When iTunes was first opened in April of 2003 there was a lot to be happy about and Apple had certainly fired off something that it knew would catch on because it represented the company’s main values of convenience and simplicity. It was easy for just about anybody to open an iTMS account and begin downloading songs for only 99c. Once the tracks had been downloaded a simple synchronisation feature on the iTunes software would copy all the files to an Ipod.

As a result of these factors, the iTMS became very successful. But here is another view of this service that I have been pondering over lately.

99c buys 1 track

This is a significantly cheaper price than on a per-track basis if you consider how much you’d spend if you bought a CD at a store. But then purchasing a full-album on iTMS doesn’t give you the added benefit of an album cover, jewel box or CD (Uncompressed files). No, instead you get a DRM protected, compressed file which you could just very easily lose if not backed up. Most people would agree that there is a higher chance of losing your music on your PC than if it was on a CD in your lounge. You also don’t have the possibility of playing that file across multiple devices or other equipment. Say for instance you wanted to play the file in your car (for the CD player), you would only be able to do that a certain number of times, that means less freedom to do what you feel like with your own stuff.

• So, is the iTunes Music Store really worth it?

• Are you getting good value for 99c a track?

• Would you pay for compressed and DRM’ed music when you could easily have uncompressed/unDRM’ed music