Close but no cigar
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Nice try Apple.
OK, here's the deal - as you undoubtedly know I'm quite lazy. In the same way that I quite like music. Thus you would think that I would be within Apple's ideal demographic for their iTunes Music Store. The kind of person who really wants music but can't be bothered to physically go and buy it should be the kind of person who could singlehandedly download us all out of this recession.
Having previously been, in a previous life, something of an audiophile I'm actually kind of recovering. My primary source these days is my laptop, though admittedly via a rather nice (but cheap) DAC. And so whilst I would not previously have contemplated buying a nasty compressed music file*, last night I figured that for something like Generation Landslide by Alice Cooper I could live with the compression and I almost spent my first 0.99 Bushbucks there.
So why didn't I? Because of stupid-ass region locking. I clicked 'buy' but I wasn't allowed to buy the track. I first registered for the ITMS when I was in the US (so I could download Guardian podcasts). Now, I'm sure I could re-register in the UK - but you know what? The thing that makes it really good for lazy people, where you get music without having to go and buy it... Amazon also has this feature. And for someone who's bought enough books, CDs, DVDs and who knows what else over the years it's all set up ready to go (both in the US and UK and any other country they have local sites in I believe). And since it comes on a CD, it's uncompressed. Bonus.
*well yes, I can hear the difference but I assume Apple ain't selling 128kbps files.
OK, here's the deal - as you undoubtedly know I'm quite lazy. In the same way that I quite like music. Thus you would think that I would be within Apple's ideal demographic for their iTunes Music Store. The kind of person who really wants music but can't be bothered to physically go and buy it should be the kind of person who could singlehandedly download us all out of this recession.
Having previously been, in a previous life, something of an audiophile I'm actually kind of recovering. My primary source these days is my laptop, though admittedly via a rather nice (but cheap) DAC. And so whilst I would not previously have contemplated buying a nasty compressed music file*, last night I figured that for something like Generation Landslide by Alice Cooper I could live with the compression and I almost spent my first 0.99 Bushbucks there.
So why didn't I? Because of stupid-ass region locking. I clicked 'buy' but I wasn't allowed to buy the track. I first registered for the ITMS when I was in the US (so I could download Guardian podcasts). Now, I'm sure I could re-register in the UK - but you know what? The thing that makes it really good for lazy people, where you get music without having to go and buy it... Amazon also has this feature. And for someone who's bought enough books, CDs, DVDs and who knows what else over the years it's all set up ready to go (both in the US and UK and any other country they have local sites in I believe). And since it comes on a CD, it's uncompressed. Bonus.
*well yes, I can hear the difference but I assume Apple ain't selling 128kbps files.
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on Wednesday, November 12, 2008 at 21:15.
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