Apple's new music service & new iPod

Damn, beat me to it.

I was not keen on this when it was leaked last week, but now I would use it.

 

US only, Mac only.

Windows by the end of the year. No word on when it goes international (that's probably a massive legal issue).

 

Two things that they could / should do with this:

-- Set the album price competitively; not just at the retail price. Even with the technology cost this is much, much cheaper than manufacturing cd's and selling them in retail stores.

-- Something more for .mac members?

 

Anyone have a picture of the new iPods?

 

New iPod: http://www.apple.com

The ad of the white guy singing "Baby Got Back" is classic. Damn that's funny.

 

Thanks, man. (it wasn't up yet when I checked a few minutes ago.)

Any news on when the old ones are gonna drop in price? I heard that they were supposed to drop a hundred bucks each starting today, but can't find any info on that. They have to drop more than that eventually, I'd think.

I'm sure places like Best Buy and the Apple store still have some laying around that they need to get rid of.

 

The 5 and 20 GB versions are going away and the newly-designed 10GB will be at the old 5 GB price point of $299. 15 GB = $399; 30 GB = $499. With the 15 and 30 versions you also get the new dock, remote control and carrying case.

You might be able to get one of the older 10 GB versions for real cheap, though I don't know for sure.

 

I think I'll just hold out for a while. I know that plenty of places still have the old ones out there - including the Apple Store at the mall. I'm thinking that they at least have to get rid of them somehow. I'd like to get the 20GB one for $200 - either at a place that needs to ditcht them or on ebay.

 

Is it $9.99 for everything? If so, that's a very good deal. (I'm on a PC at work and will have to wait to check out the store at home.)

Just remember to continue to support your local record store with all of your indie label purchases!

 

After taking the service for a bit of a test drive, it's impressive but not there yet. Too many albums are not available for full download (listed as "by song only"), and not enough catalog albums of some major artists. And they need to get indies on board if I'm ever going to use it extensively.

With all that said, it couldn't be more user-friendly. Exceptionally easy to find what you want, and as it gets used the suggestions section will be a huge plus.

Ironically, there's no Metallica on the system. Eminem, on the other hand, has his full catalog, a free-for-viewing video of "Sing For The Moment", and "exclusive" tracks.

 

One other thing -- the 99 cents per song thing works to your advantage if you're buying something that has under ten tracks. For example, Coltrane's Blue Train is $4.95 on this service.

No Beatles, no Stones, no Doors.

 

So did anyone buy music yesterday? I had to get a couple of songs, where I didn't really want the whole album -- Godzilla by Blue Oyster Cult and Stranglehold by Ted Nugent.

At some point, I'm going to go through the catalog with my "America's Top 40" book in hand so I can pick up on any of those songs from the early 80s that I don't already have.

 

Not yet, though I'll probably buy a couple of things over the next few days just to check it out.

However, I'm concerned about the AAC format and my ability to transfer songs from iTunes to my Nomad 10 GB mp3 player -- it looks like I have to burn the AAC file to cd, then use the cd to burn to the Nomad. There's no AAC-to-mp3 program out there now.

 

Actually, it appears that the Nomad might support AAC. But you wouldn't know it from the Creative Labs web site, since it only says it supports "MP3, WMA, WAV and future file formats".

Looks like I'm going to have to buy something for a buck and just try to upload it.

 

Wait, so some of the songs are only in AAC format?

 

All of the songs in the store right now are in AAC, which is fine for nearly all of its customers because:

-- Only Apple customers can use it
-- It can only be accessed through iTunes v 4.0 music app
-- iTunes 4.0 and Apples everywhere recognize AAC

Once a Windows version comes out before the end of '03, there will almost certainly be mp3 and/or WAV versions of everything. The only people who can use the store who are not happy with the AAC format are (a) major audiophiles who can't stand anything below cd quality, and (b) people with non-iPod mp3 players that can't play AAC (Rio, Archos?).

 

So um, has anyone bought anything yet?

The problem right now is that the song selection is so small, whatever is there, I can easily download via filesharing with little time and trouble.

 

Bought an album last night pretty much just to try it out ($6.93 for Springsteen's Wild, Innocent & E Street Shuffle), and it worked perfectly. Couldn't be easier, and it was an album for which the "cover art" isn't important if/when I make cd copies. There's a poll on Spymac saying that about half the people bought at least one thing to try it out in the last two days.

One neat thing -- If you buy something through the store and play it on iTunes, the album cover shows up in the lower left corner.

I agree that the selection needs to improve and they need more full albums, but you have to think that that will happen over time.