Apple's new Music Store & iTunes 4

[bodypainter]

Just thought I'd throw up a couple quick screenshots. If you have a Mac & OSX, take a look. I think I'm going to like this a lot. Anyone else tried it?

[diergray]

I think it is only available for the Mac initially. Rumor is, that is how Jobs convinced the record companies to go along with it. Personally, I think $.99 a song is a good sweet spot for pricing. Let us know how it works!

[WildZero]

iTunes 4 is sweeeet! I love the built-in streaming feature. It lets you listen to any song in another sharing mac-users library and vice-versa...too cool.

[cheerios]

/me is excited, but not sure about how this's gonna work. what's to stop me from buying a file, and then sharing w/ 1000 of my closest friends? (note: I'm still updating iTunes when I get home )
all in all, snazzy

[Archos1]

I wish they had this for windows

[longjohns]

damn, if they got all that al jarreau, i'm IN

i eagerly await the 1.3 updater for windows ipods. onboard playlist making oh yeah

[WildZero]

Originally posted by cheerios
what's to stop me from buying a file, and then sharing w/ 1000 of my closest friends?

The same thing that will stop your 1000's of friends from using Audio Hijack while listening to your files....

...oh, um, er...

[Spungfoo]

They are coming out with a Windows version in the future... besides, most Ipod owners are windows users, I doubt Apple would want to cut that chunk potential cash flow there.

I think .99 a song is still to much. Downloading a whole album wouldn't be any cheaper than going to a store and buying the damn thing. It's a step in the right direction, though. If they made it cheaper with access to every label's entire catalog I'd be down. As of right now, I'll stick to Kazaa and Direct Connect.

[juanvaldes]

It seems to me there is a bit more thought behind no windows version yet then to push macs.

First they need to prove to the RIAA & the big 5 that this will work and can make money. Wiht that then they get access to more songs (200,000 really isn't that much when you think abou it). Also bugs in the system can be worked out. After 6 months of this if all goes well either a stand along app or this kind of functionality will be integrated into MUSICMATCH.

Spungfoo, you can buy albums at a time and most are priced at $9.99.

This might actually take off...but only time will tell.

[bodypainter]

Okay, here's my impression after 1 evening with it and sleeping on it.

I spent $10 last night. 2 singles and an album (a White Witch I didn't even know existed). The singles were 99 cents, the album was $7.99 with 10 tracks. Everything worked perfectly. One of the singles was a song I already had on my iPod to use as a reference for comparison. It sounds at least as good as the 192kbs MP3 already on the iPod using my cheap home headphones. I'll know better today when I get to work where I keep the serious headphones.

The more I think about it, the thing I believe is really revolutionary is that Apple convinced the credit card companies to accept many thousands of sub-$1 payments. I don't think this has been done before and could open the door for all kinds of micro-payment systems.

Here are some more screenshots if anyone wants them.

Grab

Grab

Grab

Grab

[thecow]

Regardless of whether or not it ends up working, I am happy to see someone trying to work with the internet. I am sick of companies wasting all of their time and efforts trying to stop someone that they can't contol.

I usually don't like macs, but hooray for apple.

[BoCo]

I've said for a long time that if I can buy a song for $1 or less off the net, at 256kbs quality, with no limitations on its use, then I'd stop file sharing. Let's hope this actually catches on.

[juanvaldes]

apparenlty it's better then mp3 so lower bit rates sound batter. Here's a site posted at slashdot today. (Currently down)

I'm not a audiophil so I really can't say.

[digby]

Well, I have a little authority in this area (2 classes shy of BS in recording (pun intended)). I'm having trouble telling which of those graphs pertains to which file. I'm assuming the bottom is the older form of mp3 compression. You'll note that it appears that there is a band-stop filter on that file at just above 15kHz. The whole 10kHz-20kHz is the top octave of human hearing according to text books. Realisticly, I only know a few people who can really hear 20kHz. (I can, but it has to be pretty quiet). That horrible noise your tv makes is in the neighboorhood of 15-16k. This octave provides definitoin and "sparkle" to the music you hear. That's why mp3's often sound "dull" There is an obvious improvment in the new format (again assuming I'm reading the graphs right), but still, there is a noticable difference. Until I get a chance to listen to some of them in some Grados I'm going to reserve judgement.

As to the service itself, I'm excited. I've been watching for about three years to see who was going to bring a new business model to the industry on this kind of scale. I think that it will be a great thing.

[WildZero]

OK, after having some time to play, this is by far the best music app I've ever used...being able to browse and listen to tracks on another computer is a great way to get exposure to unfamiliar acts.

Apple's gonna do really well on this once they get their selection up to speed, like a song? 99 cents for an instant, legal download...forget the 30 second teaser with their service, listen to the whole thing first from a friend's computer....hive mind economics...gonna be bigger than sliced bread

[terit]

I see a lot of people on the net complaining that a buck is too much for a song, but really, there are plenty of people ot there that just don't have the time, knowledge or patience to learn how to use a a file sharing program. My mom could learn how to buy a song with itunes. It is easy for a nerd to say that a buck isn't worth it because they know how to use the alternatives -- and tend to be too damn cheap for their own good.

Also, remember that us Mac users don't have quite as many file sharing choices as Windows.

Like anything new, the first release tends to be more expensive, then as more real choices come out, prices come down.

[username]

iTunes4 is a step in the right direction to sell music on the internet. The only problem is with the introduction of the new iPod my 5gb iPod is feeling sort of old.

[Realizm]

I'm personally interested in finding out if it is possible to stream our music to a chosen Windows friend over the internet. If I could stream music to my XP Home user friend from my PowerBook, that would rule.

[digby]

Well, in the first week, Apple sold over 1,000,000 tracks. Looks like we have a winner.

News Link

[juanvaldes]

Originally posted by Realizm
I'm personally interested in finding out if it is possible to stream our music to a chosen Windows friend over the internet. If I could stream music to my XP Home user friend from my PowerBook, that would rule.

likely by the end of the year when iTunes is out for windows.

[sweeze]

if you wanna try out the streaming stuff and you're not on a mac, check out http://one2ohmygod.sourceforge.net

doesn't work w/ iTunes 4.0.1 yet, but it's pretty cool