iTunes Music Store URLs

[MacRumors]

With iTunes 4.1, Apple has improved URL support for the iTunes Music Store.

As mentioned in the iTunes 4.1: What's New (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93141) knowledge base article, users may now "Drag a web page from the iTunes Music Store to a document or email".

Beyond this, Apple also allows users to get direct URLs to individual songs and albums by Right Clicking (or Control Clicking) on the iTunes Music Store songs. The "Copy iTunes Music URL" option now provides users with an easy method of obtaining the URL for individual songs.

Webmasters may also use Apple's new iTunes Link Maker (http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZSearch.woa/wa/itmsLinkMaker) which generates "intelligent" html code for iTunes links.

[MOFS]

Seems fairly minor - particuarly if you can't access the iMusic store yet:mad: :(

Even if you have the store what are the point of these "improvements"? To allow you to advertise the iMusic store for Apple?:confused:

[Analog Kid]

Originally posted by MOFS
Seems fairly minor - particuarly if you can't access the iMusic store yet:mad: :(

Even if you have the store what are the point of these "improvements"? To allow you to advertise the iMusic store for Apple?:confused:

edit: first post! yeh!

Exactly-- I send an email to a friend and say "Hey, this is the song I was telling you about [insert link]"

They can check the preview and/or buy the song.

Probably not much in the way of a user feature, but it makes sense to include and publicize.

[djdarlek]

Presumably the itunes Listener Loans will make this feature quite handy if/when it materialises.

[MightyB]

If only they start an affaliate program!!! :-D

[alset]

Personally, I find this extremely useful. I don't understand why so many people continue to look for something wrong with yesterday's rollout.

Dan

[tny]

This would make the most sense if Apple had an affiliate program to go with it.

[whooleytoo]

This is a very handy way of bookmarking artists you like but don't want to buy yet.

Mike.

[Rasmuskl]

Well i asked for this feature. I thought it would be great to have on artists pages. they could link directly to their page on itunes. Increase revenue :) and show that they are into the latest digital stuff

[DougAdams]

Gimme An iTMS Search String! (http://www.malcolmadams.com/itunes/scripts/scripts04.shtml#gimmeanitmssearchstring) is a free AppleScript that generates a search string URL based on tags from the selected track in iTunes. You can run it from iTunes Script Menu.

[dongmin]

What about a 'save-for-later' playlist that you can store on your iTunes?

Or buying mixes for other people? I.e. you can put together a playlist for a friend, buy it, designate it as a gift for someone, and then when they open up their itunes, they get a pop-up greeting card (with customizable art) and a playlist with these purchased songs. The modern day mix (except that you have to buy the individual songs).

[MOFS]

Originally posted by alset
Personally, I find this extremely useful. I don't understand why so many people continue to look for something wrong with yesterday's rollout.

Dan

What my point is is that I can't imagine that there are more computer users planning to download mp3s from iTunes from the USA than there are those who can't even buy from it! (ie us non-USAers). If you read my "location", I'm from England, which despite the fact that we speak English and £s to $s is fairly easy to convert (£1=$1.5), we ain't got iMusic store! What're all those iTunes users not from the states gonna do with these bookmarks and other added features? Put them all on the tunes we like until mid-2004, when by that time USAers will probably have movies sent by e-mail on request!

These are pointless upgrades for anyone who doesn't have a US postal address on their credit cards.

[xtekdiver]

Interesting, I was just wondering about this yesterday; could you provide links to iTunes Music Store pages on your site just like people do with Amazon? All we need now is a bonified web service that we can plug into and make it dynamic or even itegrate the store pages onto an exisiting site.

[electric]

Apple also allows users to get direct URLs to individual songs and albums by Right Clicking

With a non Apple mouse of course. <edit> Opps... Windows users, sorry but this is a touchy subject for me </edit>

[copperpipe]

This makes iTMS just that much more complete. Nobody can come close to offering what Apple is offering with iTMS. I love it! Just watch, Apple is going to take this market over, and it's great to see Apple caitalize on it's innovations for once!

[copperpipe]

We should all help by emailing all of our PC friends and letting them know they can take advantage of this awesome service now....

[Rasmuskl]

Unfortunately most of my pc friends are hopelessly Windows, even use WMP.
Also they would never pay for a music download.
What'cha gonna do?!

[arn]

Originally posted by electric
Apple also allows users to get direct URLs to individual songs and albums by Right Clicking

With a non Apple mouse of course. <edit> Opps... Windows users, sorry but this is a touchy subject for me </edit>

Most people seem to be using a 2 button mouse.

http://www.macpolls.com/?poll_id=278

arn

[nagromme]

This is nice to share your favorite music with people. If I had a personal/fun page, I'd link to songs an albums I enjoy and want to share.

I haven't tried the drag-and-drop route, but one way to get a simpler clickable link (to paste into an email or forum) is to just look in the second box at the Link Maker's last step, and copy the link that starts with itms://

This is great along with Gift Certificates: instead of just "sending money" you can make your gift more thoughtful: pick out music FOR the person, and send the links along with the certificate. They don't have to buy what you picked out, but it still makes an even nicer gift.

[Aeolius]

One visitor to the home page for my online D&D game, where I had used the Link Maker code, found the "iTunes Detector" to be a bit intrusive, so I nuked the code.

[Oats]

Is there any way to setup the iTunes music store within iTunes to connect through a proxy? So far I cannot get the service to work.

[jelloshotsrule]

Originally posted by MOFS

These are pointless upgrades for anyone who doesn't have a US postal address on their credit cards.

kinda like how it's pointless for you to keep bitching about it to a bunch of online forum members???

clearly apple is smart enough to realize this is a worldwide market. you think they're that stupid to just isolate the service that makes tons of money for a small % of the people just on their own? don't think that maybe, just maybe, some of those record labels and such are standing in the way? considering they've been standing in the way for years......

but you're right, apple does need to get this to the rest of the world.

[markayak]

The Link Maker also provides what I believe is the only way check if a song is in the ITMS catalog from a computer that does not or cannot have iTunes installed, albeit in an awkward and unintended way.

[X86BSD]

Originally posted by MOFS
What my point is is that I can't imagine that there are more computer users planning to download mp3s from iTunes from the USA than there are those who can't even buy from it! (ie us non-USAers). If you read my "location", I'm from England, which despite the fact that we speak English and £s to $s is fairly easy to convert (£1=$1.5), we ain't got iMusic store! What're all those iTunes users not from the states gonna do with these bookmarks and other added features? Put them all on the tunes we like until mid-2004, when by that time USAers will probably have movies sent by e-mail on request!

These are pointless upgrades for anyone who doesn't have a US postal address on their credit cards.

I *really* feel your pain. I truly do. But again I must point out this is NOT Apple's desire or fault. Apple *wants* to get it rolled out to the EU. If you want to attack someone, go bitch, scream, fire bomb the record labels, and IP lawyers, who have convoluted the whole process of getting the legal OK to distribute music legally online to the point of having to cut so much red tape it is almost impossible.

Seriously write your spineless government officials and demand they do (C), IP, reform. It is *totally* out of control.

[fpnc]

The copy says, "Drag a web page from the iTunes Music Store to a document or email."

However, all I can generate is a link to the web page (I guess that is all they intended to provide). And the only way a "drag" works is if I start on an object that has an imbedded link, if you just try to grab any part of the page or just text nothing happens. I guess I was hoping for a way to gain offline access to the new liner notes and artist biography information. But it appears that all you can do is link back to the page which then takes you to the internet via iTunes. I wanted to save something that would work offline and be local to my hard disk (ideally, just producing a complete download of the page, with graphics, text, and active links). While the latter behavior might not be typical of the web I was hoping that Apple had worked some magic to allow you to create offline copies of the non-music content. Even a "Save as..." or print to PDF would be nice.

Also, it would be great if you got the new liner notes when you purchased a song. They should just show up under the iTunes song info pane.

I'm using the latest iTunes 4.1 under Mac OS X v10.2.8.

[uocooper]

This is what happens when using Safari 1.1 v100. After reaching the page that provides you the code that you can copy and paste in to your own web page, there is a lego block icon with a question mark on it at the top left of the page. If I copy and paste the iTunes detector code to my own web page, it also has the lego icon. Internet Explorer appears just fine as does Mozilla and Omniweb. Are there any code jockies who can tell me what's going on and if there is a way to fix the code that Apple provides for the iTunes detection code? Is this a bug in Safari 1.1 v100? Safari does this on all web pages that have the Object id tag in them.

[ogravdal]

Originally posted by X86BSD
I *really* feel your pain. I truly do. But again I must point out this is NOT Apple's desire or fault. Apple *wants* to get it rolled out to the EU

If it was only iTMS would agree with you, but it's not. Also iPhoto and Sherlock offer features that are useless for us outside the States. Probably it is not Apple's desire or fault, but I really hope they will get more agressive also in their international markets. I like the way Apple tries to "change the world", but they should do it not only in the States. The world is so much bigger...

[Phil Of Mac]

Originally posted by MOFS
What my point is is that I can't imagine that there are more computer users planning to download mp3s from iTunes from the USA than there are those who can't even buy from it! (ie us non-USAers). If you read my "location", I'm from England, which despite the fact that we speak English and £s to $s is fairly easy to convert (£1=$1.5), we ain't got iMusic store! What're all those iTunes users not from the states gonna do with these bookmarks and other added features? Put them all on the tunes we like until mid-2004, when by that time USAers will probably have movies sent by e-mail on request!

These are pointless upgrades for anyone who doesn't have a US postal address on their credit cards.

Was that really necessary? I suppose you could go on a tangent from any forum topic to complain about Apple's poor service overseas, but for God's sake, we've already read it over and over again! If you need to complain that badly, complain to Apple, the EU, Tony Blair, your local equivalent of the RIAA, and Mick Jagger himself, because unlike us, they can actually do something about it.

[JGowan]

Originally posted by alset
Personally, I find this extremely useful. I don't understand why so many people continue to look for something wrong with yesterday's rollout.

Dan Why, Dan? Well, because most people are A-holes and are constantly looking for something to ***** on. Of course, you've got your PC troll are out to crap on every Apple innovation possible just to feel better about what they're using. It's totally sad to see one company try so hard to create and innovate and for people, lounging around in their underwear at La Casa dé Slobbo and p!ss & moan about everything.

[dfa4]

Originally posted by uocooper
This is what happens when using Safari 1.1 v100. After reaching the page that provides you the code that you can copy and paste in to your own web page, there is a lego block icon with a question mark on it at the top left of the page. If I copy and paste the iTunes detector code to my own web page, it also has the lego icon. Internet Explorer appears just fine as does Mozilla and Omniweb. Are there any code jockies who can tell me what's going on and if there is a way to fix the code that Apple provides for the iTunes detection code? Is this a bug in Safari 1.1 v100? Safari does this on all web pages that have the Object id tag in them.

I already sent this to Apple. Here is an edit of the code; it merely requires adding height and width properties to the object tag:
"</script><Object classid="CLSID:D719897A-B07A-4C0C-AEA9-9B663A28DFCB" codebase="http://ax.phobos.apple.com.edgesuite.net/detection/ITDetector.cab" width="1" height="1" id="iTunesDetector">
</Object>

<Script language="Javascript" type="Text/Javascript" src="http://ax.phobos.apple.com.edgesuite.net/detection/itmsCheck.js"></Script>"

[uocooper]

You rock! I just tested your code and it works exactly as it should. Hopefully Apple gets this taken care of ASAP. Thanks.

Originally posted by dfa4
I already sent this to Apple. Here is an edit of the code; it merely requires adding height and width properties to the object tag:
"</script><Object classid="CLSID:D719897A-B07A-4C0C-AEA9-9B663A28DFCB" codebase="http://ax.phobos.apple.com.edgesuite.net/detection/ITDetector.cab" width="1" height="1" id="iTunesDetector">
</Object>

<Script language="Javascript" type="Text/Javascript" src="http://ax.phobos.apple.com.edgesuite.net/detection/itmsCheck.js"></Script>"

[u2fan00]

I hope they don't bring any affiliation programs. Being affiliated with artists...I think that having any more money going to someone else would destory the idea of the iTMS. The bands my company represents get 91% of revenues off iTMS. If they start an affiliate program...there goes our margins :)