Over the last two weeks I have bought 53 songs from the iTunes Music Store. I didn’t expect to buy any. I just get bored easily and then I’m there, mucking around, roaming around, desperately looking for some new exciting way to throw money away. And yes – it’s true that there’s a fairly limited selection of music on the store and that is a considerable problem (of the five hundred and fifty odd songs that my iTunes stash considers to be “Five Star”, only 135 are anywhere on the store that I can find (Music Store link: One Hundred Pounds of Plastic Perfection). But despite the limited selection, if you dig around it is more than possible to find some really good old classic stuff (The Slits: I Heard it Through the Grapevine) or stuff you’ve discovered from Audioscrobbler (Modest Mouse’s Float On) or really interesting cover versions (Ryan Adams’ Wonderwall or (for geeks) They Might be Giants’ Whe Does the Sun Shine). And then there’s all that stuff that you listened to when you were a teenager or a kid and realistically you can’t just go out and buy it because that would be really embarrassing, but you can just download it and – it’s not the same as buying it, OK. Which I think excuses some of the cheesier things that I’ve bought (cough – the shame). And then there’s the watching something on TV and just going, “Well I kind of like it, and it’s only 79p…” (Music from the OC How Good it Can Be). And the odds and sods of Classical Music that the store actually excels in providing… Like when I needed to listen to Strauss’ Blue Danube Waltz about million times at work a couple of weeks back.
Okay – I admit it. The iTunes UK Music Store UK may have opened up a few really good songs for me, but it’s also almost forced me to download about a million really cheesy bits of crap. You guys have to save me. Have you found any hidden gems?
6 replies on “Some dumb stuff I bought off iTunes…”
I found the same. I’ve ended up with an assortment of things that I’d never normally buy in HMV – including Cher’s “If I could turn back time”, which I can’t honestly remember the reason for downloading.
iTunes does make it far too easy.
Here’s my playlist of iTMS discoveries (which, I fear, won’t mesh entirely with your tastes!)
I’m afraid I don’t have iTunes here on Windows98, but if you like Modest Mouse (and can get the song) I’d highly recommend “Talking Shit About a Pretty Sunset”.
Oddly, I can’t buy the Slits or whatever you were ashamed of (since iTunes USA doesn’t stock the number, I can’t find out what it was); so the one of the results of the international copyright/licensing economy seems to be enforced aporia. The Russian alternative Allofmp3.com may not be worried about licensing, but the taste to which they cater leaves out a lot of excellent material.
Oh, well; I’ll keep my eyes open for you on chat networks. . . .
There’s quite a lot of stuff from the excellent Thrill Jockey label on there:
Califone – Quicksand & Cradlesnakes
Sam Prekop – Sam Prekop
John Parish – How Animals Move
Chicago Underground Duo – Synesthesia
… to recommend a few.
It’s not really buying….
Tom Coates reflects on the iTunes Music Store: Over the last two weeks I have bought 53 songs from the iTunes Music Store. I didn’t expect to buy any. I just get bored easily and then I’m there, mucking around,