Everybody’s writing about it so why can’t I? Not too long ago, Apple announced the release of their new iTunes Music Store. Heralded by some as a revolution in music distribution, the new iTunes is a remarkable piece of software. There is definitely some room for improvement but this is the closest anyone in the industry has come to “getting it.” What follows is my initial assessment of the service - the good as well as the bad.

The Good

Simplicity.

The Apple Music Service is seamlessly integrated into the iTunes software. To access the store, a user simply clicks on a tab in the left navigation bar - just as if s/he was accessing a playlist. This does wonders for the user interface - it is clean, consistent, and requires no additional software to be opened in order to purchase and then listen to your music. Simplicity done well.

DRM Lite.

When I purchase a music CD, it is mine to do what I like with. I “own” the CD (if not the music on it) and no one can take away my right to use it as I wish. Well, except for copy-protected CDs, but that’s another story. The music industry has insisted that these fair use rights not be applied to online music distribution for fear of rampant “piracy” via file-sharing networks. And while that is a legitimate concern, it is not a reason to take away my right to use “my” music as I wish. in order to gain credibility, then, online music services need to balance the interests of the industry with the need for flexible Digital Rights Management (DRM) solutions for customers. Apple seems to have done this very well - songs downloaded from their iTunes Music Service can be transfered to an unlimited number of iPods and up to three Macs and can be burned to CDs (with only minimal restrictions). While this isn’t my ideal DRM, it is much more receptive to the needs of the user than any I have thus-far come across. Kudos to Apple.

Impulse Buying

The new iTunes store is a lot like Amazon - it makes buying things utterly effortless. So many e-commerce stores just don’t seem to “get it”; thankfully, Apple is not one of them. When I am browsing the music store and come across something that looks interesting, I can listen to a :30 second clip of the song immediately. Like what I hear? Click the “buy” button and the song is downloading in the blink of an eye. With a Cable or DSL (or better) connection to the internet, the song is ready for my listening pleasure almost instantly. Talk about “one-click shopping”. The only problem with this is the same problem I have with Amazon - money doesn’t grow on trees.

A La Carte.

Subscription fees, in a word, suck. Users want to be able to buy what they want, not what someone else thinks they should want. Other music services have put their faith in the subscription model - users pay a monthly fee and get a fixed number of downloads. Apple, on the other hand, has no monthly fee and no minimum purchase requirements - believe it or not, you can buy a single song for $.99 whenever you want. Excellent.

The Bad

Lossy Quality.

The iTunes service uses the AAC codec to distribute digital music files. Apple claims that this format can lay claim to “sound quality that rivals CD.” After downloading a few songs, it is clear (no pun intended) that this claim is far from the truth. At the same time, AAC is by no means a poor codec; but as with all lossy formats, there is a necessary sacrifice in audio quality to achieve the tiny file sizes. An extensive discussion of AAC vs. OGG vs. MP3 at Slashdot that includes many arguments from those on both sides of the fence. The article includes a link to an interesting format analysis done by the folks at PhatAudio.org. While I am satisfied by the quality of the music, I would still like the option of downloading a higher-quality file - perhaps something like the SHN/MP3 choice that LivePhish provides. When I purchase music on CD, I am assured of the highest quality 16kbps/44.1khz can offer. Online music systems will have to do something to counter this - either by offering higher-quality files or by reducing prices until the quality/cost comparison is in their favor.

Too Expensive.

Music prices are much to high. The cost of producing a CD is amusingly low and an independent musician can press his or her own records for a very reasonable fee. Ten dollars for a CD seems reasonable - seven or eight dollars would be ideal. In reality, discs rarely cost $10 and are often instead much more expensive - even at the “discount” stores, it is rare to pay less than $12 or $14 for major label albums. And what’s more frustrating is that the costs don’t ever seem to come down - I can burn a CD myself for pennies and yet I have to pay 100s of times that in the record store. Online distribution offers a promising way to reduce the cost of music - because there is essentially no distribution cost (only bandwidth and credit card processing), it seems reasonable that the price of songs and albums would decrease. Apple sells songs for $.99 and albums for $9.99. This wouldn’t be so bad except that the quality of these songs is considerably lower than that of CDs. My hope is that the price will be cut approximately in half - I would feel very comfortable buying songs 2 for a dollar and albums 2 for ten dollars. It’s not terrible now - but it’s also a little too expensive, even compared with CDs.

Selection.

The most common complaint I’ve heard about iTunes is that it’s catalog is fairly limited. This seems to be a short-term problem - Steve Jobs has publicly noted that they are currently courting independent labels and he is optimistic about the future of the service. I enjoy independent music and my tastes are generally eclectic enough that a large number of my favorite artists are not signed to major labels. Hopefully Jobs and the iTunes crew can work out arrangements that provide indie music at lower prices than major label songs - all while putting more money into the hands of the artists.

Remainders

I’ve read quite a few articles about the new iTunes and many of them are linked in the above post. Here are a couple more that are worth checking out:

Overall, I am quite pleased with the initial iTunes launch. There are a lot of wrinkles to work out and there is significant room for improvement. That being said, this is a pretty fun way to buy music - it’s easy, it’s clean, and it places minimal restrictions on the user. If this service is a sign of things to come, the post-Napster era might finally have arrived.