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Listen Like Thieves: Digital music goes legit
iTunes Store
The iTunes Store opened in Australia in October 2005, making it a grizzled veteran of digital music retailers. This store dominates the market thanks to its massive catalogue, however its Apple-only requirements mean that it’s not the choice for everyone.
Range of music
With over five million songs, iTunes Store has the largest range of any online music retailer. Because Apple is able to retail music by individual artists, and because the dominance of the service makes it a natural choice, its catalogue is more likely to contain music from lesser-known artists or genres. Most new music today is released in the iTunes Store, but you won’t have as much luck if you’re after something old: the artist or label might not be around any more to sell their music.
Artists you won’t find in the iTunes Store:
- Baby Animals
- Fini Scad
- Kevin Bloody Wilson
Ease of use
Once you have an iTunes account you can browse the catalogue with relative ease. Purchasing music is frighteningly easy – make one false move around the 1-Click Buy button and you could find yourself owning ‘Agadoo’ by Black Lace.
Discovery potential
The iTunes Store promotes music through ads on its front page and by recommending artists similar to ones that you’re browsing or have already purchased. Unfortunately, you can’t hear this recommended music unless you buy it, which you’re not likely to do if you don’t know who they are. To discover new music you’ll have to go elsewhere.
Price
Most singles are AUD$1.69; most albums are AUD $16.99.
Quality and format
The iTunes Store digitises its music at 128kbps in AAC format, which is adequate for iPods and most PC setups, but below CD quality. The iTunes Plus service (see below) sells music digitised at a higher bit rate, but only from a limited catalogue.
Technical compatibility
You can only play iTunes Store music on a PC or Mac using iTunes, or on an iPod, meaning that you’re locking yourself into using Apple products forevermore. This is because all iTunes Store music is protected with the FairPlay Digital Rights Management technology, which allows you to do the following:
- Transfer the music to an iPod
- Play the music on up to five computers simultaneously
- Burn the music to seven CDs
nb: Australia’s Copyright Amendment Act 2006 makes it illegal to circumvent DRM.
iTunes Plus
Digital Rights Management technology is not popular with digital music users. While it protects artists and labels from piracy, it also restricts the legitimate user, limiting the hardware and software on which they can listen to it.
Apple’s FairPlay technology, mentioned above, is no exception to this criticism. In response to this, Apple recently released the DRM-free iTunes Plus, an off-shoot iTunes Store. iTunes Plus digitises its music at 256kbps in the AAC format, which approximates CD-quality, making it ideal for higher quality stereos. However, even though the AAC format lacks any DRM, not all software and hardware will play it - Windows Media Player and Winamp being prime examples. Most singles are AUD$2.19; most albums are AUD$17.99.
iTunes Plus has a separate catalogue to the one in the iTunes Store, as all music needs a separate licensing agreement and needs to be digitised in a different format. At the moment the service is in an embryonic stage, with only EMI’s digital catalogue available. This will hopefully improve, because when a store’s Top 25 Songs list includes ‘U Can’t Touch This’ by MC Hammer, you know your options are limited.
Next: The NineMSN Music Store
Feature Index:
1. Going Legit
2. iTunes in Oz
3. NineMSN Music
4. Internet Radio
5. Yahoo!7 LAUNCHcast
6. Last FM
7. Journeys of discovery
8. Conclusion
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