First try to buy music from iTunes store - total frustration!

[Stixer]

Please choose the appropriate forum for this topic. Thank you. Hi folks,

I'm tearing my hair out over something which is probably very simple, but I can't seem to figure it out. iTunes "help" did not help.

I decided to try buying a couple of songs from the iTunes store today. Going on a road trip and I don't live anywhere near a music store, so I thought I'd purchase a couple of songs.

I went through the process of creating an ID, giving my credit card ID, etc. and all went smoothly. Then used search to find the two songs I was interested in and clicked "add to cart" (or whatever phrase they used).

But then what? I looked everywhere for a "check out now" type of button to click, but found nothing. You know, the place to click that gives you a summary of what you've put in your cart, gives you the chance to edit, then has a final "buy" button. Since I couldn't find *anything* ilke that, I thought, well, maybe it just automatically came into my iTunes library? But no, no sign of either song. Of course I'm utterly frustrated. It should be simple to spend money, shouldn't it? ;-)

On a side note, one of the songs I wanted had three or four choices, ie. the same artist had recorded it on a number of albums. I would love to have listened to the 30-second clip that Apple talks about - to determine if one was more accoustic, or if there were other differences, but I couldn't figure that out either... I have been able to listen to music clips on other sites, such as Amazon...

Anyone have any suggestions? I suppose it's right in front of my nose, but I can't see it. Don't know if it matters, but I have iTunes 4.8, Mac OSX 10.3.9, running on an iBook 600. Am using Firefox.

Thanks ahead!

--- Stixer

[enjoilax]

On your sidebar click on your cart and there should be a button on the bottom right.

You can play music clips in the iTMS by 2x clicking or highlighting the song and hitting play.

[Stixer]

That's my problem, I don't see a cart. I'm not sure which sidebar you mean, but when I go to the iTunes music store (and a small window in the upper-right corner does show that it's "me" there) there are sidebars left and right, but no cart.

There is also "my" iTunes sidebar, with "music library" my playlists, etc. but no cart there either that I can see. Could you elaborate?

Thanks,

Stixer

[Stixer]

Okay, I fiddled around a bit more and found that the cart is an expansion of the "Music Store" area in my "own" iTunes sidebar. So thanks for the tip because I would not have figured it out otherwise.

One thing still has me wondering though: I didn't see any options for download quality, and after downloading (no worries this time, a two-song experiment) I see that they are in my iTunes as 128 kbps, AAC format.

So that makes me wonder - if this is as "good" a quality that one can get from the store, why would people download whole albums, when for nearly the same price (depending on how many songs on an album, of course) you could get much higher quality on a purchased CD, then put it on your computer at, say 192 or something higher if you wanted to. Or am I missing something...

Just curious.

Thanks again for the quick reply to my earlier dilemma.

--- Stixer

[dcmacnut]

The quality for iTunes is limited to 128 kpbs AAC. This is "supposed" to be equivalent sound quality to 192 kpbs MP3, which is "supposed" to be CD quality. I put supposed in quotes because sound is subjective and is different for different people. For most, 128 works just fine. All other music stores on the plant sell their songs at 128, but in Windows Media Format. Real Music is the exception at 192. But none of those stores work with the iPod.

So the long answer is people don't necessarily buy the songs to get "exactly" what they would on a CD. If they desperately want or need that, then they'd get the CD and, in my opinion, probably rip the CD in a lossless format, since any compression is going to result in a loss of quality regardless of the bit rate. For me, I buy songs for the convenience of getting one or two songs from an album. When I buy complete albums, I do it mainly because it is cheaper then getting them on CD (9.99 versus $13 and up). Occasionally I see CDs at Best Buy for $9.99 and I'll buy them on CD, but only if it's a band I really like or if I already have other CDs of theirs and want to keep the collection whole.

I did not buy the new Dave Matthews Band in the store, and settle on the iTunes version, even though I prefer having DMBs songs on a CD. I did this because I couldn't find it for less than $14 anywhere in my town and I didn't like that the CD was copy protected (yes, the songs from iTunes are also copy protected, but CD copy protection meant I was less likely to get them into iTunes and on my iPod which is all I wanted in the first place).

[Stixer]

Thanks for the additional info, Macnut.

What you say makes sense; I'll probably use the iTunes store for a song here and there. For whole albums, we'll see. Since a lot of the music I like is from the days of "records," there don't tend to be as many songs on an album, so the .99 per song isn't as good a deal.

OTOH, I bought two songs last night (after I found the cart, duh!) and was able to enjoy them on a road trip 15 minutes later. I could get used to that :-)

Thanks again, great forum! I've just gotten into the iPod world with a new Shuffle, although I've been a Mac-user since I had my Mac Classic "brick."

Next I'm trying to decide between an iPod mini or a "big" one that could hold more music. Tough call. I've already gotten spoiled by the small, light "you can hardly tell it's there" Shuffle, but it'd be nice to be able to make new playlists - or to have a few different ones on the player - without going back to the computer to change things around. Mini, full-size, Mini, full-size.... Ah, life's tough questions :-)

--- Stixer