It's been a long time coming. So how could we resist giving the new higher quality, DRM free
iTunes Plus music service a whirl? After all, we're geeks, and loaded with all kinds of audio devices (not just iPods or Macs and PCs running iTunes) which we'd like to make use of with
our purchased media. Certainly you've heard of the Zune, Xbox 360, PS3, Vista Media Center, Walkman W880, Slingbox, PSP, or even the VLC media player right? Ok, then you understand our angst. So off we go, into the land of Fair Use lollipops and DRM-free candy canes. Click-on to see how it all goes down as we upgrade our iTunes music library.
The first thing we see after firing up iTunes is the "new" iTunes Plus quick link off to the right-hand side.
Clicking on "iTunes Plus" prompts iTunes to ask if you want to make iTunes Plus your default location. Sure, why not. Click through the EULA and here we are to a new wing of the store which is notably skinny, lacking most of the 5 million or so tracks on the main, DRM-locked site. Remember, it's only EMI at the moment. Hey, that Upgrade My Library button looks interesting, let's click it, credit be damned!
There it is, the $3.00 upgrade for a test album we downloaded earlier in 128kbps format.
128kbps AAC files. Surely we can do better. Let's search the store for The Good, The Bad & The Queen.
Ah ha, here are the same songs listed in both their 128kbps and 256kbps formats. We bet you can tell which are DRM-free?
Let's go back and click "Buy" so we can take our music on the road.
Click "Buy."
Processing, only a minute or so.
"Move To Desktop," natch, unless you're the trusting sort (which we aren't).
Here they come!
Almost done... look at those file sizes.
You can see the last track being swapped out for the new higher bit rate version.
Good idea.
The original 128kbps files safe and snug in this desktop folder but removed form the iTunes catalog. It says "1 item" since it contains a single folder titled "The Good, The Bad & The Queen" with all the old tracks.
See the differences: old file on the left, new on right? The updated file lacks the dreaded padlock and features a new .m4a file extension.
And twice the size. Now the real test: how do they sound? We're no audiophiles but we can certainly tell the difference. Golf claps all around. Better yet...
It plays in any device or media player with AAC support. At last.
And here we have the iTunes purchased track running on RealPlayer -- we couldn't resist.
Finally, WMP 11. Doesn't matter what you use, as long as it supports AAC playback.
All done.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Blake @ May 30th 2007 11:13AM
Hell yea!
Aaron @ May 30th 2007 12:43PM
Wait a sec... did hell just freeze over? :D
Kyle @ May 30th 2007 11:13AM
Awesome. Great write-up!
C. Grant @ May 30th 2007 11:14AM
Awesome. May be the first time I buy anything off iTunes.
Beef Stallmer @ May 30th 2007 11:15AM
Great stuff! Going to try it as soon as I get back from work! Yay! EMI and Apple deserve our support for this experiment.
Jay @ May 30th 2007 11:16AM
I just Upgraded My Tracks! What a Bargain and they Stay with me Forever Now!
Bob @ May 30th 2007 11:22AM
My iTunes files are already 256 kbps. Will DRM-free versions still sound better?
paul irwin @ May 30th 2007 11:54AM
your files are either 128 kbps if you bought them from itunes and DRM-protected, or you can customize your bitrate for importing CDs, so they could be 256 kbps and DRM-free if you so chose. but they can't be 256 kbps AND DRM-protected if they're from itunes.
maps @ May 31st 2007 4:45PM
Not if you bought them from iTunes before May 30, they aren't.
Brian @ May 30th 2007 11:26AM
I had 81 tracks to upgrade... I'm 23 minutes in to downloading and it's only completely downloaded 2!!! Looks like this is going to be popular... At this rate it finish sometime tonight... however I would only assume that it will get slower as the day goes on....
Kevin @ May 30th 2007 11:30AM
Wow. I'm so impressed! Time to start buying up a storm... even IF the thing happens to have like 5 songs to choose from as of now.
Brad @ May 30th 2007 11:55AM
Great write-up! One nit: the .m4a extension isn't new to iTunes itself; any music that you have ripped from a CD into AAC will also have the .m4a extension.
Victor @ May 30th 2007 12:02PM
Alrgiht, it's a big step forward, offering DRM-free tracks. But you should not have to pay an extra $0.30 for it. For a dozen song album, it costs $15.48 to download. And if I want to play it in my car, I have to keep stock of blank CDs. And storing recorded CDs in say a visor, where the disc only sticks out from the fold by less than half an inch, makes it much more difficult to recognize a CD than a one that you bought and have album art printed onto the disc. Sure you can buy and print disc labels for your burned albums, but that is just more work and money. You can buy the same dozen song album from a Best Buy from 10-13 bucks. You don't have to keep blank cds or print labels (save for mix cds and what not, but the quantity required to keep on hand is reduced) and you get album art and, most of the time, lyrics. AND, you can rip it to your computer in whatever format you want, DRM-free. Why the $#!% would I want to spend more time, money and effort downloading an album from iTunes? Where's the value? I'll admit, it's an exchange of conveniances, but it's still not worth it.
When you find a subscription based, DRM-free music service, let me know. That would be a consumer friendly business model, but I doubt I will ever see it. It would allow me to download as much music as I want for the same rate.
A more realistic, model would be $0.59 a DRM-free track. That would be a $7.08 dozen track album, and a good value. It would still be a $0.70 profit cut for the labels, but would be supplemented by increased sales volume.
It's just the way it should be.
Ignacio @ May 30th 2007 12:27PM
Many full CDs cost $9.99, and all full CDs (well, EMI's) are now available in 256Kbps, DRM-free with no change in price (unless you had already bought the old version, then you'll have to upgrade each track)
Geoffrey Sperl @ May 30th 2007 12:34PM
Victor: Of course, if you buy the DRM-free album (not just single tracks), it's the same price as the DRM'd one. I just bought "The Good, The Bad, and the Queen" this morning as a non-DRM version and I paid $9.99, the same as the DRM'd one.
I'm not arguing with your points... I just wanted to point that item out.
Victor @ May 30th 2007 12:36PM
Really, well I guess I misunderstood the way iTunes works. I guess $9.99 would be acceptable, if I didn't have to pay a monthly subscription fee.
drew Eastman @ May 30th 2007 12:59PM
you have heard of emusic.com right ?
if not then go and check it cos thats what ya lookin for .. minus the majors but loads of big indie labels there so you get ya Bjork and Ministry of Sound stuff there ... plus more ..
but as far as i know .. no EMI music ( yet ) ..
p-diddy @ May 30th 2007 2:52PM
>> It's just the way it should be.
No, it's just the way it should be according to Victor. But last time I checked, what price music should be sold at wasn't your call, it is the artists'/labels'.
*newsflash* People are bitching and moaning about how broken the existing system is because they don't want to buy a 15-song disc with 3 good songs but then weep and gnash their teeth when they can't get things their way for the broken-CD-model prices.
You have no right to be entertained. If you don't like it, vote with your wallet and don't buy it. Crying on engadget because it isn't at your price accomplishes nothing.
-p-
tekdroid @ May 30th 2007 12:03PM
soon i hear they'll be offering silver discs which offer better quality sound and act as a robust archive, with cover art and liner notes included.
However, we have to wait for the 80s to hit before we see such advances.
ssuk @ May 30th 2007 12:18PM
'bout time we got some DRM free stuff, but I was using a AAC plugin for M4A files form iTunes on Winamp ages ago, so it didn't really matter me much anyway. At least a lot of movie editing software will recognise these things now.
Andrew @ May 30th 2007 12:24PM
Still say buying CDs and ripping them is the best way to go. I've got Album Art, no DRM, and Lossless Files.
Galley @ May 30th 2007 12:35PM
Not to mention backup copies!
Carl @ May 30th 2007 12:50PM
I'm going to upgrade whatever is available. I expect that to cost under $20 dollars.
It's not that I really need or care to upgrade my iTunes tracks (which if I really cared about I'd have on CD). It's that I've complained about Apple's DRM and I've complained about 128Kbps. Apple/EMI either listened or called my bluff, and deserve my vote with my spare change.
What I'm really buying is a little sliver of hope that this is a success and other tech companies with crippled products might take notice.
Ezequiel Rodriguez @ May 30th 2007 1:19PM
@ Victor:
"When you find a subscription based, DRM-free music service, let me know. "
It is called e-music, exists a long time ago...I love it:
www.emusic.com
It is more indie and world music oriented (with great jazz and classical music selections) and it has always been drm-free. The bit rate is not that great, but hey...no restrictions whatsoever...
Paul @ May 30th 2007 1:18PM
If anyone wants to try out the new format without paying anything, the free single of the week on the front page is in iTunes Plus format.
jehrico76 @ May 30th 2007 1:34PM
$10 for a compressed 256kbs album off of Itunes, or order the same album used off of Amazon for $2.99 or so shipped, and rip it to any format you want, including lossless APE or FLAC.
jon.leopold @ May 30th 2007 1:37PM
I upgraded mine! It was only two albums plus two songs I purchased individually, but hey. They do sound better, and I hope I and everyone else who "upgrades" make enough of a difference that the other big record companies will take notice and cross over to the sane side of the fence.
David @ May 30th 2007 1:49PM
Not interested until they offer DRM-free music in MP3 and OGG format, in addition to AAC. I don't use any AAC compatible hardware, so AAC is of no use to me.
Paul @ May 31st 2007 8:13PM
Not interested until they offer DRM-free music in MP3 and OGG format, in addition to AAC. I don't use any AAC compatible hardware, so AAC is of no use to me.
David: Err, you do know what the point of DRM-free music is right? You can play it on any AAC supported player and you can easily convert it to any other format you want.
David @ May 30th 2007 7:17PM
I know I can convert it, but it's an extra layer of inconvenience that I shouldn't have to take on when it's so easy for *them* to supply it in the first place.
It's a last ditch attempt at locking the tech-ingnorant into their own AAC players, i.e. ipod.
Gunnar @ May 30th 2007 1:53PM
The biggest drawback to the Upgrade My Library features is (currently at least) it does not let you upgrade just some of your music. Its either all or nothing.
But what I don't get is why would Apple bother listing some of the albums you have purchased with their upgrade prices in the main pane if they were not available for individual upgrades?
Plus, only a handful of the EMI albums I have bought are showing up as upgrade-able (remember EMI includes lots of sub-labels like Capital, etc). And I knoew they are available as iTune Plus downloads because they show up when I do a search. There is no connection between the artist download page and your library contents (which could easily be done as you are logged in and Apple knows who you are and what you have bought).
This system seems to suffer from the same problems as the Complete My Album feature. There are huge discrepancies between what iTunes THINKS I bought and what I actually bought.
New DRM free tracks = "A"
Upgrade My Library gets a "D-"
min.
ethana2 @ May 30th 2007 2:01PM
Wow. David? Why the heck would you want codec-specific hardware? Just give me a general purpose computer, like hey, any decent PC on earth, and let the awesome DRM-free formats roll. Wait, do you mean like a zune or something? I'll be the nerd walking down the street with my laptop on my back.
I like ogg, too. Open formats are great. But seriously, mp3 can die. It is inferior, as I understand the situation, to just about everything else out there- WMA, FLAC, OGG, AAC, and so on.
chris @ May 30th 2007 2:22PM
hmmm now all they have to do is release movies+. i would pay for that becuase sony doesnt seem to care about psp owners. and dont reply to this comment with something about connect because that is total crap. click the red minus if you want but you no im right. :D
SteveJ @ May 30th 2007 2:24PM
This is certainly a good thing, but it shouldn't stop at music. Videos need to be DRM free too. Let me play my iTS movies and videos on anything as well.
Gren @ May 30th 2007 2:31PM
Hey
It's a wonderfull idea Apple/EMI have come up - and is the final frontier for me personally switching to buy music from iTunes.
But a just bought a song from the Danish iTunes Plus, and the downloaded song is *still* mp4 Proteched - and cannot play in VLC.
Maybe some birth-problems, but it is not the first time Apple is ignoring non-US iTunes Stores.
But I cannot be the only one, can I? ;-)
tnn
Ricardo @ May 30th 2007 4:47PM
Hello
I'm from Portugal and upgraded my library!
Worked great! Except for the fact that it didn't recognize all my EMI songs!
Maybe you had some trouble...should check it!
Doug @ May 30th 2007 3:53PM
With the DRM-free music becoming available, I finally installed iTunes. But the iTunes Store is being really slow. Looks like this is being very well received by the community at large.
Wolfrider @ May 30th 2007 4:09PM
What garbage. I was excited about this before I actually saw it. A 30 percent markup for songs without DRM? Yeah, that's consumer friendly. Good job Apple. Not to mention its not in MP3 format which STILL limits my hardware options and my ability to listen to the music I've BOUGHT on CD players and the like.
Not to mention of course there's barely any DRM free options available. I went to purchase the new Immaculate Machine album and not only could I barely access it (six connection error messages) but when I got there, no DRM free option.
Apple is quickly becoming a synonym for BS.
Dan Russell @ May 30th 2007 4:15PM
IMPORTANT!
If I upgrade my songs, do the play counts and skip counts remain?
Galley @ May 30th 2007 6:51PM
I imagine they would. They do if you re-rip a CD into a higher bitrate, or lossless for instance, and are replacing an existing track.
Wolfrider @ May 30th 2007 4:20PM
Whoa.. whoa.. whoa... scratch that if you're Canadian. It's a forty percent markup. For some reason Apple decided to charge us Canucks 1.39 for DRM free content, while we still only pay 99 cents for a song. Hmm... that's a good move, especially considering the content offered on the iTunes store is woefully inadequate compared to the American store (no TV or movie downloads) and file sharing is legal here.
richmc @ May 30th 2007 4:36PM
Sadly us Canucks were actually getting a better deal than USA for a while, cuz .99 Can is only .92 US right now and over the last few years of itunes its been closer to .85 US. The DRM free tracks actually put it in line with the real exchange rate of 1.39 Can is 1.29 US. So its actually a case of now are equal in actual price to the US.
My 39¢
Wolfrider @ May 30th 2007 4:39PM
I realize that (and I wonder if their going to lower prices for Europeans?) but I'm talking in terms of comparison, original tunes are still a buck.
rob @ May 30th 2007 5:02PM
And the frustrations continues... strange and cryptic error messages, lost connections... and slow!
Philip S @ May 30th 2007 6:47PM
How did you get WMP to playback .m4a tracks?
Jerry @ May 30th 2007 7:07PM
Trouble in Paradise,
I downloaded the new Itunes Plus upgrade and upgraded my songs from EMI but could not get WMP 11 to play the newly unprotected purchased tracks. Does anyone know a simple way to enable WMP 11 to play the new $1.29 purchased AAC files?
I am a big Apple Fan and love how they are breaking new ground with hardware, music and soon with mobile commerce. That said Interoperability seems to be the number one opportunity. This is a significant step in the right direction.
Greatly appreciate anyones help with this particular issue.
takagawa @ May 31st 2007 2:03AM
"and, you know that the majority of DAPs do not support AAC, and any conversion between lossy formats results in quality loss?"
Yes, I think I agree that conversion between lossy formats results in quality loss, but that's not the issue here in regards to DRM-free content.
The main point of DRM-free content is the ability to freely transfer and use the content across other devices, and/or convert them to a format that allows them to use it on other devices. And although Apple encapsulates content in FairPlay within AAC for its DRM songs, AAC itself isn't a DRM format. It's a standardised lossy encoding and compression scheme for digital audio.
Now to your first point whether I knew that "the majority of DAPs do not support AAC". Well I didn't know that, and the first thing I ask when someone uses the words "Did you know the majority..." is "Where's your evidence to support that assertion?"
But rather than ask you and wait for a response that may or may not come, I decided to look it up myself.
I went to Amazon, and started on their 'MP3 Players' (rather ironic) and their best sellers list. I then went through and checked each companies' DAP offering to see if at least one of their devices offered AAC support. I also checked out other sources, such as car stereo manufacturers.
If a company has at least one DAP that supports AAC, then I'll take that as a company which supports AAC. Here's what I found:
ipod (yes)
sandisk (yes)
zune (yes)
Archos (yes)
creative zen (no yet)
toshiba gigabeat (no yet)
sony (yes)
Nokia Nseries mobiles (yes)
BlackBerries (yes)
Pioneer (yes)
Sony (yes)
Alpine (yes)
Kenwood (yes)
Clarion (yes)
Panasonic (yes)
JVC (yes)
So in my opinion, hardly "a majority of DAPs doesn't support AAC". Furthermore, given that iTunes now sells unprotected AAC, this will spur AAC support with manufacturers to producing new DAPs so they can take advantage of their competitor's offering.
But again, DRM-less music means you CAN convert it if you want it to work on a device which doesn't support it.
Jason @ Jun 22nd 2007 12:56PM
I don't take "If a company has at least one DAP that supports AAC, then I'll take that as a company which supports AAC" as a valid response to "the majority of DAPs do not support AAC", even among the companies you named, only the most recent Archos players support AAC (and only with an optional plug-in), and I know most Sandisk players don't (I didn't even know there was one, but maybe there is). Not everyone has the latest model of everything. And of course there's also Cowon, Meizu, iriver, Rio, Samsung, MobiBLU, Trekstor, Insignia, who don't have any players that support AAC as far as I know, and there are more obscure companies I didn't mention. And that's just going back to players, say, under 3 years old, which is a reasonable amount of time for an DAP to last. Trying to pin down a number isn't that important anyway, the bottom line is that MP3 is a much more widely supported format, and they could have used it for greater user flexability. They could have even gone with an option to download Apple Lossless, so at least you could transcoding could be done without additional degredation of a lossy format.
JD Mills @ May 30th 2007 7:51PM
This is awesome. The new tracks have a much richer sound... I'm hearing things I hadn't heard before. Getting rid of the DRM helps too, considering that I stream my iTunes library from my Mac to my Xbox 360 in the main room. Hoping that other labels will follow suite soon.
Pastor of Muppets @ May 30th 2007 10:47PM
"tech-ingnorant"
Ha! Priceless.