Step by step through iTunes

October 25, 2005

Here’s my blow by blow of the new AU ITMS

Signed up no problem, they were very eager to get credit card and personal info.

Range of songs seems good.

Intensive Care by Robbie Williams is available by song only, not album. Big problem here, as the albums are the price of 10 songs, and IC is 12 songs, so I’d be getting ripped off. One of the reviews also points out that the booklet is available as ‘Album Only’, so there is no way to get it. That’s crap, so no purchase. Strike one.

A search on ‘Biddies’ turns up The Lascivious Biddies’ two albums, their podcast and a couple of unrelated ‘casts. That’s good, I wasn’t sure whether they would come up in the AUITMS. I’m after ‘Get Lucky’, so we’ll see how we go.

Problem. Clicked on ‘Purchase’, fine, confirmed login, fine. ‘Purchasing Music’ shows up and then: ‘The item you tried to buy is no longer available’. Not fine. Tried again, same answer. Apparently, the item may be available somewhere else on the site. Nu-uh, after searching again under ‘Lascivious’, same thing happens. No purchase, two strikes.

Tried to find Dannii’s new single, Perfection, but soon realise that she’s on Sony/BMG. No purchase, strike three.

Tried to find Rogue Traders’ new album, Here Come The Drums, they’re on Sony/BMG. No purchase, strike four.

Bugger all of some French pop that I like. But that’s not unexpected.

Seeing I don’t want to buy Missy Higgins or Ben Lee, things are looking desperate.

Song previews are nice and easy, pity Kisschasey’s CD is ‘Song Only’. Ditto Paul Mac. No purchases.

Okay, Thirsty Merc is available as an album for $16.99. Click, confirm purchase…and it’s downloading! Finally!
ID3 tags look ok, except they’ve filled in the ‘of X’ field for track and disc. I hate this field. Don’t like having my name in the summary at all. Nothing in the comments field, which is good, artwork is nice and big. 128kbps AAC isn’t my choice (192kbps MP3 is, by the way) but there’s no choice. I’ll try burning and ripping later and see how the DRM nonsense handles.

Now let’s try a movie. Previews for the videos works well, but would be better if the reflection effect that Apple seem to have adopted worked while it was playing. Movie trailers are bog-standard Quicktime windows. Just bought the ‘Diamonds from Sierra Leone’ clip by Kanye West. Cost $3.39 and worked straight away. Two in a row ain’t bad. However, the video is. It’s a great track, but the video suffers massive compression issues that appear as ghosting and blocking, as you can see below. Now I don’t mind if I get crappy music videos on Torrent etc., but after paying $3.39, which I believe is still too much, I don’t think it’s that much to expect a decent video. Some scenes in this clip were basically unwatchable. Purchased, but a big fifth strike.

Just tried Biddi-luxe! to see if iTunes had ‘found’ the ‘item’. Apparently not. Strike two remains.

Conclusion? There is a lot of work to be done:
If it’s on the store, you should be able to buy it. Simple.
If I log into the Australian store, I never want to see a Sorry, Wrong Country message. Simple.
If you sell albums by the album, then cut the Song Only crap. Simple.
If you offer a bonus with the album, then make sure you actually sell the album. Simple.
If you are charging people for videos, make sure they aren’t pathetic quality. Simple.

I tried to spend $274.33 on the ITMS tonight. Of that, I only spent $20.38 and was bitterly disappointed with $3.39 worth of what I received. After all the hype and the reputation that accompanies the ITMS, I can honestly say I feel let down. I can only hope that these issues fall on some ears.

Anyone else having issues?

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