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Adjusted Price Songs Appearing in iTunes
- Thread starter trickytrav
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Funny that, Apple gave us a 3-month period warning of the price changes. However, Amazon and Wal-mart jumped to the bandwagon without any warning.
Amazon have been doing variable prices for some time now, definitely a long time before Apple even announced it.
woo you're right the missing EP is now back in iTunes+
also apple seem to have changed the artwork slightly, but the upgraded songs have both the old and new artwork...
Case for iTunes removing DRM for free soon...
Now that only DRM free songs are available on iTunes, I think that we're getting closer to the point where Apple will benefit more from removing DRM for free from the remaining DRM population than to keep an obsolete DRM checking system running forever for the few holdouts who didn't upgrade.
I give it to the end of the summer, September is my bet.
Now that only DRM free songs are available on iTunes, I think that we're getting closer to the point where Apple will benefit more from removing DRM for free from the remaining DRM population than to keep an obsolete DRM checking system running forever for the few holdouts who didn't upgrade.
I give it to the end of the summer, September is my bet.
price hike??? can't get my head around it!
said originally tht we would have a choice of three prices. 59p for low quality, 79p for normal quality or 99p for high quality.
BUT WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU OFFER THREE DIFFERENT QUALITIES?
I think the only way to get our heads around this is to email them. i have done it before and got a reply so i will try and post again later.
said originally tht we would have a choice of three prices. 59p for low quality, 79p for normal quality or 99p for high quality. BUT WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU OFFER THREE DIFFERENT QUALITIES?
I think the only way to get our heads around this is to email them. i have done it before and got a reply so i will try and post again later.
BUT WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU OFFER THREE DIFFERENT QUALITIES?
I think the only way to get our heads around this is to email them. i have done it before and got a reply so i will try and post again later.
Since when did they state that?
The pricing structure was nothing to do with file quality.
i emailed them and the prices are due to what the record companies charge them for drm free music.
the email
here is the email i recived:
Hi Lauren,
I understand you would like to know about the recent iTunes pricing changes. I can certainly appreciate how eager you must be to have this information. My name is Brandie and I am more then happy to help you out with this. Beginning in April, based on what the music labels charge Apple, songs on the iTunes Store will be available at one of three price points: ￡0.59, ￡0.79 and ￡0.99, with most albums still priced at ￡7.99 or ￡9.99. The latest news about iTunes can be found here (please note the pricing in this article refers to the US Store):
Changes Coming to the iTunes Store
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2009/01/06itunes.html
I hope this information has been helpful, Lauren. If you have any further questions or concerns in regards to this please feel free to reply to this email. Have a great weekend. Sincerely, BrandieiTunes Store Customer Support
here is the email i recived:
Hi Lauren,
I understand you would like to know about the recent iTunes pricing changes. I can certainly appreciate how eager you must be to have this information. My name is Brandie and I am more then happy to help you out with this. Beginning in April, based on what the music labels charge Apple, songs on the iTunes Store will be available at one of three price points: ￡0.59, ￡0.79 and ￡0.99, with most albums still priced at ￡7.99 or ￡9.99. The latest news about iTunes can be found here (please note the pricing in this article refers to the US Store):
Changes Coming to the iTunes Store
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2009/01/06itunes.html
I hope this information has been helpful, Lauren. If you have any further questions or concerns in regards to this please feel free to reply to this email. Have a great weekend. Sincerely, BrandieiTunes Store Customer Support
I haven't bought a single song off iTunes! There all $1.29! I'm not paying that much for one song! I think Zune might be better
How does a Zune work on a Mac? I don't know any of the twelve guys who own Zunes...
I think Apple will probably offer some sort of subscription service at some point. It would be interesting if they allowed it to co-exist with the DRM-free model to see which one people go to. I'm sure they'll do both.
I'm not entirely certain how beneficial it is to have DRM free AAC music from Apple if the 3rd party players out there CANNOT play the tracks Apple is selling. Both my Nokia phone and my JVC car stereo with USB that both support non-DRM AAC will NOT properly play most Apple DRM free AAC tracks. They either won't play at all or play with really weird distortions (like the pitch constantly varying up and down). The AAC tracks I have encoded myself from CDs play just fine on those players and I use 256kbps. If I "convert" the Apple tracks to 256kpbs (I know it sounds ridiculous since that is what it already is) then they DO work just fine. The problem there is that any time you convert something already compressed, it will only degrade more. Plus this is a pain in the butt to have to convert everything I buy from Apple. I might as well just buy an MP3 from Amazon in that regard since I use my USB port in my car all the time (I have an 8GB micro USB stick that works great) and I often use my phone as well when at work and so I need to load them up with songs from my library.
After the last iTunes release which has an "iTunes Plus" setting, I think I finally know WHY the Apple DRM free tracks don't get along with many 3rd party players. I think the problem stems from Apple using a variable bit rate with its 256kbps AAC files. While this is pretty common for MP3s these days and most players out there now support it for MP3s, I'm guessing AAC support is much more spotty even on devices that claim they support it and both my phone and my car stereo probably do not support variable bit rates on AAC files. Because up until recently there was no user setting for a variable bit rate with AAC, that would explain why all my encoded or converted files played fine since those players support fixed bit-rate AAC just fine. Now that there IS a variable bit-rate option, it's easy to see that is what is causing these players to not function or act strange.
Of course, you can blame all the 3rd party players since they should be supporting variable bit rates and I'm sure now that DRM free is the norm, things will improve over time, but that does not solve the standing problem that all my 3rd party AAC players do not like Apple's DRM free tracks one bit, which means any purchases I make will have to be converted to fixed rates to be usable with those players.
After the last iTunes release which has an "iTunes Plus" setting, I think I finally know WHY the Apple DRM free tracks don't get along with many 3rd party players. I think the problem stems from Apple using a variable bit rate with its 256kbps AAC files. While this is pretty common for MP3s these days and most players out there now support it for MP3s, I'm guessing AAC support is much more spotty even on devices that claim they support it and both my phone and my car stereo probably do not support variable bit rates on AAC files. Because up until recently there was no user setting for a variable bit rate with AAC, that would explain why all my encoded or converted files played fine since those players support fixed bit-rate AAC just fine. Now that there IS a variable bit-rate option, it's easy to see that is what is causing these players to not function or act strange.
Of course, you can blame all the 3rd party players since they should be supporting variable bit rates and I'm sure now that DRM free is the norm, things will improve over time, but that does not solve the standing problem that all my 3rd party AAC players do not like Apple's DRM free tracks one bit, which means any purchases I make will have to be converted to fixed rates to be usable with those players.