Zinio’s Interactive Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs Edition Lets You Read, Listen, Buy

Cross-platform digital news-stand Zinio just released an interactive version of Rolling Stone‘s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, so you can hear all those classics you’ve heard of but never gotten around to listening to while you’re reading about them.

Once you buy the special Rolling Stone issue (for a kinda steep 10 bones), you can read it with Zinio’s free PC, Mac or Linux software or, as I did, on their iPad (or iPhone) app. The digital edition has all of the text, photos and featurettes from the paper issue, but with the digital edition, most entries offer places to tap for a 30-second preview or to buy the song on iTunes. So that’s what “Maybellene” sounds like! Not bad.

The magazine itself was digitised gracefully, with all the flicking and pinch to zooming you’d expect. It’s kind of steep at $US10, but for pop aficionados who haven’t perused Rolling Stone‘s list before, there’s a lot to learn. And getting a taste of each song as you’re going along is a welcome addition. [Zinio's Rolling Stone Special Issue]