iTMS: I bought a track at work, should I be able to get it again (free) at home?

[edesignuk]

As soon as I heard iTMS had launched in the UK I had to at least give it a go! So I went off and downloaded iTunes 4.6 for XP, and bought my first song.

Now I'm home am I entitled to get another copy of it for free (as I have already paid for it)?

I have tried going "Advanced > Check for purchased music...", it says "All purchased music has been downloaded for this account", but when I look in my purchased music playlist there is nothing there If I check my order history it is there, so it knows that I have nought it, any ideas?

 

[wowser]

If all went wrong trying to access it again through the music store, you could always email it to yourself (or use YouSendIt to send it) . Then you can unlock it at home using your iTMS password

 

[Flowbee]

You can't re-download songs that you've purchased. You'll have to copy and move the file to your home computer.

 

[edesignuk]

You can't re-download songs that you've purchased. You'll have to copy and move the file to your home computer.

So what is the point of the check for purchased music feature??

I don't get it!

 

[Flowbee]

So what is the point of the check for purchased music feature??

I don't get it!

I believe you use it to download songs that you purchased, but for some reason didn't get downloaded (you lost your connection, etc.). This seems to be more useful for people using dial-up. Three of four albums could take several hours to download.

 

[edesignuk]

I believe you use it to download songs that you purchased, but for some reason didn't get downloaded (you lost your connection, etc.). This seems to be more useful for people using dial-up. Three of four albums could take several hours to download.

Damn, that sucks, I thought you'd be able to get it again on one of your 5 authorized machines if you'd already paid for it

 

[rendezvouscp]

That would be a really cool feature though, if you could download your purchased music anywhere. I can see Apple advertising that for iTMS, but I don't think they would ever do that because it is too much like what they offer for iPods. The "feature" is already there in iPods, but just not the same.

But if you purchase something at work, you could stop the download and download it at home, which is useful if you can't send it to yourself for some reason or you don't want to listen to it at work. And now I'm just rambling.
–Chase

 

[Flowbee]

Damn, that sucks, I thought you'd be able to get it again on one of your 5 authorized machines if you'd already paid for it

You're not alone. A lot of people complained about that when the music store debuted here. Lesson: Back up your purchased music regularly.

One of my main uses for iDisk these days is dropping work-purchased music for retrieval at home.

 

[aloofman]

Damn, that sucks, I thought you'd be able to get it again on one of your 5 authorized machines if you'd already paid for it

You can. Just copy the song file to a CD/Zip disk/server, then retrieve it at home. Or, if either computer has some portability, you can copy them over via ethernet cable. You ARE allowed to use the purchased song on several computers. There's just no way for the music store to know (yet) that you already purchased the song. Basically the onus is on you to figure out how to manage your music.

 

[edesignuk]

You can. Just copy the song file to a CD/Zip disk/server, then retrieve it at home.

Not quite the same is it?

There's just no way for the music store to know (yet) that you already purchased the song.

erm..yes there is. They already do, they have a history of your purchased music that you can go an view.

 

[Flowbee]

One of my main uses for iDisk these days is dropping work-purchased music for retrieval at home.

Ok, I'm replying to my own post, but it just occurred to me that a very handy .Mac feature would be syncing 'purchased music' playlists between machines. Just like bookmarks and contacts. Would be useful for photos, too.

 

[rendezvouscp]

Ok, I'm replying to my own post, but it just occurred to me that a very handy .Mac feature would be syncing 'purchased music' playlists between machines. Just like bookmarks and contacts. Would be useful for photos, too.

Can you say Tiger?
–Chase

 

[rueyeet]

There's just no way for the music store to know (yet) that you already purchased the song.

That's the thing: if you can check for Purchased Music, and Apple has a record of what you've purchased, I don't see why this couldn't be done, and trivially at that, for any machine authorized for your iTunes account. I bet it has more to do with record company paranoia than with any technical hurdles.

Thanks for the info about "check for purchased music", though, I completely skipped over that feature, and I did get an error downloading one of my songs. I'll have to try that....

 

[osprey76]

That's the thing: if you can check for Purchased Music, and Apple has a record of what you've purchased, I don't see why this couldn't be done, and trivially at that, for any machine authorized for your iTunes account. I bet it has more to do with record company paranoia than with any technical hurdles.

I figured it's likely due to bandwidth considerations. Apple would have to have 5 times the probably considerable bandwidth available to let everyone download each song 5 times. Also, if everyone knew they could just redownload it, why would most people make a backup? More bandwidth for Apple there. I agree customer service should be a high priority for any company, but I can see why Apple would need to keep that under control.

 

[sethwerkheiser]

I used to mess with all that Sync'ing, and iDisk stuff... lately though I've just been taking my iBook to work, asked the IT guy for the wireless network password, and whammo... no more syncing issues

Of course, though, that might not be possible for the Mac Desktop users, or with companies that don't look nicely on music downloader Sorry

 

[jaw04005]

Not quite the same is it?

erm..yes there is. They already do, they have a history of your purchased music that you can go an view.

Shussssh, its a *secret*. But if for some reason your "hard drive fails" or you accidentally delete your purchased music, Apple will allow you to redownload your music. I'm sure this is just a one-time event, you have to email them.

Obviously, not recommended in your case.