iTunes: Apple's music store is going DRM-free

tom Wed, Jan 14, 2009 at 06:21 PM EST

i cant beleive there rasing the price 4 new music

Muffy Sat, Jan 10, 2009 at 04:04 PM EST

Um, you can share your itunes tracks with your friends! Make them a cd.

MrsH Sat, Jan 10, 2009 at 02:56 PM EST

My boss gave us all iPods, and before long, I found myself "locked in" with thousands of songs I'd ripped from my CD collection in iTunes format -- and unable to burn them to an MP3 CD (with titles and song info to display on my CD player), or unable to let my husband play them on his non-Apple media player. I finally bought SW that unlocks the DRM on my iTunes library -- but I think the new scheme is great IF it really means that I can play music bought elsewhere on my iPod or share my iTunes library with other players.

Paul Z. Thu, Jan 8, 2009 at 09:15 PM EST

Boo, iTunes!!! Charging 30 cents extra for the most popular tunes is such a sham-the majority of songs that people buy are all new hits. Decreasing the price of songs that no one cares about will save no one money. Plus, iTunes used to offer iTunes plus for only 99 cents. I, for one, am taking my money to amazon mp3-popular songs are only 89 cents, and EVERYTHING is DRM-free.

raven Thu, Jan 8, 2009 at 08:19 PM EST

Itunes already has an option up where you can upgrade all your songs, it costs you $0.30 a song, and you can't do songs individually. So it wants me to pay $121 by it's estimate, even though over 1/3 of that is for songs that are no longer in my Music Library since I deleted them because they were taking up too much space and I really doubted I'd listen to them again. So I like that the new songs I buy will have the new features but I'm pissed that they won't just upgrade the old ones for free.

nellie Thu, Jan 8, 2009 at 03:34 PM EST

Big freaking deal. Amazon has been selling DRM-free music since they launched their digital music store, their selection rocks, and they have daily sales and free songs. I gave up on iTunes a LONG time ago as a result.

ripcircuitrocker Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 12:15 PM EST

Anyone check out www.mp3fiesta.com ? They sell complete studio albums in mp3 format for just $2.00. How is this legal???

Nix Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 08:44 AM EST

The higher bitrate is what attracts me. Besides, I so seldom buy new hits anyway. But I'm currently wondering whether the higher quality (and, granted, the DRM-free state) of the new songs is worth what iTunes tells me is a $99 one-time all-at-once only upgrade for the 350+ songs I've bought from them since the beginning of time or early 2005 whichever came first. If only you could choose which songs to upgrade!

Aaron Perkins Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 07:24 AM EST

That's good news. I had to buy a CD player that was AAC encoded to play my iTunes tracks, unless I wanted to mp3 the tracks, which reduced sound quality (ask an audiophile). And to be totally honest, I shared music before iTunes, Zune, Urge/Rhapsody, etc. Now we can go back to more than word of mouth:word of ear.

Ally duan Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 03:58 AM EST

Really good news. DRM free for all iTunes music.
I often used wondershare streaming Video Recorder to download DRM music,videos here.

http://www.flash-on-tv.com/streaming-video-recorder.html#124

Now it is no use for all music.

How about DRM Videos, DRM movies, and DRM TV shows? When we get free DRM of them.

Crystal Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 11:57 PM EST

I don't get the DRM thing. I have my itunes library, I burn mix CDs for people and mixes for myself and play the music on my ipod. Guess I'm missing something...I also kindof liked that everything cost the same...guess I'm the exception.

Dawn Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 11:40 PM EST

I'm all about Amazon too.

Tina Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 10:20 PM EST

For people who -- like me -- tend to buy the obscure songs rather than the big hits, this is VERY good news.

LJ Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 07:03 PM EST

Simon, I wouldn't go around characterizing the removal of DRM in terms of helping you share the songs with your friends. DRM or not, you don't have legal rights to make copies (at least in the eyes of the music industry).

What DRM removal is really about is A) allowing for more device compatibility, and B) untethering your purchases from having to authorize with Apple each time you play them. The latter is probably most important -- now if (when?) Apple goes out of business, you won't lose your songs.

Kevin Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 05:45 PM EST

Actually, EP Sato, the Apple website says that it will be compatible but you have to pay an extra 30 cents for each iTunes song that needs to be upgraded.

EP Sato Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 05:20 PM EST

I've been cursing DRM ever since I got some non-Ipod Mp3 players. They'll play the 6000 songs I had uploaded onto my Creative Zen's program, but they won't play a single song that is on my Itunes library (including, rather ironically, stuff that was copied off my Creative program).

DRM is one of the most reviled technologies of all time so it's about time they got with the program.

The only shame here is that it's likely the DRM-free scheme won't be backwards compatible, so my current Itunes library is still worthless.

Kevin Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 04:12 PM EST

Jaime, I agree...it is nice to actually have ownership of a solid object that you can hold in your hands and leaf through the pages of the insert. But, you hit a wall eventually. I own over 800 CDs and I just can't handle the clutter anymore. I plan on keeping the essentials and selling the rabble...it'll probably bring me down to able 200 CDs. In the future, I'll probably use digital downloads exclusively and only buy the CDs of ablums I MUST own (any Radiohead for example). So this is welcome news that the sound quality will finally be better on iTunes.

Marty McDoodle Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 03:29 PM EST

Bout time Mac wised up.

ABElia Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 03:18 PM EST

I'm with Kyle. Amazon is better than iTunes for sure. It's always cheaper too. I buy a lot of Trance and when it's not available(MP3) at Amazon, I'll go over to iTunes. Almost every Trance album they have will have tracks missing and will say, "Album Only"?!?
WTF? In other words, iTunes is a jip.

jaime Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 03:02 PM EST

Um it really doesnt bother me...i have an ipod and use itunes but i still go and buy the actuall CD and just upload it! If you are going to spend the money my aswell get the ACTUALL CD!! I just upload and place it aside in these cute CD storage bins i have...

The reason i buy the album is b/c in our life time i believe the cd will become extinct and well i would love to have a collection of CDs to show my kids or kids kids...

J. Baker Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 02:56 PM EST

To Kevin: Maximum of five user authorizations for iTunes files (so five people can use the one password). Most peeps have gotten around the limit with a DRM stripping program (TuneClone) or the old-school "burn and rip" method: (1) burn songs from iTunes to CD, (2) reimport into iTunes as MP3 files.

Kyle Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 02:46 PM EST

Even as a Mac user, I've all but abandoned the iTunes music store in favor of Amazon. They do a daily deal (usually a $2 album,) and their prices are better all around. (Lots of .79 cent tracks, etc.) Not to mention, the DRM-free is a plus. This new deal might have be back in the iTunes store periodically, but I've become quite loyal to Amazon these last few months.

MSR Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 02:18 PM EST

I don't really care about the DRM issue, that could affect me less, except when I want to create a ringtone or something. As long as we get the 256 kbps quality file on iTunes, I'll be happy.

Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 01:40 PM EST

Update: True, according to Macworld's liveblog!!!

Lammie Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 01:37 PM EST

This is really good news, if it is true. There isn't a legal way to play iTunes songs on a Linux box, and it is because of the DRM. One of the reasons Amazon became more popular for electronic music sales is because they are DRM-free. If both these sites sell music without DRM, it may also make the prices more competitive.

Kevin Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 01:01 PM EST

What exactly are the current constraints for iTunes songs? All of my iTunes songs are on my portable hard drive and I have been able to plug my hard drive into my girlfriend's computer and give her songs with no real problem (she just needs my password to hear them). On how many computers can a person do this? Can my girlfriend burn those songs onto CDs? Once the songs are on a CD, can they be burned onto another computer or is that when the DRM comes into play? I'm just curious because I don't really know too much about the issue and I really haven't tried out too many options (I only recently got all of my music on my hard drive...it took a whole year).

Ben Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 12:52 PM EST

I don't know if they have drm but I am annoyed by the changing cost of songs. The equal approach works for me. Also, I'd like to be able to buy a song over 10 minutes and not have to buy the whole album.

anthony Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 12:52 PM EST

this is completely ridiculous and very upsetting to most of the music industry i'm sure, i can't believe they would do this. it's like asking people to get music illegally... like itunes is saying "hey buy this and then send it to everyone in the world so they won't have to buy it! it'll be so fun"

idiotic people... i can't stand them, they should be going in the other direction, making it impossible to send any music anywhere! being able to put it on ur ipod and that's it!

Matt Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 12:49 PM EST

This is very exciting news. There are some of us out there that would prefer DRM-free files for personal reasons (not to share them with the whole world)... like every year I mix together a countdown of my favorite songs of the year, and my music editing program cannot recognize iTunes files... If they were DRM free, I'd be able to do this with no problem.

I am against sharing files (buy your own damn music if you want it so bad...) but I am happy to hear that these files may become DRM-free.

Jon Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 12:38 PM EST

I'm sure they lost sales to amazon b/c of the DRM issue. I always check to see if the song is available on both & buy whichever has no DRM.