This is what I've been waiting for. I've never bought music from iTunes because it used DRM. Now that it's DRM-free, I will start buying from them instead of Amazon.com.
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Apple Announces Changes to iTunes Store
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I assume they will still prevent you from downloading podcasts over 10mb over 3g? Anybody have an idea if that is the case or not?
What about push notifications for the iPhone 3G??? That was promised for delivery in September 2008!!!! Argh! 
Well, I hate pricing games, but I hate DRM worse.
Apple wanted neither, the labels wanted both... and if I HAVE to have one of the two, I like how things turned out.
I'll probably do the Plus upgrade. My songs will be bigger files, but I can deal with that.
I'll be interested to see how cheap some albums get with the new .69 pricing. Albums are almost always cheaper than singles to begin with.
So--buy popular stuff now, buy obscure stuff after April!
There's always a chance that Push was just now made active, and email notices have been sent out about it. But without Push, we'll have to wait up to 15 minutes to find out
Apple wanted neither, the labels wanted both... and if I HAVE to have one of the two, I like how things turned out.
I'll probably do the Plus upgrade. My songs will be bigger files, but I can deal with that.
I'll be interested to see how cheap some albums get with the new .69 pricing. Albums are almost always cheaper than singles to begin with.
So--buy popular stuff now, buy obscure stuff after April!
What about push notifications for the iPhone 3G??? That was promised for delivery in September 2008!!!! Argh!
There's always a chance that Push was just now made active, and email notices have been sent out about it. But without Push, we'll have to wait up to 15 minutes to find out
Me too, I just downloaded a 4mb song and it was done in literally one second, two tops. It blew my mind. Awesome stuff apple!
Bricking Song Files?
Any thoughts/news on what will happen to the DRM songs that we already have if we don't want to pay to upgrade something that is fine the way it is?
I hope that Apple doesn't pull a Wal-Mart/Sony and suddenly decide to remove DRM authentication which will mean that the music we have now won't play at all unless we either upgrade and pay again, or burn all the music and re-rip everything just to make our tunes playable. (Note that last I heard WM didn't go through with this plan, but that means keeping the DRM authentication servers up indefinitely.)
I tried looking for answers on Apple and in the announcement notes, but nothing yet apart from touting the new features.
Any thoughts/news on what will happen to the DRM songs that we already have if we don't want to pay to upgrade something that is fine the way it is?
I hope that Apple doesn't pull a Wal-Mart/Sony and suddenly decide to remove DRM authentication which will mean that the music we have now won't play at all unless we either upgrade and pay again, or burn all the music and re-rip everything just to make our tunes playable. (Note that last I heard WM didn't go through with this plan, but that means keeping the DRM authentication servers up indefinitely.)
I tried looking for answers on Apple and in the announcement notes, but nothing yet apart from touting the new features.
Thanks for the advice. You just convinced me to complete a bunch of albums that came out recently.
What about them?!?!!?!?!?! They're DRM-free (or will be by April) like everything else.
No kidding. Right now it is all or nothing at $228.53. I just did 40 songs last week! It sure would be nice to be able to pick and choose. Does anyone know how long the "special offer" will last?
Yikes. On 3G--and I must have a good connection at the moment -- it took about a minute and a half. Yup, it makes the impulse buy much more likely!
the upgrade and terms and conditions with it have been in place since iTunes plus went live well over a year ago? i want to say. and it made sense then as labels slowly trickled in.... but now... not so much.
Since discovering www.musicboomerang.com , I've purchased virtually no songs from iTunes. At a buck an album, I can rip an entire album for a lot less, and rip it at any bit-rate I like.
Ok now let's think about this...with the exception of the drm-free music (which is huge i agree), was anyone else disappointed in the keynote? after hearing all the rumors and usual hoopla, there wasn't a mac mini upgrade, no netbook, no apple tv, no mac upgrade, no iphone nano???? i'm not saying i wanted all or any of these announcements, but the keynote just seemed a little anti-climactic. hopefully they hold a private event soon to announce what i was waiting for...snow leopard!
after hearing all the rumors and usual hoopla, there wasn't a mac mini upgrade, no netbook, no apple tv, no mac upgrade, no iphone nano???? i'm not saying i wanted all or any of these announcements, but the keynote just seemed a little anti-climactic. hopefully they hold a private event soon to announce what i was waiting for...snow leopard!
Not quite sure I understand. What about songs/albums purchased before this new policy? Can the DRM be lifted on those?
What about video? Any chance my Season 3 Battlestar Galactica will ever be able to stream from my Mac to my living room xbox/TV? Any of the music videos I bought from iTunes?
Cool that theyapple got this done though
EDIT:
Never mind. I guess I shoulda read the whole original post before I posted.
What about video? Any chance my Season 3 Battlestar Galactica will ever be able to stream from my Mac to my living room xbox/TV? Any of the music videos I bought from iTunes?
Cool that they
apple got this done thoughEDIT:
Never mind. I guess I shoulda read the whole original post before I posted.
The reason is legal. They sold those older songs with DRM required by the record labels and this new change to DRM free is for music purchased from today on. It does not give Apple the legal right to remove DRM from older songs and it appears that as in the past for EFI (one of the labels already DRM free) they have agreed to allow Apple to remove DRM from already purchased songs for 30 cents each. If you don't upgrade your DRM songs they will ALWAYS have DRM. :-( The one bonus to removing DRM (besides future proofing your library) is that all with double in bitrate.
I've bought 206 songs, but only 60 are available for upgrade. Plus, I have to do all of them, I can't choose which ones I want to buy DRM-free. This could use a little work. But I am glad they have .69 for older songs, and everything will be DRM-free.
I think the "specialness" will last until April when the pricing changes. I completely agree with you too because while mine won't cost nearly that much, some of what needs to be upgraded is stuff I don't listen to at all and others are things I just bought within the last 2 months. :-/
TUAW is reporting that 69 cent songs will have greater restrictions on how they can be used: For each song, users will only be able to download it to one Mac, burn it to one CD, and copy it to one iPod.
EDIT - TUAW just retracted that "Turns out this was idle speculation from one of our colleagues, and not part of the changes today. Sorry about that. -- RP"
EDIT - TUAW just retracted that "Turns out this was idle speculation from one of our colleagues, and not part of the changes today. Sorry about that. -- RP"