iTunes for Windows - 11/06/2003
Recently, I downloaded and installed Apple's new iTunes for Windows. The software is used for purchasing, playing and burning music legally. I liken this concept to the death penalty; while I believe in both, neither sound like much fun.
My initial impression of iTunes was "Hey, this is better than I expected!" There's a pretty wide spectrum of music and audiobooks available. Being a connoisseur of a broad spectrum of musical styles, I was impressed. The White Stripes, Jimmy Buffett, Rob Zombie, Johnny Cash, Phish, Elvis Presley...all present and accounted for.
I set out to make my initial purchase (I use purchase here loosely...my friend gave me a gift certificate). I wanted to make this a monumental decision, nothing frivolous. After some thought, I decided I would seek out an audiobook...Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. No luck. They have Snow Crash and The Diamond Age, but not Cryptonomicon. I forgave them.
Off to find some music, then. But what to choose? All the monumental-type music I am interested in already resides on my computer. I didn't want to throw away my first purchase on something I didn't already know I like. What to do, what to do? It was then that I discovered the "Preview" option. This allows you to listen to a 30 second (more or less) clip of the item in question. Bravo! I quickly discovered that the chosen 30 seconds were perhaps not the best way to judge a song (sometimes you get the first 30 seconds, where there may or may not be any vocals, etc.) Occasionally, on a live track, you might hear an introduction and/or stage banter, then maybe 5 seconds of the beginning of the actual song. Overall, I still think this feature is impressive.
After a few days of on-and-off browsing of titles, I finally came across "Stacy's Mom" by Fountains of Wayne. But it was a somewhat frivolous 'niche' song that would never find it's way onto an eternal playlist. I quickly added "Blitzkrieg Bop" by Rob Zombie and "Harder to Breathe" by Maroon 5. Since I used the 'shopping cart' method for purchase, I navigated to the shopping cart and bought the tunes. Within moments, my new music showed up under 'Purchased Music'. I was impressed by the download speed, as well.
A few days later, I added a couple of long-lost Jimmy Buffett tunes to my arsenal, "Life Is Just A Tire Swing" and "My Head Hurts, My Feet Stink And I Don't Love Jesus". I bought these songs from a different computer, but from the same account. This is when I discovered glitch #1: my 2 computers show different account balances. Whichever computer made the last purchase has the correct balance. It's only an issue if you have a positive balace (from a gift certificate). If I were paying by credit card for each purchase, I wouldn't have noticed.
All joking aside, I think I may just be a semi-convert. Fairness to artists has always carried the heaviest weight in my personal addiction to free music. However, I am disgusted at the concept of paying $15-$20 for a cd with 10 songs on it, 8 of which suck. And who knows how much of that $15-$20 the artists even see? At $.99 per song, with the ability to preview them first, I'm sold. With the 'free and easy' nature of Kazaa, WinMX, etc. its ridiculous to think iTunes will be my sole source of musical goodness from now on. However, iTunes has given me a viable, albeit legal, option.
Here is my official rating of iTunes at this time (on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest):
Overall: 9.1
Selection: 9 This is the key. You could design the best store in the world...if you don't have a product in demand, you won't sell shit.
Interface: 8 While navigation is simple and clearly defined, I would like to see scrolling ID3 tags in the taskbar when minimized.
Searching: 9 The searching feature itself is great, but I docked 2 points for the seemingly random 30-second preview clip here, and added a point for the ability so copy/paste an item's URL to someone else.
Purchase: 9 Aside from updating account balances on multiple computers, I don't see how it can be improved upon, really.
Library: 10 I was able to point to my mp3 folder and import all of my music with ease. Since I keep my mp3's pretty well organized, the sorting options work especially well for me.
Playlists: 10 I am big on playlists, and there's nothing wrong with this feature here. Again, sorting and shuffling are basic elements with big rewards for me.
Burning: 10 No problems here.
Song format: 7 The m4p format, Apple's Protected AAC file format, is great for the intended purpose. Great quality-to-compression. However, on Planet Bucket, there is no DMCA. Let me convert songs straight to mp3 before burning, damn you.
Stability: 9 It's a memory-hog, but it crashes WAY less than Winamp, and yet does so much more.
Promotions: 10 Pepsi announced a plan to give away 100 million iTunes songs through codes on bottle caps. McDonald's is apparently in the process of negotiating an even larger promotion.
