Apple has hit another home run with its Music Store. It’s fast, easy and, well, absolutely cool. I’ve posted a short review of the service on Insanely-Great Mac (my night gig):
Unfotunately the service is only available to credit cards with US addresses and as if the audience is not small enough, it’s a Mac-only serivce until Apple releses a PC version at the end of this year… Nonetheless, it’s a step in the right direction for the music/computer industry…
For those of you who are not Mac buff, this service is different becuase it’s
- Easy to use
- Broad end user rights (burn CD, multiple computers… etc.)
- Guaranteed high quality download
- Legal and blessed by all big five record companies
I’m thankful it’s not available here in Taiwan. It’s too easy - I’d be broke in a month.
Aparently many people liked it enough to send the sales through the roof in the first week…
But what’s the point? If you must pay $.99 US per song and can get them free off other sites, why spend money?
Why pay for anything when you go to a shop and steal it ?
Just goes to show that Mac owners are decent honest people…
So Steve is right, pirating is not a technology problem; it is a behavior problem… I am glad he convinced the record labels of that…
Why is sharing “stealing”?
Programs like Morpheus haven’t been shut down yet.
Since the old days of cassettes, people have shared music.
I remember making and receiving tapes all the time in my youth.
Now friends burn cds for each other. How is it different?
And I wouldn’t call it ‘pirating’ if it’s for personal use.
Those people who sell cds/dvds in Bali, China or Thailand are pirating.
Why don’t they crack down more on that?
For me the service is a winner over downloading for free due to quality and I guess the word would be convenience.
While I actually enjoy getting the music for free and have few moral qualms about the idea of “stealing” music what I don’t like is the time it takes to find quality files. Files that are not corrupted, sound great, and have all the necessary meta information included (genre, artist, album, etc.). As well Apple is also providing me with a service – helping me find items that I might never have considered before (which of course helps their bottom line).
And it’s easy to use.
I guess the cliche, “you get what you pay for”, applies.
[quote=“fredericka bimmel”]And I wouldn’t call it ‘pirating’ if it’s for personal use.
Those people who sell cds/dvds in Bali, China or Thailand are pirating.
Why don’t they crack down more on that?[/quote]
Actually Jobs thought of this too. That’s why he negotiated some of the broadest “user rights” for digital music. Unlike other paid-serivces, you can actually burn unlimited CDs with the “legit” music you just bought (there’s a minor twist though)! Nobody else is offering that… even the record companies’ own services. Now, THAT is user friendly!
Apple is starting work on including independent artist tracks on its website. Just imagine the possibilities… Alternative music that would never make it under the big record lables… And what if Apple offers new tracks for 99 cents while making old ones down to 79 or even 59 cents per track!? It’s crazy how much they can do with this…
The iTunes Music Store is great because it’s not ridiculously expensive and isn’t ridiculously restricted. The embedded DRM allows a user to make 10 copies of an album (ie playlist) and even that isn’t a hard limit as merely re-arranging the playlist resets the limit.
Will I ever exceed the 10 copy soft limit for an album/play list? Highly, highly unlikely. Why? I enjoy the music. It’s not about spamming the planet. My family/friends share with me and I do likewise.
Also, it’s fast and convenient. See the song, click preview, it plays, I like it, I download. No re-entering purchase information every time. No “renting” of songs. It’s not riddled with viruses and won’t fill my inbox full of spam. It just works (like everything else with the Mac).
Do I still use LimeWire? Yup. But, definitely not for things that are going into my collection. Why? The quality is dodgy at best. It’s unreliable. And, well, it sometimes does amount to stealing.
After four years, the habit of buying a new “CD” every month has returned.
[quote=“scchu”]Aparently many people liked it enough to send the sales through the roof in the first week…
iTunes store: More than 1 million sold[/quote]
Just came across this
[quote]Steve Jobs said, "Over the years our dedicated users have been willing to pay a premium for less flexibility and smaller selection, from the original Macintosh to the current OS X.
[snip]
Kelvin Franklin, a loyal Apple user since the Apple IIe, offered, “When Jobs said that these files were pristine, we all knew what he meant. They were untouched by the Windows operating system. I mean I wouldn’t want anything that touched a hard drive with Windows on it to be within 20 miles of my precious.”
The initial success of the store does allay some concerns that Apple executives had before launch. “I have to admit that we were a bit worried that our customers would not have enough money left after purchasing a Macintosh to be able to afford any songs, but, as it has always been, our users have come through,” said Apple Vice-president of Marketing Thom Esterling.[/quote]
To open up this wonderful service to all of us poor benighted non-users of Apple, how about someone opening a little store in Taipei equipped with a full array of Macintosh computers, all set up for downloading the music, with appropriate payment arrangements made, so that all we have to do is make our selection, pay the shop owner that 99 cents per song plus his commission, and he downloads everything and burns whatever CDs we want. I’d be in there a lot, and I’m sure they’d make loads of money.
[quote=“fredericka bimmel”]Why is sharing “stealing”?
Programs like Morpheus haven’t been shut down yet.
Since the old days of cassettes, people have shared music.
I remember making and receiving tapes all the time in my youth.
Now friends burn cds for each other. How is it different?[/quote]
It isn’t any different. IMO, it is still a “fair use” exception to the copyright laws, and I read recently that one of the US District courts decided that peer to peer sharing was not illegal.
If there is a difference in recording an album (or several songs therefrom) onto a cassette tape and peer to peer downloading via computers/internet, it is simply that via internet sharing is much easier and occurs on a much larger scale. But the principle and the behavior is the same.
Notwithstanding the above, I do believe that burning loads of CDs and then selling them on the street (or elsewhere) is not a “fair use” exception and thus is illegal.
I use Limewire currently, but will look into iTunes Shop… simply because I like what I read here about it. Guess I’ll have to get a credit card :?
I’m a long time Mac user (I have two new machines which I have purchased within the past year). I still use a PC for downloading software, movies, and music. I’m looking forward to the day when Kazaa will release a Mac version.
You can download NEO for Mac OSX.
It’s better than Limewire, but pickens a bit slim. I find most of what I want between the two of them, though.
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/14971
[/url]
Acquisition is gnutella client that’s much faster than LimeWire and to my eye a lot easier to use.