@heagy.com

The Canadian iTunes Music Store is finally here. I was online when it opened at around 11pm Wednesday and snagged a few songs right away. Then I bought the gf a gift certificate. She's already put it to good use.

I think the store is a big deal for several reasons.

First, it's cheap. I have friends that will pay $16 or more for an album with only three good songs. On the iTunes Music Store those three songs are only $3. Even the entire album is only $10. CDs with just one or two good songs that weren't persuasive enough for a purchase before will get more sales. As a music consumer, that's great. The big labels might be scared, however (more on that in a moment).

Songs are just $1 each. Songs at the US store are also $1, USD. That means that the Canadian songs are cheaper, for now. Makes you wonder if the industry's claims about the costs of music are true. Try heading over to a european iTunes store and you'll notice the songs cost about $1.50 with exchange. I've been to Europe and the price of regular CDs in brick-and-mortar stores are equally inflated. Really makes you wonder.

Speaking of checking out the other localizations of the iTunes Music Store, that ability is one of the store's best features. Ever wonder what 80s throw-back band is currently hot in Germany? It's easy, there's a link to all the stores right on the iTunes homepage. This is big, especially for musicians like me. I can get my latest EP on the Canadian store and people around the world might discover it. Then they ask their local iTunes to carry it. Sure, it's still no competition for the million-dollar ad campaigns for Britney's latest but it's certainly a start. Look at what similar abilities on the old mp3.com did for me: one lousy song netted me $1400 in just four weeks. That's powerful.

So imagine that I'm a musician finding some minor success with iTunes. Since a single song once-in-a-while is enough to keep my fans happy I suddenly don't have to slave over a twelve song album every two years. And remember those $16 CDs? They're mostly filler anyways, and now they're totally unnecessary. Even the super stars could release four song EPs every year instead of the inflated crap we're currently forced to swallow.

This is where the big record labels I mentioned earlier get scared. They realise that $16 has suddenly become just $4. Well, I'm the kind of person who is never going to buy Justin Timberlake's full CD. But if a sweet tall girl shows up at my place looking for something she likes I'll spend $1 to make her happy, no question. It's just basic math: $16 times quite a few equals quite a bit but $1 times a lot equals more. Then multiply that by all the smaller bands the labels own but don't bother to promote and you've got a damn fortune. (You'll notice this is the same kind of math the labels already use to claim file sharing costs them money).

But what if the labels do make less money? Smaller musicians like me can find their audience; good songs are no longer diluted with filler; and music prices are more reasonable. That sounds much better than the broken-down, decades old system we have now. So it's hard on some millionaire record executives whose only talent is exploiting the people with actual talent. They can't buy that CXT anymore? Cry me a river.