After the demise of Napster for Mac and Aimster, the only real
choice in terms of applications to download music with for the
Macintosh was Limewire or another Gnutella client. Now you can add
iTunes to the list.
iTunes
4, that is. Since access to the service is built into the
application, you cannot use an earlier version of iTunes to access
the iTunes Music
Store.
This severely limits the number of people who can use this
service. Unlike web-based services, you can only access the iTunes
Music Store on a Mac running OS X 10.1 or later. This poses a
problem to those using other operating systems - the majority of
Mac users are still running OS 9, and what about all of the
Windows users and Linux users?
Apple will eventually come out with a Windows version of iTunes
4, but it is doubtful that they will offer a version for Linux or
Mac OS 9. This leaves many users with nowhere to turn but to
Limewire, Kazaa (in Virtual PC), or one of the other services like
EMusic.
I understand that Apple wants people to use OS X, but it
would have a much wider user base if it supported other operating
systems as well.
The other issue is that the iTunes Music Store won't sell you an
MP3 file. You have purchase an encoded AAC file that somewhat
limits its own use. For those that don't have an iPod and use an
MP3 player not compatible with AAC files, this could be an issue.
You can burn your music to CD and then rip it to MP3 format, but
that's inconvenient. It would be nice if Apple were to offer MP3 as
an option, since it's the industry standard.
If Apple were to integrate the iTunes Music Store in with the
QuickTime portion of their website (and maybe call it iMusic?),
then anyone with any operating system to have access to the music
through their browser. Of course, something would have to be done
to give the user some sort of benefit if they decided to use iTunes
to search for and download the music instead of the Web
interface.
At the price that Apple is charging per song, it ends up getting
expensive if you want to buy a lot of songs. I have heard that
other services offer subscription rates, which might be a good idea
for Apple. Apple does offer a bit of a discount if you plan to buy
an entire album online, usually selling it for $9.99.
In terms of music selection, I must admit that with the absence
of a Mac running OS X, I haven't been able to try it out yet.
I have heard, however, that the selection is limited when it comes
to more obscure music, unfortunately leaving only artists such as
Avril Lavigne, Eminem, and 3 Doors Down (if anyone wants to confirm
that, try a search for Discipline, Riot/Clone, and Pistol Grip, I'd
be curious to see if any results come up at all).
In general, though, I think that Apple is going in the right
direction by offering music over the Internet. It seems like an
area Apple would have eventually ended up in, after first offering
iTunes and later the iPod.
