Is it time to "think different" on the future direction of Apple. I speculate on the possibilities of Apple starting to sell to Windows users.

No irrelevant advertising.Very fast.Integration with iTunes that doesn't feel like an awkward addition to the program. Which I guess stems from the first two.Optional ?Shopping Cart? buying system, as opposed to the 1-Click shopping, for us icky modem users.Extensive purchase history.Ability to hide the store.

Right on to those too. There's a lot to like about the ITMS.

To expand on Erik's list a few more things it gets right are:

No irrelevant advertising.
Very fast.
Iintegra...

More insightful articles on the Apple Music Store...

Erik J. Barzeski lists "the 'little things' the iTunes Music Store does right".

"The iTunes Music Store sucks, because they don't carry all of the obscure music that I listen to because I am better than you, and have more taste, because I like music from very rare bands who are part of teeny-tiny independant labels!"

Hey, jackass, guess what? You a completely missing the point here. Apple managed to convince all five of the major record labels to put music on their service. This means that some nintey percent of the music you have ever heard will at some point find its way into the store. This is a rollout version of the store, and it hasn't even had time to put in all of the music from the major labels. Once it has, Apple has already stated that independant labels have been contacting them. Be patient, reasonable, and appreciate this thing for what it is -- an amazing initial release and a hint of a bright future.

Another comment I am already sick of:

"The iTunes Music Store sucks, because the songs are encoded in AAC, not , and is protected by evil DRM that is infringing on my personal rights! Apple is out to get me!"

First off, you are a jackass too. Shut your mouth, and stop missing the point. I know that you feel that Ogg Vorbis is the second coming of the messiah, but for the love of pete man, its only an encoding method. AAC sounds great, is as small as MP3 if not smaller, and if you are really pretentious enough to think that you are going to be traumatized by 0.1% inferior audio quality, then take your $0.99, invest it at high return, and buy yourself a digitally re-mastered gold edition CD single for $5.00 in about 15 years.

Oh, and as far as DRM goes, you need to remember something. Your paranoia means nothing to Apple or to record labels. Nothing. You have probably been stealing music for a few years now, burning it to CD, and sharing it with your friends. You have been able to break the law for years without getting caught, and if you are willing to spend hours and hours searching and downloading from Gnutella/KaZzA/Limewire, then you go for it. I for one am excited that I can save time and money through the iTunes Music Store. Plus, the DRM still allows me to do everything that I want to within reason, and doesn't infringe on my fair use rights.

Both of those guys can just kiss my ass. Sorry for the rant, but you really struck a chord!