The openning catalogue exceeds 1 million tracks, it appears Sony BMG are still holding out. Songs are priced at $1.69 per track and $3.39 per video, with most albums going for $16.99.
First off, there's also Singles of the Week, a free single download each week. This week it's Shadowland by Youth Group. I just downloaded it. Great song, and I was also interested to see the sound quality you get. I know, to international readers this may be old hat, but for us in Australia, this is all spanky new. Allow me the indulgence.
So the sound quality, which I assume goes for all music coming down the pipeline from iTunes, is a bit rate of 128kbps, sample rate 44.1 kHz, making it 3.8mb for a 3min 35sec song.
Some price comparisons:
Sarah Blasko's album Overture and the Underscore , with 11 songs, sells for $19.99 on CD.
iTunes Music Store (iTMS) Australia? $11.99
Ben Lee's album Awake Is the New Sleep, with 14 songs, sells for $24.99 on CD.
iTMS Australia? The $16.99 standard for an album.
Missy Higgins' album Sound of White, with 13 songs, sells for $19.99 on CD
iTMS Australia? $21.97
Why the difference? Because iTMS Australia doesn't let you buy the whole album, instead having to purchase individual songs for $1.69 each. This is a drawback. Why would you pay more?
the earley edition - Posted by Dave @ 10/25/2005 04:08:00 pm || ||
