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Patrick Chinn
Distributed Network Computing Consultant
pchinn@uoregon.edu
Time Magazine recently named Apple Computer's iTunes the 2003 Invention of the Year. That says a lot for software that was originally Macintosh-only and did nothing more than store and play music. The editors at Time were excited at how iTunes, especially iTunes Music Store, bridged the gap between buying CDs, pirating music, and purchasing legal songs online.
Now available for Windows, iTunes has grown into much more than a music player. Among other things, iTunes is a digital jukebox and electronic storefront all in one program.
iTunes easily imports music from CD. Drop a CD into the computer and iTunes downloads album and track information for that CD from the Internet. Click the Import button and iTunes copies the contents of the CD to your hard drive. iTunes supports the popular MP3 format as well as Apple's own AAC format. (As always, please respect copyright and make sure you digitize CDs only where copyright provisions permit.)
Computer-based music players give us the ability to arrange and rearrange song order. Essentially, you can build your own albums. iTunes accomplishes this through the use of playlists. To use a standard playlist, create a new list and drag songs or albums to that list. iTunes also offers Smart Playlists, where the contents of the list are based on rules you devise. Want to listen to all rock and pop from the 1970s? Reggae songs between three and five minutes in length? Smart Playlists will manage the task. Plus, these lists can be set to automatically update as new music is added to your library.
If you find yourself short on music, iTunes offers an alternative: iTunes Radio. Click "Radio" in the source list and iTunes lists 19 categories of audio, from Classic Rock to Talk. Each category contains a variety of radio stations (more accurately, audio streams) from which to choose. If the preset list is not sufficient, you can listen to hundreds of other stations available from around the world. For a directory of additional stations, visit http://www.shoutcast.com/ (Note: listening to online music radio stations uses comparatively expensive network bandwidth, so during peak times please limit your use of Internet radio services.)
Another way to expand your musical horizons is by listening to music owned by others. With Music Sharing, iTunes can share some or all of the music in its library. With music sharing enabled, other iTunes users on your local network can browse and play music from your computer. Unlike peer-to-peer file sharing programs, iTunes honors copyright law and does not permit music to be copied. On campus, Music Sharing does not work across subnets; you will be able to connect only to other computers within your department or building. At home, iTunes automatically lists iTunes servers on your home network.
The highlight of iTunes is the Music Store. Apple CEO Steve Jobs negotiated contracts with the big five music publishers and many independent labels, and that music is now available for purchase. Customers can browse or search iTunes Music Store by genre, artist, and album. When you find something of interest, iTunes offers shoppers free 30-second previews of every song in the store.
Individual songs are priced at 99 cents each. Most albums are $9.99, with some a little less and others more. In some cases a specific song on an album can be purchased only as part of the entire disc, usually when there are less than 10 tracks on an album. (Otherwise, you could buy all the songs on an album at 99 cents each and pay less than the album's asking price. For an example, see Miles Davis' album "Kind of Blue;" the longest track on the CD, "All Blue," is not available separately.)
iTunes Music Store is not a complete offering of every song and album every released. Most major artists are represented (with a few exceptions, including The Beatles and Madonna). Finding music by independent artists is more difficult due to the nature of Apple's agreements with the major music publishers. If you are looking to buy 1970's punk, do not look to iTunes Music Store.
Compared with other online music stores, iTunes has few limits on what you can do with music you have purchased. iTunes will play purchased music on any computer that has been authorized by the purchaser, and you can authorize up to three computers at a time. You can burn songs and albums to CD up to 10 times. If you want to make more copies, iTunes requires a change to the playlist.
iTunes also organizes and uploads music to portable music players. Currently the Windows version of iTunes supports only Apple's iPod. On the Macintosh, iTunes supports the iPod and a variety of other music players. Transferring music requires either FireWire or USB 2.0. Some USB 1.1 devices are supported, but music files transfer too slowly to be useful.
The name "music store" has already become a misnomer. iTunes has a selection of audiobooks available for purchase. The standard fiction and nonfiction titles are there, supplemented by a few periodicals and copies of syndicated radio shows. (Back episodes of "Car Talk," anyone?) iTunes forces its music classification system onto the audiobook selections, which makes it difficult at times to search for or browse specific titles.
New in iTunes 4 are Gift Certificates and Allowances. Both can be configured in values from $10 to $200 in $10 increments, and the value expires two years after issuance or the date of last use, whichever is later. iTunes users can purchase gift certificates and send them via email. Allowances are automatically renewing gift certificates that give parents a way to limit the amount of money their children spend at the iTunes Music Store.
iTunes is free and available for both Windows and Mac OS X.For Mac users, iTunes requires a minimum of Mac OS X 10.1.5, though for some features you need Mac OS X 10.2.4 or later. A 400MHz G3 or faster Macintosh with 256MB of memory is also required.
Windows users must be running Windows 2000 or XP on a 500MHz Pentium or faster. A sound card, speakers, and 256MB of RAM are also required.
Apple recommends a high-speed Internet connection for buying and streaming music. A modem connection will not be sufficient.
To download iTunes, visit http://www.apple.com/itunes/