Edited by author 04-29-2003 03:03 AM
i agree with what is being posted here about the record labels. They are evil money grubbing and themselves morally corrupt and unethical. However, regardless of which way you look at it, downloading music that is not paid for is theft, even if half the source is as described above. If you steal the music, the artist gets even less than if you paid for it and they got their one dollar of that twenty the CD costs. And, as things appear, it is only going to become more difficult to obtain free music on the web as time moves forward.

i have tried the Apple music site and found it to be quite nicely integrated into iTunes 4. i think it is going to be a smashing success for several reasons.

1.) It is incredibly easy to use, simply pick the song you want, click buy... it's yours.

2.) The selection will undoubtedly grow to exceed the already rather diverse selection they have and people will most likely use it as a companion to their theft of music rather than a single source for music, generally to find titles that cannot be found elsewhere. This will be good because it will provide an option to theft that is rather straightforward and useful at the same time. i was able to obtain two songs, one by Fleetwood Mac and another by David Gray that were exclusive to the Apple site.

3.) The tunes are encoded nicely. Although the files are 128, i really can't tell and they truly sound as if they have been encoded at 160-190 quality. i purchased an entire CD of the "Hair" soundtrack, that btw, consisted of 27 tunes, for $10.59 (tax included)--yes, i could have gone out and bought it, but not at 1:30 a.m.!

4.) The technology to crack any limitations on the tunes will probably creep up soon. Although i observed that iTunes itself will not allow me to convert the tunes to any other format than Apple's new AAC, i can still burn the songs to CD--or, if i want to edit the song itself, i can import it into Peak and either re-encode the file into Mp3 format, or Aiff and do what i want with it.

5.) This provides an option to buying the complete CD of an artist that one likes, but does not like all that much. i hated having to pay for a full CD when all i wanted was one song off an album. Additionally, you can test the song out before buying it, all from the ease of your home.

Many other sites have attempted to do what Apple has done with its usual style, ease, and grace only to come off ripping off the user while befuddling them. All of this ease is built right into the mp3 player that is the easiest to use of any i have ever seen. Apple has provided another option in our media driven world, a viable one, and although it places some limits on the music, does not place excessive limitations on the content and come off treating us like the criminals we all are at heart. Kudos to them!