Is there anyone reading this who is a member of Apple’s iTunes music service? From what I can gather, it’s a pretty decent thing, and it’s supposedly coming for WIndows later this fall. However, I wonder if it’s going to be iPod only. I hope not. Any attempt to actually get into the iTunes store w/o a Mac basically rejects me, so I can’t go and look around. The question I ask is that when you download music from iTunes, are you free to just use it on your computer there, or will it only go to an iPod? I’m hoping not just to the iPod.

I’ve been waiting forever for the kind of online music store where you can buy just a single track, download it to your mp3 collection, and listen to it that way. That’s how buymusic.com works, too. You can download mp3s ala carte, but there are license restrictions – like some only let you have it on one computer, and some have limited burns to CD, or copies to a portable mp3 player. It varies depending on artist and record label, mostly. Given that I can’t use iTunes, I have to go by what’s out there, and buymusic.com is the best for now. That may change once iTunes rolls around.

I like buying singles – I bought a few recently from buymusic.com – the cover of the old Don Henley song “Boys of Summer” by the current band “The Ataris”, and one other one I can’t remember offhand, plus some others (I’m kinda tired writing this, I dont’ remember now). The other problem is selection. I know not everyone will put their tunes there (The Beatles don’t have anything online like that), and some are more anal than others, but I do love the flexibility of buying a single song. It’s what I liked most about Napster when it was around. Finding oddball and rare things and singles. The online stores are starting to get it with regards to singles, but to eliminate things like Napster, Morpheus, & KaZaA, you have to have your selection be as varied as these others are. I think most people are good enough where they’ll pay a reasonable fee if it’s an option. Problem is that the services still have a huge way to go. I’m not excited by a catalog dominated by Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, & Korn (shudder).

Hopefully iTunes will be a saviour later this fall.