“Gone are the days of having to buy a music album to get one good song – and of having to traipse to a music shop to do so,” Danny Gorog writes for The Herald Sun. “Online music stores have taken off in the past year, thanks in no small part to Apple’s iTunes Music Store, and the music industry execs they persuaded to allow legal internet music downloads.”
“The first on the market with a music store was Apple and, by most accounts, including my own experience, it is by far the best. But the iTunes Music Store has been under pressure lately, mainly from Real, Sony and Microsoft. The main differences between these stores is compatibility with different MP3 players,” Gorog writes.
“The biggest advantage of iTunes, apart from ease of use, is that it supports iPod. Real also supports iPod, but I would be wary of buying from Real, for a couple of reasons. Real has backward-engineered compatibility with iPod, so at any stage Apple could break this compatibility and you will have paid for music that no longer plays on your iPod,” Gorog writes. “And, Apple has a larger selection of music then Real.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We agree. Why buy from Real when you can just fire up iTunes? Why worry about your songs ceasing to play in your iPod? And, how many stores do we need when they’re all selling pretty much the same thing at the same price anyway? We’ll stick with the best, iTunes, and watch the rest of the pack fight each other to death over Apple’s table scraps. Market forces will clear the dreck away eventually.
MDN, what’s a dreck? Do you mean dicks?
Real’s file format is much better the quality of the music is better and well it’s just easier to use. And it’s more compatible. LMAO what a bunch of horse shit! If anyone get’s tricked into buying music from MS or Real they deserved to be jipped! LOoserS!
dreck:
Trash, especially inferior merchandise.
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=dreck
Well a lot of people took Real to the cleaners and bought as much at 49� as they could and just burned a cd and ripped it into Mp3 for their iPods.
Too bad us Mac users could help Real loose 3 million dollars doing it too.
That would have been fun.
Thanks, Wordsmith. Here are some more….
�
clay, crud, dregs, dust, earth, excrement, feculence, filth, filthiness, gook, ground, gunk, impurity, loam, mire, muck, mud, mung, prut, real estate, rottenness, scuzz, sleaze, slime, smudge, smut, soil, stain, tarnish, terra firma
… courtesy of
http://thesaurus.reference.com/search?q=dreck
Dreck is the Yiddish word for Poo – also pronounced Microsoft.
None of you use Sherlock for Dicctionary?
dreck
n : merchandise that is shoddy or inferior [syn: schlock, shlock]
Source: WordNet � 2.0, � 2003 Princeton University
And there are even thesaurus entries…
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” />
(From Sherlock)
dreck:
and it’s the german word for “mud”.
http://dict.leo.org/se?p=/Ue0E.&search=Dreck
“….thanks in no small part to Apple’s iTunes Music Store, and the music industry execs they persuaded to allow legal internet music downloads.”
Industry Execs?
Pffft!!!
you’re THANKING the industry execs who have been the biggest impediment great albums (more than a handful of great songs), and hence the biggest reason for a p2p network to exist!?
The MUSIC INDUSTRY could have come out with a great online store AGES ago.. they had to have SJ drag them kicking and screaming into the new millenium, waving this DRM thing in front of them..
Get bent!
by the way, thurrott today talks about microsofts MUSIC ADVANTAGE, because (besides Queen Latifah’s Allegiance) their songs play on hundreds of millions of computers..
for the upteenth time..
iTunes is on Windows now..
Furthermore.. the VAST majority of Windows computers and NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT going to be messing around with WMP for Chrissakes.. THEY”RE BUSINESS PCS!!!
The fact he is writing this from his own experience is interesting – seeing as Apple doesn’t yet have an Australian store.
The official abbreviation for Windows Media Player whould be WIMP, not WMP. I think it fits.
While I agree with the article content, I have to laugh at the context.
The article originates (or is reprinted by, more probably the former) from an Australian newspaper, for principally domestic consumption.
Australia does not have an iTMS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
…and based on recent pronouncements, we aren’t likely to get one soon.
Hopefully it is strategically placed to get ARIA (oz music industry group) thinking different.
Sherlock has a dictionary????
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” />
haven’t fired up that puppy in a loong time…where is it again?
[But the iTunes Music Store has been under pressure lately, mainly from Real, Sony and Microsoft.]
Pressure?!!
Let’s see… all of the non-iTMS stores combined – including all the wma sites – have less than 30% marketshare.
BuyMusic is putting on so much pressure that it just had to shut down. Napster, with a whopping marketshare was orphaned off. Real, with its highly regarded service had to do an end-run around Apple and unload songs for half price in order to get noticed.
If what Danny is on – is legal, can he let us know where to get some?!
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” />
Since I haven’t been to any of these other stores, maybe somebody can tell me: do the alternatives to iTMS have biographies of the artists like iTMS, with the rich system of links that lets a user learn about and find new music (s)he might like? In so many different genres? I’ve bought my share from iTMS, but I’ve also learned a lot and found a bunch of songs that I never would have known about but for iTMS. Are the other online song sellers as good in this regard?
not to defend shitty stores…
napster is putting all its resources in napster.. roxio sold everything else and is focusing on napster..
however it worked..roxio assets were sold off and they’re focusing on napster
I always wanted to know how to spell traipse.
Steve: You can still sample the songs and navigate the store, even if you can’t buy anything.
Maybe he did it on the cheap…
Does anyone else find it interesting the author has the same last name as Roxio/Napster CEO Chris Gorog?
That’s a dangerous move for Roxio – If they have put all their assets in Napster WHEN Napster goes under (which will happen) Roxio will be finished too!
Too bad rally – they did make some quite good cd burning software for a while – until Dragon Burn came along and totally fried Roxio with it’s open source development!
R.I.P – Roxio
(Should just stuck to cd writing software)
Once again Australian users miss out on feature-parity with their counterparts in other countries.
We pay a premium for Apple products but receive half the functionality.
It’s about time Steve pulled his finger out and got things happening over here.
Whoa, MDN! I generally appreciate your biting sarcasm, but you missed the boat on this one:
“And, how many stores do we need when they’re all selling pretty much the same thing at the same price anyway?”
Competition works both ways. Apple has been “good” for the computer industry in general and M$ in particular. In the same vein, there is benefit to the consumer to having several businesses trying to sell you the same types of goods or services. Otherwise how can you explain all of the hardware stores, department stores, hair stylists, etc.?
I agree that none of the other online music stores offer a compelling alternative to iTMS. But that might happen and it would force iTMS to offer more value to the consumer in order to maintain marketshare dominance. That is a good thing.