iTunes Music Store Brings Music(als) to Your Ears

Even in a city the size of Los Angeles, it is sometimes hard to find a cast album to even the most successful Broadway or London show. I remember when "Hairspray" was released, it took a few trips to the Virgin Megastore on Sunset Boulevard before I finally got a hold of a copy.

Luckily, now, there is the iTunes Music Store (http://www.apple.com/itunes/) where you can finds hundreds of your favorite musical show albums, all of which can be easily downloaded legally to your computer with lightning fast speed. If you aren't familiar with iTunes, Apple says it offers music fans, "a complete solution for buying, managing and listening to their music collections anywhere with the unique combination of the iTunes digital music jukebox software, the pioneering iTunes Music Store and the market leading iPod digital music player."

Created by Apple Computer and launched in April of 2003, the iTunes music store may not have every album you have ever wanted (and I know how you people love those obscure cast recordings), but it does have a respectable collection of albums from Broadway's current hits ("Wicked," "Avenue Q"), modern classics ("Les Misérables," "Jesus Christ Superstar") and true old-school classics ("The Sound of Music," "My Fair Lady").

It also features a fun top-selling chart, so you can see what other music fans out there are buying. The current most popular Broadway show album is "Wicked" (where it has been in the top 5 soundtrack albums since its release) and "Cell Block Tango" is currently the most popular single-track download. It even has a Broadway Favorites playlist, as well as even celebrity playlists, to help you decide (if you aren't searching for something in particular) what songs you might want to download.

And even better are the prices… no more paying $25 for a CD at Colony Records in New York City, for instance. If you just want one song, you pay just 99 cents. A whole album, like "Wicked," generally runs you $9.99, while a special 2 CD set, like the "Ragtime" Broadway Cast, costs $19.98. Not a bad deal considering even the "big box" stores like Best Buy and Wal-Mart charge anywhere from $11.99 to $18.99 for a single disc, and up to $35 for a double-disc set.

For that price, you can download the songs directly to your hard drive (via the iTunes Music Management program), and share it with up to 5 other computers on your home network (with enabled file sharing). On top of that, you can burn the downloaded playlist up to 10 times onto CD-Rs, as well as transfer the album to an iPod music player. This is a huge advantage over other on-line music services (which may not allow you to burn CD's or may charge you extra for the option), and certainly more than you need for legally listening to and sharing your musical favorites.

While this certainly offers a boon to music(al) lovers who can't get enough of their showtunes, what do Broadway composers think of the service? "I'm all for it," says Stephen Schwartz, who wrote the music and lyrics to "Wicked." "As someone who is personally affected, I am extremely opposed to the free downloading of music," where as legal downloading, like the iTunes Music store, is "a great idea." And he's not kidding about illegal downloads, as a simple search on Limewire, a peer-to-peer file sharing for Apple Macintosh users, quickly brought up multiple copies of the "Wicked" soundtrack, readily available to download illegally.

Not only is iTunes completely legal, you will make sure that the writers of those musicals are fairly compensated for their work. After all, we want them to write more musicals, right? In addition, iTunes offers you the chance to make your own "Broadway's Best" compilation CD. Stephen Schwartz is a huge fan of being able to download individual songs to making your own mixes. It certainly beats "the day of making mixes on tape; pushing play here, record there," he said with a laugh as his hands mimic the pushing of a tape recorder's buttons.

But does the cut-rate cost of the songs and albums online cut into royalties for composers compared to what they would have received if one bought the CD in a store? "That's not the issue," Schwartz offers, "the marketplace is the marketplace and it's capitalism." If people are buying the music for $9.99 [an album], "that's what the going rate is. And $9.99 is still a lot. It's still more than a CD costs to make. You're still making a profit. The hope is that by offering a CD online, you can sell more in the end and it will be better business for you and the [music] companies."

And that is certainly what seems to be happening with the iTunes music store, which offers the potential to bring music from musicals into the mainstream. With over 50 million songs from the five major record labels and over 200 independent labels downloaded through the iTunes service (which equals an annual buying rate of 130 million songs a year) it shows the voracious appetite people have for music.

In addition, it seems to broaden people's musical taste, and offers them a low-cost way to experiment with music they might not otherwise listen to or buy. Marc Shaiman, the Tony Award-winning composer and co-lyricist "Hairspray" exclaims, "I'm all for iTunes, and hope that it does allow people to browse and possibly be exposed to something new!" So check out the iTunes Music Store and peruse the soundtrack offerings. Perhaps you find that show album you've always wanted, or you'll experiment with one you have never heard before. At 99 cents a song you can't go wrong.

Please note that if you do decide to download iTunes for your computer, make sure your Mac or PC has the minimum requirements:

Macintosh Requirements
Mac OS X v10.1.5 or later
Mac OS X v10.2.4 required to share music and burn DVDs
400MHz G3 processor or better
QuickTime 6.2 required to encode AAC 128 MB RAM minimum/256 RAM recommended
DSL, cable modem, or LAN-based high-speed Internet connection recommended for buying and streaming music

Windows Requirements
Windows XP or 2000 500 MHz Pentium class processor or better
QuickTime 6.5 (included) 128 MB RAM minimum/256 RAM recommended
Latest Windows service packs recommended
Supported CD-RW drive to burn CDs, video display card, soundcard DSL, cable modem, or LAN-based high-speed Internet connection recommended for buying and streaming music

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