iTunes - the right way to buy music online?

[Myles]

First and foremost, you should be paying for all the music you get imo.

Now what I'm wondering is what programs you guys use to download songs on a per song basis. I'm thinking of using iTunes, do any of you have any experience with the iTunes store or any other per song purchase sites?

[Tone2TheBone]

We set up an account with iTunes for my daughter last year. It was easy and payment was via a credit card after signing up with iTunes. Downloading took forever though with our stupid dialup. Other than that it's a breeze. We got some iTunes gift cards for Christmas so we'll be purchasing more from the store. I've also been wanting to try Walmart music just cause it's cheap and they have a lot of artists to choose from. I don't care if they're Walmart or not.

[sunvalleylaw]

First and foremost, you should be paying for all the music you get imo.

Now what I'm wondering is what programs you guys use to download songs on a per song basis. I'm thinking of using iTunes, do any of you have any experience with the iTunes store or any other per song purchase sites?


I use it all the time. I really like it and find it easy to use, decently priced, etc. I am not interested in "renting" music in a subscription type service like how some of the other sites are set up. I tend to buy "hard copies" of things I think I will really want to keep archived, and buy more experimental, impulse, or other purhcases from iTunes. Part of my reasoning for the hard copies is that I import them at a higher quality rate into my iPod. I can't say though, that my ears can really tell the difference between imported off a cd and downloaded from iTunes. Just what I tend to do.

[stingx]

iTunes simply rocks.

[marnold]

I hate any DRM-encumbered format. I see the reason for it, but all it does is limit the ability for me to use the music I paid for in whatever way I see fit. I totally agree that if you like it you should buy it. But I don't think I should be limited in how I play it. I can't even listen to iTunes stuff in Linux anyway without WINE. Technically, I can't legally watch any of the DVDs I purchased since the only way I can play DVDs in Linux is by using a reverse-engineered CSS decrypter. Basically, if there's something I really like, I'll buy the CD and rip it to MP3s for my computer, car, PDA, etc.

Having said this, I have used eMusic and was happy with how everything worked (the downloads are MP3s). I haven't subscribed in awhile since they didn't have anything more I was really interested in. I did get a bunch of cool blues stuff off there.

[Myles]

Well you guys definitely have me convinced that its easy enough to use.

What is the cost per song? Does it vary?

[duhvoodooman]

The selection of music is great and it's very easy to use, but I hate the proprietary M4P file format. I have to burn to CD then rip back to the PC to get them into MP3 format. Pain in the butt.....

[SuperSwede]

I love iTunes. Its quick and offers good music quality.

[sunvalleylaw]

Well you guys definitely have me convinced that its easy enough to use.

What is the cost per song? Does it vary?


Cost per individual song is $.99. Albums cost varies. Newer ones tend to be $9.99. Some older titles are less. Larger compilations, double albums, etc. may be more.