There has also been some criticism of the pricing. The songs you get for 99 cents range in length anywhere from 10 seconds to 20 minutes. Old songs, new songs, it doesn't matter, the price is the same. That said, I think there's something to be said for predictability and simplicity.
One other excuse for people not getting legal: the service is, for now, only available to Macintosh users, who also get new iTunes client software and an updated collection of iPod players this week. (Click here for a video of an interview I did with Apple exec Philip Schiller about Music Store; click here for an interview with Apple's Greg Joswiak about the iPods.)
Windows users (who will get new iPods of their own in June, when a USB 2.0 cable becomes available) will have to wait until the end of the year to access the Music Store. It's not clear--and Apple won't tell--what interface the Windows storefront will use or how the Dolby AAC media format Music Store requires will be implemented in a Windows client. Right now, Apple uses MusicMatch with its Windows iPods.
(AAC, developed by Dolby Labs, is the native audio encoding format for industry-standard MPEG-4 audio. It runs at 128kbps, creates relatively small files (compared to MP3), and sounds great.)
MUSIC STORE has its own, somewhat unique, method of handling digital rights issues: it lets people do pretty much what they like with their music. Users can put a song on up to three iPod players and can burn purchased music to a CD, provided the playlist is changed (add or delete one song) every 10 burns.
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How does Apple's new music store compare with services like Kazaa? David talks to Apple's Philip Schiller about it.
 Watch now
Why should iPod users upgrade to the new models? David asks Apple VP Greg Joswiak.
Watch now
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When I first saw Music Store and the new iTunes 4, I was concerned that either the new AAC format or the rights management system would break MegaSeg, my current favorite disc jockey app. Fortunately, Jason Cox, who created MegaSeg, tells me his program already works with iTunes 4 and Music Store content. Why? Because it's all built on Apple's QuickTime media player. Upgrade to QuickTime 6.2 (for free), and everything works.
Music Store (and other iTunes content) can be used in Apple's iLife family of media creation tools, including iMovie, iPhoto, and iDVD. It also works with Apple's Rendezvous ad-hoc networking software. With Rendezvous, Macs on the same network can automatically "see" one another for instant messaging, file swapping, and now, music streaming.
When a new Rendezvous-enabled Mac shows up on the network, its music library will appear in everyone else's iTunes application. Music from a networked Mac can be selected and streamed over the network to the other machine(s). (Copying would be illegal.)
(Let me once again ask Microsoft to add Rendezvous support to its next OS release. Rendezvous is based on open Internet standards, so there's no reason why Redmond shouldn't. And, no, MS wouldn't have to use Apple's trade name.)
AS I SAID earlier, the Music Store's selection isn't large enough to keep people from "sharing" music illegally. Music Store opened its doors with 200,000 songs available from the five big music labels. While the feat of lining up the biggest record companies can't be discounted, 200,000 songs barely scratches the surface. Some artists are well represented, while others--the Beatles, say--aren't. There's a good selection of new music, but you can't count on finding every new--or old--release, either.
One other thing I noticed while searching Music Store: the results came back really quickly. Performance seems to be very good for downloads as well.
The new iPods become available today at Apple's retail stores. While I haven't given them a serious, in-depth evaluation yet, they're thinner, store more music for the money (thanks to larger hard drives), and work with a docking station. Besides making connections, the dock also has a line-out jack that lets you connect it to a stereo system.
Apple also made some nice changes to the iPod hardware, getting rid of all the mechanical buttons, and improved the software. I'll do a formal review in a future column, once I've actually played with one for a while.
OVERALL, this was a spectacular announcement, first for getting all the big record companies on board, but mostly because Apple is giving people what they want: a legal, reasonably inexpensive alternative to downloading bootleg music from the Internet. This is much better than the "rent-a-record" subscription services like PressPlay, which so obviously miss the point that people want to own music, not rent it.
Apple gives its customers a fair rights-management scheme, which protects the record industry without severely impinging on what people want to do with "their" music. And they did so without breaking existing third-party applications.
Still, a number of questions remain: What happens to music business economics if all people buy online are "greatest hits," one-by-one? Or will there ever be enough "legal" music online to counter the bootleg services? Is 99 cents the right price? And what happens to PressPlay?
All of these issues need some time to play out before I'm willing to make any educated guesses at the answers. But these are all things to think about while I'm watching another song download, and another dollar leave my checking account.
What do you think? Would you give the Apple Music Store a try? What music services/software do you use now? TalkBack to me!
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iPod for Windows
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ZDNet reviewers call the 20GB iPod the smallest, best-designed hard drive-based Windows MP3 player.
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