iTunes Plus Upgrades Now Available on a Per-Track Basis

[MacRumors]

Macworld notes that Apple has instituted a new feature that allows iTunes Store users to upgrade their music libraries to iTunes Plus tracks on either a per-track or per-album basis.

At Macworld San Francisco, Apple announced a number of changes to the iTunes Store, including the immediate removal of digital rights management (DRM) from approximately 80% of available songs and the option for owners of songs containing DRM to upgrade to the DRM-free versions for a fee. At the time, Apple touted the ability for users to upgrade their entire libraries with a single click, but this method was the only one provided by Apple for users to upgrade their music libraries. This generated a number of complaints from users who only wanted to upgrade a portion of their libraries, but were faced with an all-or-nothing option.

This new policy provides users with additional flexibility to upgrade portions of their libraries, but does require that album purchases be upgraded as an entire album rather than allowing upgrades of individual tracks from a purchased album.

Macworld readers have also noted a few problems that have resulted in users being charged full price instead of the upgrade price, and they have recommended turning on 1-Click purchasing until Apple addresses this issue.

Article Link: iTunes Plus Upgrades Now Available on a Per-Track Basis

[tosui]

Yay! Apple does something not greedy!

And it's about time they did this! More choice is always a good thing. (Time to upgrade 3 tracks of the possible 25 or so!)

[4God]

Originally Posted by MacRumors

.........

Macworld readers have also noted a few problems that have resulted in users being charged full price instead of the upgrade price, and they have recommended turning on 1-Click purchasing until Apple addresses this issue.

You mean turn off 1-Click purchasing?

[alexbates]

Great news! I was waiting for this.

[alphaod]

Oh great... after I bought all the upgrades. Oh well.

[LeoFio]

Excellent...I wasn't about to pay a couple hundred dollars to upgrade my library before.

[jaw04005]

Originally Posted by 4God

You mean turn off 1-Click purchasing?

No. Turn it on if you use the shopping cart. Otherwise, you'll get charged full price for the album. I'm sure this is just a glitch, and they're working on it.

Successfully upgraded 1 album this morning for $3.00.

[ibaneye]

Yeah, this definitely beats the $250 or so they wanted for the whole deal.

[ChrisA]

I still say "wait". When Apple goes to multi-level pricing and the track you like is selling DRM-Free for $0.89 and you already have the DRM'd track that you paid $0.99 for what will the upgrade price be. One might thing they'd pay you 10 cents to upgrade but I doubbt that will happen. But I'm sure given time Apple will have to do something half way reasonable for those who have already paid the higher than current price.


I buy most of my music from Amazon. Many times they will have a used CD for $5 or new ones for $7. I found a few I wanted for $2. All ofthose prices are much better then iTunes. I get the physical disc, no DRM and as many bits per second as I want. I typically rip to Apple lossless.

[FriarTuck]

Took them a couple of weeks, but they got it right.

I was not willing to pay to upgrade the whole library, as I refused to pay (again) for DRM-free high quality versions of the Hawaiian songs I purchased for a party and other whimsical, special use purchases.

But now I will definitely upgrade at least half of my purchases.

Good job, Apple.

[Jetson]

I'm sorry, but this whole "upgrade" to DRM free, 256 kbps seems like greed to me.

$0.30 per track adds up quickly. These iTunes Plus tracks weren't even available when I purchased the original tracks at $0.99. Now Apple wants to charge an additional $0.30 per track retroactively, when they only charge $0.99 for the iTunes Plus tracks today?

It's greed, pure greed. Loyal customers don't even get a price break. Apple has $billions in cash profits, yet they insist on treating their customers to such a shabby "offer". Oh they finally relent and let you upgrade by the track, because they weren't getting the huge cash bonanza they had hoped for by forcing you to upgrade your entire collection. Whoop-dee-doo-dah-day!

Sonically most people can't even tell the difference between a 192 kbps AAC track and a 256 kbps AAC track. So the real benefit is getting rid of the hated DRM. Is this really worth the potentially hundreds of dollars of cost to the customer?

I'm sorry but this leaves me with a bad impression.

[stagi]

sweet that is awesome news.

[BigTRQ]

Does iTunes no longer give an option for saving the Original Purchases in a folder?

[SFStateStudent]

Yup, my iTunes account takes up more room on my bank account transaction history, than food purchases. That's how I've lost 27 pounds..

[BoyBach]

This is a most welcomed development! Now I can upgrade my albums whilst ignoring some of my, er... dodgier purchases.

[stockcerts]

I'm not sure how upgrading my tracks will be of benefit. Is the sound quality better?

[Rojo]

Originally Posted by Jetson

I'm sorry, but this whole "upgrade" to DRM free, 256 kbps seems like greed to me.

$0.30 per track adds up quickly. These iTunes Plus tracks weren't even available when I purchased the original tracks at $0.99. Now Apple wants to charge an additional $0.30 per track retroactively, when they only charge $0.99 for the iTunes Plus tracks today?

It's greed, pure greed. Loyal customers don't even get a price break. Apple has $billions in cash profits, yet they insist on treating their customers to such a shabby "offer". Oh they finally relent and let you upgrade by the track, because they weren't getting the huge cash bonanza they had hoped for by forcing you to upgrade your entire collection. Whoop-dee-doo-dah-day!

Sonically most people can't even tell the difference between a 192 kbps AAC track and a 256 kbps AAC track. So the real benefit is getting rid of the hated DRM. Is this really worth the potentially hundreds of dollars of cost to the customer?

I'm sorry but this leaves me with a bad impression.

Couldn't agree more. It bothers me that I have to essentially pay $1.29 ($0.99 what I paid previoulsy + $0.30 upgrade) for the same track that someone can get for just $0.99 today. And I also had to deal with lower-quality and a DRM'ed track for so long. Why are loyal iTunes customers being punished for something that was not in our control? Whether it's Apple or the music labels doing this, it's just wrong.

I'm not upgrading. I can afford it, but I won't out of principle. DRM-free tracks would be nice, but I don't like the message it sends by giving in to this.

[mytdave]

Finally, per track updating! Still not gonna do it... I paid $.99 for my existing tracks. If that same track, now DRM free, is still $.99, then there should be no upgrade fee at all. I'm not paying an extra $.30 for something that's only $.99. Greedy bastards.

I don't know if it's the labels or Apple, but either way, this is the type of behavior that leads customers to feel they've been betrayed. Not a good way to do business. I have not made a purchase from iTunes for a while now because of all this nonsense.

Now, if a new 256kbps, DRM free track is priced at $1.29, then it's reasonable to pay the $.30 difference... and with the per-track updating, you can choose whether or not to do so.

[phoneboy]

my business is still going to Amazon from now on. I've invested 5 years and thousands of dollars into the iTunes Music Store. I'm not interested in the higher bit rate. From my perspective, they're trying to charge 30 cents for a track I've already bought just to be able to have the right to play it on any device.

While I'll continue to buy apple software and hardware, I feel like I'm being punished for the business I've provided the music store, so I'll take my business elsewhere.

[talkingfuture]

This is great news, I was trying to find a way of doing this the other week.

ETA I just went on to buy a song and had to re agree to the terms and conditions for this feature.

[wolfshades]

Originally Posted by Jetson

I'm sorry, but this whole "upgrade" to DRM free, 256 kbps seems like greed to me.

$0.30 per track adds up quickly. These iTunes Plus tracks weren't even available when I purchased the original tracks at $0.99. Now Apple wants to charge an additional $0.30 per track retroactively, when they only charge $0.99 for the iTunes Plus tracks today?

It's greed, pure greed. Loyal customers don't even get a price break. Apple has $billions in cash profits, yet they insist on treating their customers to such a shabby "offer". Oh they finally relent and let you upgrade by the track, because they weren't getting the huge cash bonanza they had hoped for by forcing you to upgrade your entire collection. Whoop-dee-doo-dah-day!

Sonically most people can't even tell the difference between a 192 kbps AAC track and a 256 kbps AAC track. So the real benefit is getting rid of the hated DRM. Is this really worth the potentially hundreds of dollars of cost to the customer?

I'm sorry but this leaves me with a bad impression.

Absolutely it's pure golden greed at work here. I just figured out the approximate cost were I to upgrade my collection. Only $1,200.00

Let's see: upgrade or go on a vacation?

Decisions, decisions.

[Jarbo]

What they should do is offer a fee cap, say $99.

A 1-time, all inclusive upgrade fee to those who have thousands of tracks. .30 DOES add up quickly. There is no way I am shelling out 200-300 bucks take away something that really should never have been there to begin with.

[citi]

Originally Posted by phoneboy

my business is still going to Amazon from now on. I've invested 5 years and thousands of dollars into the iTunes Music Store. I'm not interested in the higher bit rate. From my perspective, they're trying to charge 30 cents for a track I've already bought just to be able to have the right to play it on any device.

While I'll continue to buy apple software and hardware, I feel like I'm being punished for the business I've provided the music store, so I'll take my business elsewhere.

I love amazon. I only buy from Itunes when I can't find it there.

[JackSYi]

Wow, I'm surprised. Good thing I held out upgrading!

[reallynotnick]

I understand why everyone is so upset but you paid for what you got and if you want better you have to pay to upgrade.
Just because you bought iLife '08 and had to 'suffer' with worse features doesn't mean you should get iLife '09 for free.
When the Blu-Ray version of a DVD comes out doesn't mean you have the right to own that too.

Everything is going to become better in the future, it's just a fact, we become more productive every year and technology increases. You can wait till you are 99 years old and then buy everything and you will probably be happy as you will die before something better comes out.

If you don't feel that 30¢ is worth it, then don't pay for it, the market adjusts to what people demand. I personally upgraded my library for $30 because I enjoy the higher quality and the ability to use my music on other devices, while I hated paying more I liked the added features it got me so I paid up.