ITunes Music Store

The iTunes Music Store (iTMS) is an online music service run by Apple Computer with its iTunes application. Introduced on April 28, 2003, the store, which uses DRM restrictions, has since been a dominant online music service and has proven the viability of online music sales.

Features and restrictions

• Pricing: One set price for songs (e.g. 99 cents in the US or 79 pence in the UK) with the exception of the Japanese store, which sells songs for either ¥150 or ¥200; most albums cost $9.99 in the US. Prices vary depending on the country where the user is registered. Apple offers volume discounts of up to 20% for bulk purchases over 25,000 songs (10,000 for educational institutions).
• Platform(s): Mac OS X (not Mac OS Classic), Windows 2000 and Windows XP (possibly Windows Server 2003) only.
• Downloading: Yes.
• Burning/Copying: Yes.
• Streaming: Not for purchase, only for 30-second previews.
• Format: Protected AAC music (extension: .m4p whereas regular AAC files have the extension .m4a) at 128 kbit/s, Audible audiobooks at 32 kbit/s
• Digital restrictions: Streaming to five computers every 24 hours, unlimited CDs (seven with an unchanged playlist), unlimited iPods. (Formerly: three --then five -- computers per 24 hours; and 10 unchanged playlist burns.)
• Preview: 30 seconds.
• Trial: N/A
• It has sold more than 500,000,000 songs since it was launched.
• Catalog: More than 2,000,000 files; includes audio books; (originally iTMS contained about 200,000 files).
• Features: Allowance, gift certificates and gift cards, iMix (user-submitted playlists), Podcasts, Billboard charts, radio charts, advanced search, music videos and movie trailers.
• Global availability: United States, Germany, France, United Kingdom, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Greece, Norway, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Canada, Republic of Ireland, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, and Japan addressed credit-card holders as well as pre-paid status.
• Customer Support: Apple provides no customer support for the iTunes Music Store over the phone (Slate attempted to uncover one). All customer service inquiries are done over the web at http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/musicstore.html.