I think I've blogged this before, but while I was thinking about it, I'm constantly impressed with how slick the iTunes Music Store's format is. Sure, I can crack the AAC or m4p or whatever to allow it to play elsewhere without regard for DRM, but I haven't seen a "magic button app" that makes them all mp3, which, let's admit, is "the" format for listening to your stuff everywhere. We've got an mp3 player in the car, for example, that'll read a data disc, but when I burn my favorite tunes to a data disc from iTunes -- yep, nothing I downloaded from the iTMS plays.

So b/c I don't feel like another excruciating wrestling match with configure & make, Apple's got me right where they want me. If I had an iPod & the FM broadcast dongle, I wouldn't have to worry about this mess. If I used iTunes everywhere I listened to music, perfect. But as is, I find it easier not to listen to my iTMS music anywhere but on my Mac.

That's a little overstatement -- I have gone through the trouble to burn the whole CDs I've purchased, and then I usually rip those CDs to my other Mac rather than play the m4p files. Your heard correctly. I'd *rather* have mp3. Singles I've download remain singles for the most part, as I'd rather not burn to CD, rip, replace the ID3 info, etc, before having a useful mp3.

It's not all that much work to process the iTMS songs, but it's just enough that I'm not going to bother. This is, give or take, what I was talking about, heck, over a year and a half ago here. Don't go into making a license key 100% foolproof; you're wasting time getting the last 10% to register who probably wouldn't anyhow. Use that time to make your app better, appealing to a broader market, or making a new app altogether. Welp, I believe I've beaten that theme to death in this blog by now...

Anyhow, you likely get the point. Not the best writing on freakinname (nor the worst, I imagine) nor a very complete argument, but I think you get the point.