iTunes Music Store: Quick, easy, and works with iTunes, and my iPod, (and my former iPhone). They use .aac files instead of .mp3’s so the quality is better, but the files aren’t as universal on different players and with different software. The other bad thing was the damn DRM that was attached to the files. It wasn’t the worst DRM scheme on the market, but it still wasn’t good. Well, yesterday they just announced that they made deals with the big labels to bring about DRM free tracks for most of the available songs. Seems like a great move. I still wouldn’t buy any of the stuff that hasn’t been updated.

Amazon.com: The problem was the protected files from iTunes Music Store, and the answer was amazon mp3 downloads. They were a great alternative. A lot of times prices were cheaper, and they were in unprotected mp3 files. Not only that but their download application worked seamlessly with iTunes. It was a really good solution for a lot of reasons. Having said that I will probably go back to iTMS for the better codec.

eMusic: Just found this one, but I love it already. With eMusic you pay a monthly fee and you can download a certain number of songs per month. Two big draws for this service. One, the price. You can get plans that go down to $.25 per song. The second draw is the lack of big labels. All of the songs come from smaller labels with bands making great music. There is still (not good) on there, but a lot less of it.

Epitonic: This site is pretty much dead right now. But in it’s time it had some of my favorite music on it, and it was all free. What a concept. Labels would send in an album and let the them share a song or two off the album. Even though there isn’t much new material on there, they haven’t taken down any of the old stuff so you can download tunes from Mates of State, Cat Power and many of your older favorites. Best part about the site isn’t even the music, it’s the great write ups on each of the bands and the labels. Good place to start if you want to know more about what was going on a decade ago.

Additional Information: iTunes Store on Wikipedia, Amazon MP3 on Wikipedia, eMusic on Wikipedia

First of all it didn’t have Steve Jobs. Steve bowed out of this years event. He says that he has a hormone imbalance which is causing his weight loss, so that might have had something to do with it, or it could have been that there just wasn’t anything good to announce. Phil filled in and apparently did a good job, but there just wasn’t much there. iLife and iWork were updated. Look to be good updates, but nothing mind blowing. Actually Google releasing Picasa for Mac seems to be a bigger announcement.

They announced their new 17″ Mac Book Pro. Looks like a really nice laptop, but it is way to large. The did away with user changeable batteries so that they could squeeze more room in there for extra power. Looks like that will be a big thing. Battery life moved up from 5hrs to 8hrs. Not a bad jump. They also have some new tech that will allow you to recharge more times during the life cycle. Looks like you will get 5 years out of it. That is really pretty much the limit to the useful life of a laptop anyway, so that shouldn’t be a problem. I am not so sure of the glossy lcd. They say there is an anti-glare coating that you can apply, but it is an extra $50. Not the best of options, but at least there is that option.

One More Thing what the announcement of DRM free iTunes songs. That is a welcome addition. I was just planning on writing about my switch to Amazon for mp3 purchases, but this might bring me back to Apple. They are better encoded and no longer have the protection on them. Along with that comes a new price structure. Old songs $.69, not popular songs $.99 and the hot hits move up to $1.29. I guess we always have to count on prices increasing, but I did like the one price fits all thing. I just hope it doesn’t become a one price fits all at the new higher prices. You can also purchase songs over the 3G network directly to your iPhone. I wish I had an iPhone. I miss it so much. Hopefully they will arrive her in Qatar in the next few months.

Maybe the best part was Tony Bennett coming on at the end and singing. Not a bad way to finish off the last of the apple attended Mac Worlds.

Additional Information: I usually watch the coverage unfold on the Mac Rumors site, but apparently they got hacked.