iTunes Music Store launches.
The Apple Music Store opened today. Songs and albums, downloadable directly from Apple into iTunes. They were marketing it as the good alternative to Napster: reliable, higher quality, legal. Great selection, though they were missing the Dead Kennedys, Ani DiFranco, Red Elvises, Weird Al, and George Carlin.
I already had a suggestion.
When I insert or burn a physical CD, iTunes should register that I “own” it. I should then be able to buy the digital version at a significant discount — say $2. I own about 300 CDs, some scratched. I’d like to avoid reburning them all, or accidentally rebuying them, or losing them in a house fire.
I also think this would be a good way to clarify rights that are currently vague. If I buy a CD and it melts, do I have to rebuy it? Can I get a new copy? If this program existed, I would have bought several dozen album licenses that day, and would have eventually converted my entire library.
The piracy concern is real: someone could share a burned copy and then buy a cheap license, effectively getting it for $2. You’d solve that by encouraging users to mark or destroy the physical CD after buying the digital license.
This would have genuinely revolutionized music listening for me. The iPod had already changed things; this would have finished the job.
Apple did not implement this suggestion.