This is hi-larious. Great use of the motion sensor, though you’ll only catch me beating my MBP when frustrated, but I’m not the boss of you, so go right ahead and abuse your MBP, I don’t care.

Karen, my oh-so-wonderful sister-in-law, has access to tickets to the Yankees-Nationals game
on Father’s day. I had forgotten to check if my Yankees are playing in D.C. this year and by the time I found out, I assumed that they were sold out. Now, it turns out, I’ll be going to the game on Father’s Day. Woot! (To show what a good son I am, I’ll think about my Yankee-loving father while I’m at the game. It’s only right, you know.  Maybe I’ll send him a snapshot.)

A couple days ago, I found this Ars article on eMusic. I had seen their ads recently, but wrote them off as just another DRM-laden peddler. Turns out I was wrong. They offer DRM-free tunes from many different indie lables. While they don’t have many (any?) acts from major labels, they have a very deep and wide catalog: the long tail. A lot of jazz, classical, world, and root music too.
They offer a 25-song free trial. I was a bit annoyed by having to sign up for an account before getting this, but it makes sense as a method to avoid abuse. I signed up for their lowest-level account: $9.99/mo for 40 songs/mo. After I download my 25 songs, they gave me the chance to drop out or continue. I think there’s also a 14 day limit, but little over 24 hours after I signed up, I’ve used up my free songs and mostly used up my 40 songs for the month. (You can get “booster packs” to suppliment your monthly allotment.)

This could be what I’ve been looking for for quite a while. It’s easy to use (4 out of 5 stars), integrates decently with iTunes (2.5/5), has a pretty good catalog (3/5), and the price seems reasonable ($0.25/song and less — 4/5). I think I could spend a lot of time here (like with the iTunes Music Store, before I swore off DRM) and get a lot of music (unlike the ITMS, where tracks are $0.99/ea).

If you’re at all interested in signing up, please drop me a note either via email or in the comments and I’ll send you an invite. For every person who signs up through me, I get 50 free songs.