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It's right there in black and white:

The iTunes Music Store is included with iTunes 4 which ships with the iPod.

iTunes 4 is Mac only. I like the way that sounds: "Mac only."

How's it feel?
 
Originally posted by lazyn00b
Thanks for your suggestion! Sadly, buying a Mac is not an option for me unless I win the Powerball. Besides, it seems silly to buy a $2000 computer just so I can save money on music, no? A superior solution would be a web-based interface for iTMS so that any poor guy can buy songs for his iPod, don't you think?

You can buy an old CRT iMac with firewire for 400.00 on ebay
 
Do you have any friends who can access the iTunes music store for you, for now? Keep in mind that the iPod you own right now is better than any other MP3 player on the market, whether or not it has iTMS to saturate it. You'll get it in time. Like someone else said, Apple wants your money just as much as you want to give it.
If no one here seems impressed by your distress, it is because we, as Mac users, have become chillingly used to it.
 
@Marble: thank you for your suggestion, and this is exactly what I'm going to try to do. I found somebody with a new iBook who is willing to let me use it to buy songs. One thing that is not clear to me though - once I download my purchased songs to my iPod, will there be any way to back them up to my PC in case I have to reformat the iPod? I sent an email to Apple asking this question and have not yet received a reply.
 
Said it before and will sayit again - iTMS does not mean iTunes.

Apple just has to release a program that lets people buy from the iTMS and then put the files wherever they want on their computer. If they were smart they would also make it a mininmalistic AAC player (since MS is so openly supporting industry standards) and then they can have their iTMS and their AAC. No problems.

Better yet, keep using MusicMatch and just release an AAC plug-in. Less work and they keep iPod functionality.

It is possible with only one extra piece of software, an extra plug-in and an updated plug-in (MM -> iPod so as to recognise AAC files for transfer)
 
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