Well as of today you can start to purchase music off the Australian iTunes website. You must have the iTunes software to buy music, songs cost $1.69 and albums are $16.99. Missy Higgins has released an EP exclusive to itunes as one of the headlining artists and if you are huge Missy fan you can buy the first song which consists of her thanking itunes (yes that “song” costs you $1.69 for all 30 seconds). Buying a song or album off iTunes means that you get a locked down version of an aac file (higher quality than mp3) which only allows you to burn the song 7 times. So make sure you back it up! From what I hear there are ways to strip it of it’s security anyway so I guess that isn’t too big a deal.
I’m not quite sure I’m ready to move over to the purchasing music without a physical cd deal just yet, but maybe for special things like the final show of Rockstar Inxs or cover versions that I’m not going to see on an cd. The things I do like about iTunes though is the ability to buy songs for other people or give gift vouchers as presents. There are also mixes done by celebrities such as Beck, Ben Lee and Missy that you can buy as a whole package. My favourite thing above all is creating an “imix”. You build a playlist in itunes and then publish it for other people to buy. I’ve been dying to create one since I knew they existed and so I’ve made one from my ella cd so if you want to sample anything click on the itunes image below. It didn’t have all the songs in my list but since there are some incredibly stupid record companies choosing not to participate then they miss out.
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Ella rocks
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When you click on the itunes image it will link you to my imix, but first your browser will ask to launch the itunes application. It’s ok to do that – just make sure you have itunes installed. So Kelly, are you going to start filling your shuffle?
Another thing, iTunes offers a free download each week, so for you cheapskates there is still an option. This weeks is Youth Group – Shadowland.
Oh and another thing.. although Leo Nine are available on overseas iTunes, it’s not yet appearing on the Aussie version. I’m sure Jeremy will fix that pretty quickly however. 🙂
OMG, I’m stupid too. I didn’t realise you could double click on the song to get a taste of what it sounds like. And it’s a high quality taste as well – instant and without crackle! iTunes Music store is way better than I expected, but what artist will have the honour of being my first purchase?
Well, very exciting stuff, I made an iTunes purchase!
Blue Monday … by New Order. Very cool.