Thanks, Apple

Earlier today, a friend of mine showed me some amazing new additions to the iTunes Music Store on iTunes, the wonderful and free Apple music app for Mac and PC. If you haven't downloaded iTunes, I strongly recommend it. iTunes is a wonderful way to store your digital music and the companion to the iPod, which, if you don't own one already, you probably will and should. It's that good.

There's tons of great music on the iTunes Music Store (ITMS), which is part of iTunes. And the list keeps growing in terms of breadth and depth. But what really knocked me out was the addition of something completely free: public domain documents, such as the complete 9-11 Hearings audio transcripts and to a lesser extent, the Apple Computer investor conference call.

This might seem a bit mundane. But long after Britney's latest single becomes a Trivial Pursuit question, the historical importance of recordings such as the 9-11 Hearings will continue to be important. Apple is making these free for download, helping to preserve important history. Sadly, it's not well known or strongly hyped within ITMS, or for that matter, by the media at large.

That's a shame. Apple is doing something important for free, which benefits everyone. And to the extent that they can, I hope they continue this in the future. Downloadable music is rapidly becoming a de facto trend, one in which the way music is bought and sold is changing. Over time, we may be treated to being able to access music that you never could find otherwise. But I hope too, that the spoken word and historical artifacts become available this way as well. Looking forward and looking back from the future, we may find that the most prescient and important aspect of the digital music revolution was in how it created an archive of valuable history, easily accessible and available for all to share.

Kudos, Apple!