http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/ Engadget Comments for iTunes Plus DRM-free music now official(er) http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/Jun 15th 2008 8:40PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/Jan 7th 2009 2:30AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/May 30th 2007 8:55AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/
But I don' Wanna!]]>May 30th 2007 8:55AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/May 30th 2007 9:03AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/May 30th 2007 9:04AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/May 30th 2007 9:06AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/May 30th 2007 9:10AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/May 30th 2007 9:53AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/May 30th 2007 9:57AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/May 30th 2007 12:18PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/May 30th 2007 9:16AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/May 30th 2007 9:39AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/May 30th 2007 9:30AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/May 30th 2007 9:58AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/
I upgraded to 7.2 this morning, and I also "enabled iTunes Plus" on my Account page.
]]>May 30th 2007 9:32AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/May 30th 2007 9:35AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/
i thought they said albums would cost the same --- why $3 more now?]]>May 30th 2007 9:40AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/Jul 22nd 2007 12:02AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/May 30th 2007 9:41AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/]]>May 30th 2007 9:55AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/May 30th 2007 10:00AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/May 30th 2007 10:03AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/Check the box that says "Always show me iTunes Plus...". Bob's yer Uncle, you will see the iTunes plus option in the iTunes store. Hope this helps.]]>May 31st 2007 7:40PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/May 30th 2007 10:07AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/May 30th 2007 10:16AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/May 30th 2007 10:12AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/
Dunno what to do next to get the itunes plus page up tho :(]]>May 30th 2007 10:14AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/Basically, find an EMI artist (I chose the rolling stones), go onto one of their records, and on that page (just above the buy album link) you'll see something like "Qualifies for iTunes Plus", just click on that, it'll take you through a load of screens, making you accept new ToS.]]>May 30th 2007 10:17AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/May 30th 2007 10:20AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/May 30th 2007 10:22AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/May 30th 2007 10:23AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/iTunesPlusPage]]>May 30th 2007 10:28AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/
Reason #100 I'm happy I sold my 5G iPod and bought a PlaysForSure device (Toshiba Gigabeat S). $12.50 a month, unlimited downloads, total music freedom. You chumps are paying money for stuff you already own!]]>May 30th 2007 10:30AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/May 30th 2007 10:31AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/May 30th 2007 11:31AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/May 30th 2007 11:53AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/May 30th 2007 10:31AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/
http://www.legalzoom.com/articles/article_content/article11325.html

read up my fellow blogfiends!]]>May 30th 2007 10:32AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/May 31st 2007 4:38PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/May 30th 2007 10:39AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/
You are a DORK. *YOU* are wasting your money. Each month.. what if you dont update your player with new music? You pay $12.50 just to keep the music you have. What if you stop your subscription. Your music will die.

Ha ha ha ha!! FOOOOOOL!]]>May 30th 2007 1:17PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/Lets buy some music.]]>May 30th 2007 10:51AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/
It appears we're giving this same consumer the "option" now of still being hurt by DRM at $0.99/song or "penalized" at $1.29/song ... while the consumer who would have normally either stole the music or removed the DRM is still going to do so!

What motivation do I have to purchase $1.29 songs that are only going to cut my iPod capacity in half for a quality I will never be able to distinguish over most earphones (especially the ones that CAME WITH MY IPOD!)? ... Especially as well as I need only wait for the DRM to be cracked again.

The $0.30 bump is simply how much the minds at EMI calculated they would lose from otherwise "legal" consumers if they removed DRM vs. the normal $0.99 cents ... that's all ... the brilliant minds at Apple then 'hide' this bump by offering the songs to you at a higher quality that, if they really thought was better, would have offered a long time ago ...
]]>May 30th 2007 10:51AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/May 30th 2007 11:19AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/
Earlier in these posts we have someone attempting to spin the added cost of this new initiative and the slow rollout on day one of its functionality as somehow screwing over iPod users and a fundamental reason worth telling us that we should really switch to a different type of DRM that is controlled by Microsoft.

If you feel more comfortable NOT owning the music you pay to listen to... be my guest! But, don't try and tell anyone how that makes you better or simply better off then the rest of us, because it's garbage. You rent your music and the instant you stop paying the monthly fee it all goes away. Unless, of course, you paid more money on top of your subscription fee to get a similarly DRMed version that you get to keep... at a quality level no better then what you get from iTMS.

Of course, then we get another poster trying to spin ownership through iTMS as really being no better then subscribing because somehow we are actually tied to how many computers we can upgrade through and still have access to our music. We aren't. You are only allowed to have a certain number of SIMULTANEOUS computers accessing the song in a library. And, when you're rerady to upgarde one of them or move your music over to a new machine you simply deauthorize the one you're leaving behind. ZOMG, that's just SO damned hard!

Now, in this final post, we have another person spinning the cost aspect and somehow intoning that Apple is screwing us... or, more acccurately, screwing consumers that WOULD legally buy and download music but won't because of the cost and will then PIRATE what they want.

First, do you honestly believe that Apple was the sole architect of quality and price when the iTMS first came into existence? No, they weren't. Quality was determined based on space, bandwidth, what was then available on P2P, and what sounded most acceptable to the majority of listeners. Or, do we forget that the majority of people listening to music can't succinctly tell the difference between 128kbps and CD-quality.

Price, similarly, was decided by consensus. Although, in this regard, Apple had a little more sway over the final outcome, it was still an aggregate decision between all five majors and the then untested Apple iTMS concept. And, you may choose to forget, but let us not... right up until the EMI deal, the other majors were trying to get Apple to UP its prices on iTMS for the 128kbps DRMed content that was being offered.

Had Apple and Steve Jobs not continued to say "no way" legal purchasers would currently be paying $1.29 and more for DRMed music. Instead, we now get the start of a compromise, a slightly elevated price for the loss of DRM and higher quality for those that want it. Albums that maintain their original pricing scheme and still gain the higher quality and DRM-free tracks (the music labels are still trying to salvage the album format as their delivery means du jour).

How did that screw you or anyone else? How did Apple do something negative to its users? Did they tell you, "hey, you want the DRM-free, higher quality tracks, then you have to buy them all over again?" No. Did they pull a Microsoft and set up a DRM scheme that they proliferated through the industry and then decided to move away from entirely and tell their users to rebuy all their music? No.

So, how did you get screwed? How did anyone get screwed?
]]>May 30th 2007 11:31AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/ 256)]]>May 30th 2007 11:38AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/Jun 3rd 2007 9:57AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/
st3phen -- (1) i mentioned the higher samplings when i talked about "higher quality" offerings in my post (2) i said near-zero cost, not "no-cost" ... yes, space and bandwidth are a factor here, but a 30% hike? It is in my opinion that this cost is what EMI feels that would otherwise lose from un-DRMing their music. I'm not talking about people hosting sights with un-DRM'd songs ... that's already done ... I'm talking about non-tech-savvy people now saying, "Hey ... how 'bout you, me, and Sparky here split the cost of our next music purchase."

PlaidPJs -- meow! breathe! it's okay. your mother still loves you... Never said Apple was screwing us. I just believe that offering un-DRM'd music at a higher cost with no real added value (your words, buddy: "Or, do we forget that the majority of people listening to music can't succinctly tell the difference between 128kbps and CD-quality") while still offering DRM'd music at a cheaper price is NOT as big a step forward towards unprotected bliss as it's been hyped to be ...

Is Apple screwing me? Not in the least. I will continue to to purchase $0.99 music and continue to legally use QTFairUse or simply burn and re-rip songs to get over the DRM hurdle. With these options available, the only reason to pay the 30% bump to by un-DRM'd music would be (1) you are not aware of these options or simply don't have the technical know-how or (2) you want the higher-quality tracks.

My feeling is, most people who want the un-DRM'd tracks is so they can play their music in their non-iPod devices. I'm saying Apple is penalizing (not "screwing" as you so eloquently put it) these users not once but twice. Once with the higher price. Two, with the needlessly larger file, effectively shrinking the capacity of their non-iPod device ...

... now why would Apple want competing devices to seem less capable then their iPods which can play the smaller, DRM'd music ... hmmm ...

]]>May 30th 2007 2:26PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/itunes-plus-drm-free-music-now-official-er/
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.]]>May 30th 2007 11:43AM