Cataloguing iTunes

This discussion arose from emails sent after the last IS meeting. The issue was minuted by Jill, as per the last Blog posting.
Background:
Fran has investigated a corporate subscription to iTunes to provide tracks to music undergraduates, to augment the library's CD collection. Suitable tracks have already been identified by Music staff.
The upshot was that the iTunes store only deals with individuals so students would need their own accounts. However BHI could possibly provide URLs (deep links) to each track in question.
Fran's comment:
The issue is about cataloguing individual iTune tracks that have been identified as subject resources. The location would be an electronic resource and a deep URL would be embedded in the catalogue record like what we do for other electronic resources. Jonathon Dimond has identified 15 tracks already and will continue to identify more. About 110 students will be accessing in the first instance, if they go through the OPAC.
I invite discussion!
Ross's comment:
This would be an easy thing to do and would be a very convenient way for Jonathan's students to access the iTunes tracks that they need.
We would need to create a cataloguing procedure (like the Online Reserve one) to ensure that all the records were of the same format. The 650 field would have information advising the student that in order to access the track they would need to have iTunes installed on their computer and they will also need to create an iTunes account.
(if a student clicks on an iTunes link and they don't have iTunes installed, they will be taken to the iTunes download page automatically)

Also, if you wanted to, we could treat these records as Online Reserve items and pull them on and off as required by Jonathan. They would appear as separate catalogue items but would also appear under Jonathan as an instructor in the reserve desk part of the OPAC. This may be the easiest way of managing these records as the ongoing tracking of Online Reserve records is already setup and running.
Rosie's comment:
This is interesting ‘stuff’ and may have implications for the delivery of resources in other areas.
Other comments???