Section 29. Request Music from the Music Store

29. Request Music from the Music Store

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

18 Sign Up for the iTunes Music Store

19 Browse the iTunes Music Store

SEE ALSO

30 Watch for Newly Added Music Using an RSS Feed

31 Tell a Friend About the iTunes Music Store

Even though the iTunes Music Store has more than one and a half million songs in its catalog with thousands more being added every week, there's bound to be some music you'd love to buy in crisp clear AAC format but that just doesn't seem to be available in the store. Apple expends great effort in finding music not just from the big labels, but from small and obscure publishers as well. But there are simply far too many albums being produced every year for Apple to feature all of them (to say nothing of all the albums that have been published throughout music history). Furthermore, some big- name artists are conspicuously absent from the iTunes Music Store ; these artists, such as Metallica or the Beatles, might have their own reasons for keeping their music out of the world's largest legal digital music downloading system, but for now there's nothing weor Applecan do but wait for the inevitability of progress to overtake them. (The Rolling Stones, originally missing from iTunes Library , are now prominently featuredperhaps a positive sign of things to come.)

NOTE

The Beatles are unlikely to appear in the iTunes Music Store anytime soon because of a long-standing legal trademark battle between Apple Computer, Inc. and the Beatles' label, Apple Records. The two firms have clashed numerous times over the years , usually whenever Apple Computer decided to add more sound or music features to the Macintosh platform. Naturally, when Apple became a music publisher with the iTunes Music Store , Apple Records was far from pleased. We probably won't see any Beatles music in the store until Steve Jobs pays a handsome settlement to the Apple Records legal fund.

Nonetheless, the iTunes Music Store staff provides a mechanism for you to send them your requests for music that they simply haven't gotten around to adding yet. If they receive a lot of requests for a certain album or artist, that music is a lot more likely to show up soon than an album or artist that nobody's interested in. Communicate your interest and help make the iTunes Music Store as complete as it can be!

1.	Search for Music First, check to make sure that the music you want isn't actually in the store. Type the name of an artist, album, or track into the Search Music Store bar and press Return or Enter . If the desired music doesn't exist in the store, the search result page appears empty-handed (possibly with a suggestion of another artist name, if one with a similar spelling to what you typed exists).
2.	Provide iTunes Feedback On an unsuccessful search page, a message reads Request music you can't find; Request is a link. Click it to open the iTunes Feedback page at Apple's website. Another, more direct way to get to this page is to choose iTunes, Provide iTunes Feedback (Mac) or Help, Provide iTunes Feedback (Windows).
3.	Enter Your Information Fill out your name, email address, and as many of the rest of the fields as you wantthey're all optional, but they help the Apple staff prioritize your request. Most importantly, select Music Requests from the Feedback Type drop-down list. 29. Request Music from the Music Store
4.	Request Music You Can't Find In the Comments box, describe the music you want; just list artist names and albums. You've already noted that this is a music request, so there's no need to be especially wordy. You may want to put a condensed version of your request into the Subject box as well, such as Request: The Battlefield Band .
5.	Submit Your Feedback Click the Send Feedback button. Your feedback is sent to Apple's support staff. Don't expect to hear anything back from Apple in response to your request; they've got their hands full. But be satisfied that you've made your request known, and watch the newly added music every Tuesday to see whether your requests have been acted on.