Apple Announces Changes to iTunes Store

[cdcastillo]

Dissapointed

And in México, we still keep wondering when these record companies' geniuses will realize that until we have a way to buy digital music, we'll keep pirating it (shame, I know, but true).

We have been asking for music to become available in iTMS for a long time, and they still believe that somehow they lose less money by not selling at all, that if they would start selling in third world markets, they would lose more money because we would stop buying physical CDs... stupid people.

 

[B1gMac]

Help?

Sorry, Can someone help me figure out where I can pay to upgrade my purchased tracks? I can't seem to find where everyone is talking about! (Yes, I am upgraded to the latest version)

 

[EricNau]

Sorry, Can someone help me figure out where I can pay to upgrade my purchased tracks? I can't seem to find where everyone is talking about! (Yes, I am upgraded to the latest version)

In the upper-right corner of the iTunes Store homepage, there is a box entitled "Quick Links." The last item, Upgrade My Library," is the one you want.

 

[B1gMac]

I looked under quick links, and the last one I see is entitled 'Complete my Album'. Can someone give me a permalink to it?

 

[frankly]

I looked under quick links, and the last one I see is entitled 'Complete my Album'. Can someone give me a permalink to it?

http://my.itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZPersonalizer.woa/wa/upgradeMyLibraryPage

 

[EricNau]

I looked under quick links, and the last one I see is entitled 'Complete my Album'. Can someone give me a permalink to it?

Try this: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/iTunesPlusPage

It's not the exact same page, but it should provide you the upgrade option as well.

 

[frankly]

http://my.itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZPersonalizer.woa/wa/upgradeMyLibraryPage

Doesn't seem to work.

 

[B1gMac]

Try this: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/M...iTunesPlusPage

It's not the exact same page, but it should provide you the upgrade option as well.

Thanks, that did work. But, it tells me that everything is up to date (it's not), so I'm not sure what to do from here. I also double checked that at least one of my songs does have a DRM free, iTunes plus version available in the iTunes store.

 

[EricNau]

Thanks, that did work. But, it tells me that everything is up to date (it's not), so I'm not sure what to do from here. I also double checked that at least one of my songs does have a DRM free, iTunes plus version available in the iTunes store.

At this point, I might give Apple some time to work the bugs out of their system. Some users have reported that more and more albums have been appearing in their upgrade list throughout the day, so Apple is actively working on it.

 

[kfury77]

1. Backup the library,
2. delete what you don't want to upgrade.
3. Do the upgrade.
4. copy back in the stuff from the backed up library

It doesn't work like that, iTunes does not scan your current music library to see which songs you can upgrade to iTunes+; they get the details from your online account (they have a record of every album/single you've ever purchased).

 

[blehpunk]

wtf? $73.79 to upgrade songs I already paid for?!

 

[tirerim]

I like to think the upgrade should be free. A charge made sense when they were charging more for the higher quality versions - but they are no longer doing that.

You paid 99c for a song, and it costs 99c now for the same song without DRM. It should cost you nothing to upgrade. Or at least split the difference.

If you bought a CD last year for $15, and this year they come out with an improved version of the same CD, which also costs $15, should they give you the new version for free? What if it were a car? There's nothing wrong with the tracks you bought originally (or, at least, no more wrong than it was when you bought them, knowing exactly what was wrong with them), so there's no reason Apple should offer you a free upgrade.

 

[seedster2]

So $0.30/song is the additional price you have to pay for having been an itunes customer prior to today? Is this supposed to make me happy that I didn't have to pay the entire price?
This isn't like moving from LP to CD, these are the exact same song in the same format.
Fanboy types, apple didn't say the labels made them do this. They don't explain what happened, they let you jump straight to their defense. Apple will be making something on this. Why are so many of you so happy to essentially pay $1.29 for your songs?

I agree with you

I upgraded because I dont buy much from itunes and it saves me the hassle b/c i change computers often. But I am not rejoicing in having to give them $5.10 for the privilege of higher quality and (-)DRM. I cant imagine the stomach ache hardcore itunes consumers must have felt when they saw the upgrade cost

 

[DakotaGuy]

So what happens if you don't upgrade? I have almost 1000 songs to upgrade and to me that would be a lot of money.

At some point will Apple say you must either upgrade or no longer be able to play your songs or will Apple continue to allow DRM tracks to be playable in future versions of iTunes?

I'm afraid they will find a way to "force" this money out of people.

 

[mrkgoo]

If you bought a CD last year for $15, and this year they come out with an improved version of the same CD, which also costs $15, should they give you the new version for free? What if it were a car? There's nothing wrong with the tracks you bought originally (or, at least, no more wrong than it was when you bought them, knowing exactly what was wrong with them), so there's no reason Apple should offer you a free upgrade.

I see your point, but it's not ENTIRELY the same, is it? The digital download market works differently - you may not think it should, but it does. Anyway, the argument isn't so much as Apple now selling improved versions - they are now offering LESS GIMPED versions. Arguably, that's how they wanted to sell them in the first place but couldn't.

I guess it depends on your perspective. I'd say it's more like A car that were speed limited, perhaps due to some stupid law on speed limits within your city. Then they take away the stupid law, the company comes and removes the speed limit but charge you a third the cost of the car.

See, I don't see it as Apple selling you improved versions - they are removing a limitation that should never have been there in the first place (I understand the limitation, but you can't really refute it in not supposed to being there, since it has been removed).

 

[mrkgoo]

So what happens if you don't upgrade? I have almost 1000 songs to upgrade and to me that would be a lot of money.

At some point will Apple say you must either upgrade or no longer be able to play your songs or will Apple continue to allow DRM tracks to be playable in future versions of iTunes?

I'm afraid they will find a way to "force" this money out of people.

I don't think so. If Apple were to ever stop using the DRM in their players, say, law states that you can't have DRM, they'd likely allow everyone to upgrade for free at that point.

 

[MacTraveller]

Overall, this is a good thing. But I think raising some of the prices to $1.29 is going to promote piracy.

Don

Any more than the amount of piracy now? I doubt it.

Raising the price of SOME albums/tracks will simply entice customers to look at other places selling the same digital album for a slightly lower price. For example, they go to Amazon so they can save 13 cents.

It's the way it normally works in real life before digital music. If Tower Records was selling an album I really wanted for an exorbitant markup price of $15.95, then I'd just go down the street to the local Wal-Mart and purchase the same album for $3 less.

 

[jmelrose]

For those with only parts of their library available to upgrade, I have run the "Upgrade My Library" THREE times now and each time new tracks have come up. First the $250 amount (over 1100!) then $14 worth, and now it has another $85, which is where I'm leaving it. I do like knowing my music is now future-proof, DRM-less, and can be used with ANYTHING that plays AAC files (which makes my X-Box now able to play my full iTunes library... hooray!). Glad this little era in music format history is coming to a close.

 

[SpaceKitty]

That's why I buy CDs. There's no upgrade costs for lossless and DRM-free audio.

There are also people here who don't want to have to put up with storing all these CDs after they are ripped into iTunes. The convenience of having NO cds is worth the small cost of upgrading.

 

[TYDZN]

I just bought a DRM song 2 days ago for 99 cents. The same song is now DRM free for the same price, 99 cents. But I have to pay an extra 30 cents to make my copy DRM free.....what?

 

[teme]

This strategy to get money from customers is one thing I really hate in Apple. They charged for additional iPod Touch updates, while new buyers got them for free. Now they are charging for iTunes track updates, while new buyers get them for the same price that I bought them earlier.

But after all, maybe I would like to update some tracks, but I will not pay to update all the iTunes tracks I bought. For example, many times I have bought the first single and later bought an album with that same song, and I have deleted the separately bought first single. Now I have to pay 0,30e for a song that I will never need?

It's interesting to see how 1,29 price point will change sales. I guess that they are trying to boost album sales with more expensive separate tracks, while the album prices will stay the same. I doubt I will buy 1,29 tracks, unless they are some iTunes exclusives (b-sides, remixes, live performances) from my favorite artists. If that higher price point will lower sales enough, maybe it won't be that popular.

 

[boer]

wtf? $73.79 to upgrade songs I already paid for?!

Yes, you knowingly paid for 128 kbps DRM-protected songs. That purchase did not include any upgrade service that would extend beyond the purchase. iTunes is now offering 256 kbps DRM-free versions of those songs. On what basis should one get a free upgrade?

I don't expect a free upgrade to my song puchases any more than I expect a free upgrade to my car when a new engine is available from the manufactorer or to my iPod when a new version with more memory is released.

A purchase is a purchase and you are stuck with what you have bought. Get over it.

 

[macklos]

Yes, you knowingly paid for 128 kbps DRM-protected songs. That purchase did not include any upgrade service that would extend beyond the purchase. iTunes is now offering 256 kbps DRM-free versions of those songs. On what basis should one get a free upgrade?

I don't expect a free upgrade to my song puchases any more than I expect a free upgrade to my car when a new engine is available from the manufactorer or to my iPod when a new version with more memory is released.

A purchase is a purchase and you are stuck with what you have bought. Get over it.

Indeed...what other music format of the past offered an upgrade pricing path?
When a remastered cd version came out did you get a special upgrade price because you already purchased the prior cd version...um NO.

 

[scott523]

I'm glad that would make you happy. I hate extremely long posts in a forum. By posting the way that I do, if someone isn't interested in that particular point they can move on to the next post.

Also, the little button you are referring to has nothing to do with what you are suggesting. If you're going to offer advice you should at least know what you are talking about.

Why would I be happy? It's not me you're helping. You're making informative replies, yes. However, merging multiple quoted replies (especially when you're posting 3-7 consecutive times; some other forums won't even allow it), does help cut down the number of pages users have to flip through the thread.

If I didn't know what I was talking about, I wouldn't say anything at all. For any post you want to quote+reply, just hit that "+" at the bottom right corner of the post. Then scroll all the way down -- hit Post Reply then the reply box will have all the quotes you picked.

Well whatever floats your boat. There's nothing more to say as it's rude anyways to be drifting off topic for some forum101 lesson.

 

[WPeterson]

interesting changes ,right? most as good marketing strategies.
the 3g purchasing is good for everyone, since 3g become common things now.