iTunes Goes DRM-Free...Today?

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O.K., so the big rumor today is that Sony-BMG, Warner, and Universal Music will be sold on iTunes without copy protection starting today. Too good to be true? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

"As always with Apple, we move forward with caution," Electronlibre reports. "Nevertheless...Apple is going to announce that the catalogues of three major labels will be sold without DRM protection as of December 9."
 
I call too good to be true, I almost fell out of my chair when I saw this. I hope it is though....
 
I'm betting on so not true. Even if it is though I still won't buy from them. Amazon FTW!
 
I heard it was DRM free, but subscription based, the linked article doesn't address that.
 
If this is true I see a huge increase in sales. Then again, they may also raise the price to $1.50/song.
 
Even if it is though I still won't buy from them. Amazon FTMFW!
Fixed.

It will be great if this does turn out to be true. Although I have become quite fond of Amazon's music store as much as I hate compressed music. They do use a high bitrate and the results are generally really good but still not as good as the lossless version of the same track (yes the difference can be heard with the right ears and gear). They get my money from time to time.
 
Even if it is true it really doesn't matter as I own a Nano. Try figuring out which one of your songs is DRM free on the Device considering Apple Itunes names all your songs by random jibberish names such as jxrlmtrbvx when you are trying to locate your songs on your device without using Itunes. Try picking songs out of your collection of 15,000 or more when they are all named like that to find your non-DRM songs you are trying to burn to a CD or share to another device.
 
To good to be true. Will all those DRM sold tracks now be DRM free. That's the real question.
 
As others have mentioned: Amazon: Been there, done that. Absolutely love it.
 
If this is true I see a huge increase in sales. Then again, they may also raise the price to $1.50/song.
At $1.50 they may still rake in the $$$$ because people are goofy like that and will spend the price of a CD for quality that is less than a CD. They won't get my money if they price their music at $1.50 per track with or without DRM. And subscriptions? No way. T
 
I like my iPod okay, but I refuse to buy music on iTunes. Something about having to enter my password and them telling me how many computers I can have my music on. I buy the CDs, rip em, put the CD on the shelf and forget about it. Totally inefficient, but as long as the CD costs less and the digital version has DRM, I'll stick to old school style physical media that I own. I could get behind a subscription deal if it was cheap enough and the songs were unlimited.

Best part about physical CDs is that when I'm sick and in the hospital waiting for a transplant and the RIAA sues me, I have the CDs to prove that I own all my stuff.
 
If they convert to full DRM-free, will they allow me to re-download my DRMed songs - DRM-free?
 
Again, Amazon ftw

Like others have said though, when the CD costs roughly the same price, it makes a lot of sense to rip a high bitrate/lossless digital copy then put the CDs in a box or on a shelf.
 
If they convert to full DRM-free, will they allow me to re-download my DRMed songs - DRM-free?

May be wrong, isn't that already an option in iTunes? iTunes Plus?

i dunno.. been awhile since I last used iTunes... Media Monkey FTW.
 
May be wrong, isn't that already an option in iTunes? iTunes Plus?

i dunno.. been awhile since I last used iTunes... Media Monkey FTW.

Not all iTunes music has iTunes Plus versions. Only select iTunes music is currently DRM free. So once again Amazon ftw!
 
If they convert to full DRM-free, will they allow me to re-download my DRMed songs - DRM-free?
Will Apple give you something for nothing? I can pretty much guarantee you that this won't happen :)
 
If they go DRM free and keep the same pricing model I will start buying my music from them. I rebuild computers and change out devices so frequently that the 5-copy model would never work for me.
 
I thought they were already DRM free with the <i>Higher Quality</i> version? I thought it was $1.29 for a song that was Lossless AAC and DRM Free but still watermarked (which I could care less about as long as it doesn't interfere). If They could do that and then offer a Zune pass/Napster like Unlimited deal (that would be drm'ed to hell though and thats ok) then I'd finally install iTunes. I already have an iPod but I hate iTunes and refuse to use it, however the though of the Zune Pass / Napster Deal is good then I could hear full songs and albums and when I want it I'll buy it DRM free to keep.
 
If they go DRM free and keep the same pricing model I will start buying my music from them. I rebuild computers and change out devices so frequently that the 5-copy model would never work for me.


If you mean the 5 systems you get to install your library too then you might not be right. I was actually surprised to help a friend with this. He had given me an old laptop and I reformatted it and reinstall windows a few times, had to get a new HD in there and did it yet again. One day he calls and says he has no more audible accounts and asks me to deactivate his account. I told him I don't think it would work and he told me to get itunes and try. long story short I get it, get it installed put in his credentials and hit unauthorized computer and it worked!

I also haven't tried and don't know if they try to detect this but you could always make your itunes library computer virtual.
 
Even if it is true it really doesn't matter as I own a Nano. Try figuring out which one of your songs is DRM free on the Device considering Apple Itunes names all your songs by random jibberish names such as jxrlmtrbvx when you are trying to locate your songs on your device without using Itunes. Try picking songs out of your collection of 15,000 or more when they are all named like that to find your non-DRM songs you are trying to burn to a CD or share to another device.


Quite easy actually. M4P are protected, M4A should be unprotected. Also you could use floola to read the database, thats how I manage my ipod at the moment, in the information screen for the song it'll tell you the path and the song name, I never understood why they rename the song seemingly at randome AND have multiple folders.
 
Rumor has it they are ready to adjust the thermostat "down below" depending on where exactly this all goes... :D
 
Quite easy actually. M4P are protected, M4A should be unprotected. Also you could use floola to read the database, thats how I manage my ipod at the moment, in the information screen for the song it'll tell you the path and the song name, I never understood why they rename the song seemingly at random AND have multiple folders.
Simple obfuscation to thwart casual file sharing straight from the iPod?
 
Wow. Apple actually negotiating with other companies to try and remove DRM.

IF this turns out to be true, I may actually decide to purchase from them in the future, even though they're probably the least power-user-friendly companies in existence.
 
Even if it is true it really doesn't matter as I own a Nano. Try figuring out which one of your songs is DRM free on the Device considering Apple Itunes names all your songs by random jibberish names such as jxrlmtrbvx when you are trying to locate your songs on your device without using Itunes. Try picking songs out of your collection of 15,000 or more when they are all named like that to find your non-DRM songs you are trying to burn to a CD or share to another device.

I've used sharepod with both of my nano's. It's free and easy to use.
 
Not gonna happen without serious concessions on Apple's part. The record labels are scared to death of iTunes and don't want to give them that kind of power. Its why they gave Amazon so much more freedom with their own (awesome) mp3 store.
 
Wow. Apple actually negotiating with other companies to try and remove DRM.

IF this turns out to be true, I may actually decide to purchase from them in the future, even though they're probably the least power-user-friendly companies in existence.

Apple were the ones that strong armed them into DRM removal in the first place (there was an open letter from Steve Jobs basically calling all of them out on how stupid DRM is). The thing is that they only got EMI in the process. The other major labels started selling DRM free tracks through other services like Amazon (this was at the same time that NBC/Universal pulled their movies and TV shows from the iTunes).
 
Quite easy actually. M4P are protected, M4A should be unprotected. Also you could use floola to read the database, thats how I manage my ipod at the moment, in the information screen for the song it'll tell you the path and the song name, I never understood why they rename the song seemingly at randome AND have multiple folders.

Just tried floola. It's better than sharepod. Thanks dude.
 
OMG, I so wish this is true. It doesn't look like anything's going to happen today, though...:(
 
I haven't used iTunes in ages, but can you now redownload your songs in the event of a reformat like Steam allows its users to do?
 
I haven't used iTunes in ages, but can you now redownload your songs in the event of a reformat like Steam allows its users to do?

Yes, you can redownload you purchased songs. The problem is, a reformat may use up one of your five allowed computers per song unless you properly deactivate the system before reformatting.
 
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