30 Apr 2003 | Ep said...

i think this will help with the url linking.
http://whatdoiknow.org/archives/000917.php

30 Apr 2003 | Bill Brown said...

Wow! That is an awesome link Ep. I don't know that I would have found that otherwise.

As for the suggestions you make JF, I agree. I think they should also have some sort of affiliate setup like Amazon.

In fact, they should pretty much implement most of what Amazon has done. Someone somewhere pointed out that they have access to data that Amazon wishes it could get like your playlists, ratings, number of times played, etc. Why can't they make recommendations based on that?

30 Apr 2003 | f5 said...

Most importantly, they need independent artists.

30 Apr 2003 | Michael S. said...

Agreed. When they have EMF (anyone remember them?) but no Pixies, you know there's a problem. But I imagine that's not permanent.

I really do like their service. I just bought my first song today and it was really well integrated with iTunes, and the new songs show up in their own playlist. Less work than ripping from a CD.

30 Apr 2003 | ML said...

First off, a tip of the hat to Apple for doing a pretty remarkable job with this. That said, my biggest beef is with the store's selection. Let's take the Kottke list of music I linked to yesterday as a random sampling. Out of the following artists, only three are available at the Apple Store:

Interpol, Digweed's Stark Raving Mad, new Radiohead, Wilco, The Postal Service, White Stripes, Mirwais, Requiem for a Dream Soundtrack, Schneider TM, Boards of Canada, Doves, Dntel, Dealership, Daft Punk.

And of those three (Radiohead, Wilco, Doves), only Wilco has more than one album available. A music store that doesn't sell the White Stripes or Daft Punk? Or "The Bends" or "Kid A" by Radiohead? No Interpol even after they've been on Leno/Letterman? It's understandable that fringe indie artists aren't hooked up yet...and I know the service just launched...but how useful is a store that doesn't offer 80% of the music you want to listen to?

30 Apr 2003 | fajalar said...

I purchased 1 song. Bob Dylan. It was neat. Not sure how much I will use the service. Only time will tell as I don't buy much music anymore anyway.

I agree with a lot of the add ons suggested above. Overall, I like it. Just may have to pick up a new iPod now.

30 Apr 2003 | joshua said...

great ideas! and order'd the new 30g iPod seconds ago.

30 Apr 2003 | 8500 said...

I think the adjacent ads on apples home page point out that $.99 is still too much for digital music.

"Buy all the songs you want for $.99"
"7500 songs in your pocket"

Are you really going to spend $7500 to fill that new 30 gig iPOD?

30 Apr 2003 | Steven Garrity said...

How about selling to Canadians?

30 Apr 2003 | JF said...

How about selling to Canadians?

I'm sure Apple wants to, but the licensing issues are so complex that USA-only is probably the only way this whole thing could have gotten off the ground. I'm sure it's coming though. Hang in there!

30 Apr 2003 | Don Schenck said...

Jason, excellent suggestions all.

30 Apr 2003 | dirigible dude said...

The Plastics Hi-Fi selection sucks!

30 Apr 2003 | pb said...

Jason, have you tried the cart method of shopping? I find it slightly preferable. It's also nice to know that when purchasing individual tracks, Apple will bundle them up into one credit card charge. Not sure what the specifics are.

The complaints about the current lack of selection are completely lame. Obviously they will be adding continuously. It will be interesting to see what sort of program they set up for obtaining shelf space.

It will also be interesting to see how the affiliate program works out. There will, of course, be the usual "write an album review and provide an affiliate link to the store for purchasing". But much more interesting will be how this works with playlists and radio.

30 Apr 2003 | brian said...

so does anyone know if the 200,000 songs they claim are from ALL major labels? or just a couple of them to start.

i did like the exclusive content idea.

as far as selection , how does this relate to rhapsody and the others?

30 Apr 2003 | Lee Benningfield said...

"Allow me to bookmark or wish-list an album."

yeah, that was the first thing i though of too, and i already sent in that suggestion in the feedback area. besides bug reports and suggestions, i think you can also use it to request new artists and such.

i think all of your other suggestions are good too.

30 Apr 2003 | Nobody Holme said...

Good suggestions. Have you sent them to Apple? I'm sure Apple will be looking for comments about the store and ways to improve it, so if you haven't already sent them your suggestions (and this applies to everyone here) please do so.

30 Apr 2003 | Rob said...

"Buy all the songs you want for $.99"
"7500 songs in your pocket"

Are you really going to spend $7500 to fill that new 30 gig iPOD?

You've spent that much or more on the number of your CDs it'd be necessary to rip to fill the iPod, too.

... or are you getting your music by some other means? ;)

30 Apr 2003 | kev said...

More of an iTunes 4 suggestion than an iTunes Music Store one... but it would be really nice (when using the shared music library feature) to be able to 'bookmark' or 'watch' a particular IP address, so that when youre buddy goes offline, iTunes would:

a. remember that you connected to him and maybe keeps his icon in your library list, just graying it out or something and

b. detect when he comes back online. that way I wont have to keep IM'ing SU and requesting IP numbers over and over again. I know iTunes remembers the last-entered IP in the Cmd-K dialog but if you browse more than one friend's list at a time, you might want more than just the last one you entered.

Oh, and of course this should all be intergrated via Address Book. That just about goes without saying.

30 Apr 2003 | EvanKai said...

What about a way for independant artists to sell/promote their music? Seems like that should have been at the heart of this from the begining. Why would I continue to pump money (even at 99 increments) into the recording industry's pockets?

They gouged me for 10 years. Isn't that enough?

30 Apr 2003 | Michael Tuminello said...

check out my "Ten Ways Apple Could Do Music Better" article

30 Apr 2003 | Tim said...

One idea I've been talking with a lot of people about is lobbying Apple to give independent labels a chance with a Storefront platform, similar to Amazon's API program. It doesn't cost Apple significantly more to stock and deliver independent labels, and we're all hoping to see them in the main store, but why not also let them build their own? Here are some mockups of how it could work...

30 Apr 2003 | hurley#1 said...

I think by now approximately 10 million people have suggested to Apple that they provide music from independent artists instead of just the major labels. It's the most obvious suggestion in the world.

Maybe Apple's deal with the five major record companies would preclude offering independent music; I don't know. But even if it does, someone will probably write a plug-in for iTunes that would allow you to go to a different online store and buy music from independent artists the same way.

30 Apr 2003 | yuckmouth said...

Selecting more than one clip or an option to hear all clips on a particular album would be nice.

30 Apr 2003 | Jarrett Kertesz said...

I would love liner notes and correct release dates for every album. Most of the dates I've come across are very wrong or maybe just indicate when the original label was bought out by it's parent company.

Additional album art would be great.

And to be nit-picky, larger album art and graphics would be fab...are standards waiting to be developed here?

30 Apr 2003 | mikko cruzzo said...

I would like to see that more lables be added to the mix as well as COMPLETE ALBUMS instead of partials...

30 Apr 2003 | 8500 said...

You've spent that much or more on the number of your CDs it'd be necessary to rip to fill the iPod, too.
... or are you getting your music by some other means? ;)

Apple isn't trying to convert people from buying CDs to buying digital music but trying to convert people from swapping MP3s to buying them. 10 bucks for a digital album is way to much to make this successful. Apple is known for their overpricing (think G4 Cube) and that can kill a good product.

30 Apr 2003 | Ian said...

"10 bucks for a digital album is way to much to make this successful."

and how much are you paying for a hard copy? $15? $18? Ten dollars is a much more marketable price, plus you own it. You can spend a few dollars more and put the songs on as many CD's as you want. Remember the cost if for the big companies...but Apple has to make a little profit if they want this to work.

30 Apr 2003 | 8500 said...

Again, if you compare this to buying a CD it seems like a good deal but Apple (and the music companies) are not trying to convert CD buyers. Compare $10 to the cost that MP3 swappers currently pay and it seems like a bad plan.

30 Apr 2003 | hurley#1 said...

Compare $10 to the cost that MP3 swappers currently pay and it seems like a bad plan.

But remember, we're talking (for now) about Apple owners only. Apple owners already demonstrated they're willing to pay a little extra for a cool technology. A lot of people are speculating that the price per song will drop significantly once the service is available to Windows users...economies of scale and all that.

I personally know only about ten people who regularly swap MP3s, but I know a lot more who are running out of space to store all their CDs. If Apple could broaden its selection to include independents and the genres of music I listen to, and if it provided liner notes, I'd probably never buy another CD. You can hook up an iPod to a stereo or use a transmitter to play tunes from it on your car radio. Why bother with CDs?

30 Apr 2003 | Benjy said...

Well I guess I just got my question answered by mikko. I was wondering about whether you could buy an entire album, and if so at what price. Sadly, as I only have PC access at home and work, I am shut out so far.

The definitely should sell entire albums, and certainly for less than 99cents/song. $10 sounds a little high, especially with Best Buy, Target, etc. discounting many discs to $12.99 or so. But maybe $6.99 or $7.99? A lot of the cost of a CD is the service that goes into it (studio time, mixing, royalties, etc.) but certainly some of the cost is the burning, printing, warehousing, distributing, etc. that are eliminated.

30 Apr 2003 | son of asdf said...

I'd probably never buy another CD. You can hook up an iPod to a stereo or use a transmitter to play tunes from it on your car radio. Why bother with CDs?

Exactly, my 600+ CD's are up in my attic now and probably will never come down. All of the music I want is on my iPod.

30 Apr 2003 | Tony said...

The Apple Music Store should sell electronic gift certificates. Imagine getting an email on your birthday saying that your friend has given you a $30 credit at the store! Great way to get Windows users to buy an iPod (when the Windows version of iTunes comes out, this is).

30 Apr 2003 | hurley#1 said...

Additional album art would be great.

You know, when you step back from it a bit and think about the concept of "album art" it's really kind of an anachronism. People came to expect album art during the vinyl era. Album art became more constrained when CDs came on the scene. But really, why do we need album art now? Isn't that what band Web sites are for? I love a lot of the art on my CDs and old vinyl, but if I'm downloading digital music I guess I don't feel like I need artwork -- it's not part of the delivery system like a CD jewel case or an album jacket was.

30 Apr 2003 | Matte Elsbernd said...

I might not need the whole album art/liner notes but with lyrics being hunted down on the web, shouldn't there be some source (within the itunes store?) where all song lyrics are available (as .pdf?) and you could download the lyrics to the albums you buy? that they would be downloaded with them (set by preference) so that when I buy a song or album it downloads all that for me (they already do the cover art).

And I think that shifting the industry away from exclusively focusing on the album format of music release might make for some interesting side projects, one-off experiments, etc.

I've so far bought 2 albums and about 5 singles... 1 album I had wanted but $9.99 was easier to swallow than the price at stores, 1 album I would have been embarassed to buy at a store and the singles were a mix of songs which I had wanted but didn't have, didn't want to hunt for a "free" copy, etc.

In one case, I went straight from watching a soprano's dvd to the apple itunes store to listen/buy a song they played... that's sweet!

30 Apr 2003 | Cade Roux said...

$10 reasonable?

Check half.com to buy for cheap

At BMG and Columbia House, my average price per CD (including shipping and handling charges) is always less than $10 - usually close to $6-$7. Plus you get an offline hardcopy.

30 Apr 2003 | sb said...

"Allow me to select multiple songs on the same album to purchase all at once. "



if you change your preferences to add a song to your shopping basket instead of buy now you can add songs to your basket the you select your basket and click buy now, and it will buy all the songs in the basket.
Not the same as you suggested but still works nice.

30 Apr 2003 | Scott said...

I think so many of you are being rediculous. First of all 99cents for an album is less than you pay in the stores. Lets not forget you get it right then, it great quality, no encoding to do and you are given the legal right to use that song in ways you couldn't before (like in other iApps). And "no" Apple isn't expecting you to pay $7300 to fill your 30 gig iPod although we know they wouldn't stop you from doing that. Hopefully you already have a huge collection from CD's you already own. They are figuring you we, the consumers, are going to buy a few tracks here and there, when you need them and it's convenient. And the selection is great. Who else has been able to get the 5 top record labels to agree to this...no one! Indenpendent will be easy to add. What will probably be hard but I'm sure they'll do is get people like Madonna and their own record labels to sign. I think how well the store does will determine who of the other big ones will join. Content will grow, find a little patience and until then enjoy the ease of the software and the exclusive content. I for one am absolutely amazed they pulled this good of a service off for a first go. I do like the idea a few posts above about being able to email pre-purchased iTunes gift cards. That's a unique idea that benefits all.

30 Apr 2003 | Matte Elsbernd said...

Sure, there's cheaper ways to get CD's than buying it full price down at Tower. But they usually involve WORK which isn't something that everyone is willing to do to save a couple bucks and wait a few days...

And if anyone is at all frustrated with lining the record labels pockets these days, I would stay away from the record clubs (columbia house & BMG) as (correct me if I am wrong) but the record labels actually write into artist contracts that albums sold through this channel are counted MUCH differently in terms of royalty (read screw the artist more).

Who knows if iTunes will make it any better.

Anyone ready for Apple to buy Tivo and seeing the day you can buy movies from a similar store downloaded during the night to your tivo?

30 Apr 2003 | long live the lorax said...

Maybe this is a pipe dream, but one nice side-effect of electronic distribution is that there's that much less packaging wasted in the music purchasing process... A kind of "paperless office" concept for the music industry (one that will hopefully *work*).

iPod + iTunes Music Store = Reduced resource consumption

30 Apr 2003 | jms said...

Apple should offer more CD singles of songs from artists. These are say dance remixes of specific songs remixed by various DJ. They make a tons of these. Virgin Records and Tower sells a tons of them. i'd pay .99 compared to $6.99 for a remix song.

30 Apr 2003 | scottmt said...

Wow, some really good comments on here, got my head spinning. I'm in the 99 cents is too much camp myself. I hear people say "well you pay $18 for an album anyway" and indeed I have, if not more, for a CD. Fact is, thats apples and oranges (mind the pun). You can't compare going to the store and buying a CD in all its marketing glory to downloading tracks in iTunes. not the same ballpark, not the same sport!

I do applaud apple for doing it, best move of this type yet, but I'm always weary of RIAA who must have been instrumental in this deal.

30 Apr 2003 | Mike said...

As for the Windows version, I remember reading the official press release, and a Windows version of iTunes with the integrated music service will be offered within the next 4 months.


I believe that this rollout will occur right around the time that the international versions are all set to go. By then, the new iTunes Music Store will be making hand over fist profits ;)

30 Apr 2003 | hurley#1 said...

Another anachronism (in addition to album art) is the whole concept of an album itself. Albums are something that emerged from the limitations of the medium: two sides of a piece of vinyl, and the 75 minutes or so that a CD can hold. We've all grown accustomed to thinking in terms of albums, and Apple hasn't dispensed with that model because there's a huge body of music that's available in that format. But looking forward, I don't see much need for albums in the future. Unless an artist or band has a specific theme in mind that warrants a cohesive album, they should be free to release their music fresh as soon as a tune is recorded. "Albums" will disappear, replaced by playlists. So for gift certificates and wish lists and such, I would prefer to be able to create playlists rather than choose albums.

30 Apr 2003 | Steven Garrity said...

Apple has an opportunity to do something really interesting here: become the place you link to when you mention a song.

Right now, IMDB is the place you link to when you mention a movie (or even an actor). Music and television have been sorely lacking in this respect. If I want to write a recent radio single, theres no reliable and consistent place to link to. So far Amazon.com has been the best for this, but does not always have clips available.

30 Apr 2003 | MrBlank said...

Does this service keep track of what you have purchased and let you redownload? If my HDD goes belly-up, which has happened before, can I get my digital music back? iPods won't dump them back on your machine. I can't find info on this.

30 Apr 2003 | Katherine said...

Good article!

As for some people's comments about adding more independent music... right now there is a service called Emusic -- which I'm suprised nobody has mentioned thus far -- which is almost nothing but independent labels, since the major labels were leery. As well they might be -- the albums are straight mp3s, with no restrictions on what you can do with them. I've loved using it -- they started out charging $8.99 an album, and now it's about $10-15 a month for unlimited downloads.

Though I expect this will change when Apple's service becomes universally available. (Sigh)

30 Apr 2003 | ~bc said...

There are a number of questions in this and other forums that have already been answered by Apple, but not everyone is listening. I address a number of them in my post about the new service.

Second, indy labels, partial albums, you selling your music on the service: guys the store just opened. They still haven't ripped all the content they already have the rights to sell. Keep your pants on. 1000's of titles will be added weekly.

Ideas: the gift certificates were my idea first!! ;-) I would fall over if I got one! Second about linking to clips: awesome idea, about amazon-like associates, good idea. How about this though: combine these both with the web plugins that people already have telling their website readers what track is currently playing in iTunes. Then anyone could sample what you're currently listening to, other songs on your play list, and instantly buy them! How much would that rock??

30 Apr 2003 | kev said...

Does this service keep track of what you have purchased and let you redownload? If my HDD goes belly-up, which has happened before, can I get my digital music back? iPods won't dump them back on your machine. I can't find info on this.

Does the RIAA give you a copy of the CD when you leave it in your car in 100-degree heat for 5 days? I think the best answer to this question is the iPod. Back up your music there. Or another hard drive. Or up to 2 more computers.

30 Apr 2003 | kev said...

btw, that first paragraph should be a quote. Anyway, the iPod will easily let you move the files back, just iTunes won't do it. Audion does it for free for 30 days and then after that for 15 minutes at a time. Plus there are a number of other third-party options for extracting the songs. They're just hidden in a directory with the name starting with a . so you cant see it in the Finder.

30 Apr 2003 | Scott Smith said...

Regarding the album art, if you double click on the album cover in iTunes it pops up a larger window.

30 Apr 2003 | Jacob said...

I really want an iTunes "browser" that lets you use the backspace/delete button to go back a page, streaming song clips, and user reviews of albums--yes, just like Amazon but with downloads.

30 Apr 2003 | jeremy said...

re: backup copies

Note: Be sure to make regular backups of your music files (in your iTunes Music folder) by copying them to an external hard disk or other media. If your hard disk becomes damaged or you lose any of the music you've purchased, you'll have to buy any purchased music again to rebuild your library. You can also make an audio CD of the songs you purchase so you can listen to them in a consumer CD player.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93041

30 Apr 2003 | Ty Dibble said...

My favorite addition would be to have them include lyrics. It would be even better to include them in a karaoke track!

30 Apr 2003 | SU said...

I really want an iTunes "browser" that lets you use the backspace/delete button to go back a page, streaming song clips, and user reviews of albums--yes, just like Amazon but with downloads.

There is a back button and a forward button in the iTunes 4 interface. It's to the left of the breadcrumbs.

30 Apr 2003 | SU said...

Some info about independent labels from Time Magazine's recent interview with Jobs:

TIME: What about independent labels? Will they follow suit?

Jobs: Yes. They've already been calling us like crazy. We've had to put most of them off until after launch just because the big five have most of the music, and we only had so many hours in the day. But now we're really going to have time to focus on a lot of the independents and that will be really great.

Hopefully, he's right.

01 May 2003 | scottmt said...

Independet labels are what will make me want to use the sytem - I dont have that many artists on my iPod that are big 5

iTunes music store meets mp3.com would be cool ...

01 May 2003 | hurley#1 said...

What I really want to see is not so much the independent labels, but independent no-label musicians offering their music. Individual folk musicians, a voice and a guitar, recording music at home and releasing it directly to the i-Tunes store, for example. You can set up a professional-quality home studio for under $1,000, and a lot of musicians have done so. But it costs considerably more to master, duplicate, distribute, and promote a CD. If the market for your material is small, you're lucky if you make back the money you spent. Going direct to digital download is a much more viable option.

01 May 2003 | Don Schenck said...

What hurley said.

01 May 2003 | TommyB said...

If either (a) the feature is there but I haven't discovered it yet or (b) someone else has mentioned its omission (hard to imagine this hasn't happened), you can disregard...

What about having the ability to actually PreListen to a track (a snippet... say a verse and chorus)? Such as is available in most Barnes & Noble stores. . .
This would increase sales considerably. I know I am certainly hesitant to order a track I haven't heard before, and this applies to both artists I am familiar with as well as (and especially so) to new ones.

TommyB

01 May 2003 | hurley#1 said...

Is anyone else experiencing problems burning CDs with iTunes4? The CD appears to be burned successfully, but iTunes itself crashes at the end of the burn ("burn and crash" instead of "crash and burn"), and this morning I experienced my second-only system crash in two years of using OSX because of iTunes. Grrr.

What about having the ability to actually PreListen to a track (a snippet... say a verse and chorus)

Just double-click on the title of anything you want to listen to and you'll get a free 30-second preview.

01 May 2003 | kev said...

tommyb:
dude. right on the front page. apple.com/music

hurley:
no problems for me.

01 May 2003 | Cade Roux said...

As far as differences between distribution channels, that's because the labels suck.

I still think you're better off with half.com buying off someone who has already screwed or been screwed. I've been ripping for a couple years with my home server, Audreys and SliMP3s, PJB100 and MP3CAR setup. I do generally listen by album. As far as patience, I have ordered from Amazon.com on my cell phone while browsing at the store when I realized how much more expensive it was likely to be. Plus no waiting for checkout.

My fiancee has an iPod which I load with music for her from my server, but I have not been able to figure out how to make playlists from albums I've already loaded on the iPod. My PJB is much easier to use than the iPod and I can make new sets and discs on the PJB very easily using the jukebox manager. I was initially very excited about the iPod, but compared to what I was doing, only the Firewire is an improvement. In particular, the way it slavishly obeys the ID3 tags means that compilation albums like soundtracks end up cluttering your artist list. This isn't Apple's fault that the ID3 system is unreliable, but it IS their fault that they designed their UI around it.

So for me, I've found Apple disappointing overall compared to my two-year-old experience with Exact Audio Copy, LAME encoder, home server and PJB and so I'm unlikely to investigate their service any time soon.

Does it have legs with the general population? I'm not sure. I personally think it's closer to what I want than the new digital radio stuff (I think this stuff is doomed compared to jukeboxes), but I'm not sure it will take off either.

For pop music singles marketing, albums may be anachronistic, but for the majority of music (particularly those with longer shelf lives), I would say that the album is today still very much alive.

01 May 2003 | Chris said...

I think this service is going to having more artists running to sign up than customers. ;)

01 May 2003 | Phong said...

Sell university subscription, so so university students who makes up the core of pirate music community will no longer need to pirate music.

Add 10 bucks to your general student fee and you can have unlimited downloads.

01 May 2003 | Brian said...

All really great ideas. But did you contribute these to Apple's iTunes/Music Store Feedback Web Page? I hope you have. As great as this site is, there's no guarantee that Apple will see these excellent ideas.

To those of you reading this, if you have ideas of your own, don't just rant here. Share your ideas with Apple!

01 May 2003 | SU said...

Brian,

All really great ideas. But did you contribute these to Apple's iTunes/Music Store Feedback Web Page? I hope you have. As great as this site is, there's no guarantee that Apple will see these excellent ideas.

I believe the proper authorities have been notified ;)

01 May 2003 | pb said...

Hurley, like it or not, 80+% of purchased music comes from the big 5 and that won't change. It'll probably increase since they will have a much easier time spotting sellable artists.

Cade, totally disagree.

01 May 2003 | hurley#1 said...

Hurley, like it or not, 80+% of purchased music comes from the big 5 and that won't change. It'll probably increase since they will have a much easier time spotting sellable artists.

And your point is?

Some of us just don't run with the pack. Think about it: we're talking about Apple, which accounts for less than 5 percent of the computer market, so the people who use the Apple store now are more likely to be nonconformists to begin with. That's probably why so many of them are clamoring for more independent music to be available there.

I don't have anything against mass-market music, even if I can't relate to most of it myself. But it's obvious there's a viable market for independent music. Just as Apple's 3 or 4 percent share of the computer market amounts to 30 million computers, if independent labels and individual artists account for 10 or 15 percent of purchased music we're talking about many millions of dollars.

02 May 2003 | dmr said...

$.99 is simply too much per song for:
* compressed songs (come on, mp3s aren't equal to cd quality)
* no cd artwork! that's one of the best sources of good design (NIN, peal jam, smashing pumpkins, manson, etc have great package designs)
* no hardcopy backup; what happens if i accidentally delete my downloaded songs, can I redownload them for free? (I didn't read everything about the service, but I did try it out)

02 May 2003 | Don Schenck said...

I can go to a local coffee shop and for the price of a mocha listen to live music for three hours.

Or a bar, have some cola, smoke two or three cigars, and listen to live music.

Then again, it's hard to listen to Kirk The Idiot while driving to work.

02 May 2003 | hurley#1 said...

compressed songs (come on, mp3s aren't equal to cd quality)

These aren't MP3s, they're AACs and they are virtually indistiguishable from CD in terms of sound quality, even though the files are actually smaller than MP3s. This in itself is pretty great.

no cd artwork!

Wrong, you can download artwork, though only for some albums.

no hardcopy backup

Discussed in this thread above. When you buy a CD, do you get a free replacement if you drive your car over it? When you buy a book, do you get a free replacement if your dog eats it?

(I didn't read everything about the service, but I did try it out)

Obvious that you didn't read much about the service, but the fact that you didn't notice these things might mean that Apple isn't doing enough to promote these features?

02 May 2003 | Juan said...

Here's an idea:

Sometimes you just don't remember the name of the movie but for some strange reason you remember the name of the company that made the movie. I've noticed that in Apple's Music Store you can search by the film company that created the movie to see a list of movies and their soundtracks. For example there is no way to list all the soundtracks from lets say, (I don't know, how about an obscure company with no relation to Apple? ) Pixar.

You're probably thinking why not just search for the movie on pixar.com? Well lazyness mostly, its a search feature that should be in the Music Store.

It should work like this, hit the browse button, then select soundtracks > film/production company > list of availble soundtracks

Thoughts?

02 May 2003 | batman said...

"Allow me to select multiple songs on the same album to purchase all at once. The 1-click purchasing experience is fantastic, but it would be even better if I didnt have to click the BUY SONG button for 5 separate songs on the same album (especially since, as I noted above, theres no visual indicator of which songs Ive purchased). How about letting me shift-click multiple songs and then, being asked when I click the BUY SONG button (or right-click any of the selected songs), if I want to purchase all the selected songs. I realize they do have a shopping-cart option (its in the preferences), but it seems like this idea might be a nice in-between."

Check the preferences > store and select the shopping cart option

02 May 2003 | hurley#1 said...

Another thought about backups and protecting your purchases:

Do you get any kind of receipt from Apple when you buy a tune? I can't find out myself because I live in Canada so can't actually buy any tunes yet.

If you get a receipt, keep it somewhere safe: I bet insurance providers such as Safeware will eventually offer "tune insurance" for people who have amassed large collections of downloadable music on their iPod or computer. But you'd need receipts in order to make a claim.

02 May 2003 | fajalar said...

Do you get any kind of receipt from Apple when you buy a tune?

I got one for the song I bought. An email that arrived a few hours after I made the purchase.

Then there's the "purchased songs" category in the left nav. I don't know if that is kept track of on Apple's DBs or just the local drive.

02 May 2003 | Berto said...

These aren't MP3s, they're AACs and they are virtually indistiguishable from CD in terms of sound quality, even though the files are actually smaller than MP3s. This in itself is pretty great.

I did a test last night on this. With all the settings the same- volume untouched- the actual CD played significantly louder than the compressed files. The 160 bit AACs played slightly louder and brighter than 128 bit AACs and 160 bit mp3s. Between these three there wasn't much noticeable difference especially between 128 AAC and 160 mp3.

In terms of file size, one song compressed to:
9.1 MB as mp3 (160)
9.2 MB as AAC (160)
7.2 MB as AAC (128)

Between the three, the differences in audio are insignificant for me. I would pick AAC-128 for smaller size since I have a large collection.

06 May 2003 | kirkaracha said...

I'd like to see links to reviews of the albums at AMG (www.allmusic.com).

07 May 2003 | robert olesen said...

Provide a better quality downlink, AAC 160 kbps for example. If necessary they could charge a few pennies more for it. 128 kbps is not audiofile quality.

09 May 2003 | Carl Sieber said...

Regarding the ability to bookmark songs and albums, it's already built in (at least linking anyway), it's just not added to the iTunes interface yet. Full details can be found at: http://whatdoiknow.org/archives/000917.php

So say you wanted to link to music by Beck. You would enter:
itms://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZSearch.woa/wa/advancedSearchResults?artistTerm=Beck
If your artist name has two or more words in it, insert %20 in place of the white space.

The catch is (there's gotta be a catch), the link opens iTunes, so the Windows crowd will be left out until they get their own version...

15 May 2003 | flow said...

Apple, please.... INDEPENDENT ARTISTS... remember 'think different' and all that???

flow.... www.f-l-o-w.com

25 Jul 2003 | alecto said...

A note to the iTMS folks:

Greetings! I understand iTMS is in negotiations with independent artists at this time. Due to the RIAA's recent public intimidation tactics, I will not be purchasing any of their members' tracks in the future.

Thus, will there be some sort of indication as to whether an iTMS featured artist is an indie or associated with an RIAA label? I realize you can't include "RIAA" as a warning label (as much as I would like this) without gutting your business, but providing some kind of positive indicator that an artist is independent of that organization could capture business from the growing number of folks like myself which are fed up with the RIAA's bullying tactics.

Thanks for listening!

05 Sep 2003 | Joe Maller said...

Regarding playback all samples of a given album, I wrote a little AppleScript a few months back which will play all onscreen samples in order:

iTunes Music Store Player

It's kind of fun, select the top track and launch the script, all tracks will then play in order, switching automatically every 30 seconds. Not the most elegant solution, but it works.

04 Nov 2003 | Osoyoos B.C. said...

12 Nov 2003 | Rachel said...

Yeah digital distribution services like apple iTunes are the future, the new riaa tactic of taking downloaders to court is putting some of the public off major label product and looking away from the more traditional music outlets.

I hope Itunes gives new music a chance to be discovered and that all independent artists eventually get to feel the benefit of digital distribution via iTunes not just those on a selected few indie labels. I believe CDBaby has signed an agreement with iTunes allowing artists in their catalogue to have their music on there.

12 Nov 2003 | Rachel said...

I just heard Apple's iTunes Music Store is Time's Coolest Invention of 2003! Welcome to the revolution.

10 Dec 2003 | tom said...

So many albums today have only one or two good tracks the rest just filler. Purchasing individual songs is a great way to weed out the mediocrity, thanks to itunes you no longer have to shell out 18 dollars for a 15 songs album just to hear the one or two good tracks.