Wow!!!

Wow!!! This many people are actually spending this much money for Itunes? For one, it's Apple, c'mon people. Second, you guy's are limited to a certain file format that Apple has you cornered with when you buy this, "iPod". Ridiculous! Why don't you all take the time to download, convert, name tags, do what you need to, and put music on an item that allows you multiple formats? Without putting money in these people's pockets, for an item that just isn't worth it.

Piracy Alive and Well?

4 Billion Tracks sold since 2003?

Just goes to show you piracy is alive and well.
God Bless the RIAA!!

RIAA...

This just shows that the recording industry is on a one-track path the way of the stram engine. They wanted to monopolize the format of our music to something that is eaisily destroyed (I still have tapes loose in a box, no scratches yet)

and force us into buying an album with 9-14 tracks with only a few being worth buying or listening to. Now, in the real world, people can get their music for free and they sue grannies into the ground for 'criminal acts of piracy'. Hang us all, arghhh!

I applaud the iTunes Store because I can choose whether or not to buy a song individually based on it's merits as a song, however there are still a few kinks to work out.

For instance, I am a single parent trying to make ends meet. If there was a fire, it would be illegal to get my music back without buying it all over again. My iPod holds 8,000 songs, am I to be deprived of such a basic aspect of life as music until I can 'pull myself up by my bootstraps'? and fork over $8,000 all over again? Well there's a one track litigous derailment for the RIAA, basic commercial rights and freedoms of individuals.

One more thing is to be done, We need a system to keep track of our licenses. If it's legal to download music *that we have already bought* from p2p networks, there needs to be a way to keep track because I could be thrown in prison and fined if I bought a CD 10 years ago and I threw the worthless scratched disc away. I didn't save my recipts when I was 13 years old either. I bought the rights of private home use for life of the song and I can be imprisoned for theft? Shiver Me Timbers!, who are the pirates now, RIAA?

Yeah, I used to be like the other commenters

I have spent hundreds through iTunes and thousands with Apple since I got my iPhone. I don't mind being limited if the devices work well, and why is ease of use discounted by so many people. Maybe your time is not very valuable, but mine is, so why would I waste it stealing music through unreliable sources and ripping it into some special format? It is much easier and more fulfilling to use well designed products and services.

Congrats

Sweet. Congrats to Apple!! Don't hate that the file format is different and the iPod is excellent!!

Stop Hating

Stop Hating and get an Ipod.

WOW!!!

Apple makes a killer product that can play multiple formats except the one that microsoft developed and people are surprised that it sells. The Ipod can play MP3's, AAC, convert WMA, play lossless AAC, and video and Podcast. It has a store and a user interface that a 6 year old can use. You can buy unprotected tunes on it plus download tracks from the net and have iTunes convert, nametag and find albulm art for it. Oh by the way working at best buy I sell those other so called compatable players. They are poorly made and not reliable. Trust me on this, the iPod my not be the best solution but it is the best one made today.

By the way no matter how you call it stealing music is still theft.

Apple monopoly

Ugh a world where you are forced into buying iPods just so you can purchase music would horrible. So far atleast there are alternatives with players and music services, but for how long? Apple use monopolistic tactics like proprietary formats and software and they are making things "easy to use". Microsoft use proprietary formats and they are "pure evil". Apple fans f****** sicken me, they are blind to how their beloved company really is, Apple doesn't give a crap about them yet they would gladly jump off a bridge for some iCrap. The more Apple succeedes, the more iPod zombies and Mac heads there will be. This truely sucks hard.

No you are not limited to a certain file format chkm8

Dear chkm8, Didn't you know that Ipod's play mp3s? Didn't you know that you can buy DRM free songs on the Itunes store?

It's sad to see this misinformation being bandied around.

You can only trust yourself

TimeWarner (on TNT and TBS on many movies) takes original 16/9 wide screen and crops them to 4/3 letter box and mixes all the tracks of of the 5.1 sound into stereo. They then stretch the media back out to 16/9 by using a variable aspect ratio. A person waling across the screen had a oval head on the right, then a round head in the middle and then a oval head on the left. The sound is horribly low because the rear channels were mixed with the front channels. This results in phase cancellation. The only thin you never mix with the front is the rear!!! It is the wrong way to do it. If the studios do not care to deliver you the media in the best format, then why would iTunes care?

Many people believe that a 320 bps MP3 is as good as it gets for an mp3. This is just not true. Just like kids can hear high frequency sounds that adults can’t, all people cannot hear above or below a certain point. The original recording, as delivered on a CD is already horribly inferior to an analogue recording. By taking this digital CD media and ripping directly to MP3 you get different quality MP3’s at different bit rates. Although you can hear the different between 128 bps and 192 bps as delivered by Apple, the difference is slight. If you rip the CD yourself you will come up with comparable results.

Now take the CD and rip it to uncompress .wav. Then run the .wav track trough a high pass and low pass filter to remove all the sound that is too high or low for any human to hear, and save it to a new wav file. Now convert the new .wav file to three new MP3’s using VBR (variable bitrate) at 128, 192 and 360. The sound quality is far superior to anything Apple sells at the same bitrate.

Now we have 2 iPods and an iPhone here at home. While they are good hardware devices, they are missing the most basic functionally, drag and drop in Explorer.

Apple takes a position that all consumers are criminal and should be treated as such, by not allowing native hard disk support. It is better for 100,000,000 to steal and finally “choose” not to, then it is for stealing to have never taken place at all. Many believe that God gave us all free will and choice. Regardless if you believe in God at all, the right to choose to do something is a foundation to being alive and living. All Apple is doing is driving the human race to position of no choice. And as well all know, eventually people will revolt. Those that choose to support Apple are stopping people from growing and making the correct decisions of right and wrong. Hence, they are hurting the moral growth of the human race. Just walk into an Apple store and talk to the staff. They swear how good their product is, but then cannot give you straight answer on an iPhone’s Bluetooth connectivity. They know nothing of the basic “legal” uses of Bluetooth and just assume if it does not work like other Bluetooth devices then what ever decision Apple made to neuter it, just must be right. There is no true human thought of right or wrong and the need for choice anywhere in the sales associate’s mind. The staff is completely brainwashed. They are usually young adults who are easily brainwashed into thinking that making money is more important then anything. They are destroying and brain washing our youth into thinking that the proper way to do business is to treat everyone like they have and will break the law. You should never buy music from their store and support this position.