Slashdot Mirror
Review of iTunes Music Store
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.
Here are my own notes on problems with enabling my account, problems with (and benefits of) playlist sharing, and extracting cover art.
well, if you were to buy a mid range PC and not a sub 1k PC you would be able to affird a mac.
:-p lets just say I have had nothing but problems and am glad that I bought the extended service plan for it.
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
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
I had the exact same ID problem and here is how I fixed it:
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.
"Freedom of speech has always been the abstract red-headed stepchild of the Constitution"
-Suck
That isn't right. A lot of the albums are $9.99 each (even when they have more than 10 songs), and that's a pretty hard price to beat. Amazon averages out a few bucks more + tax + shipping.
But yes, the record companies, not having their distribution costs do stand to make a pretty penny.
Tried to sign up for the service, it asked for the "security number" at the end of my credit card number. Everything was correct but it kept telling me that the security number was invalid (it's hard to mistype 3 digits... come on).
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.
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Dude, if you're not planning on sharing the music you buy with the whole world, the restrictions that they *do* put in will NEVER hinder you.
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?
Most albums in the store are $9.99 (cheaper than buying a CD in a store). However, consider that most albums only have like 3 songs worth listening too, which you can buy for $2.97. Do you see the savings now?
Unless you live in canada, or buy special 'music' CDs rather then regular Data CDs, you do not get taxed.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
It seems a lot of people have issues with the service... which is fine. For me personally, the service is great.
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.
The other big improvement to iTunes with version 4 is the ability to stream files over a LAN automatically via Rendevous. The problem is that you can't listen to a song bought from the store over Rendevous sharing unless the computer you are streaming TO is one of the 3 authorized computers. With this restriction you might as well copy the file over to get the most out of your license. This is really too bad. I had thought that Apple had the perfect business model: let Rendevous provide previews of songs without costing Apple anything for hosting and bandwidth, but if somebody decides they want to have the song file then the easiest way to get it is to buy it from the Apple store. Instead I'm left with a situation where I'm hesitant buy from Apple at all because that will pollute my shared music collection with files that don't work. Apple is very close to striking the right balance with their DRM, but by applying the 3 computer cap to streams they've made it not worth the bother.
You're recompressing a compressed-expanded file.
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 in addition to what the label gets.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Trans-Siberian Orchestra - $9.90
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
T Money
World Domination with a plastic spoon since 1984
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.
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.
Code poet, espresso fiend, starter upper.
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.
Independent musicians and registration-free net radio at EmergentSound
- The sign up process was buggy in my case. I tried unsuccessfully to register my card several times, finally contacted Apple, who suggested creating the Apple ID via the Apple Shop. This worked. This isn't user friendly.
- The user interface is fairly easy to use, but things aren't always where you expect them to be. I guess it's difficult to get lost as nothing goes down more than a few levels before your choices are limited to "up" and/or the browser.
- The classical selection is a lemon. I don't know enough about other types of music to make a judgement, but half the CDs that come up have no tracks available (so why list them?); the "Artist" field is a combination of composer and/or performer, and a goodly number of them are spelt in five different ways, or even coupled with several others (if Apple has scanned in a compilation album for instance.) For all practical purposes, this makes the "artist" field useless. Of the rest, even the symphonies are regularly only half available - you'll get a CD listed that's supposedly three Beethoven symphonies (and trust me, if it's much more obscure than Beethoven, you're likely to be SOL. Forget Shostakovich, Prokofiev, etc.) and find it's two movements from one, one movement from another, and three from the third. As far as I'm concerned, The iTunes Store's classical selection makes Specs and FYE look like Amazon.com.
- Outside of classical, there were a lot of surprising absenses. These varied from Madonna to the Chemical Brothers. At the same time, there's a lot of obscurer stuff in there too. I guess I'd rather have a choice of stuff that isn't in my record store than all the stuff that is and very little else. It's a surprise.
- Buying was quick and easy. The things download fairly quickly on my DSL link (as you'd expect.) The samples were of good quality, to my cloth ears (I'm one of the 90% of the population that cannot tell the difference between a 128kbps MP3 and a CD most of the time, but I'm aware for that other 10%, the difference is grating, so take my comment here with a pinch of salt and get other people's opinions - obviously of people who have listened to a 128kbps AAC sample - before going further)
I haven't tried burning to a CD yet, though I will. I dislike copy prevented stuff as a matter of principle. But I think Apple has done an interesting job and the concept deserves to work even if the implementation, right now, is a little lacking. Apple continue to add to the Shop, presumably it will get better with time.I suspect I'll still be getting a lot of my stuff via Amazon.com though.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
The first consumer CD players were released in 1982 but the Beatles weren't there. Indeed they didn't show up formally until 1987 with the one exception of a limited release of Abbey Road in Japan in 1983.
--- What?
As far as I can tell, it "expires" once your download is successfully completed. I had a problem downloading one song and had to quit and restart iTunes. Once I started iTunes again, I was able to complete the download. Here are a couple of links that give some more detailed information on backing up and interrupted downloads:
Backing up Songs
Interrupted Downloads
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.
This app is called Audio Hijack Pro.
Fantastic value for 30$ only.
Trolling using another account since 2005.
emusic.com:
"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
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.)
I personally like emusic. But it does have a really oddball selection. If you are big on jazz... it's great. Just about everything Coltrane and Parker ever recorded. I personally like traditional music. Just tons of bluegrass, blues and the like. Just yesterday the Blind Lemmon Jefferson 4 disc box set went up on-line. Well worth the 10 bucks a month for me. However, if you?re looking for the big chart toppers of today, it's not for you. Plus... no drm. I look at emusic this way... for 10 bucks a month I have access to the worlds biggest cut out bin. Not a bad deal all in all, and no DRM. I personally think we should support this type of endeavor.