Chapter 4. Using the iTunes Music Store

IN THIS CHAPTER:

17 About Digital Rights Management Technology

18 Sign Up for the iTunes Music Store

19 Browse the iTunes Music Store

20 Purchase Audio from the iTunes Music Store

21 Purchase Music Using a Shopping Cart

22 Check for Purchased Music

23 Authorize a Computer to Play Purchased Music

24 Find More Music by Artists in Your Library

25 Publish a Playlist as an iMix

26 Buy a Gift Certificate for Someone Else

27 Redeem a Gift Certificate

28 Create an iTunes Music Store Allowance

29 Request Music from the Music Store

30 Watch for Newly Added Music Using an RSS Feed

31 Tell a Friend About the iTunes Music Store

32 Create a Web Link to Your Favorite Music for Sale

Now that we're all used to buying our books online from Amazon.com, participating in auctions online on eBay.com, and even getting all our news and entertainment online, it seems silly that in the age of digital music, when song files can be transmitted more easily from computer to computer than albums carried from the record store to our house, we should still be limited to buying physical CDs when we want to add to our record collections.

Well, with the iTunes Music Store , all that has changed. At the time of this writing, the iTunes Music Store has sold over 400 million songs to customers on both the Mac and Windows platforms, at a pace that continues to climb daily as more and more people discover iTunes and the selection of music that grows by hundreds of albums every week. Priced at a constant 99 cents per track, or $9.99 per album, and offering customers the ability to buy just their favorite tracks instead of whole albums full of filler, iTunes offers a value that's hard for competitors to undercut and easy for the big record labels to like. With the built-in Digital Rights Management technology in protected AAC files, customers get the flexibility they need and true ownership of the music they buy, and the labels get the assurance that they're not just giving out freely distributable digital songs at a dollar a pop. After all, the record companies also have to make a profit if digital music is to become a mainstream medium to supplant CDs.

The iTunes Music Store is designed to be as intuitive to use as iTunes itself is; but that doesn't mean it's completely without its quirks or hidden features. With the tasks in this chapter, you should become fully familiar with how the iTunes Music Store works, how to take advantage of its lesser-known features, and how to get the most bang for your buck as you build your iTunes Library through the fastest -growing legal means of music delivery on Earth.