iTunes: All the Music You Want...and None that You Don't
By Jonathan Berohn
How many CDs do you own where you like every song? How many CDs do you own that prompt you to keep the remote handy so you can skip to the songs you like to hear? Since the introduction of MP3s, this problem has admittedly become a little easier to get around, as you can just rip tracks from your CDs and play the ones you like on your PC or MP3 player, or burn your own CDs with mixes you like. This concept, of course, is what drove Napster’s popularity through the roof and recording industry executives up the wall.
Freedom of Choice
In the age of industry lawsuits and ISP subpoenas, the lure of the free MP3 is bit tarnished. This is where Apple’s iTunes pops onto the music scene. Sure, it’s not free, but iTunes offers the best bargain in music in recent memory, and something you’ve never really been able to get before—customer choice.
Dying to hear that new song by your favorite group but you don’t want to shell out $12 or more for the same old greatest hits package? Want to check out a new group without committing to a whole CD? iTunes has the answer. Every song at iTunes costs 99 cents—that’s right, 99 cents to download. Suddenly you can buy only the songs you want to hear and burn your own CDs in whatever mix might strike your fancy.
Sure, it takes a little bit of computer knowledge to burn your own CDs, but not a whole lot more than navigating to this web page. And, if you are an avid music consumer, the money you save in buying all those one-hit-wonder CDs will more than pay for a CD burner if you don’t already have one.
Free Web Radio
Even if you don’t want to buy MP3s, though, iTunes is a great source of music to listen to while you are on line. iTunes’ radio feature has 20 categories of music and talk formats that offer well over 100 channels for you to choose from. And unlike most things Apple, iTunes is available for PC users as well as Mac users. You can download the free iTunes player from Apple here and get started downloading and listening to MP3s right away. The player is easy to use and the selection includes virtually everything I’ve ever tried to find—including the latest releases. All in all, you get good music, and you get a bargain—a combination that is usually quite hard to find.
