Requisite Apple-Done-Good Blog

As just about everyone else in the blogosphere is noting, Apple released a new version of iTunes and new iPods in conjunction with a $.99/song micropayment download service. I was refreshing on their site like a junkie, waiting for them to reveal the goods with baited breath. I got iTunes 4 within, I’d say, no more than a couple minutes of it being posted. Like the rest of Macdom, I tried to get onto the built-in music store and was greeted with timeouts until this evening. And yes, I finally broke down an ordered an iPod. I had been waiting impatiently for the revised models, and I got myself a 30GB. My justification: gym use, the hella long daily commute by car out to campus for summer school starting in a few weeks, and external backup (it is, after all, a Firewire hard drive). The only feature I wish it had was either a microphone or line input, but there’s much too small a market for that addition to make it worthwhile.

iTunes 4 is swell. Download it promptly, and be pleased with some interface tweaks, added preferences, and the ability to show album art along your music library. Apple’s online music store, accessible from within the new iTunes, is pretty nifty (once the huge rush of users slowed). The interface is clean and Appleish, and it’s generally well integrated with iTunes. If you like popular music I’d say the song selection is ideal; once it grows, it’ll be a pop paradise.

But very little of the oddball music and noise I enjoy is to be had on the Apple service, so I’ll be sticking to Emusic and (don’t hit me, Hillary Rosen!) the occasional SoulSeek download for now. Regardless of my taste, however, I think it’s pretty darn well implemented, and the terms of the Digital Rights Management for the music you buy seem as fair as Apple could negotiate with the big labels. All in all, Apple done good. For more thoughts, see bbum’s impressions and further thoughts, and coverage in Fortune.