Gift Music
Category: Music...
Posted Monday, November 06, 2006 at 09:43 PM [GMT-6]

After reading a gushing review of Marcia Ball's music over at Gwynne's joint, I decided to take a look at the iTunes Store and see what it had to offer. I discovered two things. First, I was familiar with Ms. Ball's music, even though I didn't know it. I immediately recognized her distinctive voice, and so I thumbed through my iPod and sure enough, her rendition of Eugene is in a blues/zydeco compilation entitled Out of the Blue. I'm not crazy about that particular song, but listening to the samples from Ball's Live! Down The Road album highlighted some tracks I'd like to add to my library.

That segues into the second thing I learned, which is that the iTunes Store now has an option to send a song, an album, or a playlist as a gift to someone else. Perhaps this option has been around for a long time, but I just noticed it, and aside from the really annoying way that Apple displays the option ("Gift This Music") I think this is an excellent idea. The only problem is that not everyone has access to the iTunes Store. Wouldn't it be nice to know in advance if this kind of gift was possible?

I've come up with one possible solution, at least as far as bloggers are concerned. Please meet the newest member of the button family, "iTake iTunes." By displaying this chiclet on your blog or personal website, you tell the world that you're not only cool enough to have access to the iTunes Store, but also greedy needy willing to accept the gift of music from anyone so inclined to buy it for you.

If you think this is a good idea -- and, really, who wouldn't? I mean, it could lead to free music, and if the downside is that it might be by Brad Paisley, well, life's a risk, isn't it? -- feel free to download the little image and post it on your site, and sit back and wait for the tunes to roll in.

[By the way, the concept of creating a custom playlist and giving it to someone else raises a lot of interesting scenarios...like, what songs would you include on a playlist for your ex-whatever? Or for your least favorite boss? Or for Howard Dean? Or for that North Korean lunatic-for-life?]