iTunes Music Store

I had an extended romp through the newly opened (in England, France and Germany that is — not really an “European” launch) iTunes music store. It is now obvious to me why there is quite a bit of buzz about it. The prices (and more importantly the terms of use) are fair, the selection is decent (by far not perfect — especially the omission of independent labels hurts. Also some artists only seem to feature a subsets of their albums); but what is IMO most important is the ease of use and the excellent integration with iTunes: It is actually fun to buy music. To proove the point, I ended up buying Natalie Merchant’s “Ophelia” album (which I found via the “Thick as Thieves” track in my library)…

3 thoughts on “iTunes Music Store

  1. gel

    I hate these idiots who wants to control when, how and where to listen music. I hate also
    selling cat in a sack thing- you can’t see what selection( and most important- bitrate) online music stores has untill you will register.
    They do not care about anything except money.

    Well I can say a lot, but others will think that it is only my emotions. Well read here then:
    http://www.eff.org/

  2. [maven]

    Well, if you do a bit of background reading, you’ll find out that this particular “store” sells 128kbit AAC files. Also, you only need to register as soon as you want to actually buy something, not look at what they have or listen to the samples.
    I’d also prefer no control, but you only get unencumbered mp3s from shops with dubious legality in countries with dubious copyright laws.
    Of course any store will always want your money; the only important thing is whether you consider what you get in return to be worthwhile…

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