To a muted fanfare reserved only for third rate "B" Movie stars arriving late for a premiere the iTunes Music Store - Canadian Edition arrived earlier this week. There wasn't much buzz or hoopla about it, just kind of a relief that, after waiting for what seemed like forever, we would now be able to legally download music that would work on a Mac or for that matter an iPod.
The funny thing is, I was chomping at the bit for the store to show up. I checked daily just to see if it came online while I wasn't looking, not trusting the various news sites that would no doubt announce its arrival. Now that it's here, however, I find myself scared to start buying music. I've got a $10 gift certificate that I redeemed just sitting there, staring at me, begging me to buy something. I can't do it, though. I guess now that it is possible for me to spend a small fortune on digital music, I've lost the desire to part with that money. Maybe when there is something I really want I'll dive in but for now I'm pretty happy not cluttering my computer with songs from the 80's.
As far as the service is concerned, I'm quite impressed. A very seamless and cool user experience. Downloads are fast (my wife downloaded a song, she has no problem finding stuff she likes), and the quality of the songs is definitely adequate. The iTMS, like the iPod, is yet another display of how Apple manages to do things the right way.