:: Wednesday, April 30, 2003 ::

I want to be famous so I can be in the iTunes Music Store

There's only one topic of conversation this week ... :: Can you guess what it is? Yup, Apple's new music store, which went online Monday. This is one of the most exciting things -- for me, at least -- to come from Apple in a long time. So I've written a quick Special Report on my observations and thoughts on this momentous occasion. Quick taste: "I don't think I've seen a better convergence of music, video and marketing potential since MTV went on the air. I want to get famous now just so I can be in the iTunes store."

We have been on the edge of real change in the music industry for quite some time, but bickering among the artists, record companies and end users have created a morass of fragmented online music services, the proliferation of illegal sharing applications and a well of anger among some of the artists who make the music, who have been seeing their compensation floating away with every Kazaa download.

Maybe the artists and the record companies have had it too good? I think so. This new era of online music, of which the Apple store is the first useable iteration of, will usher in a new musicians' middle class. It just may become possible, once again, for musicians to find a middle ground where they don't have to be U2 to make a decent living and support a family just playing music. This will be music to our ears. The thousands of unknown artists who never gotten their chance before because of the iron grip of the record companies, may just find a hearing someday in the future in this online bazaar of music, which requires little overhead to distribute.

Anyway, read the Special Report already.

Lastly, in the "Thank God" category ... :: As the Apple Turns is back after a lenghty sabbatical due to a birth in the family. Let's welcome Jack Miller back and give a visit. It's still the funniest Apple site there is, IMHO, and his take on this week's happenings are definitely a bit funnier than mine.

:: Steve 12:00 PM [+] ::
I want to be famous so I can be in the iTunes Music Store

Billboard Posts Details Of Apple's New Music Service

And I needn't have worried, Stevie J. has apparently been looking out for us :: Billboard has posted details of Apple's new online music service, and I couldn't be happier. According to the article, "No subscription is required for the service, and tracks are expected to retail for an average of 99 cents. Once purchased, tracks are transferred to the consumer's iTunes music library and are automatically synched to the user's iPod portable player. Content can also be burned to CD." This is exactly as I had hoped, as you can see in this week's Macrimination over at OSXFAQ.com.

I'm not a fan of digital rights management (DRM) technologies, which provide encryption to files like mp3s so you can only be used in the ways they were legally meant to be used. But it's needed for the moment so we can actually get some good content on one of these services -- and content that can be accessed by Mac users, at that. This will do both, as reportedly all five major music labels are on board with this. This makes a huge difference, as no other service has had that so far. It will be nice to have one place to go to find whatever song you're looking for, and download it. I have no problem with $1 a song, as a matter of fact, I think it's a fair price to pay for downloading the songs I want, when I want.
:: Steve 11:19 AM [+] ::
Billboard Posts Details Of Apple's New Music Service

Let's meet and talk Mac

For when your MUG just isn't enought :: Tuesday, May 13, is international Mac Meetup Day, apparently. This sounds like a very cool idea, so everyone should sign up! Those who live near me in the Philadelphia/Delaware area, maybe we can all get to know others with similar interests!

Other than that, a lot of time recently has been taken keeping up with my new column for OSXFAQ.com, Macrimination. It's been a lot of fun, and I've gotten a lot of comments and feedback -- both goood and bad -- from people around the world on it. This week, I've written a column on Apple's new online music service, which by some accounts, is due to be announced next week. Look out for it when Scott posts it OSXFAQ.com!

Don't click on this link at work! :: Don't ask me how I came across this, but during one of the many Mac-related Internet searches I perform every day to keep myself current on Mac issues, I came across a porn site that is targeted at Mac users. Its front page features a huge mock-up of a QuickTime player with the aqua letters "XXX" in it. Inside, it says: "So you spent all of that money on a great Mac only to find out that most adult Websites are not very Mac friendly. ... Don't worry, we are 'Porn Different.'" Well, at least it's good to know that almost anything you can think of, there's a site dedicated to it. We can't have sex-starved Mac addicts not being able to get to their porn before they show up at Macworld expos. Think of all of the mess they would cause?

Windows is still trying to catch up :: This is according to one of the recent columns by our buddy over at ZDNet, David Coursey. According to "A Less Crashy Windows? MS Is Trying," David discusses a problem as old as silicon chips: How to avoid system collapses. David says, "Of course, I never worry about drivers on my other computer, the Mac. And that computer hardly ever crashes. While it's true the Unix underpinnings of OS X are part of the reason for this, it's also true that even pre-OS X Macs were less crashy than their Windows cousins." The page even features an advertisement for OS X under the header: "A more stable OS?" Check out the screen shot to the left.

:: Steve 2:00 PM [+] ::
Let's meet and talk Mac