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iTunes DRM-Free Tracks Now Same Price As DRM Tracks
jawtheshark writes "Apple has made the decision to revise the pricing of Plus songs on the iTunes Music store. Whereas previously the DRM-less tracks were more expensive than the 'normal' option (at $1.29 vs. $0.99), DRM-less tracks bought via ITMS will now be priced on the same level as DRM'd tracks. 'Apple plans to expand iTunes Plus to include certain indie music labels starting Wednesday, October 17 (or sometime this week, at least) ... This expansion won't include all independent music labels just yet, although we're optimistic that more will be included in the future. While we have no information on whether the iTunes Plus songs are selling well, we assume that the decision to drop the price is a response to the Amazon MP3 store. Amazon sells individual tracks for between 89 and 99 apiece, all without any DRM restrictions. With that in mind, it's kind of hard for Apple to compete at $1.29.'"
Competition is good.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
I know it's nothing novel to complain about the quality of Slashdot summaries, but it really would have been nice to mention that the new price for all songs is 99. The last line in the current summary gives the impression that they were all going to be $1.29...
The Non-DRM songs are called "iTunes Plus", they show up in your play list with a "+" next to them. I've upgraded a few of my songs from the DRM to non-DRM versions for $.30, I wonder if they will be offering free upgrades for those who haven't upgraded already?
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
It doesn't even take effort to import the tracks into iTunes. The Amazon downloader automagically opens up and handles all the importing for you (at least on Windows.)
Amazon does not work well on Linux, though they do promise that a linux version of there MP3 downloader is coming. At the moment, linux users can only get single tracks, which is more costly than the whole album. I am struggling to understand the need for a specific piece of software for albums. Why not just sell albums as an archive (Zip perhaps, to be Windows friendly) of all the MP3 files? That's what Radiohead did. Also, the Amazon service is still (at least nominally) available to people with US addresses.
As I understand it, they're 256kbps AAC files. Which is good, because it's a much better codec than mp3. It's also something of a myth that only iPods play them; lots of other machines, from PSPs via Zunes and Zens to Nokia mobile phones can handle the format.
"I Know You Are But What Am I?"
i would hardly call AAC obscure. it has more device market penetration than WMA, that real defecation and OGG combined. even the zune plays AACs! ;)
Don't call me back. Give me a call back. Bye. So yeah. But bye our, well, but alright we are on a shirt this chill.
Apple invented this juggernaut knows as online music stores. A billion or more song sales don't happen due to lack of innovation.
Just for an unscientifc experiment, I randomized my iTunes playlist by artist and got the above sample. Not until "Fall Out Boy" in the 11th spot did I get an artist of my liking that is available from Amazon's mp3 stores. One or two songs would be ok, but 10 out 11 is simply not acceptable. Unless they sign more labels, this model is DOA.
...but for now, I'm not terribly impressed. Apple ... still embeds buyer information inside the files
... still has only EMI (and the independents) at this new rate (compared to Amazon, which also has Universal)
... chose to react rather than innovate
... is still more expensive (ten cents, granted, but still...)
What precisely is the problem here? It's not as though you're sharing those files around is it? And it's only your name, in an easily removable tag. I'm yet to hear a serious reason why this is so bad that uses actual logic. At the absolute worst and most cynical, it could be described only as a "minor inconvenience."
Apple
And that's because Apple clearly don't want Universal to go DRM-free, is it? And you know this how, exactly? Could it be because EMI were willing, but other companies wanted different rules or wanted to break Apple's dominance? Will I end every sentence with a question mark? No, I have other punctuation waiting in the wings!
Apple
Other people have reminded you that Apple were doing this before Amazon. Not first in the online world (it's not hard to find other labels like eMusic) but they were the first really big, unquestionably legal player to offer DRM-free tracks.
Apple
Good point. Apple picked the 99 cent price point early on and stuck with it. There have been many accounts of pressure applied to Apple to raise the price, and they've resisted. Hopefully Amazon's lower price will force Apple to compete at that level (really, I mean force the labels to realise this level is the price people are willing to pay).
I think you've tried hard to criticise Apple here, but failed to come up with a compellingly damning criticism. Better points could have revolved around the poor support for indie DRM-free tracks (improving now though) and purchase of lossless media (256kbit versus lossless is hard to hear though). Sadly you didn't grasp the nettle of opportunity when you could've.
That they won't offer anything other than AAC.
AAC is just the MPEG 4 audio codec, it's a publicly defined standard, and somewhat better quality than MP3 for equivalent file sizes. There are a few other media players that support it... but most only support MP3 and Microsoft's proprietary WMA. It's ironic, too, when some company whines about Apple's "non-standard" formats when it's *their* decision, not Apple's, not to support MP4.
One wonders if Microsoft cuts them a deal on the license for WMA if they leave out MP4/AAC, OGG, etcetera...
You can transcode to MP3 if you need to, if you must buy a media player from a company that kowtows to Redmond.
- Jam sites. These are websites where you plug your MIDI instrument into your PC, go to the site, find a channel where someone else who is playing their MIDI instrument to the website, and join into the groove. A musician's Napster. Actually I don't know if these even exist. Please let me know if they do. If not, please code it as your senior project.
http://www.ejamming.com/
Sorry, but your friend was wrong. Try reading the actual news stories, like this one: http://www.macworld.com/news/2007/10/16/drmfree/index.php