I just wrote a longish post on how the Apple iTunes music store sucks, and blogger seems to have dropped it in the bit bucket, so here are a few points without a lot of elaboration.

1. Spotty selection. I mean really spotty. Looked up the Clash, or 14 albums, only 2 were available in their entirety. Looked at London Calling, an album originally released as a two album set at a nice price; an album listed at #8 on Rolling Stone’s top 500 albums of all time. Only two songs were available.

2. No way to browse or search by Label. Labels used to matter, think Motown, Atlantic, or more recently (but not too recently) IRS, fuckin’ SST, Two Tone. It is in Apple’s interest that labels matter again, that new labels emerge, based around an on-line distribution model like iTMS, that gives Apple a decent cut. Instead, Apple give’s labels the scantest visibility.

3. No wishlist. Until you sign up for the service, you can’t set aside songs you might want to buy, and yet people might be reluctant to go to the trouble of signing up for the service unless they have enough songs they want to buy to make it worth while. Apple should make it easy for them. Apple should also make it easy for teens (and everyone else) to publish a list of tracks they want and enable their friends to buy it for them. This giving of small gifts holds groups togeather, especially groups of geographically disprersed teens who keep in touch through blogs, chat rooms and instant messages (ie the vanguards of digital consumptions). Apple should become entwined in their culturee. Instead, they have the cool, but very paternal “allowance” concept.

More to come, I’m sure.