I’ve been thinking of giving my niece an “allowance” on the iTunes Music Store since I’ve heard secondhand that my sister busted her downloading Kazaa or Napster which indicates that she finds the general concept of downloading music to have some appeal, and the iTunes thingie is legal and above-board.
But given my decrepitude and taste in music (a tendency to consider Pink Floyd to be cutting-edge) I’m not a good one to evaluate whether the available selection is worth a damn.
Her listens are contemporary artists, not rap or club apparently, mainstream pop-rock tilted towards bubble gum (but I can’t remember the band names she said she liked a couple years ago, aside from which that was a couple years ago which could be SO over).
Whaddaya think? iTunes Music Store: with it? or without it?
I’m not a big fan of contemporary artists, but the iTMS seems to have a very good selection of contemporary stuff. If anything, I wish they’d have more off-the-beaten-track selections, such as soundtracks and comedy.
I also admit the iTMS is exposing me to more music than before; the ability to preview anything with one click is awfully convenient, and now I’m starting to get into groups like the Black-Eyed Peas…
I don’t think I can help much, as my musical taste is probably not similar to your niece’s, but I wanted to drop in and say this is a very very cool idea for a gift, especially for a teenager. Much better than socks or or chocolate or all the other staples.
I think that’s a very cool idea, AHunter. I don’t have any idea about Apple’s music selection, but I trust others here who say that it is sufficiently cool.
Only caveat I can think of is that it takes forever for me just to get the store loaded out of the iTunes player. I’ve about given up on trying to use it because it takes too darn long to do anything. That might just be my connection or the times I’m trying to connect.