So BuyMusic has launched, and the Mac community is not very happy about it. Word has it that the service isn’t nearly as slick as the iTunes Music Store, it isn’t as reliable, though the price is lower it isn’t consistently lower, it doesn’t give you the same rights for every song so you can only burn/copy some of the songs and can’t transfer some songs to mp3 players, and doesn’t work with iPods at all. But it may also have as good or possibly a better selection than the iTMS.
What’s the big deal, then? Why are Mac users do defensive about other companies copying “their” products? Aside from what I understand to be blatant rip-offs of Apple’s ads, the marketplace is built on companies edging each other out by making their version of a similar product better. Of course, platforms working as they do, the market sectors for the two products are actually entirely mutually exclusive, so there really isn’t any competition. Except that Apple claims that they’ll have a Windows version of the iTMS out by the end of the year. Doesn’t it seem likely that BuyMusic will goad Apple into re-prioritizing the Windows version to push it out the door faster? (I know, supposedly there’s a hangup with the record companies’ contracts.)
Mac users all know that Apple-made products are better. From what I understand, BuyMusic’s service went down the day of their launch because their servers couldn’t handle the load, whereas Apple’s sold a couple million songs in the first week without a hitch. The iTMS user interface is near perfect. Free 30 second previews of every song in the store. Consistent, clearly spelled-out, lenient digital rights restrictions. And, most importantly, a dedicated effort to bring in independent music and offer them the exact same deal as the major labels get.
The Apple service will be better, and Mac users will know it. Other people won’t, and they’ll think they’re happy with the inferior product. If Apple’s smart, they’ll get their Windows version out the door fast and make some money. If not, they’ll pretend that they’re taking the high road by scoffing at the competition and reminding each other that they know better.
Update: Despite not being too worried about BuyMusic, I do think it’s outrageous that their web site only works on Internet Expolorer for Windows. Why bother doing extra work to make it IE-only when you could make it work for everyone? Using Netscape? Nope. Want to see it on a Palm Pilot for a cell phone? Nah. Are you blind and use a screen reader for the internet? It might work, might not. Have a Mac and for some reason want to use BuyMusic instead of iTMS? Sorry. Why would you intentially overlook potential customers? Aren’t UNIX users often big music geeks? Wouldn’t making your service accessible to them - something that would take no more work than making it IE only, earn you money?
Update: Here’s a very negative review of BuyMusic that has nothing to do with the iTMS. Just how bad BuyMusic is.