Champ or Chump? iTunes Music Store vs. Competition

Mac and Windows users will tell you there’s no competition for downloading music on the Internet (legally, of course). It’s the perfect combination to crown a champ without a vote; iTunes, iTunes Music Store and iPod.

But competition breeds better products and competition is what iTunes Music Store has. In the US, the UK and elsewhere, the competitors are loading their guns and taking aim-- at Apple.

Wednesday Night UPDATE! Surprising results in today’s poll. Mac and Windows users speak out and overwhelmingly choose an online music download Leader. Voting still in progress! UPDATED Results BELOW…

Today’s online poll asks two very basic questions:

Where do you buy music on the Internet?
iTMS is the site of choice for most Mac users and most PC users. It’s not the only choice, however. Wal-Mart has hundreds of millions of dollars to push their Windows-only service, and they have a reputation to protect. Wal-Mart sells more physical CDs than anyone in the US.

How about Napster? They WERE the king of downloads for years. Fortunately, no one served jail time for all the illegal downloads. The new Napster is legal and doing battle. Is their war chest enough to cut into Apple’s lead? Do you eve know anyone using Naptser?

BuyMusic and MusicMatch made a lot of noise, but like Napster, they chewed through a lot of money and haven’t made much of a dent in iTunes Music Stores throngs of satisfied buyers.

How about our friends in the UK? Is iTunes Music Store #1 or does Napster enjoy a lead? Do people buy music from MyCokeMusic.com as much as they buy Coke in the UK?

How much did you spend in the last year to buy music on the Internet?
$100? $500? $1,000 or more? Give us an idea of your buying habits in the second part of our double poll for online music habits.

Do you buy regularly, like a subscription service? Do you buy in splurges or with a gift certificate? Is your credit card balance suffering because of your desire to fill up the 10,000 song capacity of your iPod?

Get ready to cast your vote
Decide the issue once and for all time (well, at least today). To vote for the Internet music store you use the most, Mac or PC, all you have to do is Click Here.

You’ll also be able to tell us how much you’ve spent to purchase music downloads on the Internet in the past year.

To see the results on how the voting is going, just Click Here.

One vote per user, per day, please. Let the clicking begin…

Off Topic Note: Mac360 has discounts and special pricing on Microsoft Office for Mac ($125), Apple’s iWork ‘08 suite ($62), and Adobe Photoshop Elements ($70). Where? At the newly remodeled Mac360 Store. Shopping at our local version of Amazon helps to support Mac360.