Yeah I hear you, no Itunes purchases for me either
"Deep down Louisiana close to New Orleans
Way back up in the woods among the evergreens
There stood a log cabin made of earth and wood
Where lived a country boy named Johnny B. Goode
Who never ever learned to read or write so well
But he could play the guitar just like a ringing a
bell"umgd

I always go there to at least take a listen to everyone because I want to hear their voices recorded, even if it is just a little snippet of the song. I thought I would by Anoop's Always on My Mind, but I changed my mind after listening to the sample.

I have purchased Human Nature and So Small by Matt Giraud and have not been disappointed. I wish his piano playing was featured more on the songs though - you can barely hear it if at all on the recordings. I also bought Carrie's Home Sweet Home and her duet with Randy Travis.

Last year, I bought all of the David Cook songs (no surprise there), some Jason Castro, Michael Johns, one Carly Smithson, and one Brooke White.

I haven't purchased any Danny yet because I'm not a big fan of the songs he has sung so far.

Thank you, Agman

LAST EDITED ON 03-29-09 AT 07:53 PM (EST)

If you are an Allison fan, well... even if you aren't, you should rush right out and buy her "Papa Was a Rolling Stone". WOW! I can't stop listening to it.

ETA: very disappointed with what the did to Adam's. HIS version of the song was better. The original recording is on itunes and not as good, IMO. Did I just say that?

I haven't listened to any of the itunes yet; I read that the studio recordings were to the original Motown tracks and not their individual takes on the music, especially Adam and Kris who changed up their songs quite a bit. So Allison's held up using the original music but the guys didn't?

I bought Matt's and Allison's and I like them both. I thought Allison's recorded performance was BETTER than the live version. I didn't care for Kris or Danny on itunes but liked both of the live versions. And I already commented on Adam.

LAST EDITED ON 03-29-09 AT 10:00 PM (EST)

If you have a video ipod, you can buy the video of the performance for $1.50. Then just slap it in your playlist where ever you want it. It plays just the same. I haven't tried to rip it to a CD yet, so I don't know if that works or not. I would think you could use itunes to make a copy without the video on your desktop and then pull it back into your itunes as just the sound. Just suggestions, because I agree, Adam's studio recordings are wildly different than his live performances. I'm sure Itunes is thrilled at the prospect of people buying both versions.

oooh. Good idea! I should have read all the comments before I posted. Thank you!

I don't have a video iPod. do you have to have one in order to purchase a video? Thanks for the tip!

No, you don't have to have a video device to purchase the video, but your device may need to support video in order to upload the file as-is. I waited very, very patiently for the iphone to come out, so I've never had a device that wasn't video capable. That's why I mentioned using itunes to copy the sound file onto your desktop and then reimporting it to itunes, similar to how you might make your own ringtones, if you're into such things. YMMV.

Ok, after actually playing around with this for awhile, Itunes does NOT allow you the same liberties with the m4v (video) files that it does with m4a (just the song) files. If the file is already m4a, you can right click and one of the options is "Create ACC version." This creates a copy of the file, which you then drag out to your desktop. When you right click on m4v files, that option doesn't exist. Instead, it says "create Apple TV version" but the AI files are already formatted that way. I even tried changing the length to create a new copy, but no dice. There must be an extra layer of copyrighting that happens with video. What you can do is see if your player can read m4v files, or you can look into a conversion software. There are some free programs out there, but I don't know what happens to your original file. Make sure what ever program you choose can convert m4v to m4a files. Sorry for the confusion.

LAST EDITED ON 03-30-09 AT 07:47 PM (EST)

If your computer has a CD burner, you can create a playlist for your videos, and burn the playlist to a CD. This automatically converts them to m4a on the CD. Then you put the disc back in and import the file back into itunes. This worked on my mac laptop w/ itunes version 8.0.2.

Thank you!

You're very welcome. Thank you for actually reading that mess. I've been meaning to figure that out for a few weeks now so I can make my own ringtones with the performance versions.

You're awesome for explaining all of that. Thank you!

LAST EDITED ON 03-30-09 AT 11:42 AM (EST)

Special note to TIIC:

I would have bought Kris Allen's version of "How Sweet It Is" and Adam's "Tracks of My Tears". Instead, you have them singing to the original backing. You did this to all of the songs for "Motown Week". I really can't understand why you would do that. If I wanted either of these songs in their original form... you know what? It's not worth my thinking power anymore. But I will thank you for not doing this to "Ring of Fire".

ETA: Thank you, mtb002!

I'm guessing it has to with $$-- more Motown people get paid using the original tracks than with the changed up tracks, perhaps? Probably an agreement with Berry Gordy in regards to doing Motown week in general? Just trying to find the motivation.

Not yet. Nothing has jumped out at me.

I bought a lot of David Cook's and Michael Johns' music last year.

This is so much better than he was on the show:

Matt's studio performance:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWHKjliagA

I agree that Matt's studio performance was much better than his live performance of this song. I bought it and it rocks. Danny's is really good too (studio better than live for me). On the flip side, I really liked Kris's live version but wasn't too crazy about the studio....

Thank you, Agman

Here's a link to you tube where someone has posted all of the top 9 studio performances:

http://www.youtube.com/user/formerlyrusselites

I can imagine some of these on the radio today!

I just bought Adam's Born to be Wild - it's different than the live version - more pop-like than hard rock. It's still way good - so fun!

I also bought Anoop's Everything I do... it's nice! Gave me goosebumps on that high note. He definitely does the ballads well.