I bet you were all excited about El Jobso’s MacWorld announcement that the iTunes store was dropping DRM. I bet you were even more excited about the promise of a one-click conversion that would remove the DRM restrictions from the music you’ve already bought on iTunes. You were all excited to upgrade your library, weren’t you?
Well think again, bitchez, because it looks like the labels managed to find a way to stick it to you good and hard one last time! That one-click conversion to strip the DRM out of your AAC files? Yeah, that’s gonna cost you 30 cents per track.
Special indeed!
Fortunately, my library consists mostly of non-DRM’d tracks. Otherwise, I’d be looking at a nearly $300 fee to “upgrade” music I’ve already paid for. I suspect that most people who actually care about DRM haven’t spent a lot of money buying protected content, so I guess that’s a silver lining. Still, you have to be amazed at the utter shamelessness of these asshats.
Yeah, isn’t that just oh so special? My total is a lot less than yours is. But what a lovely treat! Paying twice for the same thing.
There’s a word for this. I think it’s “extortion.”
I don’t even use iTunes for my iPod. It’s far too restrictive.
Actually, I’ve bought a lot of stuff on iTunes as well as non-DRM content.
I agree with you in general about DRM, and am glad to see it fading away.
Having said that, the DRM that does exist from iTunes isn’t terribly cumbersome. Better than Rhapsody or whatever Sony is flogging these days.
@ ZRM – it’s the obama of DRM systems?
well, I remember back when iTunes was rolled out. Apple wanted no DRM, the labels wanted ridiculous DRM that was punishable by death. The five computers/ burning cds/ limited transferability was a compromise that allowed digital purchases to even be feasible.
I remember sony pioneering a stealth system that crashed your computer if you tried to rip one of their cds. I even got one of those cds. I never listened to it.
So yea, DRM sucks. But since I prefer some mode of digital purchase, and iTunes has not only maintained the level of artist payments but also increased the percentages in some cases, it’s not the worst compromise in the world. And now based on actual data, labels are backing off the DRM even further. Not a bad thing.
After all, the problem with Limewire and the ilk is that in the end, the artists don’t even receive the paltry sums they normally realize from cd sales.
Of course, in the future none of us will have disposable income for any recorded music, so polish up those instrument skills and DIY. Punk lives, I guess.
sheet music ftw, ZRM!
iTunes DRM is not terrible, I will admit. Five copies is pretty fair. The problem I’ve always had with digital is the price. Most digital albums are $10, and I can usually get the CD for $10-14 (I won’t pay over $14 unless it’s something I’m dying to have or hard to find). So, for a few extra bucks, I get no DRM, the option to rip at whatever bitrate I desire, and a hard copy that I can play in my car without having to burn a copy onto a blank CD.
I also have the same guilt spot that ZRM does. I have plenty of music I didn’t pay for, some of it from the days when I had Kazaa and Morpheus flowing through my veins. But most of it is stuff from other people’s collections, traded the way it was in the old days, only much more efficiently than making tapes. However, I try to buy the stuff I really love — if I suddenly couldn’t have this album, would I run out and buy it? Yes=purchase.
I use the ipod in the car, so I don’t care about the hard copy. Also, in that 10 buck CD, the profits are devalued by the production costs, and you can bet that money doesn’t come out of the label’s share….
As always, YMMV.
I just buy my music direct from the artist these days. I pretty much only listen to like 5 bands now which I see on a monthly basis. I buy their stuff when I can scrape up the cash. I then immediately rip the albums, but haven’t ever distributed the stuff.
I made a sampler cd of some bands, but then realized that I couldn’t really do that justice without a few more albums, so that will have to wait some more. Besides, that could only generate sales for those bands as they are all local to DC and by sending 15 copies of a CD out to my friends in far away places, and anyway, I blather on.
I am with Chuckles my friend, whenever possible I buy music direct from artists. more beer money for them.