Eh. What Apple offers is legitimacy. You can download the files for a buck each efficiently and easily, and not feel guilty that you're ripping anyone off. The format, from what they're saying, sounds better than MP3 and takes up less space.

And people have been going on and on for years about how record labels need to "catch up with the times" and "adapt their business model." Well, they're finally doing it in a non-shitty manner, but unfortunately their business model doesn't include giving their product away for free.

And I'm pretty sure the RIAA won't get a single red cent out of this, as they're an organization set up to legally represent record labels as a whole, and the money instead goes to the labels themselves. Whether or not the labels then give that money to the RIAA — or worse, Lars Ulrich for ass-stuffing purposes — is another story.

Speaking of other stories, I am about to become Lars Ulrich's wacky neighbor. I fully intend to barge in without knocking at the start of every episode as the audience claps and cheers.

i don't see the point in yet another system, and so...what? only apple users get to "benefit"?? eh? *azure plays hard of hearing* sorry, what was that? i was downloading from Kazaa...:-P

Yes. Only Apple users get to benefit, because we're better people, what with our black turtlenecks and $15 lattés.

Bottom line is, you wanna pirate? Pirate. If, on the other hand, you want to pay for what you're listening to, Apple's got a solution for that. It's not a file-swapping service, it's a direct pay-per-download from their servers. They're not trying to be Kazaa, they're trying to be eMusic. Only without all the sucking.

Plus, Apple users don't get Kazaa. So, uh... Sucks to your ass-mar!

I'll tell you what every time Moby and DJ Shadow have a new album out I will mail them five bucks and download and burn it guilt free because that is much more than they would get from corporate rock.

I downloaded a song from this service yesterday, just to try it out. While you can't convert directly to mp3 format, you can download their AAC or whatever format file, burn it to CD, when the CD is finished, hit import, and boom, legit mp3 with no tracking data or anything in it, so it'll work fine with whatever portables or other audio players you want.

Of course, mailing those guys the fiver probably is indeed more than they'd get through the "proper" channels, and hey, it's tax-free. :-) I'd be surprised if everyone who said they'd do that actually sent the cash, though.

Interesting so iTunes burns valid Red book audio tracks that you can then rip into clean MP3s that get rid of any digital water marking that iTunes had. Very interesting. Well if Apple had a Windows, OS9 or Linux client I would check it out. Hey if Moby had a pay pal account I would do it right now but I can't mail it in with out incriminating me.

I tried it out the other day; the sound quality IS really crisp. So crisp, in fact, that I was able to snap it in half and make flakes of it fall all over the couch. Or am I thinking of those little multi-layered wafer cookies that look like someone stepped on them? Ah, well. No one's reading this anyway.

Regardless, the sound quality is very good, even if the selection of music isn't. (No Baldwin Brothers? *whine*) I am Impressed.

Well I am intrigued by the idea but I can't give it a try until 2004 or late 2003 when they make a Windows Client. It has been selling well and they sold over a quarter million dollars in songs the first day. Not bad when you consider they could increase their market space18 fold when they make Windows and Linux clients. I think that the variety will come as more labels warm up to the concept and this could be very profitable cross platform software like Quicktime