Making an ITMS "Wish List"
Category: Apple/Mac OS...
Posted Monday, August 01, 2005 at 10:00 PM [GMT-6]

I love the iTunes Music Store (ITMS), but there's a lot about it I don't understand. Some things are just annoying, like Apple's decision to give us only 30 seconds to preview a song. Would it have killed them to double that, to a full 60 seconds?

But other things are just mysterious because they're undocumented, or I haven't taken the time to figure them out. If you're in that same boat, perhaps this newly-learned tip will be useful to you, as well.

If you spend much time following links through ITMS, you might find that you're identifying a lot of music that you might be interested in purchasing later on, but you've found no good way to keep track of it for future reference. Here's a great solution. Simply create a new playlist in iTunes (I named mine "Wishlist"). Then when you hear something that intrigues you in ITMS, drag the song name onto the playlist you just created. That's it. When you open the playlist, you'll see all the song samples you selected, and you'll even have the little arrows that allow you to see the other songs on the album, and other albums by the artist. And, of course, you'll have the all-important "Buy Song" button.

And, in anticipation of the logical question, the song samples do not update to your iPod.

Tip o'the earbuds to Macworld's Editor's Notes weblog for this tidbit. This entry also recognizes that you can use the ITMS Shopping Cart feature to achieve similar results, but not everyone is comfortable leaving merchandise in a shopping cart for extended periods.

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Comments

Though the ITMS world is foreign to me since I don't own an I-Pod (I'll pause here for the shock to pass....) and I also haven't entered the world of online single song purchases at this time, reading about your "wishlist" made me wonder if one has the capability of publishing one's "wishlist" to, say, one's blog? Much as lots of blogs (including my own) feature links to wishlists at certain monolithic web commerce site(s).

Posted by: Jim at August 2, 2005 06:31 AM

Good question, Jim. AFAIK, there's no such capability, although that statement practically guarantees that it does exist and I'm simply ignorant. There is a method by which one can publish a realtime "What's Playing Now" blurb on one's blog, so I'm sure that capability could be extended to include the content of a wishlist.

Are you aware, by the way, that you don't have to own an iPod to use the ITMS? iTunes functions perfectly well on a computer without having an iPod, although some might question the purpose. However, with the advent of excellent 5.1 stereo speaker systems for computers and the ability to wirelessly stream music (via Apple's Airport Express) to one's home stereo, there is much to recommend iTunes even for those who don't (yet) own iPods. The downside is that all music purchased from ITMS is in protected AAC format, which works only on iPods and thus it must be converted to MP3 for use on other players.

Posted by: Eric at August 2, 2005 06:47 AM

I knew (or simply assumed) that it was possible to download ITMS content to my notebook. I didn't know about the AAC format though. That's too bad.

Someday, I'll probably break down and join the crowd, though I'm not too sure about IPod ownership. I don't have anything against it, I kind of like it in fact, but at that size it becomes just another thing to lose, YKWIM?

Posted by: Jim at August 2, 2005 08:09 AM

...but at that size it becomes just another thing to lose, YKWIM?

Well, I suppose you could fabricate some kind of enclosure that would require you to tote it around in a wheelbarrow, as a kind of reverse-miniaturization statement. ;-)

The day can't be too far off when surgically attached or implanted 'pods will be available.

Posted by: Eric at August 2, 2005 08:17 AM

Great tip ... I have been using ITMS for months and months now and hadn't even thought about the possibility of dragging them into a playlist. And ... I just bought an ipod yesterday.

Posted by: The Parson at August 2, 2005 07:41 PM

Paul, congrats on the new iPod...it's always fun to get a new member of the family, isn't it? ;-)

Posted by: Eric at August 2, 2005 09:16 PM
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