iTunes Store

apps on iTunes
Screenshot by HowStuffWorks.com
If you own an iPod Touch or iPhone, you may want to check out the app store on iTunes.

At the iTunes Store, you can find millions of songs, 20,000 audiobooks, thousands of music videos, tens of thousands of podcasts, feature films, TV shows, iPod and iPhone applications, and CD album art. All you do to get to the store is click a button in the main iTunes screen. You're not going through a Web browser -- the jukebox software is the user interface for the store.

Apple has deals with record labels for iTunes-exclusive music tracks from select artists. In addition to pure content, there are community-type functions like user-published reviews, ratings and playlists, and then there is the pop-culture headshaker that is the "celebrity playlist." These are lists of songs (with a little "buy song" button next to each track) reportedly assembled by stars like Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Nelly Furtado and Larry the Cable Guy. In case you're curious, Julia Louis-Dreyfus leads off with Dusty Springfield's "Son of a Preacher Man."

Here's a breakdown of the store content areas and what you can do there:

  • ­
    ­Can I Put My Music on iTunes?­
    Submitting your music to iTunes is not a simple task. You don't just click a button like you do with a podcast. You need to be a company, first of all; you need a UPC code for your album and an ISRC code for each track on it; and you need to be passably good -- Apple reviews the submissions and chucks the bad stuff. See CNET: How to take part in iTunes Music Store's success to learn more.
    Music
    $0.69, $0.99 or $1.29 per song
    Wide price range for albums
    Browse by genre

  • Music videos
    $1.49 or $1.99 each
    Browse by music genre (first level) and artist (second level)

  • Audiobooks
    Wide price range
    Browse by category (first level) and author (second level)

  • TV shows
    $1.99 each or group rate for season
    Browse by title (first level) and season (second level)

  • Feature-length films
    $4.99 to $14.99 each
    Browse by category

  • Podcasts
    Most are free, variable prices on others
    Browse by category
    Download per episode or subscribe to series
    Submit your own podcast to appear in the iTunes podcast library

  • iPhone and iPod Applications
    Many are free, variable prices on others
    Browse by name, genre, price and best-selling

  • Movie Trailers
    Free (streaming format, not to download)
    Browse by movie studio or movie genre

­In addition to browsing each content area, you can also perfo­rm a search. There's a search box on the main store page where you just enter a keyword, and iTunes returns matching results from all areas of the store. You can also perform a "power search" by song, artist, album, genre or composer. If you enter "Adam Sandler" in the "artist" field and choose "comedy" as the genre, you'll get a list of all of Adam Sandler's songs and albums available on iTunes. If your mother has set up parental controls to limit your access to explicit content, you'll see a lot fewer results than we did.

The Gift of iTunes­
You can buy someone an iTunes Music Card (purchased at a retail store) or iTunes gift certificate (purchased through iTunes) for a certain dollar amount, or you can actually buy someone a specific piece of content. Your giftee will receive e-mail notification of the gift and instructions on how to "pick up" the file at the iTunes Store.

­To buy content, you need to set up an iTunes payment account. To set up an iTunes account, you provide a credit card number or PayPal account that you'll use for all of your purchases. You can also pay using an iTunes Allowance (sort of like a debit account, typically set up by parents for their kids) or by Music Card or gift certificate.

To make a purchase in the iTunes store, all you have to do is click the "Buy" button next to the song, video or app. Apple will charge your account and the download will begin. If you have to shut down your computer in the middle of your download, the process will continue once you reboot your computer and log into iTunes. It's important to create a backup of your iTunes library. Songs, videos and iPod games (not apps) can only be downloaded once per purchase. Apps are different -- once you purchase an app, you can download it again for free. You just have to use the same iTunes account as the one used to purchase the app the first time.