New Apple iPod, iTunes Music Store
 

Surely you all have read about it, so, what do you think?

I purchased my first two songs on the iTMS yesterday and everything worked without a hitch. I copied 'em to my iPod and was listening to them up until a few minutes ago when I put on something different. I can see myself using this a lot, because it's something I've been waiting for - a <b>decent</b> music service (free or not) that works with Macs. Honestly, I think it's awesome. You really have to try it out to realize how cool it is.

As for new iPods... I'll be buying a 30gig one today. I still own a first generation 10gig, and this is a third generation 30gig with quite a number of updates (not to mention smaller size, etc). Playlists on the go makes it worth it for me alone, since this is really the one feature I felt the iPod lacked. I'mma give my 10gig to Andrea or Jen and buy a new 10gig for whoever doesn't get the old one.

I will, of course, post impressions of the new iPod, but you and I both know that it's going to be a glowing review - 'cause let's face it, Apple gets its hardware right.

So... anyone else seen these things? What do you think?

What's the selection of classical music like? None of the big-name pay services have classical selections worth anything. (emusic.com has some things to recommend it, enough to get me to pony up for a subscription. I've wondered why it never gets mentioned in articles about commercial online music services--surely its model of a subscription fee and unlimited downloads with no DRM is what consumers want, so the question is, have they made money, and have the artists and lables who have participated made money?)

I know this may seem like a silly statement, but I really hate how they preface all their new product titles with a little 'i'. It's really, really stupid. It reminds me of how all the dot-com's prefaced everything with 'e'. It could be the best product on the market, but the title would still make me think they're trying a little too hard to make me think they're cool (or not hard enough).

Er... they didn't release a "new" product. iPod has been named that way since the fall of 2001 and iTunes has been out even longer. Yes, I hate how they called it "Music Store". Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

I still prefer the Audiogalaxy model where I pay $10/month and can stream as much as I can eat, including their randomized "radio" streaming, then burn at 99 cents a song if I need to. This works for me because of the amount of time I'm listening at the computer. The streams are 128 kbs WMA, not sure if the burns are streamed first, converted and then burnt as CD Audio. I have never burnt anything with it yet.

Also, my car player (that Clarion unit) doesn't play AAC, so it's a loser for me.

Audiogalaxy says they have 19000 albums, Music Store says they have 200,000 songs. I think Music Store wins. But both need more stuff.

Here's my "Me, too!" post. I'm heading over to the Apple Store a few miles from here in a few hours to pick up a 15 GB iPod. I downloaded iTunes 4.0 last night, so I guess I'm set.

Re: New Apple iPod, iTunes Music Store
 

It took me a minute to parse that. "Wait, he has 10 gigs, why is he taking stuff off..."

"Put on" actually dates from the time of records (45s specifically) where the only way to change the song was to put another record on the turntable. My parents still have all my 45's. (I'm your boogie man, that's what I am.) I might be inclined to rip them, if I had any interest at all in that crap.

I'm with juju... at least they didn't call it the iMusic iStore.

I got my 30 gig iPod last night. So now I own 3 - a 5 gig, a 10 gig and a new 30 gig. I must say, the new one is pretty sa-weeeeeeeeeeeeeet.

Diff'rent strokes for different folks. I like actually "owning" the music, which means unlimited burning and playing whenever I want to listen, like in the car. If you spend most of your music listening time in front of the computer, then a streaming service makes perfect sense.

Apple's adding new music "as fast as we can rip it". Expect that total to get to 300,000 shortly. Pretty much every label is dying to get on it, which means that very shortly, their selection is going to be far superior to pretty much anything out there. I agree though, both need more songs.

I read an interesting stat - Apple's music service sold, in the first 18 hours, more songs than all the other music services have sold in the last 6 months - combined.

Re: Re: New Apple iPod, iTunes Music Store
 

I read an article in Playboy last month (I swear I buy it only for the pictures) about a guy that has developed technology to rip records using a flatbed scanner. They mentioned the quality is fairly crappy still, but the ability to do so is just as important. I'm sure it won't be long before it's improved upon.

I'd chalk it up to better marketing/visibility and a larger following. Good for them, though.

Actually, come to thing of it, it's because the other services aren't so oriented towards selling songs. Rhapsody and Pressplay are both more streaming oriented.

But since there's no bizarre subscription to have to figure out, the more I think about it, the more this is a big winner. My own use of it right away will depend on the encoding quality, but that won't be a factor for most people. They will buy new digital toys during the next boom period (if it happens) and so will probably wind up with AAC support to start.

After using Rhapsody, and especially after ripping my entire CD collection, I have little patience for file-sharing to get music on a regular basis. To test stuff out it's great, but now that I have a whole library in one format with one set of filename conventions, etc., it really bugs me to try to find and then verify anything shared to add to the collection.

I tried one of those jukebox programs that tries to organize your collection for you, but of course it just tried to take control of the system and never really did produce the needed level of organization.

I agree 100%. This is why I was willing to pony up $$ to emusic, and also what convinced me to take the plunge with XM Satellite Radio (the availability of a portable unit--I had no interest in making the hardware investment in something that I couldn't listen to except in the car).

Don't worry, I read Penthouse, but only for the letters.

I agree, in terms of my time spent, it's usually more worthwhile to me to just buy the stupid CD and rip it, but that's partly a function of the kind of music I listen to.

I bought an Archos 20 gig jukebox for $200, about 1/2 what an Ipod costs. Other than a sleeker design, I don't understand the attraction.

ahhh... The Penthouse Forum. I haven't read one of those since I was 13. ...Memories...

The penthouse forum (and Letters to Xaveria) used to be one of our favorite college activities ... there was a monthly reading aloud of the forum in my dorm.

Mine was held (in more ways than one) in the bathroom.

Here's why I bought an iPod:

- Because it integrates seamlessly in my setup. I have a $3,200 PowerBook, a $4,000 Power Mac, a $1,700 iMac and a $1,500 iBook. What's another $500 when I can plug it in and it does its thing automagically?

- Because iPod was fast before the others were. When I bought my first iPod in January 2002, there was nothing else comparable. I could grab 1,000 songs, drag them to my iPod, hop in the shower and <b>it was done by the time I had my hair washed</b>. Now that I have a 30 gig, it takes considerably more time - but since it holds my entire music collection (about 25GB), I only had to do it once - and even then, it was only like an hour.

- Because iPod is light and small. The "sleeker" design isn't just for looks. I can put an iPod in my pocket and barely realize it's there. This is good for a guy that has a cell phone, an iPaq 5455, a Clié NR70, keys and a big damn wallet (as well as the iPod). I don't need <b>another</b> heavy/large object in my pockets. The new iPod is <b>just over half an inch thick</b> and tips the scales at under six ounces.

- Because I know Apple will be around to support it. Who knows how long Archos will be around? Everyone thought Sonicblue was the next big thing, but... uh....

- Because Apple did pretty much everything right. The interface is fast and intuitive, everything just works, even the packaging is elegant and, yes, when you look at it, you can tell that someone cared about making this product the best.

People don't mind paying that price; the iPod is <b>the most popular portable MP3 player</b> - and for good reason.

As I said in the other thread where jaguar got uppity about his iPod, <b>if the Archos works for you, cool</b>. And as I said earlier in this thread, diff'rent strokes for different folks. I see the value in the iPod (I own three of them), and I'm not alone.

iPod rocks
 

It's just an awesome device.

I have a 10GB iPod. It is fast, interfaces with my PC just fine, and it just works.

I don't have to worry about size or durability. Considering my jacket pockets have my Panasonic Duramax, Samsung i300 Palm Pilot Phone, 10GB iPod, and occasionally my Diamond Mako PDA, this is welcome! Any other mp3 player would not fit in my jacket.

It's also put up with a lot of damage I can inflict. Considering I've gone through several notebooks, the fact that the iPod is still here is a good thing.

That, and it's got the standard Apple User Interface. I have been holding off on a Mac because of the obvious price/performance issue, but that should be solved with the 970. However, don't discount Apple. The UI makes it worth it.

I like small electronics that are unobtrusive. This is one of them.

Otherwise, it'll be joined by a PowerMac 970 soon, hopefully running Oracle 64-bit :).

M

Archos and everybody else uses a 2.5 inch notebook drive. iPod uses a 1.6 inch drive, the same size as the old PCMCIA hard drives. It's not just sleek, it's small.

The convenience of the iTunes Music Store kills me.

So I'm sitting here thinking "You know, I really want to hear 'There Goes The Neighborhood'", which is a relatively obscure track by Ice T's rock band Body Count from back in the early 90's. I do a search and, sure enough, they have the entire album. Two clicks (I have that 1-click shit turned off, just in case I have an accident) and ten seconds later, I have a digital copy of the six minute song on my PowerBook hard drive. Less than a second after that, it's done copying to my iPod. Now I've got it whenever I want to listen to it.

And such has been the case with 41 other tracks now (though 26 of them were bought as an album). I love it. I want a song, I search, I click, and it's mine. No hassle whatsoever, and it costs me a buck a song. One less bottle of Diet Pepsi.

I've also found some rather interesting stuff I've never heard of before. I did a search for "Just What I Needed" by the Cars, which, unfortunately, they didn't have yet. But I saw a cover of it by a band called Ghoti Hook. The album is a cover album titled "Songs We Didn't Write". I bought the song, along with their covers of "Earth Angel" and "Where Is My Mind". They're kinda punky and I definitely think they did a good job on 'em.

Apple is adding music as fast as they can rip it, verify it and add the album art. Every day, something new pops up - including exclusives from some rather big-name artists. They added some 4,300 songs on Tuesday, including a pretty big section of the Doors.

Jenni is looking for some Fleetwood Mac, and since their CDs are always in the $15 range (around here, anyway - $13.49 at Amazon) and don't always have songs on 'em that she likes, I'll probably let her pick-and-choose 15 or so tracks to buy and then burn on a CD. Is $1/track worth it for a mix CD of your favorite tracks when you didn't have to buy the original CDs? For me, I think it probably is.

The more I use it, the more I like it. It's got me excited in music again. There are a number of artists where I'll always buy the physical CDs and rip (Tool, Nine Inch Nails), but for stuff like Body Count, this is perfect.

The ads must go.

Here's why: the people are supposed to be singing along to their iPods, but they aren't. In the Eminem one, the kid speeds through the song as if the Pod went at 1.5x speed. In another one, the singer drops a beat between verses. That's something you do if you're singing a song alone; if you do that with the song, you're off the beat.

Dave will be featured in the next commercial, singing the previously-mentioned Body Count song:

"Don't they know rock's just for whites?
Don't they know the rules?
Those niggers are too hard core.
This shit ain't cool."

That, or he'll sing Eminem's "Lose Yourself"...he does a really good job on that.

Ha! The funny thing was at the time, I had only heard the song once, but the chorus got stuck in my head.

(For those not in the know, when T-$ and Rho were down around Christmas, I rapped the chorus to Lose Yourself over and over and over in their rental car while Rho laughed her ass off and T-$ about had an aneurysm. Jenni also found it quite humorous.)

THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD! (dun dun dun dun dunnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn) THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!

And yes, that fuckin' 12 year old Eminem wannabe annoys the shit out of me. Good lord.

Believe it or not, they actually *are* listening to the songs (from what I've read), so...

The ads may annoy you, but Apple's PR team has spent a lot of money (and has a lot of experience) making people want their stuff. At the very least, they'll get people thinking about the iPod, and that's a big first step.