Apple's online music store

[Jeremy Blackman]

Apple has unveiled a new online music store that works within iTunes, like Napster. $1 per song, any song, and you don't have to buy the whole album. Full-quality 30-second previews of every song. And everything you download is CD quality, in the new AAC format (iTunes can burn in this format) There are full-quality music videos.

I usually have no patience for the Napster clone file sharing networks (nothing will ever be as good as Napster, so stop trying). I'll probably use it when I really want a certain song.

To be able to use it, you have to have an Apple ID. It's only available in the U.S., and you have to have 10.1.5 and iTunes 4.

Mac OS X 10.1.5 or later. (version 10.2.5 or later recommended)
iTunes 4 must be installed.

A lot of people say this will fail, but as far as I can tell Apple isn't really spending any money on it, so it won't be the downfall of the company or anything. It would be nice to know how much Apple gets from each download.

I'm definitely going to use this.

A Windows version is promised sometime in the future...

[Ghostboy]

I think this is great, too. I think a dollar (99 cents to be exact) is totally worth it now and then. I loved Napster too, and kazza or limewire just don't compare. At least with this I won't have to worry about those pesky broken downloads (I am reminded now that I've been meaning to upgrade to broadband).

[Dirk]

You guys should check out the program SoulSeek. Great program but a lot of time I get stuck in queue. I found some rare and live Mogwai stuff on it, so I'm sure a lot of other rare things can be found online. http://www.slsk.org/

[pumba]

Itunes 4 is sick. I agree about the napster thing, and Limewire is the worst shareware program ever. Does anyone know of any other good ones for mac os x?

[Duck Sauce]

Im going to take this thread to ask a question which is sort of relevant...

Does anybody here have an ipod? Ive never actually used one but they look so fucking cool and I have got to have one. I noticed apple just came out with new ones. Should I jump on it or is there something better out there (mp3 players)?

[pumba]

I own an ipod and it is amazing

I havnt had any problems and ive had for almost a year. The new ones hold much more  though.. and there smaller.

If you have alot of cds buy one...its by far the best mp3 player out there...plus Itunes 4 lets you download hte songs to your ipod forever when you can only burn them on cds for a 10 time limit...(pretty stupid).

The only thing i don't like about the ipod is that you can't upload songs onto your hard drive from your ipod.

peace.

[cowboykurtis]

id have to say that ipods are the shit.

[Duck Sauce]

I own an ipod and it is amazing

I havnt had any problems and ive had for almost a year. The new ones hold much more  though.. and there smaller.

If you have alot of cds buy one...its by far the best mp3 player out there...plus Itunes 4 lets you download hte songs to your ipod forever when you can only burn them on cds for a 10 time limit...(pretty stupid).

The only thing i don't like about the ipod is that you can't upload songs onto your hard drive from your ipod.

peace.

Itunes is only for macs right? Anybody with experience with a Ipod and a PC? I plan to stay with them

[russiasusha]

Good friend of mine has a pc and ipod.  He has no complaints so far.  I pods are, without question, the kings of the hill.

[Jeremy Blackman]

from Apple:

iTunes Music Store Sells Over One Million Songs in First Week

CUPERTINO, California—May 5, 2003—Apple® today announced that its revolutionary iTunes® Music Store sold over one million songs during its first week. Over half of the songs were purchased as albums, dispelling concerns that selling music on a per-track basis will destroy album sales. In addition, over half of the 200,000 songs offered on the iTunes Music Store were purchased at least once, demonstrating the breadth of musical tastes served by Apple's groundbreaking online store. Apple also reported that over one million copies of iTunes 4 have been downloaded, and that it has received orders for over 110,000 new third-generation iPods since their introduction a week ago, with music lovers snapping up more than 20,000 of them from stores in the U.S. this weekend.

"In less than one week we've broken every record and become the largest online music company in the world," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "Apple has created the first complete solution for the digital music age—you can purchase your favorite music online at the iTunes Music Store, mix your favorite tracks into playlists with iTunes, and take your entire music collection with you everywhere with the super-slim new iPods."

"Hitting one million songs in less than a week was totally unexpected," said Roger Ames, Warner Music Group's chairman and CEO. "Apple has shown music fans, artists and the music industry as a whole that there really is a successful and easy way of legally distributing music over the Internet."



the same story from CNET:

The early sales success suggests that people will pay for music downloads if given the chance, analysts say. "It clearly shows there was some pent-up demand in the Mac community for a legal way to buy and download digital music," Jupiter Research analyst Michael Gartenberg said.

On Tuesday, Apple plans to add 3,200 new tracks to the music store, including Michelle Branch's album "The Spirit Room" and the catalog of music from Alanis Morissette.

The first version of the iTunes Music Store, which is available only for Macs, offers a vast catalog of music from the five major record labels. Singles sell for 99 cents each, and many albums go for $9.99.

[Jeremy Blackman]

A few more tidbits:


http://news.com.com/2100-1027-998880.html

The new service uses technology known as Advanced Audio Coding (AAC), endorsed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and developed by AT&T, Dolby Laboratories, the Fraunhofer Institute and Sony Electronics. AAC has won positive quality comparisons with its main competitor, MP3, but it has been kept on the sidelines in part due to licensing delays and a lack of built-in anticopying controls.

After a slow start, AAC is gaining popularity with content companies such as America Online, which recently decided to use the format in its Radio@AOL service in place of technology from RealNetworks. If the iTunes store proves to be a success, AAC could win wider industry support as a download format and further complicate efforts of proprietary vendors to establish their technology as the de facto industry standard.

. . .


Apple's attractive demographic is more than just people with spending power. About 20 percent of people buying portable music players at retail are between the ages of 25 and 34, according to NPDTechworld. One-third of iPod buyers are in the same age bracket.

With those demographics as a starting point, Apple could use its small installed base to help direct record labels and Hollywood toward standards--a place they already seem inclined to go.

"If anyone can do it, Apple can," Baker said. "Their installed base is highly loyal and is willing to spend money."


http://news.com.com/2100-1041-998961.html?tag=nl

Apple Computer is developing a version of its jukebox software for Microsoft Windows-based PCs. According to a job posting on the company's Web site, it is looking for someone to design and build "Apple's newest Consumer Application, iTunes for Windows."

The Mac maker said on Monday that it would extend its music service to Windows-based machines by the end of the year, but did not explicitly say that it would do so through a Windows version of its iTunes. The service, named iTunes Music Store, is currently only available to Macs.


http://www.widepipe.org/

One of the major problems with the new iTunes is the fact that bought music cannot be shared with others via Rendezvous or over the internet. If you try to play a track that was bought from the Apple Music Store, a dialogue box comes up asking you to enter the password associated with the user of the remote computer.


http://www.macslash.org/article.pl?sid=03/04/28/1751201&mode=thread

It will allow unlimited burning to CDs, and will play on up to 3 Macs. There's a catch with the burning, though. It will require you to change a playlist after 10 burns in order to burn again.







I read one account that said Apple gets 35 cents out of every 99 cent song, and the musicians get paid through the record companies' cut. This could partially be a rumor.. I couldn't find any hard information on it. I'm curious to see how much the musicians actually get, especially since Apple's website says the system is "more fair to musicians."

By the way, the file swapping issue (I think) can be easily solved. Burn a CD and rip the CD to AIFF format.

[Jeremy Blackman]

Another note about ripping/burning:



http://www.macobserver.com/columns/devilsadvocate/2003/20030430.shtml

The following quote from Fortune made me worry a bit regarding the ability to move purchased songs onto various MP3 devices:

Even if you burn the AAC songs onto a CD that a conventional CD player can read and then re-rip them back into standard MP3 files, the sound quality is awful.

I'm happy to report that the sound quality is not awful. It's fine. Kudos to Apple for not trying to incorporate a sonic distortion scheme into their AAC-to-CD encoding mechanism that would render subsequent re-rips unusable. Currently, re-ripping legitimate AMS purchases is the only way to move your tunes onto non-iPod MP3 players. I think requiring re-encoding is a good compromise to enable unfettered mobility. While lossy re-encoding will be of worse quality, at least it provides some means to move your media around your home and onto other media devices.




Another note: if Apple ever does employ ripping protection, it's a piece of cake to get around it. A data ring will appear on the outer reigon of the CD, so just cover it with a black permanent marker.

[MacGuffin]

[Jeremy Blackman]

A few last things:

http://www.fortune.com/fortune/technology/articles/0,15114,447333,00.html

There will be music from bands like the Eagles, who have never before allowed their songs to be sold by a legal digital music service. And Jobs is personally lobbying other big-name holdouts, like the Rolling Stones and the Beatles, to come aboard.

. . .

Steve isn't suggesting that his new service will lift the computer industry out of its funk. But he is 100% convinced that the Music Store will rejuvenate the ailing music business. "This will go down in history as a turning point for the music industry," Jobs told FORTUNE. "This is landmark stuff. I can't overestimate it!"

. . .

He was equally appalled by the music industry's reluctance to satisfy the demand for Internet downloading that Napster had unleashed. Who could blame him? After bludgeoning Napster to death in court, record companies promised to launch paid services with the same limitless selection and ease of use.

They did just the opposite. Universal and Sony rolled out a joint venture called Pressplay. AOL Time Warner (the parent of both Warner and FORTUNE's publisher), Bertelsmann (BMG's owner), EMI, and RealNetworks launched MusicNet. But instead of trying to cooperate to attract customers, the two ventures competed to dominate the digital market. Pressplay wouldn't license its songs to MusicNet, and MusicNet withheld its tunes from Pressplay.

The result: Neither service had enough songs to attract paying customers, who couldn't care less which record company a particular song comes from. "It was strictly the greed and arrogance of the majors that screwed things up," says Irving Azoff, who manages the Eagles and Christina Aguilera. "They wanted to control every step of the [Internet] distribution process."

[Jeremy Blackman]

I did my first shopping at the Apple music store. I spent a conservative $9. I was deeply disappointed not to find Edwin Starr's "War"... but a few Bob Dylan songs made up for it (Masters of War & A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall).

I guess I'm basically using it to buy songs that I wouldn't buy an entire album for, like Beck's "Lost Cause" and Coldplay's "Clocks."

Ingenious interface... easy, fast, flawless. Searching and browsing is perfect. And I love the 30-second previews. You could just browse and listen to samples for hours.

The sound quality of the AAC files is great, although I haven't yet tested the security on the files. iTunes apparently rips aiff, wav, mp3, & acc.

My only complaint is the selection. A lot of great music is missing, and many of the artists that are there have only half of their ablums available. I'm sure (and I really hope) that will improve.

One other note - when I signed up, it asked me if I was in the US or Canada. So contrary to what I've read, apparently Canadians can use it too.