iTunes DRM-Free Upgrade: Full Price, All or Nothing

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That’s right, you heard me. If you want to upgrade some of your music on iTunes to the new DRM-free version, you are out of luck unless you pay full price for your entire music collection. That’s right, there is no picking and choosing, it is all or nothing. :(

So I clicked "Upgrade To iTunes Plus" and I got a gun to my face saying "$250 or else." Seriously, they want $250—actually, they want $250.06 but what's a few pennies between lifelong friends?—to upgrade the 1,000+ songs I've bought over the years. That would mean that all those albums I paid $9.99 for would actually cost me $13 in the end.
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BS

I <3 Amazon for my digital purchases. Although when I'm near a store that has the CD for roughly the same price as the download (which makes minimal sense) I do that. Then, a lossy mp3 for my ipod and a lossless .wma for my HTPCs. And the CD gets lost in a closet or basement.
 
you could just take a CD-RW, burn the songs, and then rip them back onto your computer...

it takes time, but it's only the cost of a blank CD-RW.
 
TSS Modder said:
you could just take a CD-RW, burn the songs, and then rip them back onto your computer...

it takes time, but it's only the cost of a blank CD-RW.
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Forget the disc. You should be able to just burn them to an ISO, mount the ISO in Daemon Tools (or whatever floats your boat), and rip them off the phantom drive. Should be a lot faster, too.
 
TSS Modder said:
you could just take a CD-RW, burn the songs, and then rip them back onto your computer...

it takes time, but it's only the cost of a blank CD-RW.
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How are you going to make the tracks magically have higher quality?
 
RadCliffeX said:
How are you going to make the tracks magically have higher quality?
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Right, iTunes+ also gets the almighty 256kbps audio quality

however, for pure DRM breaking, the CD-R method is the way. There's also some Mac app that supposedly breaks itunes DRM
 
It's stories like these that make me glad I don't listen to music.

What a bunch of crap.
 
DoubleTwist. It's time consuming, but it un-DRM's your DRM'ed music. It doesn't add quality though, so if that's your destination, it's not a solution.
 
What's that I hear? That's the sound of the last few nails going into the DRM coffin.

Man, that's going to make a few people just a little bit angry.
 
Advil said:
What's that I hear? That's the sound of the last few nails going into the DRM coffin.

Man, that's going to make a few people just a little bit angry.
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a few people, maybe

But don't think this move is purely Apple rebelling against the RIAA, etc.

But who do you think that extra 30 cents is going to?
 
//[T.0.P]//;1033595617 said:
Once lossy, always lossy if I'm not mistaken.
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Not only that you lose quality again during the conversion. If their ears can take it, then by all means reconvert.

Apparently running an online music store costs as much as a brick and mortar shop. The prices that these shops are charging is out of control. Paying $13 for a lossy album is absurd.

I'll admit I've purchased some lossless files from MusicGiants and DigitalTunes which aren't cheap either but I had to have it right away and it wasn't any more expensive than walking into a record shop + tax and gas.

If Apple wants to charge that much for their downloads then they need to offer them in a lossless format as well. Enough of this compressed shit already. Fine, offer it for those who don't care about the quality and or those who are hard up for hard drive space, but if you're going to charge me CD prices, offer me true CD quality.
 
Though i hate them for doing it, you have to admit, it's a good plan.
 
Just use a little program called Noteburner. You will not need to use an CDs. It is real easy. It creates a virtual cd drive that Itunes thinks is an actual cdr. Tell Itunes to burn a playlist of your DRM music to the Noteburner Drive and Noteburner will take the songs and place them into whatever folder you want with all the tags still in tact and it is now DRM free. The beauty is that you are not ripping the DRM. You are actually using Itunes to convert the music to MP3, so it is perfectly legal... or at least I think it is.
 
In some ways I really like Apple; but when it comes down to creative ways for a company to nickle and dime you, they are the King.

I still haven't paid the $9.99 to upgrade my iPod touch to version 2 of the software. And now they want to charge me for this? Pfft.
 
Apple is ingenious! They’ve successfully found a way to make profit twice by selling a product or service once. I think they should run the IRS.

FYIY, I “buy” nothing that’s DRM laden unless it comes on physical media.
 
Luckily the 251 tracks I purchased years ago were 'exorcised' of their DRM when there were tools to do so :)

I haven't purchased an iTunes track in a good 4 years now. I either buy the CD and rip, or use Amazon.
 
This is rich!

Allow me to find a comfy chair so I may continue to laugh derisively.

:p
 
but like sheep, people will do it, apple will be the money whore here, and everyone will praise them for this option, like all other overpriced/ridiculous things apple
 
I really wish iTunes would start offering lossless versions of their tracks (and not at a higher price, either). Seriously, how hard would that be? Most people have an Internet connection capable of streaming 1000+kbps, and it's not like Apple's server couldn't handle it.
 
Understandable. I'm sure that Apple wants to purge the DRM from their system as fast as possible so that in a few years they can shut down the activation servers and move past the era of failed copy protection.
 
I buy either of the following:

1. Original CD

2. Amazon mp3's...DRM free, and I really like their service.

Can't go wrong with either of the above or something else like Emusic.
 
I will keep my CD's. No DRM to worry about (some have it but its now all removable) and the quality is the same or better than any of the download sites plus a system crash means I can still listen to my music while rebuilding my PC / waiting for the servers to come back online.

I do see problems coming along, when places like iTunes eventually go under / stop running what are we going to do with all the DRM music or movies that need the licence downloaded from a now dead server before they will play. That day will come and that is the day DRM is finally understood as a way for the original creator to rip off the end user with only a few people spotting it before it happens.
 
In my opinion if someone bought this many DRM songs he fully deserves to be cash cow for Apple.

I hope such things will hit as many of the "drm doesn't affect me so who cares" people as possible so they finally learn.
 
thekipper said:
I buy either of the following:

1. Original CD

2. Amazon mp3's...DRM free, and I really like their service.

Can't go wrong with either of the above or something else like Emusic.
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Same. Ripping Lossless or 320k AAC is it for me. I'd go Amazon more often but I prefer higher bitrate AAC over mp3, especially now that I'm playing more music in my living room and you can really tell the difference over those loudspeakers.
 
Eh, if people bought DRM laden media in the first place its their own fault for trusting the company. Whether it be apple or anybody else, if you can't control it once you buy it you don't really own it.
 
Spammy1984 said:
Eh, if people bought DRM laden media in the first place its their own fault for trusting the company. Whether it be apple or anybody else, if you can't control it once you buy it you don't really own it.
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Absolutely 100% QFT.

Fortunately, for things like music there is a way to stay out of DRM with CD purchases and the majority of music labels allowing for DRM free downloads as a result.

Unfortunately, for many games and e-books it seems that DRM is here to stay. I love Steam and I love Amazon's Kindle e-book reader, but unfortunately both services use DRM in order to keep purchases locked to single or limited users. They try and make it as unobtrusive as possible (especially with the Kindle since you can link multiple devices to a library) but the limitations of DRM are still there.

If the services like Steam or Kindle didn't offer such a level of convenience, I wouldn't have anything to do with them. DRM is an unfortunate tradeoff in those cases.
 
I was going to write that Apple could create a lot more brand loyalty by doing this for free or a lot cheaper, but then I realized going DRM free will potentially increase piracy a tiny bit. That an dbran dloyalty already is very high with Apple. I don't lik eit, but I think they made the right move.
 
techie254 said:
dont listen to music?
i doubt that
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Why is htat so hard to believe? I'll listen to talk or sports radio in the car. I don't own a single CD, or a single mp3 on my computer. My wife has a couple of country CDs, but she hardly ever listens to them.
 
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