Of course, by purchasing online, I didn't get the bonus DVD that is available on Amazon, above. Then again, I didn't pay $13.49 either. is the bonus DVD worth $3.50? As a Mac user, I have a choice. :)

Does this work with OS 9.2.2? It does sound attrractive as just a regular consumer of music - and not a techie. That's what I've got and I don't plan to move up, until I can back up everything.

Personally, I think ITunes is a complete ripoff. You pay nearly full price for crappy compressed files, plus you lack all of the bonuses of having a real CD (artwork, bonus disc in this case, and the ability to listen on *any* CD player around.)

I long ago vowed, and intend to keep this vow, that I will never, ever pay for lesser quality. We've come all this way with technology, and we're settling for something that has about the same dynamic range as a *cassette*? No thank you. When ITunes or others offer the songs in a lossless format, plus full artwork (preferably professionally printed and mailed to buyers) I will consider it.

The DVD is most definitely worth the $3.50 - four live tracks from Pinkpop last year. Plus you get that nice artwork and a shiny new case to store that non-lossy music within. :-)

(And be sure to check out my review of BOP from a couple days ago.)

#2 - Temple, sadly, no. Apparently, OS X.2 is a requirement for iTunes 4. I'd wait for the OS X release due later this year, and upgrade! Er, not just for iTMS, of course, but I find myself spending almost no time at all in 9.2. In fact, I can't remember the last time I booted in that mode. Instead I just run older apps within X, and they just work.

#3 - Tom, definitely the iTMS isn't for everybody. However, most people have shown themselves quite open to downloading music in one format or another, and this is by far the best option I've seen for doing that. Based on your complaints about iTMS, I can assume that you never download any music from anywhere, right? :)

Oh yeah, one of those videos (I think) is available (free) online in the iTMS. "Selling the Drama," live from somewhere or another, anyway.

Hey, wait a minute - DVDs contain compressed (lossy) video! Low-resolution, too. How can you tolerate DVDs instead of insisting on Laserdisc?

I'm just kidding, of course. I do realize that there is a difference. But do please try to ensure that you're not hearing "lossy" and reacting without giving it a listening test. I thought that the Live album at least sounded very nice. Some people have said that other tracks or albums sound less nice. So things are getting better in the world of compression. If Apple switches to 192Kbit AAC, I think most people would fail to distinguish in a listening test.

You, of course, may not be "most people." :)

Since I live in Canukistan, iTunes shopping is only a tease. They let me browse, but not buy anything. Curses.

At the same time Apple showed how to buy music online, eMusic rolled out their Download Manager 2, and required it to download music from their service. They did this with no notice, and of course, the software didn't work. The version for Mac OS X (I've been using it full time for more than a year and haven't used 9 in that time) is poorly implemented and barely functional.

Emusic aren't aware they have turned into a software company, and need to compete with Apple for user experience.

EMusic has an OS X version? Dang, and all this time I've been downloading stuff in Windows and then transferring it over!

Er, and the Windows version works fine, though the experience is obviously not as seamless as that from Apple. Sorry about the Canuckian thing - have you thought about establishing an address in the US somehow? Any relatives that could forward mail? :)

I agree with Tom that you get less in terms of physical property, and that makes a $10 "album" without an album seem a bit pricey. Still, the other day I bought 21 Suzanne Vega songs for $9.99 total (no tax, no shipping), which seems like a pretty good deal to me.

Plus, you do get instant gratification. A few seconds after you click, you're hearing the music.

And 128 AAC encoding sounds fine to me. I listen to everything through a professional monitoring system here and my ears don't notice significant degradation until under 160 MP3 or 128 AAC. The average pop song as AIFF or MP3 doesn't matter to me, and I'm not sure I could truly pass a blind test.

And music that I have on CD I have already ripped and listen to almost always with iTunes anyway, so the iTMS is actually more convenient for me than buying a CD, as it bypasses a physical labor process.

If I had better ears or liked to play physical CDs, though, maybe the iTMS wouldn't seem like such a great deal. And I do miss the artwork and lyrics and notes. I don't know why Apple can't let you download a PDF of the booklet for an album if you buy the album. That's lame.

#2 Temple, even though I've been running iTunes 4 for a while, I note that when I run the OS9 version of iTunes, it comes as version 2.0.4. So I guess you really need OSX to access the good stuff. Wait for Panther, and then upgrade! Isn't it amazing how easily I spend other people's money for them? :) I'm going to upgrade myself so long as they've got "Switch User" capabilities. We've got four users in my house sharing one iMac, and it does tend to drive me crazy. I make the kids use the Windows box, which helps somewhat...

#7 Brian, I agree on all points. Almost all of my physical CDs are in boxes on my closet shelves. Lots of CDs, lots of boxes, several shelves, but I haven't touched them in ages. I'd be glad to pay $9.99 for any album, though I note that the new Sixpence disc is $11.99 for 13 songs. Ugh, less of a value proposition there, I think.

You do get a relatively high-res album cover, suitable for printing, but it sure would be nice to include a PDF of the inside and maybe an image suitable for printing as a disc label, too. I suppose the labels might react to those as enabling easier piracy, but it's too bad.

I think that I won't buy any album that isn't $9.99. I'll consider it a matter of principle, in casing they're analyzing past sales to determine future prices. I'm sure they are. I'll wait and pick up Sixpence used.

Album art and liner notes might also turn into a deciding factor for those cases when an album has ten tracks and is priced at $9.90. Right not there is no difference, but if liner notes were part of the mix, I'd probably get the album instead of going through and picking out just the songs I want.

Aw, who am I kidding? I'm a freak, and I'd buy the album anyway, because I can't stand incomplete albums. :)