Giving iTunes a try

I downloaded the new Apple iTunes for Windows last week and so far I am impressed. My impetus for doing so was that I wanted the new Barenaked Ladies album "Everything to Everyone" that came out last Tuesday. I didn't have time to drive to the store to get it, so I figured why not download it? Once I got my account setup, the process was easy and the 14 tracks from the album downloaded pretty quickly over my DSL line. Total cost: $9.99. The service offers all of its music in AAC format (encoded at 128K bit/sec) but the application will manage both AAC and MP3 files. One downer is the AAC file can only be played in QuickTime/iTunes or on an iPod (which I don't own.) But I did burn the Ladies' album to a CD and was very pleased with the quality. Obviously, if you're an audiophile, you're going to want to buy the physical CD, but for those casual listeners, iTunes is worth checking out.