There will be few lovers of digital music out there that haven’t yet heard of the iTunes music store.
Apple’s download service isn’t just about buying tracks and albums at competitive process from a huge catalog – it’s a music lifestyle for many iPod users.
iTunes isn’t just about buying music – but it does give you the ability to buy over a massive 2 million songs (tracks are priced at $0.99 and albums are priced at $9.99). But, the software here is also held to be one of the best music management programs out there – for many people it’s the best!
So, with iTunes (even if you don’t buy from the catalog) you can collect and organize all of your digital music (and import it from CD) from your MAC or Windows PC. You can organize your music into playlists, see what celebrities have on their playlists, burn playlists to CD at the click of a button and you can have your music available on more than one computer if you like. If you use the AirportExpress service you can even stream your music collection in your home and listen to it where you like. Best of all the jukebox software is completely free!
And, if you decide to buy music then you’ll really be spoilt for choice on this site. There aren’t just 2 million audio tracks waiting for you – you can also access 15,000 podcasts (radio and other types of broadcasts) and 11,000 audio books. From the store you can also set parental controls, sync music with your mobile phone and read album reviews before you buy. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg!
All music sold on this site is in an AAC format – many digital music lovers rate this format as of a higher quality than others on the market and it offers near CD quality. This also allows Apple to manage their digital music rights issues. The track or albums you buy at the store can be played on up to five different computers in most cases and you can download them to as many iPods as you want. Once you buy them then they are yours to keep.
In burning terms you can burn a song you buy as much as you like. Be aware, however, that you can only burn a specific playlist up to a certain number of times (currently set at seven). To burn a song on a playlist that you’ve already done to the max then you’ll have to shift it to a new playlist to carry on burning it.
One of the problems with this online music store is the fact that all tracks are coded in AAC. This is fine if you have an iPod – this is the natural site to use in this instance. But it does mean that the store shuts out most other portable player users as most are not AAC compatible at all. And, you can’t technically convert AAC files to other formats such as MP3s so you probably won’t be able to purchase here on that basis.
One other thing to remember is that the iPod doesn’t support the WMA format. So, if you start to use the system and have a lot of digital music in WMA format then you’ll have to have it converted before it appears in your jukebox. Also, if you’re a Windows PC user you’ll need to be running Windows 2000 or XP to access the services in the first place.
If you do decide to use this service then keep an eye out for special offers from partner companies. Some major organizations will offer free store credits every now and then which could save you some money!
Also see music downloads for more details.