Canadian iTunes Music Store

The Canadian iTunes Music Store launched this past week. I signed up and bought a single track (an iTunes exclusive from the Tragically Hip) to test the waters but shortly found myself buying two more albums.. It’s just a fantastic way to buy music.

Only two complaints. First, the catalogue is quite limited, but I think that’s “normal” when they first bring up a new store. We’ll see over the next month or two how quickly it expands. Secondly, I wish there was an option to download 160Kbps files instead of the standard 128Kbps.. The 128Kbps AAC files don’t sound bad, but I know from ripping my own CD collection that the jump to 160Kbps really does makes a noticable difference — maybe not through my iPod buds, but through my Airport Express hooked up to my hi-fi stereo the imperfections in 128Kbp AAC are noticable and distracting.

So until the quality is improved I won’t be buying any “critical listening” music from the iTMS (which basically means I’ll continue to buy my jazz on CD) but I will happily pay for a pop or rock track here and there!