It's official: Apple announced its new online music service today in San Francisco and I just have this hunch that it is going to be hugely successful. I also think, three years hence, Apple will have more than 3% market share as people begin to realize there is a better way to manage the digital lifestyle. Windows/Office is here to stay for basic desktop productivity apps. It's become the standard, for better or for worse. But Apple is on to something with its latest Macs, iLife software suite (iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD), iPod digital music player and now its iTunes Music Store.
The best and worst thing about digital cameras is that it is cheap (free) take lots of pictures. Every time I upload my pictures, I take time to organize them but it's needlessly tedious and software should do this for me. So, too, with digital music. I have lots of digital music on my main desktop PC, but I rarely listen to it because I spend most of my time with my wireless notebook, Palm handheld, listening to my stereo, in my car or on the go. And today it's not easy to keep a synched music collection. I've also looked into pressplay and MusicNet, the music industry's two official services as well as the many successors to Napster. None of them work the way I would like them to. Apple gets it. I want to buy the songs I like, not rent streams of evaporating tunes.
The concept is simple:
1. No recurring subscriptions charged to your credit card.
2. Buy only what you want when you want. Every song is just $0.99. Slate notes: "But for once the price feels right rather than a rip-off." And, unlike hit-or-miss selections in the real world, the songs you want are always in stock.
Figure your average album has 12 songs, of which you really like 3. The cost of albums these days is ~$15. There are a lot of albums I would still buy in full. But there are a lot of songs out there I would enjoy having (for a mix) but don't want the whole album. For $2.98, you could now have all of your three favorite songs (on your Mac, iPod and CD) for 1/3 of what the full album would cost. Smart.
Only Apple has songs from all 5 labels, including the Eagles and other previously-not-included artists. So, you can find what you want, when you want, at a predictable price. Very cool.
This may finally convince me to buy an Apple again. (I'm already drooling over the new, smaller, lighter iPods released today).
Go on, give Steve Jobs a chance -- this just may change your life!
