Regarding quality, I think of this as a good way to trial music to see if I like it, and to explore similar artists. Sometimes I'll buy an MP3, but if I want the entire album, I'll use the link to Amazon to buy a CD.
This was my thought for the service too, with the added bonus of a 5 million track deep jukebox for when I've got people over. Currently (do to present life situations), the pricing scheme won't really allow me to do this though. Are there any thoughts of a lower $/month with more limitations on download #'s, or will the current options pretty much stat as is? Just curious...
Searching a 5,000,000 track library for what you want to play may not work well from Theater View.
Not if you're using a wireless keyboard from the couch.
A few things I noticed immediately when trying out Performer:
1) The view doesn't seem to be customizable. I could add a date column, but it would be gone the next time I came back to it. No right-click options (understandable). It would be nice to at least have chosen columns stick though.
2) It lacks the recommendation/similarity system of most online music providers. I'm mostly used to eMusic, but I know iTunes has some of this too. I can't think of a glamorous way to add it in within the confines of the MC GUI, but personally, this is one of the things I love about online music. A recommendation/similarity system could also make a Theater View implementation more useful/fun.
3) Pretty deep selection of music. 5 million tracks is tough to wrap your noggin around until you see what's within that 5 million. I managed to find some stuff that I couldn't find anywhere outside of $50 imports through Amazon (couldn't even find it through dubious means). My searches certainly weren't exhaustive, but I was impressed.
4) Some albums aren't complete? I have no idea what this was about, but for one or two albums from one or two artists albums that have ~10 tracks only seemed to have 2-4 tracks. This seems like a bug from the content provider rather than a licensing thing or an MC bug, but who knows...
Anyway, looks pretty good and I like that it's implemented in a nice clean out of the way manner for those who aren't interested.
-JB