I was initially skeptical about the iTunes music store. While I thought that selling music digitally was definitely the way the industry should move, I didn’t think I’d end up using the iTMS for a few reasons.
First, I love albums. I love reading the lyrics, I love having the artwork, I loved seeing all my CD’s next to each other (until they all got stolen, at least). I would spend hours sorting my albums, remembering where I was when I first heard it, though I don’t think I could pull off an autobiographical sort. While you can buy all the music from the iTMS, you lose out on some of the fun aspects of collecting music.
Secondly, the music sold on the iTMS is compressed as AAC files. While they sound fine, for the most part, I’m always worried that if I invested in a lot of iTMS albums, someday I’d buy an awesome sound system and hear all the artifacts.
Finally, music from the iTMS is protected by DRM. I’m not criticizing Apple for this - it’s the only way they could pull the whole thing off. So if I have the choice of paying ~$10 for a version of an album that comes without the case and booklet, in a lossy compression format, and is playable on only a few devices, versus a regular CD for ~$15, I’d still take the CD.
Unfortunately for my credit card, I’ve recently stumbled upon the facet of the iTMS that works for me. “Eye of the Tiger”. “The Final Countdown”. “The Gambler”. “To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before”. All awful, awful, songs. I love them all. While I’d never want to get the albums these songs come from, I’m completely happy to pay $1 to be able to hear them. The iTMS is awful (and by awful I mean awesome) for impulse-purchases of one-hit-wonders, songs that were popular while I was growing up, or misadventures of Willie Nelson.
So while I think I’ll stick to CDs for most of my collection, iTMS is great for a rainy afternoon when you really need to hear some Boyz II Men.
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2 comments:
I'm over albums. I just don't care enough. I buy the cd, rip the songs and play them on my mp3 player, never to see them again.
I'm slowly starting to think about buying music online from those online music stores. However, for bands like PJ, I'll still buy the albums.
I'm basically in the same boat - I bought Pearl Jam's new CD the day it came out, but immediately ripped it to my computer. I may never actually listen to the CD!
For most other bands though, I do still like to hear the whole album. I'm still only really using the iTMS for silly stuff, like this morning's purchase of Margaritaville.
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