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Apple frees iTunes Store music of DRM
It's been a long time coming, but Apple has finally secured the deals to sell the entire iTunes music catalogue without DRM and the entire music library is finally available in the 256kbps AAC format that has been known as iTunes Plus until now.
Starting in April, iTunes will also be introducing variable pricing for songs - 69¢, 99¢ and $1.29 depending on the prices set by the record labels. Despite the momentum that the likes of Amazon and other DRM-free vendors such as 7Digital have been gaining in the last few months, the iTunes store remains the largest (and most popular) online music store.
If you're already sunk a fair amount of money in the iTunes store, Apple will allow you to upgrade your entire library to the DRM-free format - for 30¢ per song or 25% of the album price.
Comments
14
Subscribe to commentsrequiredJan 8th 2009 11:44AM
New more accurate headline:
Apple frees iTunes music of DRM at a price. Thirty cents per track is a hell of a lot of money to have to pay for something like this. We can all agree on that.
JawZJan 8th 2009 11:49AM
It's amazing what consumers will accept in a fractional reserve banking system. How about giving me a $.30 discount for every song in exchange for keeping my 128kbps collection DRM based? Or what about just stripping the DRM from my collection without upgrading to 256kbps? I'm happy now.....just let me get rid of the useless DRM. We'll call it even
Sergio PereiraJan 8th 2009 1:14PM
Allow for 0.30? It's more like punish you for Apple's and the labels' mistakes. I hope consumers continue to be slow and not upgrade their songs, forcing Apple to keep the DRM servers up until they decide to convert for free.
DavidJan 8th 2009 1:35PM
"forcing Apple to keep the DRM servers up"
Hahaha, you're funny!
Remember MSN Music? (http://www.defectivebydesign.org/blog/1131)
QuikboyJan 9th 2009 2:20AM
@David: The thing is, is that iTunes has always been a larger store than MSN Music, and do you know anyone that bought off that site? It only lasted for a few years and died.
amiantosJan 8th 2009 12:27PM
Aww! Apple loves us so much they're actually going to ALLOW us to RE-BUY the music we've already paid for? Shucks, Apple, with talk like that you're gonna make me blush, thinkin' you really care about us and all...
alexJan 8th 2009 1:16PM
just run your collection of DRM'd music through garage band-it strips the DRM and turns it into an MP3 with negligible quality loss. better than paying again for something you should already own
Andrew MoultonJan 8th 2009 7:49PM
i remember it being fairly easy to "free" my library... since then, i haven't looked back, only purchasing drm'ed songs on the rarest of occasions
adutreJan 8th 2009 9:44PM
Sounds good.However,I'm wondering how many songs will be priced $1.29 and the amount of music priced $0.69.
Also,I do hope Apple gives more options on upgrading my original purchases. I have 800 pieces of music in my itunes library,and I'm counting the money that will cost if I update all of them!
$0.3*800=$240...
luckily,a media converter is much economical.So,I still use software to help me:
http://www.flash-on-tv.com/media-converter.html#141
I'll just wait for Apple to carry out more actions.
RbratcherjrJan 9th 2009 12:18AM
Apple should allow us to pick & choose which songs we wish to upgrade (& whole albums too) instead of making us upgrade everything at once then keep adding new songs to the upgrade price. Already the upgrade will cost me $81.57 and that price will only climb higher over time!! Of course one choice is to not upgrade at all. I'm sure a lot of Itunes users with large libraries will take that option if Apple doesn't allow us to select what we want upgraded.
Stuart HallidayJan 13th 2009 8:08AM
Ah just go to www.mp3sparks.com
Legal downloads and only from 2-4 cents a track.
meloman77Feb 18th 2009 5:25PM
Well put, Stuart. May I just add that to refill your balance, which is not currently possible by a credit card you can buy an Allpay card from ez-allpay.com and use it for that purpose. Also, the sister site alltunes.com has a sweet client software for searching and managing your downloads. Your account works on both sites.
You're welcome :)
Stuart HallidayFeb 19th 2009 5:44AM
Absolutely . I use Alltunes and allpay myself.
usFeb 3rd 2009 9:27PM
Best DVD Ripper