Well, this goes on the list of reasons to own a Mac with a high-speed internet connection: Apple's iTunes Music Store.

I've been waiting for years for people to start selling music over the internet like this. I've always thought that any internet music service would have to have three things to succeed:

1. Purchasers pay per song, and price is $1 per song or less. No subscription fees.


2. The service actually has to offer a wide selection of songs. By A-list artists. From more than one record company.


3. Users should own the songs they purchase. Whatever copy protection or digital rights management or whatever should not be excessively restrictive.

Looks like Apple's done it. You can download songs for $0.99 apiece, and, in many cases, entire albums for $9.99. The selection is good - not perfect, but good, and likely to get better. And according to Apple's site, you can play any purchased song on up to three different computers, and burn it to a CD or sync it with an iPod an unlimited number of times. (The three different computer thing isn't much of a restriction, since, as far as I can tell, there's nothing preventing you from burning the song to an audio CD and then ripping it back onto your computer as a regular non-copyprotected MP3.)

Really, the only complaint that I have about the site is that selection is still a bit spotty in some places. Some artists are missing altogether, of course. More frustrating are the artists who have made only a few songs or partial albums availalble. Lenny Kravitz's Are You Gonna Go My Way? is available for download - minus the track "Are You Gonna Go My Way?" There are no complete Bob Dylan albums currently available for download. There's no Metallica (guess that's no surprise), no AC/DC, and no Led Zeppelin (but you can get Dread Zeppelin). On the other hand, you can buy David Bowie, U2, and Sting to your heart's content. And they have a surprisingly good collection of late '80s metal, just in case you were jonesing for a Blue Murder or Faster Pussycat fix.

Selection will undoubtedly improve. And it seems churlish to complain too much about it when there's already plenty of stuff I'd like to buy.

I haven't purchased any complete albums yet. Owning a tangible, nicely packaged CD from a band that I really like still has its attractions, but $9.99 for an instant album download also has its attractions.

But Daniel and I have already gone through and gleefully purchased a motley collection of single songs from one-hit wonders and artists that we have no desire to own complete albums by. Oh man. It's like a MasterCard commercial. Kajagoogoo's "Too Shy": 99 cents. Not having to own anything else by Kajagoogoo: Priceless.

It's a pity that the "Listeners who bought X also bought Y" feature of the store doesn't seem to be up and running yet. Because I really want a screen shot of "Listeners who bought Judas Priest also bought the Pointer Sisters."

This is a really good way to spend too much money. Must...exercise...restraint....

Wheeeee!