Yay iTunes

All DRM-free by April, and the goofball stuff I buy is cheaper. Sweet.

What I've read is that it's more expensive if you actually want to control the music you buy. $.99 for DRM, $1.29 for non-DRM.

Nope. Not anymore. That's the old way.

DRM is mostly gone today, completely gone by April.

Prices are up to 1.29 if you want the latest pop hit, all the way down to .69 if you buy goofy stuff like I do.

Cool. That's mo-betta. I might actually have to buy something from iTunes instead of ripping CD's now. Still - I got a GREAT selection of music by taking my laptop to the local library one day and ripping anything interesting.

From the BBC article:

"Over the last six years songs have been $0.99 . Music companies want more flexibility. Starting today, 8 million songs will be DRM free and by the end of this quarter, all 10 million songs will be DRM free," Schiller told the crowd. Apple has also revised its pricing structure, offering a two-tier system with songs available for $0.69 and $1.29.

Sweet.

Amazon prices its music cheaper anyway and has always been DRM free (from what I understand). I'll just stick with them.

I too have been buying from amazon since they are DRM free.

Does the change to itunes mean that they will unlock music we already bought from them?

They don't have anything i listen to......

I swear that the one album I bought from iTunes - and I couldn't believe they had it - got taken back. It up and vanished from my laptop and my iPod one day. Can/do they do that? I'm none too pleased.

No, they can't. Once you download it, it's yours. Only the subscription services can take it back... which is why they suck.

If you listen to weird-ass stuff, check out eMusic. On a "drink from the firehose" plan like I have, it's almost free. Because of this - and because I have to use my 90 credits per month or lose them - I end up downloading a lot of things out of curiosity. Some get tossed, but others become faves. It's a great way to discover music.

And no DRM.

I bought a total of one song from itunes so far, what is DRM? Is the thing that means I can't use the song anywhere else and I can only sync my iPOD with one computer instead of my desktop and laptop?

I imagine my stuff is in the 49-cent bin so maybe I should check it out.

alex wrote: I swear that the one album I bought from iTunes - and I couldn't believe they had it - got taken back. It up and vanished from my laptop and my iPod one day. Can/do they do that? I'm none too pleased.

In iTunes under the "store" tab, look for "check for downloads" or "check for authorized purchases". I've found things I didn't know I was missing that way.

what the berkeley is DRM?

DRM is Digital Rights Management. The crap that says even though you paid for the song, tv show, whatever, you can't do whatever you like with it. Depending on how its set up, you can't copy the song at all, or maybe can only copy it onto one "authorized" machine, or maybe you can only burn it to a CD once, or who knows what.

No DRM means what's yours is yours with no restrictions. That's the simple version, anyway.

OOO that why I go old school and buy used CD's + my wife dose not know much music I buy in the first place, no paper trail.

So does this mean that the stuff I bought in the past will now be DRM free as well?

mtn wrote: So does this mean that the stuff I bought in the past will now be DRM free as well?

My understanding is that you have to pay $.30 per song to "upgrade" to DRM free. 30% per album and $.69 per music video, if memory serves.

drm = we don't know integrate customer needs/desires into our business plans.

thats all I'm saying.