Doing Everything I Want It To
Budget-Conscious, Internet User, Entertainment Writer, in a 4 iPod family
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| Cons |
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APR
21
2007
Apple iTunes —
IntroI've been using iTunes since Apple first developed it, when it was still just a music player, and didn't have a store built into it. Being it's an Apple product, though, they make improvements to it fairly often, with each one making it all that much better. By the time the Store function was added on, for me there was no going back.
Organization
The original attraction with iTunes was the organization of the individual music files, so that you could organize them by artist, album, etc. Just a few years later, and they now have a store to download songs, entire albums, movies, televisions shows, and podcasts. All of the music can be played through the player, burned to a CD, or played on an iPod or mP3 player. The videos, such as the movies and television shows, or even music videos, can't be burned to a DVD, and because of licensing can only be played within iTunes itself or added to an iPod.
Store
This has become the best part of iTunes. I can buy individual songs for the same price I used to buy 45s for, back in the "olden days" of vinyl records. I hated to buy CDs for $15 or so, just because I liked one song. Now I download those songs I like, the same way I used to buy 45s. I can then listen to them on the player as I sit here and work, download them to a CD to listen to in the car, or add them to an iPod.
I can search the store by album title or artist, or movie title, etc., to find what song I'm looking for. I've even used it to research occasionally when I'm writing and know the artist of the song, but now the name, or vice versa. Thirty second samples are available to "try before you buy" as well, so I can use that to double check if it's the song I thought it was.
Price
Individual song downloads are $0.99, and the average full album is $9.99, sometimes more and sometimes less. Movies are also $9.99, and sometimes less or more as well. Music videos are $1.99, as are entire television shows.
Only once did I have a problem purchasing. Your account on iTunes uses either your account on AOL or apple.com, and I always used my AOL account and password, enjoying the fact that it was good for something at least. There's a few people with very similar user names on AOL, and they often give their friends and family my user name by accident. They had somehow also signed up for iTunes using my account, and changing the password so I couldn't access it to buy songs. I went into the online support and they were able to create a whole new account for me complete with new password and username.
Conclusion
iTunes right now does everything I want it to, in that I can buy a song when it sticks in my head every time I hear it on the radio, as well as when my husband walks in the door singing a few bars and tells me to find that song and put it on his iPod. As an additional perk, when the kids ask me to download this song or that song for them, I trade chores for downloads. Clean the bathroom, sweep the floor, put the groceries away, etc., and I'll buy that song for you. Anything that gets a kid to do some actual work can't be all that bad.
Last edited on Apr 21, 2007
Apple iTunes is recommended by LauraBelle
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