I have purchased a few songs from iTunes, but I don't like doing it. I have the sense that you are not really buying the song in the same way you do when you buy a CD. But I do use the iTunes software (for now) on my Windows box to keep track of the CDs I own. Eventually, I'll change how I do that (I find iTunes to be a bit annoying).
Anyway, there is some important and interesting news about iTunes that you may want to know.
Multiple UK news outlets are reporting today that Sir Paul McCartney has reached a deal with Apple to offer the Beatles catalog on the iTunes Store. The deal, reportedly worth $400 million, comes after months and months of speculation and relentless torrents of rumors. As best as we can tell, this is the real deal, and will lead to the most popular band of all time finally finding its way onto an online marketplace.While McCartney will be keeping much of the money, several other parties stand to benefit from the deal. It is being reported that portions of the sum will be going to families of the deceased members of the Beatles, Ringo Starr, Sony, EMI, and the former owner of the catalog, Michael Jackson.
[source]
We'll see. Last time I checked, Frank Zappa's songs had all been pulled from iTunes, so they may need to fix that before they get my endorsement.
Greg,
Earlier today, I spotted some rather interesting "music 2.0" related issues and blogged about them here.
The book was released under CC so part of the "pay as little or as much as you want" meme.