It’s commentary like this that irritates me to no end. All these people going around acting like it’s a big flipping mystery why people don’t buy stuff of the iTunes Music Store.
If you just thought about it for a second, it’s obvious.
DRM. Price. Experience.
Any way you spin it, the DRM sucks. It means you can only listen to a song that you bought on a limited number of computers. It means you can’t switch to other stores/services/devices at a later point and bring your music with you.
And guess what, you get all that DRM for a price that’s not much better than buying a CD.
As if that’s not bad enough, the buying experience is even not as good as going to a store. You don’t get to preview songs (if you go to any decent music store, you can listen to CD’s before you buy). And the songs that you buy are compressed to the point where someone with good ears can tell the difference.
You’re getting a crippled, inferior product for not that much cheaper. And people wonder why they’re not selling more. It’s not that people just love love love going out to the store and buying CD’s, or ordering on Amazon and paying shipping, it’s just that the alternative sucks that much more.
But I’m sure Apple engineers don’t really care for the DRM either. It’s just what happens when you deal with record companies I suppose. They really need to either start selling full lossless tracks, or start a subscription service. Until then, I’m sticking with my Rhapsody.