something like:
9876 654
on the back of your card. Those last three numbers are your security number.
Does anyone happen to know if the transaction is even encrypted? What's to stop someone from snooping my account and ordering themself a ton of songs under my name?
Uhhhh....you *do* know how to check if your browser is using SSL for a particular page or not, right? There's usually an icon somewhere on the status line with most browsers.
I love the service. (Score:5, Informative)
Last night I bought the CD Thrive by the Newsboys for $9.90. At my local Best Buy the CD is $14.99. I'm not much of one to shop around so maybe I could have found it a dollar cheaper here or there. In essence, I saved $5.00. Yeah I had to pay a quarter or so for the CD-R but whatever. From the time I clicked "Buy Album" to the time my computer ejected the burned disc it took a total of 12 minutes. A good 95% of the time that I listen to music I will buy a CD, bring it home, encode it (used to encode to MP3 160, now AAC 128), then burn a copy to keep in my car. Very rarely did I use the original CD as I have a Jeep Wrangler and things have disappeared before. So quality wise I haven't lost anything either.
Are the record companies making a mint off me since they don't have to press the CD's or make the cover art. Possibly. But I saved $5.00 plus gas/time. They were already making money off me anyhow.
I was actually impressed with the number of artists they did have. I'd say they had a good 3/4ths of the artists I wanted to listen to and as this is just the beginning I'd anticipate more in the coming months.
I personally am going to be using this service as much as possible. It may not be for everybody... if you're so high strung on a "down with the RIAA" mission and you feel that you're giving them more money than before then I wouldn't recommend it. My thought is that even if they are getting more money I am losing less. Which is what I care about. If you don't have a cable modem speed connection then it's probably not the cat's pajamas either. Maybe you don't like the selection. Fair enough. If your favorite P2P network works for you that's fine too. As far as ease of use and reliability goes, I'm feeling that this is something I will definitely continue to use.
Music Store and Rendevous sharing are incompatable (Score:1, Informative)
Straight from the source... (Score:4, Informative)
You lose sound quality (Score:2, Informative)
Mechanical royalties (Score:5, Informative)
Fuck that, they need to charge a more reasonable price, like $0.05 a song or $1 an album.
That's not financially possible. Under U.S. copyright law, the songwriter's publisher gets about 8 cents per copy [nmpa.org] in addition to what the label gets.
Re:More (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Same price, fewer costs (Score:5, Informative)
3 Doors Down - $9.99
Eminem Show - $9.99
50 Cent - $9.99
looks to me like plenty of recent albums are $9.99, and those are just the ones listed on the front page
Re:If only I could afford a mac... (Score:3, Informative)
Oh, look. Another Apple zealot helping to further spread FUD.
Let's see. Last year after a lot of shopping around I put together my current desktop box. It's a dual (yes, dual) PIII 1.0GHz with 1GB (yes, GB) of RAM, an nVidia GFx something card with 64MB or RAM, and two 40GB disks. All under $1,300.
Perhaps you would be so kind as to explain how I can get that type of rig from Apple within the same price range, hmmm?
If people are willing to pay premium for a Mac because it looks kewl, fine. If you don't need the kind of firepower I need, fine. There is a certain value added component to Macs which some people go for, and that's OK. I mean, it's your money so you should be able to spend it any way you want. But please spare us the "Macs are not expensive" tirade. You folks sound like Baghdad Bob yelping about the infidels being butchered at the airport. Give it up.
Re:My impressions.. (Score:2, Informative)
Apple claims (see ipodlounge.com) that the CD and the AAC files are identical, but when you rip it from the CD the recompression will cause significant quality loss. Users seems to report better luck with AAC recompression than MP3. I personally suspect that it only applies to inferior recompressions like 128, 160 kbps. 256 and higher recompression probably will not introduce any noticable interference.
Bringing the issue a little more down to earth (Score:5, Informative)
The main problem with $.50 songs is that the credit card companies charge a minimum flat fee per transaction, on top of the percent-of-transaction fee and the monthly account charge, so it's close to impossible to sell anything for less than a dollar or so.
Example: If you've got a $.35 flat fee plus a 2% transaction fee (and you ignore the monthly fee since you hopefully have lots of transactions to spread it out over), you're looking at having a maximum of $.12 to cover the expenses of the seller and recompense the composer and artists. Let's assume the seller can make back their expenses including bandwidth and web hosting fees, plus computer upgrades and a sysadmin to keep track of all the database issues and automation, with only $.04 per track. (This seems fairly optimistic to me unless you're a huge corporation subsidizing this sevice in some way.) That means that each person in the band will make $.02 every time a track is sold/downloaded. If we further assume that all four artists want to earn close to minimum wage (say low end of $5.00/hour, 40 hours/week), they need to sell 10000 songs per week to earn just over $10,000 a year each. That might be a little difficult for an independent musician without access to radio air time.
Comment removed (Score:3, Informative)
Not to bad (Score:2, Informative)
I can see myself paying $.99/song. That's not that bad at all. I am a huge music fan. I constantly buy new music. This service seems very beneficial to me. I hate buying single song cds. They cost almost as much as the whole cd. I just buy the full cd. The bad thing is I might only like 1-4 songs on the whole cd. There are only a few cds that I own where I like every song. There is nothing worse than buying a cd and it only has 2 good songs and 10-12 songs that just suck.
iTunes estimate for me every month.
$25.00 - 50 pack of blank cds
$44.99 - Internet, modem fees/monthly
$39.60 - Cost of 40 songs/month
$109.59 is my cost per month while using iTunes
Cost of buying 20 cds with 2 of the 40 songs that I want for this month.
$199.80 - cost of 20 cds bought and I'm stuck with a few songs per disk that I hate.
$25 - 50 pack of blank cds for ripping the songs I actually like.
$224.80/month
Hmm not bad at all!
The Beatles and "new" technology (Score:3, Informative)
Re:More (Score:3, Informative)
Anyone want to help make an online sharing service? Aka, the file-sharing service Apple didn't know they made available...
Re:I haven't heard this mentioned ... (Score:3, Informative)
Backing up Songs [apple.com]
Interrupted Downloads [apple.com]
Audio Hijack Pro (Score:5, Informative)
This app is called Audio Hijack Pro [rogueamoeba.com].
Fantastic value for 30$ only.
emusic.com better in many ways (Score:1, Informative)
"unlimited" (actually =2000 tracks / month) downloading for $10-15 / month, no drm, fewer legal restrictions, artists still get paid, quality is similar to apple's. 950 mostly indie labels means fewer big names, but i've found ~20 albums by artists i already like as well as many new favorites all in the last two weeks. so far i'm paying ~$0.25 / album but if i maxed out the service, i could get albums for as little as $0.05. they have nice charts, articles, suggestions, etc.
i'd recommend signing up for emusic's service once a year for 3 months (minimum term), and using apple's service and local [used] cd stores to fill in the gaps.
-branden
Burning to CDs, then reconverting (Score:4, Informative)
This has been said by many people, but I don't understand why it would be any different from converting it directly from .AAC to .MP3. When you burn an .AAC to CD, presumably, it will be the highest quality you can possibly get from the .AAC. You then rip to .MP3, it should be the same as decoding from .AAC and encoding to .MP3 (indeed, that is exactly what you are doing, except the intermediate step of converting to CD, which shouldn't degrade the sound at all.)
Re:eMusic? (Score:3, Informative)