“Besides Apple’s store, which controls some 70% of all single-song downloads, there are BuyMusic, eMusic, MusicMatch, MusicNow, RealPlayer, Rhapsody, Napster, and even a service from Wal-Mart. Computer companies, online service providers, and consumer electronics stores are joining the chorus; in coming months we’ll also see online music services from big-name headliners Microsoft, Amazon, and Sony,” Peter Lewis writes for Fortune. Lewis takes a look at nine legit online music services and compares their pros and cons.
“In these pages we’ve considered only Windows-based download services. All but two of the services listed in the table sell songs in Windows Media Audio (WMA) format, which the Apple iPod can’t stomach but which plays well on dozens of other devices,” Lewis writes.
Lewis writes, “If you’re new to online music, this is the place to start. It’s based on the Windows version of Apple’s iTunes software, which tightly integrates a media-player program (iTunes), a download service (the music store), and a portable player (the iPod), resulting in unparalleled ease of use. The software is free and there are no subscription fees. The catalog of more than 500,000 songs is among the largest of all legal services. Apple’s search functions are best-in-class, making it easy to find the music you seek, assuming it’s available. Any song you buy can be burned to a CD an unlimited number of times; unchanged playlists can be burned to a disc up to ten times. You can transfer songs for playback on as many as three computers, and to your iPod as many times as you want.”
Lewsi writes, “Nice features include celebrity playlists (what’s Sting listening to now?), iTunes Essentials (the best make-out songs, for example), Billboard charts from several decades, prepaid cards and allowance accounts, gift certificates, and
Wish I could try it out, when are you going to bring it to us in Europe, Apple ?
Time Inc. (Publishers of Fortune) are very pro-Apple. Nevertheless, iTMS does rank at the top alone or tied in some other reviews. As far as when it arrives in Europe I’d suspect by the summer. Since Europeans speak different languages I’d think Apple will have to make separate sites for each country as they do the Apple Store. Also artist royalties, publisher royalites and taxes on recordings are different in each country. It’s a real mess. (It doesn’t look like France will be on the list because of the current pending lawsuits against Apple).
Halfy: iTunes will come to Europeans when Eurpoeans such as yourself grow a pair and force your labels and royalty collection organzations to make a continent-wide deal and get out of the f-ing way.
Blaming Apple because your companies are run by a bunch of recalcitrant ‘tards is just stupid.
Don’t worry though–iTunes will be deployed in Europe well before the French develop spines or the British obtain adequate dental care.
You are a fuckwit Opinionated Jerk. Just another reason why the rest of the world fucking hate Americans. Take your superiority complex and ram it up your backside sideways.
Halfy was only stating that he would like to use the iTMS service. No need to slam him or the rest of us. Take some more prozac redneck.
I am an American but have to say bravo Slashed. Opinionated Jerk was being a Jerk.
OJ:
I do so love it when Americans lecture Europeans on bravery, and it seems so easy to do when you join all the major wars at least two years later than everyone else, and the only wars you ever start are against enemies who have no answer to your military technology.
But then again, maybe some of that technological superiority would be better deployed if your pilots learned how to identify your allies on the battlefield.
As for ‘forcing our labels’, the majority of music is controlled by American parents (Universal, Warner, Sony) with one (Sony) ultimately controlled by a Japanese corporation.
So not only are you an obnoxious asshole, you’re also an ignorant obnoxious asshole.
OK everyone, enough with the Yank-bashing.
Nothing much at all is controlled by Europeans anymore. Thier time has long since past.
Back on subject. I still think that at sometime Apple should license out fairplay to other players to lock in AAC/Fairplay as the de facto standard. The timing is important though. I would not do it yet as Apple’s hard work and leadership should be capitalized on for a bit yet to reap the profits they deserve. We don’t want to see a repeat of the the isolation of Apple we have seen before tho.
Next time you Europussies are about to kill yourselves off with the next homegrown dictator nutjob, we’ll be there to save your sorry, underbathed asses once again. As usual.
Americans are a good, hard working people. Everyone should own a few. Just ask the Saudi’s.
Yeah, if the Euros weren’t starting wars and getting invaded by other Euros, then I guess we wouldn’t have needed to flex our muscles way back when. As for now, the US is the defacto be-all, end-all. You Euros listen to our music, our movies, and take to our culture and you smile when you see our flag cuz you all know when the sh*t hits the fan there’ll be a Yank bailing your asses out of another one. Smoke me for free you has-beens. Grow some sac and stand up for what is right every now and then.
The Jerk may have been way out of line with his rhetoric, but I think his point gets to a valid gripe. That Apple is not to blame for the delay in Europe, Europe is. Not in a derogatory way, just that the various laws cannot accommodate the rights issues that a legal download service brings.
I think Apple is saying that to put the effort forth to get in line with all the European laws (let’s not even discuss France) in a time frame that it was able to do in the US, it would cost too much. There is not enough margin in selling these songs.
Ultimately, if the laws are in the way, it’s up to the consumers to force change in order to get this thing moving. Just another example of how European governments think they can have it all without giving up something.
MCCFR: Call me an arrogant American if you like, but if it weren’t for US, … well, ‘nuf said.
Dude
Stop it. Not all Europeans are shirt lifting ‘tards like the French. Some even take baths once a week.
And GI Joe will lead the charge after the F16s and 155s have levelled the place and turned the cities into talcum powder. And opinionated jerk will be one of the first to kiss an american when he gets a handful of chocolate.
Oh for fuck’s sake. On second thoughts, slag the wankers off. They deserve everything they get.
where’s Finland? He’d like this.
Yank-bashing?
Dave H, you should change that to everyone-bashing. Just about everyone in the world is getting bashed in this conference either directly or indirectly. We’re here to talk Macs and iPods not politics so knock it off everyone.
It started with a guy somewhere out there in the bigger iTunes-starved world simply expressing his wish to be let in on all the fun. As an American I sympathize with him. I too live in an iTunes-deprived area. But with all the competition building up on the horizon you can bet Apple is racing to sort out the legalities of providing iTunes to everyone as fast as it can.
Bashing each other sure won’t help to make it happen any faster. It’ll only make the world a more contentious place.
Sorry everyone, my little tantrum above was uncalled for.
The answer for Europeans would be to get a relative or friend in the States to let them use their credit card number for ITMS purchases, as all that’s required is a US address for the credit card. Pretty simple, if you know someone in the US that will help.
Another way, for Europeans who travel to the States, is to open up a free checking account while there, using a US address, and getting a VISA debit card to use for online purchases.
Yeah, that’s right. We’d all be shitscared dirty little has-beens cowering in the corner if we couldn’t catch a glimpse of the US flag. Thank god America’s here to save the world……..for themselves. And after America’s turned all the once genuine experiences throughout the world into drive thru corporate commodities, got rid of pesky issues like social conscience and held a gun to the head of any country that conform to US favorable trade agreements; we’ll rejoice together with you, celebrating that a man with an IQ of 91 really did make the world a safer place.
Like the rest of us, thanks to your greedy policies, we’ll be here picking the shrapnel out of our loved ones. God bless America.
Dave H,
Apology happily accepted. Thanks for leading the way back to sanity.
Cheers chanM
I originally came to this article to comment on the subject. I would also love to see the iTMS here, especially now I have an iPod myself. I do wonder if Apple are missing the opportunity to clean up in one of the world’s biggest music markets (ie the UK) simply because record labels have a problem with release schedules in smaller countries such as Austria. Sometimes the world doesn’t work as perfectly as the people at Apple want it to. The EU isn’t yet integrated to the extent where one iTMS can fit all.
I also think Apple need to do some work to bring more of the European artists to iTMS in the US. There is a lot of great music here that you never hear over the pond because of Clear Channel’s control on the charts. iTMS’s preview function could redress that a little.
I suppose I shouldn’t be so tough on the Europeans.
Hell, that’s where my family is from, after all!
Of course, the ones that stuck around in Europe ended up getting rounded up, thad numbers tattooed on their arms, and finally were turned into lampshades and soap, with their ashes drifting into the lovely, civilized, culturally superior European sky.
I love how the enlightened souls that populate a continent that spent the 20th century bathing in the blood and ashes of millions of their fellow citizens feel free to lecture anyone about morality.
So yeah, generally, as far as I’m concerned, the Europeans can go fuck themselves. Except the Danes. They’re cool. And the Brits too, except when they’re being a bunch of twats.
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OJ:
Thanks for saying us Brits can be cool except when we’re being twats – high praise indeed.
BTW, my family’s Sephardi Jewish so when I need lectures from you, I’ll ask.
GI Joe: Next time you arm some bunch of crazed towel heads because it suits your short-term goals, don’t worry – there’ll be some Brits/Pole/Danes/Italians who’ll be willing to lay down their lives 20 years later when the time comes to clean house.
And now back to our regular programming: