Connect store

[mjp_]

Is the Connect store worth using? I've seen a few bad reviews of it on the forum. I've never used a music download service before but was wondering what are the pros and cons of Connect?

[smkranz]

I have purchased music from the Connect store (very recently), but frankly I more often purchase from iTunes. Here are my general observations:

Without having anything to really base this on, I generally seem to find more things I'm looking for on iTunes than Connect.

For reasons which may have less to do with the store per se than general internet traffic issues, it just seems to me that the Connect store sometimes takes f-o-r-e-v-e-r to load, whereas iTunes seems much lighter on its toes.

If you put downloaded songs onto a minidisc player, you can just load them directly with Sonic Stage, whereas when I buy music from iTunes, I typically burn them to CD (for use in car or home stereo), then load to MD using Simple Burner.

The kiddies can put the iTunes downloaded music onto their iPods. They typically maintain what they consider to be a safe distance from my musical tastes, but they do agree that Bele Fleck's music is pretty darn good.

It is inexplicable that the last album I just bought yesterday (Bela Fleck) from iTunes ($10) was $12 from the Connect Store...and it's a SONY release to boot.