Its already a huge success in the US/Canada. Pricing is OK, could be cheaper. Its a good idea in the sense that its actually a workable model for selling music online. They have the whole package sorted, from the store itself to the the software and the hardware. However Apple and UK indie labels are not getting on, so chances are, a lot of us still won't be able to buy the tunes we really want.

UK indie labels have actually just got on board for providing tracks to iTunes. Check out this article for more details: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/07/21/apple_signs_indies/ These personal MP3 players are sure the way to go. But I am not in any way convinced about the iPod as a piece of hardware, compared to other digital jukeboxes out there on the market. I got myself a 40GB iRiver and am hugely pleased with it. The iRiver also recently was rated by PC PRO magazine as being superior to the iPod. The iRiver may be less sexy than the iPod but it beats the iPod - hands down - on functionality and value for money. Just check this page for more info on PC Pro's rosy assessment of the iRiver: http://tinyurl.com/4gemo (The iRiver I bought is the one called 'iRiver iHP-100 series' in the article) eoghan

Sorry I have to disagree with ya there. Although the iriver is decent with good battery life, it is only competition to the far superior ipod. First of all it uses usb rather than firewire which the ipod uses. It doesn't use itunes like the ipod, which is a sleek piece of software that enables every song/album to be downloaded at a quicker pace with higher quality resolution. Also in itunes is the music store that this thread is about, party mix which randomly selects a mix from all the songs in your library. The ipod is simply the best portable jukebox around and even though the iriver is impressive it does not compare. Whenever rival mp3 players come out like this, Apple come back with something better, faster, slicker and easier to use.

Hooray for Apple finally getting down with the indies, sense has prevailed at last! My point about hardware was not that the iPod is superior to any other MP3 player, more that its integrated into the whole iTunes store software. Its an easy to use package from start to finish in typical Apple fashion. As Gar said, the thread is about iTunes the music store rather than any individual digital music (note: not Mp3) player. At the risk of looking like a pedantic anorak, the title of thread is a bit inaccurate. What you are buying from apple is not MP3s. Digital music, yes, but not MP3s. Apple use the AAC format which is based on MPEG-4. These can still be played on your iPod, This may seem a minor issue, but its central to how iTunes works as a business. Unlike Mp3s which are unprotected, AAC incorporates DRM (digital rights management) to prevent piracy. Normally DRM can present a headache when trying to transfer music files to a mobile player, often the user is frustrated to find that DRM prevents them playing the files anywhere else than their PC if DRM hasn't been setup right by the vendor for files purchased online. However because Apple has seamlessly integrated the store, software and player, there is usually little hassle in this regard. Hence iTunes is a roaring success where many rivals have failed. Apple are also pairing up with BMW to integrate iPods into BMWs via a special adapter, which on the surface of things makes sense, after all people listen to music in their cars and it could be argued that Apple and BMW share a lot in common as brands. However, this annoys me, why is apple working on such a specialised solution with one upmarket car manufacturer? Surely it can't be that hard to integrate the iPod into a car stereo in a similar way that mobile phones can be wired in? All it needs is a special cradle and the right wiring surely? I know theres an FM adapter but that loses some quality.

When you buy songs from the music store, you can then change them into mp3s if you like. About playing the ipod in your car. You can use one of those tape things which goes into the tape deck and the lead into your earphone socket on ipod. But sometimes that can be a bit fuzzy. There's also a thing from Apple called itrip. Basically is sits on top of your ipod and uses infra-red to conincide with your car radio. My dad uses it in his car and it works grand. He has the ipod set up on a mini bracket holder so all he does is click on shuffle and he is entertained for his whole journey by various songs on his ipod. They should make all ipods infra-red so eventually people can swap songs with eachother. But back to the music store thing. I really think that it is a great idea and all record companies will soon sign up. In a few years everyone will have mp3 players so this music store is the way forward.

Didn't know about being able to convert AAC to MP3, I would have thought the DRM would have stopped that. Nice to know if you haven't got an iPod and your player only supports MP3 The in-car audio thing is something apple need to think out a bit more though, the tape solution is crap and and the FM Radio (iTrip) solutions is OK but not great. I'd rather have it properly wired in. Anyway, I'm going with a far in-car cheaper solution, a CD head unit that plays back MP3 CDs. For about 250 Euro fitted, I can have enough albums in the car on one disc to keep me going for any journey.

Apologies I suppose are in order for almost steering this one off-topic with my iRiver hardware advocacy. Them discussions (iPod versus any other digital music player) can all get a bit religious so I'll save my real iRiver cut'n'thrust for another thread.... Anyway if I understand correctly with the iPods you can convert AAC to MP3, as Gar says, but only by burning the AAC file to an audio CD disc and then ripping the track to an MP3 format from the audio disc. But this is a) time-consuming, b) costly (as you gotta use a blank CD-R) and c) will result in a loss of quality from the decode/encode that is required. Can iPod users (Gar?) confirm that this is the process to covert from AAC to MP3, as I ain't 100% sure. As for buying music in a digital form over the net I am well up for it but I really think that the prices are about 30cents too high per track. In and around 70 cents is a more realistic price point considering what you are buying. Remember that there are ZERO raw material costs to the record company, decreased distribution costs to the record company and - from the consumer's point of view - a significant reduction in what you are allowed do with the track once purchased, compared to what you are allowed do with any CD you purchase (you can rip MP3s, WMAs or OGG format digital tracks from any CD you buy for your own use, but with a purchased AAC you cannot do so directly and you are limited on the hardware on which you can play the track). I do not think the price reflects these limitations. Nonetheless they’re selling the tracks by the bucket load so I must be a mean ould, penny pinching git. Or something. eoghan

99 cents for a tune is expensive in my mind. A normal shop has quite a lot of overheads, such as staff, rent, insurance, heating. etc. And at the same time its potential customer base is limited to the locality in which the particular shop is based. Hence the price we pay for the cd in that location. The iTunes servers are probably located in some low cost storage area in the uk, maintained by a few engineers, with most staff deployed in the customers service dept. The potiential customer base is much greater then any physical shop. The music does not have to be delivered from anywhere, so no distribution costs, no disposal of packaging waste costs. While there are other costs to iTunes for the delivery of this service, that do not apply to a physical shop, i cannot see how these would ever come close to those of a physical shop. If the tracks were somewhere around 50 cent each, then id consider it.

Those two words that retail companies love to swing about like bags of door knobs in a protest march, "Research and Development" Costs. Basically, the first users of all these new technologies are paying for the salaries all of the busy bodies in the labs who came up with these cool tools. It's unfair really. But thats business. I'm gonna put my sensible hat on for a second here. A really cool aspect of all this is the potential for there to be less environmental damage due to plastics production (correct me if I'm wrong here folks). Bill Gates was selling the paperless office, now we have concept of the disc free music collection. (but how will DJ's scratch?! heh!)