iTunes: It’s Not Your Father’s Jukebox

The iTunes Music Store is wonderfully addictive. Whether you’re a PC or Mac user, just download the latest version of iTunes. The Music Store is built-in. Sign up for free. Listen to 30-second cuts of over 700,000 singles and albums. There’s oldies, rock, pop, jazz, classical, hip-hop, country, audio selections of books, and more of it than you could have imagined. No record store anywhere has a selection that rivals iTMS.

What’s not to like?

Well, for one, you’re “locked” in to iTunes and iPod (that sleek little playback device that’ll carry and playback thousands and thousands and more thousands of songs; all in hi-fidelity stereo and at the push of the world’s easiest control buttons.

No one likes to be “locked” in, right? And you are. Sorta. Once you’ve signed on to iTunes Music Store and downloaded music into iTunes you can play them on your computer. You can also burn as many CDs as you want to play songs in your CD player or car.

Better still, buy an iPod (about $250 and up) and store all your songs on a mini-hard drive that fits easily in your pocket. iPod plays your music using a built-in control wheel that makes searching and finding songs and playlists a breeze.

Is there anything else on the market that’s better?

Uh, no. Is there any other choice? Are you “locked” in to iPod and iTunes?

Uh, yes.

Sorry. There’s no other way to say. Does it matter?

In a word, no.

This combination of iTunes, iTunes Music Store, and iPod (PC or Mac) is simply as good as it gets. The iPod is arguably the best MP3 (or whatever) playback device ever invented (at an affordable price). iTunes is a sweet and very capable playback and storage application. And nothing nowhere nohow is better than the iTunes Music Store (now in Europe, too).

So, get over it. You’re “locked” in. Sorta. But you won’t mind, because the experience is so much better than anything else. Better than Napster, better than Wal-Mart, better than Coke, better than Sony.

Can you move OFF the iPod/iTunes/iTunes Music Store merry-go-round? Yes. Burn your music as CDs or MP3s. Copy them to something else. It’s that simple.

But why?