What's the 411 on iTunes?

[Bright_Star]

Has anybody tried out iTunes? Just want to know more about it before I establish an account with them. Anything I should know before I get into it? Any positive or negative experinces would help me make an informed decision.
Thanks!

[AdminAssistant]

I've not ever really tried it, because my MP3 player is a Sanza and not an IPod. But I haven't heard much good from it. You can only use it with Apple products and if you get rid of ITunes, you loose allllll that music you paid for. And their selection of non-Anglophone music is CRAP.

I'd stick with places like Amazon that aren't so damn picky.

[BethB]

I bought the younguns some Zunes for christmas and managing their zune tunes is waaaay easier than Itunes(had a shuffle. nothing but problems with that thing...until I accidently washed it. Problem solved and dead)

[Broomjockey]

Unless you have an iPod, or are a die-hard Mac enthusiast, iTunes is a very poor way to buy music online. The bit rates are lower, the format is usually Apple's proprietary one, and they charge extra for no DRM. Amazon is the best for US residents. If there's a specific kind of music you're interested in not represented well on Amazon, say, and I can check a couple of the other digital distributors to see if any are better.

[RootedPhoenix]

I'd agree with Broomjockey and say that Amazon is the best place to get online music.

iTunes doesn't charge extra for non-DRM tracks when you first buy them anymore (at least in the US), but if you buy DRM music and later upgrade, you pay for that. iTunes is also only Mac or Windows. If you use some flavor of Linux, I hear you can use Wine to get it to run, but I know nothing about how difficult that is.

I'm always bothered by the music stores that need Windows or Windows and IE to operate. What about the rest of us? I personally own a Windows machine, but not everyone does!

Amazon would be my choice. iTunes is good, and they have good customer service, so they make a good second choice. If Amazon's MP3 store doesn't have it, iTunes just might.

Magnatune is another good one, if you simply have a style in mind, and not a specific artist. They're a record label doing things a bit differently. They've got a bunch of talented people there, and lots of ways to try before you buy. Magnatune also requires no downloads (aside from probably having flash or java on your system) in order to see their catalog.

[PsychoTeddyAppear]

I'm new here but I thought I should give you my two cents I've had an Ipod and therefore Itunes for several years and yeah I would only suggest it if you have a mac and love it as much as I do.I would never use anything else but then again my ipod is mostly for my cd collection I don't download much although I recently bought a couple of japanese rock albums simply because it was cheaper than buying the cd over the internet.

[KellyHabersham]

The only thing I dislike about iTunes is that you "have" to have a high-speed connection to use it, so I can't use it at home because I can't afford that kind of connection. Amazon, though, does work with dial-up.

[Shpepper]

Also I found that Amazon has over 500 songs that you can download for free. They are all different types of music. I've found some that I really like there.