iTunes Australia - how not to launch an online music store
Australia finally has iTunes (meaning iPods can now feasibly have legal uses*): Apple - iPod + iTunes. Exciting... no, not really. Why not? Because I went and had a look at the site today at work.
I don't have iTunes at work, but I though I'd at least cruise over and have a look at the artists/tracks they've included in their grand opening. Surely they let you find out what's available before making you install software, right? Wrong, apparently.
Once I'd finally found the site (having first hit a 404 - silly me trying to use a .au domain for an Australian service) my first thought was.... hang on, I've gone back to the iPod store. Half the page seems devoted to selling you an iPod. OK, sure, it makes sense; but couldn't they have made the music the feature at least for a week?
I tried to look at their top ten, but all I got was a big empty blue box. By this stage I'm trying different browsers, but it doesn't work anywhere. The site is just busted. In Netscape you can even see the broken SSI hook, An error occurred while processing this.....
Next thought... their search input is busted in Opera, no surprise. But it's probably functional so let's try to search for some music - this is a music store, right?
Whoops. Now I'm on a blank screen which has two buttons: "I have iTunes" and "I Do Not Have iTunes". For a moment I'm back at WE05 - do I have hay or need hay? It's the first instance of good usability! I click the button for I Do Not Have iTunes Now Just Let Me Browse Some Damn Music.
You must download iTunes! No music for you!
That's it. I'm at work - I can't keep wasting time. I thought I'd spend two minutes flicking through the list of artists. All that's happened is I'm wondering how Apple's web developers hold on to their jobs. This thing is broken on launch day!
later that day...
OK, so we dropped in at the supermarket on the way home, to discover the place is full of iTunes posters. Yikes! There are silhouette people guarding the trolleys! Apparently you can buy iTunes Cards, $20 or $50... I guess they're like prepaid mobile phone cards.
So, when we're home my fiancee decides to check out the iTunes Store (she has an iPod, so yes we have iTunes at home). All that happens is.....nothing. Eventually she clicks something which triggers iTunes. That's all the website does, apparently. Which would be fine if the site at least told you that's it's just a gateway to the iTunes software. I could have looked at work, realised the deal and saved it for later.
On the second attempt, we're finally in iTunes.
so is my life changed?
Yep, for sure, I'll never buy another CD! ......hah. At $1.69 per track, albums are no bargain. We happen to look at the range of Cure albums, which are priced from $16.99 up to about $33. What the hell? I can get the albums in stores for the same price - less, in many cases - and I'll be able to take the CD to work and listen there as well. Not to mention you'd burn through those $20 iTunes Cards pretty fast.
If it was dripping with rare music that'd be a different story. But so far it's mostly mainstream.
what's good?
There are some good things. If you do like iTunes then it integrates very nicely with your player. It's easy to get around the categories and preview was quick. There's quite a lot of comedy stuff, even if it is pretty expensive for a download (you'd want a lot of laughs from a $40 download). The categories are mostly pretty good, although some are baffling - "Rock → Adult Alternative", for example. Alternative grew up, got a haircut and a real job?
the comedy
One thing is really great about iTunes though: the mis-filed artists. We found Henry Rollins in Children's Fiction and DJ Shadow in Hair Metal. Now that's funny :)
Footnote: * Australia still has no "Fair Use" provisions in copyright law.
iTunes Music Store never was and is not a Web-based service. It's an Internet service, but it runs inside iTunes, and the interface is not HTML.
So no, you had no business expecting it to work from a Web browser of any kind.
"Fair use" doesn't really cover copying CDs you own under Asutralian law, but that is also explicitly prohibited...
From the Australian Copyright Council (PDF link):
1. there is no general right for individuals to copy recorded music, even from a CD you own.
2. there is no general right to copy copyright material for personal use (or “fair use” right) under Australian law.
3. ownership of a physical item (such as a CD) does not give you the right to make copies (including copying into a digital or other format).
4. there is no general right to copy recorded music from the Internet without the copyright owner’s permission
I don't really agree with your assessment of the launching of the store, though.
As Joe said, the iTMS is an internet service, not a web one, so it's not unreasonable to expect people to have to use your software to access it. It's similar in a way to the ATO's tax lodgement service -- it transmits info via the internet, but is done via a completely seperate piece of client software (and if you're after a usability case study, it's perfect -- crap software, Windows only, the list goes on).
I think as people working on the web, we tend to lose sight of the fact that not everything on the internet is, nor should everything be, web-based.
As far as makig it easy to buy music online, I can't think of an example that's easier to use than the iTMS (DRM issues, etc aside). There's a reason it's become the most successful online music retailer.
(Dislaimer: I'm a massive Apple groupie, so will admit to being a little biased.)
Perhaps that is the case - but is that clear on the site, or is the usability poor.
Haven't had a chance to have a look myself, but Ben's description is of a site which didn't tell him clearly how it works.
IMHO
Joe and Cam: I am fully aware, now, that the website is nothing but an advert for iPods and a link to a software download. That'd be fine if the website simply said so. But it doesn't. It includes things like Top 10 Songs, featured artists etc on the website. They present the website as part of the service even though it does not form part of the service.
Besides that, their entire model assumes that nobody would ever question having to install iTunes on spec. Why should I download and install software just to find out whether the service includes any music worth buying?
As the music meme proved a while back, I do not have mainstream tastes... I am not going to assume iTunes includes anyone I want to listen to. Certainly not to the extent of installing software.
Cam: regarding copyright... yes, that's my point. We have no provision for ripping CDs, contrary to the ways iPods have been marketed in this country! :) Rip, mix, burn, break the law.
Lea: It's not clear on the site at all.
I don't necessarily agree that it's not clear on the website... it is, agter all, marketed as the *iTunes* Music Store.
That's not to say that it couldn't or shouldn't be clearer, but to me (and maybe only to me), that's a pretty obvious indication that it's all about iTunes.
The installation of iTunes is perhaps taken as a given by Apple, given the ubiquity of the iPod. Because the iPod is the only portable player that can play the musiic from the iTMS, it's a pretty fair assumption that anyone who uses the store will have it on their machines, so installing iTunes just to see if there's anything in the store that you like probably hasn't occurred to anyone.
Not everyone owns an iPod! :) iPods are popular, not ubiquitous (mobile phones are ubiquitous in Australia).
Anyway, I'm pretty sure Apple expect to get new customers now that they've launched the online store. That means people without an iPod or iTunes. They might want to know if they will find stuff they want to buy *before* installing iTunes.
I'd argue that give the iPod's market share, that ubiquity is not far off the mark. They are far and away the most popular portable digital music players on the market at this time.
One of the reasons that the model has been so successful is that it is a pretty seamless integration of software, store and player.
IMO the marketing is focussed on two things:
1. Get people to buy an iPod (new customers).
2. Get people who have an iPod to buy music from the store (new customers).
Both of these base conditions look at people who (one way or another) have iTunes installed.
The marketing message is all about the iPod+iTunes combo (it's even labelled that way on their website).
I'm not arguing against the fact that not having a preview of the available music might be a good idea, more that the way the store is currently structured and marketed fits with the startegy of getting people to buy their products, and is done in a way that makes sense.