The Digital Jukebox: Downloading Is Looking Up

Apple chairman Steve Jobs just may have found the magic formula for getting people to pay for songs they download. Apple’s new iTunes Music Store is the first paid music service to eliminate monthly fees and let people burn songs to an unlimited number of CDs. You can even copy songs to the iPod portable music player. In the first 18 hours after the Music Store went live on April 28, buyers paid for an estimated 275,000 songs (for 99¢ a track or about $10 an album) according to Billboard magazine’s daily news service.

The Music Store’s slick, easy-to-navigate interface is a welcome relief after free but controversial file-sharing programs like Kazaa. Still, there’s room for improvement. Since Music Store works only on Macs (and then only on those with OS X), the other 97% of consumers who use PCs can’t try it until a Windows version, promised by year’s end, comes out. And the slender song library, lacking a single tune by Madonna or the Rolling Stones, needs beefing up too. –By Anita Hamilton

To read a review of the new iPod, visit time.com/gadget