Poll: Are you going to pay $.30 to upgrade your existing iTunes to DRM-Free, 256kbps?

[MacRumors]

Vote: Poll: Are you going to pay $.30 to upgrade your existing iTunes to DRM-Free, 256kbps? (http://www.macpolls.com/?poll_id=536)

[emw]

I would likely consider moving some to DRM-free copies so that I could share them via TiVo. Otherwise, I'm not particularly interested.

[A is jump]

hey they actually changed the poll after only one weekday!

[mkrishnan]

I don't understand the option well enough. I'm inclined to say no, although I'd consider it in some cases. I'm generally pretty happy with 128kbps AAC.

[Analog Kid]

Not sure what I've bought that's EMI...

[Poff]

hey they actually changed the poll after only one weekday!

Hehe.. I always laugh at the "new poll every weekday" slogan.

They used to change it every weekday, though. Back in the old days.

[brepublican]

Not sure what I've bought that's EMI...

Me neither. And if we factor in spatial considerations, I'm not too sure if I want to up to 256k. I mostly dont have need for DRM free music, being that I'm firmly entrenched in my Mac/iTunes/iPod ways.

Hmm. Maybe I'll think about it when I get that 500GB iMac I've been dreaming of tho...

[Mal]

Is there a part of the iTunes "site" to go to that will allow you to quickly identify which songs are eligible for upgrade? They added a page for the "Complete My Album" feature, but I didn't see one for the EMI DRM-free songs.

I would consider it for some songs probably, but it's not necessary for most of my music, especially because I usually listen to it over headphones (cheap ones too), my car stereo via iTrip, or my iHome, none of which are very high-fidelity in any sense of the word, though they're all acceptable to me.

jW

[Nermal]

Is there a part of the iTunes "site" to go to that will allow you to quickly identify which songs are eligible for upgrade? They added a page for the "Complete My Album" feature, but I didn't see one for the EMI DRM-free songs.

Yeah, I expect that they're probably do the same. The service isn't going live until next month, so don't start panicking just yet :)

[mkrishnan]

Me neither. And if we factor in spatial considerations, I'm not too sure if I want to up to 256k. I mostly dont have need for DRM free music, being that I'm firmly entrenched in my Mac/iTunes/iPod ways.

Hmm. Maybe I'll think about it when I get that 500GB iMac I've been dreaming of tho...

If you keyword search EMI, does this work? I'm not near my iTunes right now.

[jesteraver]

I'll probably do it for some stuff, not sure all of it.

I just want to be able to buy movies from iTunes Canada!

[wordmunger]

No. But I would take it if I got automatic free upgrades on all my album purchases.

[arkmannj]

I put undecided, because I'm not sure I will pay for songs I already have.
but I certainly think I will pay the extra .30 for future songs I buy not to have the DRM infestation, and the 256kbps
If for no other reason than on principle to show record companies that just because we don't want DRM doesn't mean that we want to steal music.
though the no DRM should have been 1.00 (as opposed to usual .99) and then 1.29 for 256kbps+no DRM.
some people just don't care about the extra bit rate. I have bad hearing so usually I can't tell the difference, but the no DRM sure would come in handy between my computers, mp3 players, etc.

[autrefois]

hey they actually changed the poll after only one weekday!

This is actually the 3rd poll in 2 days, probably a record!

[nagromme]

I'll upgrade my favorites.

The hard part will be the temptation to re-rip all my CDs at 256... even though I've never had a problem with 128.

But the IDEA of it will eat away at me, day after day, night after sleepless night! Until one day I just HAVE to re-rip and thus cut my iPod capacity in half.

(Can you re-rip en masse in a way that preserves your playcounts and album art?)

[lssmit02]

But the IDEA of it will eat away at me, day after day, night after sleepless night! Until one day I just HAVE to re-rip and thus cut my iPod capacity in half.

This was just what I was thinking!

[piltupso]

no way I'd go out and by the CD before I pay the itms twice for the same song.

[nagromme]

no way I'd go out and by the CD before I pay the itms twice for the same song.

Not twice--you only pay the 30 cents difference.

In fact, if you re-bought a whole album in a store you'd be paying a lot more: the new songs cost extra but the new ALBUMS do not--so album upgrades are likely to be cheap.

[Mainyehc]

I'll upgrade my favorites.

The hard part will be the temptation to re-rip all my CDs at 256... even though I've never had a problem with 128.

But the IDEA of it will eat away at me, day after day, night after sleepless night! Until one day I just HAVE to re-rip and thus cut my iPod capacity in half.


Or you can wait until Apple introduces a full-size iPod with twice the storage than yours to do so... :rolleyes: :p

(Can you re-rip en masse in a way that preserves your playcounts and album art?)

Actually, I think you can... Not the album art, which you could always preserve via drag-and-drop in the form of Finder clippings, but the ratings and playcounts are fairly easy to maintain:

1. Close iTunes and delete all the original albums on the Finder, NOT through iTunes as you'd obviously screw up your iTunes library database in the process.
2. Create a new dummy user acount on OS X, and re-rip all your stuff into iTunes with the higher bit-rate.
3. Get those files and put them back on your main user account's Music folder and you're good to go (as long as the files bear the same name, iTunes won't notice the difference - in my case, I'd have to re-tag a lot of songs and albums to force iTunes to rename them accordingly, especially multi-disc albums and compilations).
4. Open iTunes and drag the album art clippings again into your library, one by one (now that would be a pain, but not as bad as having to re-rip everything AND losing your ratings and playcounts, I guess... :cool: ).

[Nermal]

The hard part will be the temptation to re-rip all my CDs at 256... even though I've never had a problem with 128.

Hehe, I've already begun :p

(Can you re-rip en masse in a way that preserves your playcounts and album art?)

Yes. Just insert the CD and click Import, then choose Replace Existing when it asks. Note that this may not work properly if you've lost your CD database (eg. when transferring your library to your new computer). In that case, you'll need to check that the tags on the CD are the same as the ones in your library, otherwise iTunes will think that they're different songs.

[Mainyehc]

Yes. Just insert the CD and click Import, then choose Replace Existing when it asks. Note that this may not work properly if you've lost your CD database (eg. when transferring your library to your new computer). In that case, you'll need to check that the tags on the CD are the same as the ones in your library, otherwise iTunes will think that they're different songs.

Eh. :o
I had no idea it could be so much easier... :p

Still, in my case, i'd face the tag issue, as I've changed them extensively, and in those cases, I'd really have to either resort to a dummy iTunes account or do a lot of renaming, deleting, and shuffling files around... :eek:

The only tags that matter, though, are those affecting the naming scheme (which I could easily solve by renaming the files with Automator anyway, but doing it through iTunes seems easier), as iTunes preserves the tags themselves in the library database.

And of course, if you lose the database file you'll be SOL, but that's what backups are for... ;)

[Nermal]

And of course, if you lose the database file you'll be SOL, but that's what backups are for... ;)

The CD database (I'm not sure what its official name is) is separate from the iTunes library file. It's the track info the appears when you insert a CD, and it'll look up the details online if the information is missing. The problem is when the online info doesn't match what you have in your library.

[rydewnd2]

Burn songs to cd
re-import. Cd's are practically free these days. And quality wise I'm glad they upped it, but i'm happy with the way my music plays on ipod/computer. However if you are using audiophile monitors or headphones this might be a worth investment. Now what i want to see is upgraded video content so I can get me an apple tv.

[tveric]

no way I'd go out and by the CD before I pay the itms twice for the same song.

That makes sense. Pay $12-$17 instead of .30 per track. Good thinking.

[Mainyehc]

The CD database (I'm not sure what its official name is) is separate from the iTunes library file. It's the track info the appears when you insert a CD, and it'll look up the details online if the information is missing. The problem is when the online info doesn't match what you have in your library.

Ah, right... That'd be the Gracenote CDDB (http://www.gracenote.com/music/index_old.html), I suppose? I always use it to manually rectify those vicious tags from files that, er, I didn't actually rip myself, if you know what I mean... :D :apple:

Still, on that case, you could bypass the CDDB query and copy the tags from the ripped files ONTO the CD tracks, prior to re-ripping them (I don't know how iTunes manages this, as CDs are read-only, but I'm guessing it keeps those "pseudo-tags" - as they aren't actually CD-Text - temporarily in memory). Maybe iTunes would, then, offer you the choice to replace the original files? You might as well try that... :cool:

[cayley]

Nope. But I think I'll buy DRM-free on all new songs.

[aprilfools]

It would cost me $156 more, if I were to pay .30 more for all the songs I have purchased (520 songs) from iTunes already. I think not.

[termite]

Not sure what I've bought that's EMI...One google and two clicks will get you the major artists: here (http://www.emigroup.com/About/Music/Default.htm)

[zap2]

Some of it....as I listen to songs, I might if I think they could it use(some Coldplay sons don't sound too hot), or when I'm working with it and the DRM is holding me back I'll upgrade it.

I will be buying new stuff for 1.29

[Nermal]

Ah, right... That'd be the Gracenote CDDB (http://www.gracenote.com/music/index_old.html), I suppose?

...

I don't know how iTunes manages this, as CDs are read-only, but I'm guessing it keeps those "pseudo-tags" - as they aren't actually CD-Text - temporarily in memory

It's not the CDDB itself, but rather a local copy of the CDDB record for each CD you've used, if that makes sense. When you change the tags on a CD, iTunes will remember those tags next time you insert it, by updating the local copy.

However, this local copy is not stored in the iTunes Library, because the custom tags are lost (they're redownloaded from CDDB) if you transfer the library onto a new computer.

[davebarnes]

The hard part will be the temptation to re-rip all my CDs at 256...

Use Max (sbooth.org/Max (http://http://sbooth.org/Max/)) to rip to FLAC.
Save the FLAC (along with meta data) on your Mac.
Then encode the FLAC to whatever is the right technology at the time. Today, 256 kbps MP4, tomorrow ?

[ToastMaster]

Honestly I've still never bought a song from the iTunes store.

[islandman]

Not a chance. I don't see the point. The audible difference isn't significant enough for me.

Maybe it's a conspiracy to get us to fill our iPods quicker so that we have to buy bigger and bigger ones. Anyone thought of that?

[Malic]

It would seem that "Label" as metadata would be a very needed feature to support this new offering by iTMS. I mean, Apple *wants* us to upgrade our songs (if we choose) and would like to make that as easy as possible. So I predict an update to iTunes to support this. Maybe even a contextual menu option to do so.

[Nermal]

It would seem that "Label" as metadata would be a very needed feature to support this new offering by iTMS.

You mean like this?

[mrgreen4242]

I would likely consider moving some to DRM-free copies so that I could share them via TiVo. Otherwise, I'm not particularly interested.

That's my sentiment exactly - and I will only upgrade them once I can upgrade ALL of them, not just EMI. At that point, I'll probably go through and upgrade anything I've listened to more than a few times or something.

I've got a lot of iTMS music, though, through various free downloads, gift cards, and purchases, so 30cents each would be quite a bit of cash...

[macnews]

Will upgrade some files, as I run into DRM issues - i.e. burn limits. Yes, I know you can change the order and find other ways around but my wife likes certain songs in certain order, plus $0.30 isn't too much to get DRM free music.

I have read some people complaining about this latest offering but I honestly don't understand why. I don't mind paying for music and if a DRM free option, at a higher bit rate, is available why not use it?

[snowmoon]

(Can you re-rip en masse in a way that preserves your playcounts and album art?)

Just update your prefs and put the cd in and rip it in iTunes. It will ask you if you wish to replace the tracks. All settings/playcounts are retained.

[Fender2112]

Not until I have a need to.

[grafikat]

Naw, at least not for a few years or the next *best* thing makes my stuff obsolete

[mrkramer]

I'm not planning on doing it any time soon, because the DRM doesn't really bother me, and I use cheap headphones and speakers so I can't hear the difference in quality.

[pjarvi]

I don't like all of the music that I've purchased from iTunes so there's no way I would waste money converting all of them. There are certainly a few that I would like to convert. I hope they'll offer this option for movies as well someday. I'd like to be able to launch Popcorn, select a movie from my iTunes library, and have it easily converted for playback on non-apple devices (PSP, DVD, etc...)

[WhiteShadow]

ofcourse 256K drm doesn't bother me enough to spend $0.30 but the quality does. Plus I don't like to think the record company is restricting my music experence, drm has to go.