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iTunes, One Billion Suckers Served?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the drm-ftw dept.

Thomas Hawk writes "Apple is out hyping their one billionth iTunes download today, but is building your music library in a format that could be obsolete in the future really the best strategy? Will the consumer once again have to someday replace their iTunes track just like they had to replace their LP, cassette, and CD only to get their music on their hot new non Apple mp3 phone of the future? "

9 of 653 comments (clear)

  1. Not very likely by Calibax · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I understand how media can be obsoleted when players for that media are no longer available. However, it's much more difficult to make a data format unuseable.

    Surely that can only occur if the format can only be read by a non-open source application that is only available in binary format and where the hardware to run that program becomes unavailable. I suppose it could also happen if the media you use for your iTunes storage becomes obsolete and you don't remember to copy your music to another media format.

    I think a billion downloads (and counting) will ensure that iTunes music will remain playable for a long time to come and will sound just as good then as it does now.

    1. Re:Not very likely by HairyCanary · · Score: 5, Interesting
      HYMN does not work on the latest Apple DRM.

      And despite the fact that people routinely say "everything gets cracked," there is evidence to contradict that. DRM is going to get "Good Enough" that for all practical purposes it will not be crackable.

  2. Not only that by cosmo7 · · Score: 5, Funny

    But when the sun explodes your music won't play whatever format it's in! And what does Apple do about this? Nothing!.

    It's a class action suit waiting to happen.

  3. Pimp my blog by MyLongNickName · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... and post something ranting about DRM.

    Blogger admits he has never used service. Does not address the fact that you CAN covert to another format if you wish.

    Is iTunes perfect? No. But I have purchased 20x more music than what I would have otherwise.

    And even if iTunes shut down tomorrow, I would lose 0% of my music.

    Only thing I wish is that it would serve up a higher bit rate....

    --
    See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
  4. Doesn't work quite so well by DreadSpoon · · Score: 5, Informative

    Converting to any other format is going to cause a loss of quality. Even if you go to WAV or CD Audio, if you ever want to rip it back into some compressed format, you're going to lose quality.

    Also, if you rip to WAV or CD, you lose all the meta-data for the track. So if you want to know the Artist, Title, and Album, you're going to have to re-enter that info on your own.

    There's also no clean/easy way to export to MP3. Even if you jump through the hoops to do it, though, you're back to loss of quality.

    I just went through the hell of exporting all my iTunes-purchased songs into Oggs so that I can play them on my Linux box, which has the nice sound system. That took quite a few burned CDs and I still haven't gotten the Oggs all retagged yet. Plus there's the quality issue, which while I've only noticed anything in a couple songs, that's still more quality issue than I would prefer.

  5. Lame. by d3kk · · Score: 5, Insightful
    "Personally I've never bought an iTune and I don't own an iPod."

    I stopped reading right there. It's kind of hard to criticize a service without actually ever using it.

  6. Re:works half as well... by StevieZ · · Score: 5, Funny

    jeezus, man, whatever happened to just putting on a godam record.

  7. That blog's comments made me cringe by TubeSteak · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Literally, I cringed at how many commentors thought they were soooooo clever for burning to a CD then re-ripping to MP3.

    I remember (when I had just discovered MP3s in 9th grade) re-encoding them to a higher bitrate. I thought I was clever, I mean, higher bitrate right?

    Fark I was stupid & so is every n00btard who says "burn it and re-encode it."

    I think part of the problem is that people now have something 'invested' in iTunes or their iPod and because of that, they'll defend it. Even if you give them proof they may have made a bad choice.

    Remember folks, denial is the first step.
    Then comes anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.

    I'm not saying iTunes is bad, but the people who have invested money/time/credibility into Apple will have a lot of trouble stepping back and looking at their decision objectively.

    --
    [Fuck Beta]
    o0t!
  8. This guy is looking down on ME for buying iTunes? by balloot · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I think it's stupid to pay $15 for most new CDs. I think it's stupid to pay for an entire CD when you want only one song. I think it's stupid to have to clear out a lot of physical space in order to hold your CD collection. I think it's stupid to force yourself to either a) go to a store to buy a CD or b) wait days in order to receive your purchase when the whole process can happen instantly. So I buy songs online. The DRM isn't really an issue to those of us that have actually used iTunes and know that it is very possible to get mp3's out of your m4p files.

    Oh, and about the author's brilliant scheme of buying CDs and returning them the next day - if I wanted to get music while screwing the artist out of any money, I would just download the song for free.