Okay, folks, no BuyMusic.com-bashing today; our therapist says we're forming an unhealthy obsession with the faults of Scott Blum's online music service, and that we could grow as self-actualized beings in control of our own emotional health by saying something good about it for once. So we wracked our brains about it all night, trying really hard to come up with something positive to say, some compliment for the service just to prove to ourselves and to the world at large that we're open-minded people who aren't at all obsessed about torpedoing this particular music download business just because it happens to suc... ...CESSfully avoid being great. (Ha! Now that's a SAVE, baby! Hey shrink, are ya watching?) So we were up all night, and it kind of hurt, but we think we've finally got something good and positive to say. Ready?

It's not run by Hitler's brain.

Pretty good, right? And catchy, too. In fact, it's good enough that we've decided to offer it to Scott Blum to use as an official slogan for his service: "BuyMusic.com is not run by Hitler's brain." That ought to turn the tide of public opinion in his favor and keep him from the lynch mob for another 48 hours. So there it is: our therapy homework for the week, a nice big dose of positivity towards the iTunes Music Store's unrepentant imitator and simultaneous detractor. BuyMusic.com is not run by Hitler's brain.

At least, as far as we know.

Meanwhile, others seem to be having no trouble whatsoever coming up with good things to say about the iTMS-- even if they're just looking at numbers on a page. Take, for example, the NPD Group, a marketing research firm who has in the past educated us all with reports both insightful ("NPD Reports Increasing Awareness Of Upcoming Harry Potter Movie As Release Draws Near"-- ooooo!) and hard-hitting ("The NPD Group Reports French Fries Are the Real Losers in the Fast Food Industry"). No, seriously-- we assure you that NPD is a legitimate and well-respected marketing research firm, despite the fact that it earnestly invites people to contact them "for more information on what's really happening in the world of fries" and continues to insist that one of its vice presidents is actually named "Harry Balzer."

So NPD took a break from its FryWatch to conduct a poll of over 13,000 consumers last June, and discovered some really nifty stuff about the iTMS. It turns out that 20% of all consumers age 13 and up had heard about Apple's 99 cent-per-song download service only two months after its launch, compared to 14% who had heard about subscription-based rivals Pressplay and Rhapsody, both of which had been around for more than a year. Better yet, among Apple's target market of Mac-using consumers, the iTMS had an astounding 46% awareness rate-- and 6% have actually purchased and downloaded some music. Meanwhile, despite the fact that Pressplay and Rhapsody have been targeting the ninety-whatever percent of the computing population that uses Windows instead of Macs, "less than one percent" of all consumers reported having actually downloaded music from either service, and "future usage intent was not any higher."

Good news, right? Although the comparison of the iTMS's numbers to those of Rhapsody and Pressplay isn't nearly as exciting as it could be; perhaps we'll see a followup poll in a few months that can give us a better sense of how the iTMS is doing against a service with a very (cough) similar pricing and availability structure, like say, oh, how about BuyMusic.com? Now that should be a horse race, especially what with BuyMusic's $40 million marketing blitz. In fact, we sincerely believe that BuyMusic has a shot at being more popular than the iTMS. Provided they use our slogan, of course. And if they don't use it, well... just what does that imply about the brain behind the operation?