RSSiTunes Music Store Could Reach Windows in October
By David Worthington | Published September 16, 2003, 5:46 AM
Newsweek is reporting that Apple's iTunes Music Store will become Windows friendly as soon as next month. Although Apple has remained mum, the grand opening of its Windows store may come ahead of schedule, bringing to the PC legal music downloads that Mac users have thus far enthusiastically adopted.
Apple recently announced that the iTunes Music Store sold its ten millionth song on September 3. The company boasts that the music service is averaging sales of over 500,000 paid downloads per week.
While the legal distribution of copyrighted music online is taking hold, the recording industry is lashing out at pirates, including in one instance, a 12-year-old girl. The RIAA has sued 261 file-sharers over what it deems "egregious" copyright infringement.
Apple Corps, an entity owned by the Beatles rock group, has recently begun to litigate over Apple's sale of music. According to Apple Corps, iTunes and the popular iPod digital music player infringe upon an agreement struck in the past to safeguard its copyrights.
In response, Apple issued a brief statement stating, "Over a decade ago, Apple signed an agreement with Apple Corps, a business controlled by the Beatles and their heirs, which specified the rights each company would have to use the 'Apple' trademark. Unfortunately, Apple and Apple Corps now have differing interpretations of this agreement and will need to ask a court to resolve this dispute."
Despite the legal snafus, Apple is banking on its music. Others have followed Apple's model, including Microsoft, which is experimenting with its own music service by testing the waters in Europe.
Windows users already have BuyMusic.com, a music service from Buy.com.
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|A question and a comment:
(1) Can a Windows user browse the iTunes collection, or do you need to be on a Mac? Thanks.
(2) BuyMusic.com's not too bad, but it's got some kinks that need to be worked out. I've bought several tracks from them, but seldom without complications.
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|The plan last I heard was to make an iTunes for the PC.
As far as I know DRM doesn't exist for the Mac, unless it goes by another name/format. This might change with WMP9 for Mac though.
iTunes works so well on the Mac because Apple can control almost every aspect of the process. On Windows you've got 98/ME/SE/NT4/NT5/XP/2003, hundreds of burners, dozens of software and hardware MP3 players and even different browsers. For iTunes you use the iTunes app, download the music into the iTunes media player, burner to the Apple provided burner or copy to your iPod. Yeah, you can buy different burners/players for OS X, but many people don't.
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|Napster2 is actually looking really promising, in my opinion.
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|What do you know about Napster2 CPUguy?????
I'm v curious
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|uss,
You obviously have never used buymusic then :) Buymusic is a complete joke in comparison to itunes. No set pricing for songs, less song availbility, less portability of music. It is a complete flop.
Don't get me wrong i dont even own a mac i'm certainly not a mac user. But iTunes coming to the PC is a GREAT thing. Its a flawless service, flatrate standard pricing, good delivery, good portability, great selection. No other service that is active or on the drawing board including napster 2 offers these featuers .. iTunes has no competition.
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|That's one of the reasons why Apple software has ALWAYS been better than it's Windows counterpart. I think Microsoft is planning to eliminate legacy support in Longhorn to accomplish something similar. (Though to a lerrer extent.)
Beyond that, I think iTunes for PC would be great! If it was anything like the Mac version, I would probably use it as my default medai player!
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