For whatever reason, I hadn’t gotten around to trying the iTunes Music Store until today. I put it off because I assumed 1) it wouldn’t have anything that I like and 2) that the digital rights management software would be annoying.
Well, I was wrong on both counts. This is the new Kozmo, except potentially profitable.
I just downloaded 4 albums via single click purchase (like on Amazon; same patent), which took about 3 minutes total. Can’t beat that. Looking into the DRM a bit, I can tell that it won’t affect my usage at all.
Really, the only problem with ITMS for me is selection, but there’s enough online now for anybody to find something. At the very least, it’s no more constrained than a mall record store. And the possibilities for expansion are staggering. If the indies get onboard (and Steve Jobs apparently wined and dined them a few months ago to that end) this could be a major distribution vehicle for new and obscure music; upload to ITMS, and your new album is available to nearly any customer in the US. Even better, Apple is likely to be a bit more honest in business than most record distributors, which are known for paying low and late and often imperiling the financial health of the smaller labels they distribute.
Also coming out ahead: catalog holders. Easy to see why.
In comparison, big labels are, ever so slightly, losers. There’s no competitive advantage in being in the ITMS if indie labels can sell there just as easily. That said, the big labels’ media efforts do sell a lot of music, and ITMS won’t undermine that.
Now I just need to install iTunes on my office PC; it’s locked down just enough to make that sort of thing difficult.
Update: That was fast. This was exactly what I meant. Matador is the best!