MacPrices.net

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I'm reminded of small ways why iTunes is so much more superior than other services out there. One is Apple's famous ease of use, and "it just works" ideology. And of course, their selection.

As a customer of eMusic, where I pay $9.99 a month for 40 downloads which I can keep forever, even if I cancel my membership later on (which is probably why they're ranked No. 2, since they have the subscription-based model but users don't give up their music "rights" when they leave), I realized I hadn't downloaded a thing since July of 2007!

Now while it may have been ten months and $99.99 in fees and, yikes, 400 song tracks that I could have downloaded but didn't, one, eMusic doesn't offer present-day and hit tracks like iTunes does, so there wasn't a whole lot to download that I really wanted. By the same token, the tracks that I did want and have previously downloaded?

They've more than paid for itself, considering for $9.99, I got 40 downloads, which would have cost me $39.60 had I bought them on iTunes. Sometimes, eMusic has things that iTunes does. But more often than not, it's the other way around, which is why iTunes is No. 1.

Then there's the "ease of use" factor. I've always (or sometimes) said that people must think that Mac users are dumb in comparison to PC users, since everything seems to be handed on a plate to Mac users with that "ease of use" thing, while doing things on a PC makes those users have to think and use their head to do so.

But we all know that Mac users aren't dumb. (Studies and research have been done as to which type of people are Mac users, compared to PC users, etc.).

Case in point, remember how I said that I hadn't downloaded a thing on eMusic since July of 2007? This weekend, by coincidence, I finally decided to see what's new--since I'm only paying a monthly fee for it--and of course, nothing special. They just got in the Rolling Stones, but the albums are all oldies and nothing, well, new.

Searching for music on eMusic is such a pain. Unlike in the iTunes Music Store, where everything is organized and easy to find by genre, or artist, or whatever, on eMusic, it's like searching for a haystack in a needle. (Impossible).

After almost an hour of searching through lists upon lists of titles, I finally came across some good titles. Sarah McLachlan, Isaac Hayes, some TV soundtracks, etc. Found one I thought was the actual artist but was done by "various artists" (translation: imitations) doing renditions of the actual artist, which is very common on eMusic. Then finally found the real Air Supply.

(I found myself needing to come up for a supply of air after all that searching!).

The biggest pain? The interface. While iTunes clearly lets you preview a song by double-clicking the title with your mouse? Or when you want to buy a song, you click the button that says "Add Song" (if you're using a shopping cart) or "Buy Song" (if you're using 1-click purchasing) which is as plain as day?

On eMusic, you don't know if you're buying, previewing, or what. Granted, I hadn't used the service for over a year (don't get me wrong... 1/3 of my music purchases is from eMusic).

After downloading a full album of Kenny G's "Rhythm & Romance: The Latin Album" which has 12 tracks in the album, then a special acoustic version of The Raconteurs' "Steady as She Goes" single which would make 13 and should leave me with 27 downloads left to buy?

I was down to nine downloads left. What happened? I refreshed the page to find out that the album I had first looked at, an 80s Music compilation, instead of previewing all the tracks--which I thought I had done, preview them--turns out I had clicked a button for downloading all 18 tracks from an album I didn't want to buy.

Thankfully a note to customer service got me back those credits as "courtesy downloads."

I highly doubt I would have had these problem on iTunes. In fact, I've never had problems with iTunes ever. Save for that one episode where I was downloading a track and the server (on Apple's end) went down. So I got charged for one song that I never got and trying to re-downlaod it said I had already done so. Apple's customer service quickly helped me with that.

So, five years later, and I don't know how many song downloads later (from either iTunes and/or eMusic, but I do know I have two free ones from AmazonMP3, my new "service"), and of course, a couple of things that the other two services that I use don't have--iPod games, and Podcasts, and TV Shows, and movies, and what else?--the iTunes Music Store lives on.

And while I like the other two vying for the spot of No. 2 and No. 3 (seems to keep changing every week) because they have things iTunes doesn't, and like I said before, vice versa--especially those TV Shows... great for me who doesn't have time to watch it then and there on the tube, but can do so later on my iPod or my high-res PowerBook--nothing matches No. 1.

Trouble is, I think it's time for a name change, like how the iconic PowerBook was renamed "MacBook Pro" or the PowerMac renamed the "Mac Pro." The iTunes Music Store is so much more today than it was when it was born and should reflect something Mac-ish. "Music Store" just doesn't reflect TV and movies. "iTunes" doesn't cut it either.

Hmm. How about the MacDownloads store? 10 million served... "I'm lovin' it!" already. (But the golden arches might not--the other Big Mac--because it's too close for comfort).

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