Blood, Sweat and Tiers

The iTunes Music Chore

When I heard the iTunes Music Store was finally open in Australia, I was keen to try it out. It was easy to use as you'd expect, but the lackk of many of the artists I was searching for was disappointing. Apparently Sony/BMG aren't playing ball with Apple. But anyway, they had Paul Kelly's new album so I clicked away my seventeen bucks and tried it out. 'Click' is the operative word here, 'cos that's what I got. Don't get me wrong, the album was great, and the whole purchasing experience was a breeze, but I can do without the digital pops and burps scattered throughout every damned track! I burned a CD of it and they're on it as well. Totally bummed at this experience, I guess Apple should take note that my first thought was to tell the world how crap it was before even calling them to complain.

So in an effort to find some of the artists that were lacking and to try out the competition to see if they could do any better, I headed on over to Bigpond Music, which has been around for a bit but I never bothered trying. A nice web 2.0 interface, by the way. Now the deal here is that it's a Windows-only system (boo!) that uses the DRM capabilities of Windows Media Player to manage the licensing process. So I left the Powerbook for a minute and clicked away a morre comfortable fifteen bucks to see what Alex Lloyd's new album is like. Astute readers will notice it's only Australian musiic involved here - I can get your yankee junk on bit torrent and still sleep. That's a joke, by the way (also of an Australian variety)

Twenty minutes later and I had an absolutely pristine, fart-free version of some fine Aussie rock with which I am well pleased. I can even burn a CD and rip it into iTunes where it belongs. Oops. Did I say that out loud?

So as much as it pains me to say it, the Apple experience was not one I am likely to repeat in a hurry. Bummer.

Updated 2005-12-4: Apple got back to me after three and a half weeks to say they were looking into it and were planning to refund the purchase of the album. So I still don't have Paul Kelly's new album like I'm supposed to. Makes a visit to the bricks and mortar store look quite attractive at this point.