More on iTunes Music Store

Fortune has a good article: Fortune.com – Technology – Songs in the Key of Steve

It seems that the lock-in for the service to the US is mandated by the record labels, and the licenses for the music last for 12 months. This is a high-profile experiment, for the record companies at least, and will be interesting to keep an eye on this. I expect we’ll see some numbers at Apple’s next quarterly statement (due 16 July).

I think it also shows how a new, digital only, record label could emerge, hooking in to iTunes (and the similar services that will appear) to promote their artists. Serendipity is one of the most powerful intrinsic aspects of the web, and is something that Amazon is tremendously good at establishing for its users (“People who bought that, also bought this”). I don’t know if iTunes is setup for this or not, but it should be.

The other interesting aspect that comes out of this is Apple’s “invisible” piracy protection, Fairplay. News.com has a bit more here. If they can get this working with QuickTime, and possibly hooked into iTunes as well, I would pay to download music videos as well (not all of them; stuff by Gorillaz or Fatboy Slim).

Journalist Karlin Lillington has posted some thoughts as well, and she’s even used it!

My favourite quote from Steve Jobs:

Just watch. We’ll have more people using the iTunes Music Store in the first day than Pressplay or MusicNet have even signed up as subscribers—probably in the first hour.

Oh, and it seems Fortune may agree with my assessment on where Apple should go next:

... the iPod is the most obvious new line of business, steering Apple onto the home turf of consumer-electronics giants like Sony and Matsushita.