Apple rumored to be turning iTunes into a DRM-free music store UPDATE: Not anytime soon
By Darren Murph 
posted Dec 8th 2008 11:11PM
posted Dec 8th 2008 11:11PM
We can't count the number of times we've heard from one random source or another that Apple was about to pull the trigger on a subscription-based / 100% DRM-free music service, and given how those have worked out in the past, we'd highly recommend taking this one with a huge dose of salt. French site ElectronLibre has it that Apple will finally offer up all of its music in DRM-free form starting as early as tomorrow, specifically calling out Sony, Universal and Warner as outfits who would join the protection-free cause. Should this happen, it would obviously be a dream come true for ole Steve, but we're still left to wonder what would happen to bitrates, prices and (potentially most important) all other iTMS content. Something tells us Hollywood isn't quite as ready to release its death grip.Update: Don't hold your breath -- CNET says that while Apple is in negotiations with the bigs to go DRM-free, nothing's set in stone and changes are unlikely before the end of the year. Amazon it is!
[Via AppleInsider]
I'll believe it when I see it. But that would be great news!
I'd give up my zune and go back to the ipod if this happened. The lack of a subscription option is the only thing keeping me away.
I know. If it is for real, it'll be a step in the right direction for the iTunes Store.
@Richard:
Why give up your Zune? If, and that is a big if, your buy from DRM free from iTMS, it will work just fine on your Zune.
So I can finally listen to beetles !
@Nohone:
That's true, but my reason for giving up the Zune would be the lack of accessories for it. Everywhere you look something is "Made for iPod" and every other car stereo has built in iPod controls/display. No such luck with the Zune and it doesn't look like that is going to change anytime soon.
Don't give up the Zune. the coolest guy on earth obama uses the zune!
take that iEye :)
@NickNick
With the way apple is run and his lack of shame fanboyism, i bet iEyes a communist
According to the boys at PA, the Zune almost cost Obama the Presidency....
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/12/8/
When pigs fly...
These people will probably ship pet pigs via airliner:
http://animaltransportation.com/
In other news, the Mac Pro will support Quadro CX and FX 5800 video cards along with all the GT200 and HD4800 series cards out there by Nvidia and ATI.
This just in! The iPhone 3G will be a stable device which lets you multitask, copy and paste, and a variety of features that actual smartphone users have been used to for years.
Today is a good day.
1. On topic please.
2. Do you think those things matter?
This has been buzzing forever, I wouldn't be surprised if it came to fruition. Who here would buy from iTunes if they were DRM free?
I wouldn't! Why would I wanna lose the five finger deal I got going?
I would.
But then I do have a Mac. And an iPod. And an iPhone. And an Apple TV.
Just living the iLife™.
Cormier6083, thats just sad.
Been buying DRM free music from apple from what they have available now. Seems to be growing very slowly.
I still prefer CDs, and most my digital music is from Beatport.
I still wouldn't buy. Not until they offer music in lossless flavor for a similar price.
That's not the question - they'd sell shitloads more music if it was DRM free, and perhaps put Amazon music service out of business.
But that's not in the interest of the music industry. The MI wants multiple vendors, and they don't mind one bit if the ITMS is hurting. They figure if somebody doesn't want DRM, they'll go buy their music from somebody else. That and I think they want to punish Apple some more for it's insistence over controlling the price.
DRM-free music: A bag of hurt
I'll give you a bag of hurt! (I just love how everyone is setting themselves up for that one!)
Ummm, Amazon has you beat by like a year already Apple. But hey, they could always use some DRM-free competition ;)
Although I mostly agree with you, there are some circumstances in which iTunes would best Amazon's services.
For example, Amazon music can't be downloaded to iPod touches/iPhones on the go, while iTunes music can. It would therefore make much more sense to purchase from iTunes in such a scenario. Also, many iTunes users (including me) would find it much more convenient to simply download from the iTunes store than from Amazon, especially those with Macs.
iTunes started selling DRM-free music before Amazon even opened.
You'll recall that some European governments, with the support of the record industry, were calling on Apple to license their DRM to other vendors. If Apple had caved in and licensed their DRM, the DRM-free Amazon store would never have happened. Instead, Jobs famously called on the record companies to go DRM-free. EMI bit and went DRM-free in iTunes, and the DRM-free Amazon store opened later that year.
It now appears the rest of the major record labels have agreed to go DRM-free in iTunes, and that's good news (if audio-DRM is a challenging problem for you, anyway...)
Everything Darren said, was accurate - check it up. No bias, no smart-arse comments, no fanboy-ism of any kind, he just put down a few easily-verified facts. And yet he gets low-ranked. Proof the anti-Apple fanboys are the ones ruining the Engadget comments section, rather than the pro-Apple fanboys, as is commonly assumed and stated.
ahaha! good one engadget! it's not even april yet!
[[and that story was posted at 11:11! i just wanted to point that out]]
Although the 11:11 PM posting time is interesting (nice catch by the way), it is most likely a coincidence.
Engadget wasn't the first site to post this today. This has been on just about every other news site (Electron Libre, AppleInsider, Gizmodo ect.) a half an hour or more.
I will never buy an mp3 unless it is DRM free.
What if it was free, but with DRM :P?
@ who?
If it were free would he be buying it or receiving it?
@Mikey
The one free song a week you can get off iTunes (which I believe is protected) goes under 'purchases,' so I count it as such.
neither will anyone else.
mp3 can't have DRM...
iTunes currently sells protected-AAC
mp3s never have DRM. iTunes sells AAC encoded files.
I don't think the one holding this back is Apple. I think it is the record companies. Apple has music under iTunes Plus that is DRM free and cost the same now as a regular protected file. Record companies I think are the ones giving the license to Amazon and not Apple.
@Chris
Aww, don't spoil the kids fun now!
I would LOVE to see less of his face...
MUSIC being the operative word there. I won't care unless I can easily export movies bought on iTunes onto DVD and make them viewable/playable on other players.
Apple Inc. has made exactly $0 from me. I've been using computers and consumer electronics since the mid-1970's. And since the movie "The Pirates of Silicon Valley" came out, I just can't get its portrayal out of my head of what a messed up guy Jobs is. As it stands right now I don't think he'd be able to sell me water for a buck in Death Valley.
Steve Jobs is NOT the company. Yes, he is an asshole, and I wouldn't want to sit down and have a beer with him, but, the same can be said about many CEOs. If I applied your logic to actors, for example, there are a lot of good movies I wouldn't see.
> "Apple Inc. has made exactly $0 from me."
They're sitting on $25 billion in cash and zero debt. They are doing just fine without you.
That's kind of pathetic. It's just software.
I did compromise my principles to watch Nicholas Cage's movies. I hate Nicholas Cage as much as Jobs but Cage gets gets all the good scripts.
In the early 1980's Burger King's ad campaign strategy was to mercilessly slam McDonald's. I found this so irritating that I boycotted Burger King. Apple's current ad campaign has the same effect on me I guess. I don't know. Maybe Jobs is gonna be ugly to the wrong person one day and have his $25 billion dollars taken from him in a very public and nasty fashion. Its happened to other CEOs before.
Personally though, I just don't like the idea of buying 'boutique' consumer electronics. Now what I'm saying is coming from a musician - Apple, Jobs or any big corporation didn't create the music. Its all about the musicians and their music. You think anybody is going to remember Steve Jobs or Apple Inc. in fifty years? Like we do Handel, Bruckner or Chopin? Who was Jimmi Hendrix's manager? Do you remember or even know? Do you crave listening to your 45rpm vinyl records? Nobody even remembers them now.
I've personally used 45 and 33 rpm records, reel-to-reel tape, eight track, cassette, AM, FM to listen to music. All going or gone. Who created them? Do you even remember Akio Morita? He was a great man, a genuine genius.
I guess I don't like the idea of one person/corporation controlling something I hold so dearly. I think its an insane concept.
anythingbutapple, the unfortunate irony is that you're letting these companies possess way too much control over you.
you see what i do is downloading multiple copies of OSX burn it on a dvd, then throw it out the window.
then i seed multiple torrents of it.
im costing them trillions!
and never got a penny from me :)
Hey, if he's paying for that beer, I don't mind, just put some earplugs on to avoid teh brainwash.
yeah apple boycotters increase
way to be a year behind Amazon iFail!
Amazon is a subscription service? I thought it was 89 or 99 cents per song, not subscription based.
Yeah, but who's fault is that? It is well known that the record companies did a deal with Amazon (well, more specifically, anyone but Apple) in order to try and retrieve the power that the used to have from iTunes.
The other thing that should be noted is that Amazon only has a service for the US and UK so iTunes pretty much has the rest of the world to itself.
Everything in perspective...
@CraigJ
The above article does not say anything about iTunes adding a subscription service, it's just mentioned offhand as one of the two rumors that won't go away. This specific rumor is about DRM free content.
Buh-buh-buh-buh-bwah? If it's 256-kbps then I'd pay the upgrade fee. Otherwise, no.
Maybe I'll actually use it now
lol, seeing all the Apple haters is quite amusing. Like a little pack here on Engadget. It's like me saying I'm not going to buy a Xbox because Bill Gates is a nerd.
Which I mean in the best respect of the word. I think he's a great mind of our generation.
lol would indicate that you are amused... No need to be redundant, thank you.
Aha! I've caught you!
I see what you're saying. Either way I'm right, because lol represents a physical reaction but doesn't express my mentality of what is amusing.
Also...
E=MC^2
Eat dem DRM free Apples.
Still don't care until it is lossless.
Yes... For 99 cents, the artist should come over and play the song for me live.
What was the last CD you bought, and when did you buy it?
I hear ya Bob. I am not willing to give up quality for quantity either.
If I am only getting 10% of the songs full range, I ain't paying full price.
I just bought a CD last week.
Fuck, for 99 cents the artist should give me the best BJ of my life after performing for me live.
Agreed. No interest until it is lossless, but even then I'd still buy the CDs.
And to Darren, I bought a stack of CDs last week at Circuit City with a 40% discount including Weezer, Opeth, Mellencamp, Pretenders, Norah Jones, Machine Head, & Kenny Wayne Shepard. Elsewhere, I picked up the new Guns N' Roses for kicks and got a couple Juliana Hatfield albums I needed. I buy CDs every month and rip them to ALAC in iTunes.
I bought 7 CDs from amazon a couple of months ago and was going to buy another bunch just recently but suddenly the AU dollar is worthless and therefore amazon is too expensive.
You're gonna trust the FRENCH???
j/k, i love crepes
Cassoulet Forever!!
@anythingbutapple: Oh, what a shame. The upkeep for your ivory pedestal must be more expensive than originally thought.
electronlibre? really?
un-drmzer for my single of the week downloads please. (yes this will never, ever happen)
Microsoft has something like a subscription DRM-free music service with the Zune Pass. You have the option to keep 10 songs a month, DRM-free. I own a Zune, and I don't mind renting unlimited DRM-infected music if 10 songs a month are DRM-free for keeps. By the time I'm done with my Zune Pass I'll cancel and own most of my music DRM free. At least that's the plan...
I've bought a few songs off iTunes, but found it easier to just pirate them due to the hassle I have to go through when I want to play them on something non-Apple. Would definitely be a good thing. :)
I'd still have to use iTunes though and that software is fracking horrid.
My friend tried to send me a song last time he wanted me to ear... what a surprise for him when it didnt work! Itune users are quite unaware they dont really own their stuff.
Or your friends are just stupid...
DRM only hurts legitimate consumers in the end. Those who want to be honest get bashed around by companies while those who steal get what they want....
Awesome news! However, I have to add two things:
1. Steve Jobs wasn't the first CEO to call for DRM-free music. Though, he can lay claim to the most popular CEO to call for it.
2. iTunes is a little late to the party. Like, almost a year late. Heck, the now-defunct Yahoo music actually HAD (some) DRM-free music, Rhapsody and Zune is now pretty much DRM-free. And Lala is, too. Napster? Yup.
Hate to be that way, but it's true.
You haven't been paying attention. As other people in this very thread have already mentioned, Apple doesn't have control over whether they get to sell DRM-free music or not. The record labels do. As part of their bid to unseat Apple as the #1 retailer, they have been allowing nearly everybody to sell their music DRM-free (Amazon is a good example of this), but not Apple.
EMI is the exception, as they did allow Apple to sell their music DRM free. Apple was calling for DRM free music before the Amazon MP3 store existed. In fact the only reason any music on the iTunes store has DRM on it at all is because that was the only way Apple could make the initial deals with all 4 major labels initially.
Just one thing, that is bulls**t because it is news from Apple and Engadget. I will turn into the best apple-fanboy, which is the type of personality I consider sinful, if it true.
People seems to be missing the point. Do you guys know what this means? It could mean either Apple bow down to the music industry's preference of variable pricing, or the other way around (Apple managed to convince the music industry they they cannot live without iTMS).
What people doesn't seem to realize, Apple doesn't decide whether iTMS musics have DRM or not. It's the music labels. Apple already has iTunes plus, so if the labels want their music to be DRM free, the option is already available in iTMS. The music labels think iTunes' dominance is not good for their bottom line, thus many won't allow Apple to sell their music without DRM, yet they allow the competitions to sell DRM free (Amazon, Napster, Zune marketplace, etc). This is to simply put pressure on Apple.
The main sticking point is that music labels want variable pricing. Did everybody forget about that? Jobs doesn't (or didn't?) want it. So, this could mean 2 things. Apple gave up and follow what the music labels want, thus gaining the flexibility of selling music without DRM, or the music labels realizing that iTunes is the number 1 music distributor, that they wised up and allow DRM free music to be available via iTMS.
Either way, it's good for the consumers. Apple is not "late" to the party. They have been selling iTunes plus music for a while. It's the music labels that are late to the party. Without iTunes' dominance in digital downloads, we would not have Amazon/Napster/everybody else doing DRM free.
The question of variable pricing depends on what that really means. If it means that the studios want to control the per track price and increase that for some songs then I don't think Apple will have moved on that. However, they certainly are selling albums at cheaper prices these days in their weekly promotions, so if that counts as "variable pricing" then it looks like the record companies got their way. I can't say that I am disappointed at this...
If apple makes the songs on itunes drm free then ill go back, but until then im plenty fine with amazon
Too good to be true. However, if they want to keep up with Amazon, this should be in their long term plans.
Er - seeing as how Apple is the #1 music retailer in the US, I don't think they're having a problem "keeping up with Amazon". Maybe you forgot, or missed it or something but Jobs was calling for DRM free music before the Amazon MP3 store existed. How's that for a long term plan?
Sony? Rootkit Sony?
Holy shit does Apple have to copy EVERYTHING Zune does? Can they just give them a LITTLE CREDIT? jeese man.
I cant wait till all the mactards in my class to praise Apple for their innovation in being the "first" to have subscriptions :/
Surely the only innovation of the Zune is "squirting" music? iTunes had DRM-free first from EMI and the Zune certainly can't claim that. Subscription services have also been around a lot longer than the Zune. So what would Apple be copying from the Zune?
Sorry, if you had your /sarcasm tag on then I missed that one.
As a previous iTunes user who now owns an Android device, this would be greatly appreciated.
DRM is a bag of hurt
This could be true, because the iTMS was/is in danger of getting closed down in parts of Europe if they don't remove the DRM.
Assuming it actually happens, hooray. Maybe now we can have a straight old fashioned price war between Amazon and Apple and the price will drop to something reasonable for a product we actually want. Wake me up when it reaches the old AllOfMp3 levels. $2.50 per album, $0.25 per track.
Don't think so... music labels are the ones who get most of the money, and Apple (Apparently) makes very little money per song. Soooo, talk to the labels if you want the prices to drop
Apple doesn't really have a choice in the matter unless they are willing to write off the European market.
The lawsuit Norway started and which Denmark and Sweden (and by extension the EU)has joined is gaining traction .. a de facto monopoly of online music market+DRM music = illegal.
I hate the rabid dog mentality of some the stuff EU does, but love them when they fight for me (as consumer) :)
Maybe they can switch over to MP3 whilst they are at it.
But who am i kidding, its Apple so of course they wont.
Is it really that big a deal? I know all my (non Apple) devices can play AAC files perfectly.
Why would they do that? AAC encoding is better than MP3, and it's just as much of an open standard.
How can anybody believe these rumors, the article has "Sony" and "DRM-free" in one sentence.
So what? I've been getting all my music DRM free for years now...
Eh, lossless is nice, but I think 256kbps DRM-free is the perfect middle ground. Good enough quality that 99% of listeners probably can't tell a difference in blind testing, and your only restriction is whether or not your player supports AAC. And if Apple went totally DRM-free, AAC support would probably shoot through the roof.
Honestly, most people don't care about lossless, they do care about being able to use their lossy files how they want though.
Hey Steve, how about DRM-free lossless files for $1.29 each?
Make it apple lossless and I'll start buying my music online.