[kman42]

How cool would it be if Apple integrated iTunes and iChat. Imagine chatting with a friend and being able to stream a song to them. A link to the song would appear in their chat window which would take them to the appropriate page at the iTMS for purchasing the song, album, etc. MSN chat lets you share music with a small group, right? Well, Apple could one-up them by integrating iChat seamlessly with iTunes just like they did with the rest of iLife.

I think the linking for the iTMS is already present as you can link to songs from a browser, right? And we know that iTunes can stream music. I doubt the RIAA would have a problem with this if Apple limited it to one song a time that included the link to purchase the music in the chat window. One song at a time would make it sufficiently difficult to prevent people from mass-copying stuff as there are still easier ways and the presence of the 'purchase link' would make it even more palatable to the RIAA.

Anyway, I think it's a cool idea and will be sending feedback about it shortly unless anyone has anything interesting to add.

kman

[johnpg]

I wouldn't be surprised if they had this in mind, but decided not to do it after the whole internet sharing fiasco came about.

It's a shame, it would be a very cool feature.

John

[Nebrie]

The presence of a cash register hasn't stopped people from shoplifting, thus, along with the itunes sharing fiasco, there is no way the RIAA would ever approve of this.

[kman42]

Originally posted by Nebrie:
The presence of a cash register hasn't stopped people from shoplifting, thus, along with the itunes sharing fiasco, there is no way the RIAA would ever approve of this.

Could you be a bit more detailed in your rebuffing of the idea?

I see some major differences between this idea and the 'streaming fiasco':

1) This would require both participants to be present. The streamer would have to initiate the stream, as in "Hey, take a listen to this song" [drag file onto Buddy's name and be prompted with "This is an audio file, would you like to stream it or transfer the file?"]. The 'streaming fiasco' was really designed for owners to have unlimited access to their own music, i.e. you could start a stream remotely and you could just let a playlist run. Using iChat to let your friend sample a song would be simple enough for this purpose, but difficult enough that no one would want to sit there and play an album in this fashion. It wouldn't be a practical way to SHARE music, but to sample it.

2) People can already use iChat to transfer files, so this isn't simplifying the transfer of unprotected MP3s in anyway, unlike the 'streaming fiasco'.

3) This integration would in no way allow for theft of copyright unless the recipient went to the trouble of running stream ripping software, but even then they would only be able to capture one song at a time with a loss of data and there are much easier (and higher quality) ways to go about it if your desire is stealing it to begin with. The presence of the cash-register is, therefore, not a deterrent to theft (as you suggested), but an OPPORTUNITY for easily sampling and then purchasing a song.

I grant you that the RIAA may have some knee-jerk reaction to something like this, but if you actually think about it for a minute there really isn't anything for them to be upset about. It's really a win-win situation for them. It's analogous to me listening to a song over at your house and then buying it.

kman

Sorry, didn't mean to misquote you. I should have written 'sharing fiasco' instead of 'streaming fiasco', but we all know we I was referring to.

[johnpg]

I for one agree. The argument that you could easily transfer the actual MP3 via iChat is a good one. Being able to open a stream wouldn't be nearly as bad.

I still stick to what I said earlier that I bet Apple had planned to offer this feature, but changed their minds. It makes perfect sense.

John

[blackbird_1.0]

I wouldn't be surprised if a shareware/freeware developer made a solution for this

[SomeToast]

Originally posted by kman42:
[drag file onto Buddy's name and be prompted with "This is an audio file, would you like to stream it or transfer the file?"]

It's that "or transfer the file?" part where the red flags start to get thrown about.

If iTunes could downsample the song on the fly, the service would be far more practical from a bandwidth standpoint. Plus, it would make it less enticing to use for piracy -- who wants a 56K mono version of a song to be their "golden master?"

Not like I've been wanting this for years or anything.

[ApeInTheShell]

wouldn't it be easier if you were playing itunes in the background and the person on the other side could hear it?

pc users would have to wait for iTMS and the video support anyway so they wouldn't be able to copy the music, thus the sample.

mac users could use rendevous to trade files but not copy them.

ruff

[kman42]

Originally posted by SomeToast:
It's that "or transfer the file?" part where the red flags start to get thrown about.

But you can transfer files right now by dragging them to your Buddy's name! There is no added incentive for piracy here. And if the file was purchased from the iTMS, your friend can't use it anyway.

If iTunes could downsample the song on the fly, the service would be far more practical from a bandwidth standpoint. Plus, it would make it less enticing to use for piracy -- who wants a 56K mono version of a song to be their "golden master?"

While I think it's a good idea for iChat to use the most appropriate sample rate for the connection speed, I don't think it is necessary to downsample the song to prevent piracy, since any self-respecting pirate who was knowledgeable enough to get stream ripping software would just download the song from a P2P network and get the highest quality possible.

kman