Apple’s Music Service

I started checking out Apple’s new iTunes and the online music service.. So far I’m pretty darn impressed. The thirty second ‘live preview’ gives a good idea of the song, and the price point of 99 cents a song seems quite reasonable. I bought three songs and had them downloaded and playing in under a minute.

I’m sure a slower connection would be torture, but they reccomend DSL or cable when you click on it, so it’s not like they didn’t warn people…

The first thing I tried was a search for additional versions of the Johnny Cash classic ‘Ring of Fire’… I got three that I hadn’t heard before, which was something of a surprise. I collect renditions of that song. The collection dates from back when I was a WCBN DJ and I discovered about a dozen covers of the tune in the station library.

The first one was by a deep voiced country singer named Earl Scruggs. The instrumentation is fairly standard, with banjo, fiddle and guitar. The drum and bass line are set to a much more rock-and-roll rhythm than the original though, and it’s nicely innovative without going too wild.

The second one was by 80’s big-hair songstress Olivia Newton John. For some reason it has a heavy harmonica component which almost, but not quite, masks her light voice at times. The twangy guitar is another welcome distraction, but it’s kind of painful to listen to. I bought it anyway.

The third one I knew I had to buy, even before I listened to it. It’s by Grace Jones. She’s actually pretty good. She’s got a deep voice and a strange accent, but the musical arrangement is a sort of Reggae-rock interpretation, so it all works.

I’ve added them to the iTunes playlist along with the other 16 versions… And what’s really cool is that with the new version of iTunes, I can set up a quick streaming server and specify that playlist as the only one that I want to share. It’s almost like being a DJ again, but without having to get up at two in the morning.