I disagree. They notice as soon as they try to share their songs with their spouses or kids or when they try to use them as background music for a slideshow or home video.
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Sony BMG to Offer DRM-Free Music
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And so, slowly, one by one they all come crawling back with their tails between their legs.
Crawling back to whom exactly?
I agree that DRM has been hyped up more than it actually affects people, but I'm still glad to see the companies moving in this direction.
i still don't understand why people use these services, just go buy a damn CD, then u get uncompressed music u can rip to whatever format u want. The only time i use itunes is for exclusives
Here's what I am not getting. Apple was gung-ho about DRM free music and even started selling the songs at $1.29. Then the record companies decided to let other companies sell the same music at $.99 or less. Amazon and Wal-Mart come to mind. So now Apple sells the same music at $.99 but the record companies want higher prices? Why let some retailers sell for a low price then?
I have a hard time with all of this, personally. I mean, it's not exactly the biggest concern of mine, but it is whenever I go to buy music. I am perfectly content with iTMS songs at 256 kbps. But if a new album I want is not available then I will go buy the CD. Amazon is a good thing, don't get me wrong, but I don't want to be buying MP3s. It's had its day, but I am not getting good enough sound at 256 MP3 for the amount of space the songs take up on my MacBook's hard drive, I feel.
I imagine the record companies are experimenting still with DRM and don't want to go full force into letting iTunes go DRM free, as they probably believe it will lead to piracy of the songs. Personally, I disagree and would love to buy my music there....but I dunno.
Maybe Apple is sick of this industry, and that's why they are setting out to create their own label.
I have a hard time with all of this, personally. I mean, it's not exactly the biggest concern of mine, but it is whenever I go to buy music. I am perfectly content with iTMS songs at 256 kbps. But if a new album I want is not available then I will go buy the CD. Amazon is a good thing, don't get me wrong, but I don't want to be buying MP3s. It's had its day, but I am not getting good enough sound at 256 MP3 for the amount of space the songs take up on my MacBook's hard drive, I feel.
I imagine the record companies are experimenting still with DRM and don't want to go full force into letting iTunes go DRM free, as they probably believe it will lead to piracy of the songs. Personally, I disagree and would love to buy my music there....but I dunno.
Maybe Apple is sick of this industry, and that's why they are setting out to create their own label.
wont even affect them.
bankruptcy!? what the...people who dont buy there music from itunes gets it from limewire, or some other P2P software. too little too late sony.
bankruptcy!? what the...people who dont buy there music from itunes gets it from limewire, or some other P2P software. too little too late sony.
CDs aren't going to be around forever. Besides, have you ever bought a song on an iPod or iPhone? Blows the concept of CDs away.
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this is true. I should probably rephrase that Digital consumers tend to loathe DRM.
sishaw said:
this is true. I should probably rephrase that Digital consumers tend to loathe DRM.
It's a big deal in that different vendors refuse to use the same standards. I used to shrug it off until I tried to play songs from my iPod connected to an xBox360 (or any audio streaming receiver) and realized that I only had problems with songs I had paid for on iTMS.
DRM is fine in theory, but it can't be implemented transparently so long as hardware vendors have separate interests.
Please, Sony/BMG, please??? Some of us like getting all our stuff from one central place.
It'll be news when the files are lossless. It was only a matter of time for DRM-free to win out, but for myself and others like me (and it's not a snobby, elitist view, it's just a matter of hey, you stripped my audio file of data!) we feel that mp3, aac, or any lossy compression is only acceptable if that is all there is available. Unfortunately, that's the case a lot of times. Space saving is the only logical reason to compress something to a lossy codec but drives are getting bigger and and audio files (at least if you stay at 44.1/16) are staying the same size. In a few years, there will be no real reason to encode to a lossy codec.
But what's the lossless advantage if you can't audibly tell the difference? Call it the gene pool. cd>mp3>cd>mp3 even if both encodes were at 256k would probably sound like a 96k mp3, and anyone can hear that. Lossless is within a few bits of the original no matter the number of times it's burned/converted.
so re-import your collection lossless and give up this mess.
thanks,
Jeff
But what's the lossless advantage if you can't audibly tell the difference? Call it the gene pool. cd>mp3>cd>mp3 even if both encodes were at 256k would probably sound like a 96k mp3, and anyone can hear that. Lossless is within a few bits of the original no matter the number of times it's burned/converted.
so re-import your collection lossless and give up this mess.
thanks,
Jeff
I love how this is announced and yet they do not tell you where the heck to purchase the DRM-free songs. WTF?
And for the people saying the companies are slowly crawling "back to Apple" can someone explain that? I don't see that at all. It seems to me that the companies are in fact "punishing" Apple by only making the DRM free stuff on Amazon, etc. I'm really hoping Sony BMG doesn't do this too. When will these jackass idiots realize that CONVENIENCE is important to their customers too!
And for the people saying the companies are slowly crawling "back to Apple" can someone explain that? I don't see that at all. It seems to me that the companies are in fact "punishing" Apple by only making the DRM free stuff on Amazon, etc. I'm really hoping Sony BMG doesn't do this too. When will these jackass idiots realize that CONVENIENCE is important to their customers too!
Well they think all songs are worth more than 99 cents, and they want to go back to the CD era where they "bundle" 2 hit songs and some average songs for $18.
These bonehead companies apparently can't remember that it is Apple that popularized the digital purchase of music with the ease of use of iTunes (when the option is FREE file sharing).
So iTunes wins when competing with free file sharing.
The question is would iTunes win when the competition is "variable (high) pricing" and "bundling" (inclusion of songs you do not want and making you pay for it)?
I love how the record companies see iTunes and Apple as a competitor now. The company that actually made the working model and tools that changed the music distribution landscape. Sad.
Can't wait to see the new pricing for the DRM free music. My hunch is that it isn't going to be consumer friendly. Or artist friendly for that manner. Most bands are signed under contracts that don't include royalties on digital music sales.
But I could be wrong.
Can't wait to see the new pricing for the DRM free music. My hunch is that it isn't going to be consumer friendly. Or artist friendly for that manner. Most bands are signed under contracts that don't include royalties on digital music sales.
But I could be wrong.
The thing is, I DONT want a CD or the hassle of going out to buy one. For me a CD is unwanted packaging for the data that I do want. When I get a CD I rip it and throw it away. I don't want to have boxes is jewel cases taking up space in my apartment.
Oh yes this is going to hurt Apple so much seeing as how these songs are compatible with the iPod
It's going to hurt AAPL..
These companies are teetering on the brink of collusion and price fixing imho.
In 10 years we will wonder why we bought crappy mp3 files instead of lossless or WAV.
The record companies are panicking and scared that the major player in the industry is now apple and not the record companies themselves.
Or at least some sort of plugin for iTunes that let's you browse the Amazon store and download music into your iTunes library automatic like...
Blech. You want me to buy 11 songs I don't want for 1 or 2 that I do? Then I have to drive to the store w/ $3/gal gas, and rip it, and store the CD somewhere, after I've thrown away the shrink wrap and shopping bag it came it. Basically, the convenience of buying single tracks at a reasonable price + practically 0 environmental impact are iTMS biggest strengths.
Also, stop calling CD's (and WAV's or other lossless codecs encoded from CDs) lossless. They lose audio data during the digitization process. They are merely higher perceived quality than other file types at lower bitrates. I've plenty of blind surveys done indicating that 80%+ of listeners can't hear the difference from 128k AAC to CD, and that number climbs with higher bitrates to practically 100% at over 256kbs.
I think that the greedy labels will get what they deserve eventually. Apple was the only online music retailer that was paying the artist a more than fair share of the purchase price. Now the labels are undercutting Apple's pricing and offering DRM free music as a means of getting consumers to defect from ITMS. Once that happens, 2 things will occur:
1. Apple will cave into allowing the labels to set their own pricing.
2. The labels will raise the pricing on all music sold online.
Once consumers see that new pricing structure and determine that they aren't willing to pay for it, there will be plenty of DRM free music for them to start stealing again. So in the end, the labels lose, the artists lose. Not very smart on the record label's part I'm afraid.
In the meantime, buying tracks at a reduced price from Amazon just means that the artist will be paid less of a share than through ITMS. I'm sure that the label isn't taking less of a cut from the sale price of songs. They will screw the artist over as a means to an end. It is unfortunate but mark my words, this will all happen.
Screw me or Sue Me
I think it is good that they are selling DRM free music. This is a good alternative for those who pirate music. However, it is very bad that they are not selling it on the iTunes Music store.
They are not only saying FU to Apple, they are also saying FU to all of Apple's iTunes customers including me. I'm sure they also don't want to let iTunes existing customers upgrade their content for free. Rather have them buy it again.
I'd love to buy iTunes Plus music for all of my catalog. I upgraded all of my content when the option was available. I'd do it again for .30 per track or something reasonable.
I don't want to go to another store to buy my music. I don't want to keep track of which artist is DRM Free and available on Amazon versus iTunes. It's not worth it.
Steve is a good businessman and has been the staunchest and highest profile advocate for removing DRM. He is also a music fan. I know where my loyalty lies. I know who wants me to enjoy music and profit from it and who wants to screw me or sue me at every opportunity. Thanks but no thanks.
And yes it will benefit the sales of MP3 players including iPhones and iPods especially.
I think it is good that they are selling DRM free music. This is a good alternative for those who pirate music. However, it is very bad that they are not selling it on the iTunes Music store.
They are not only saying FU to Apple, they are also saying FU to all of Apple's iTunes customers including me. I'm sure they also don't want to let iTunes existing customers upgrade their content for free. Rather have them buy it again.
I'd love to buy iTunes Plus music for all of my catalog. I upgraded all of my content when the option was available. I'd do it again for .30 per track or something reasonable.
I don't want to go to another store to buy my music. I don't want to keep track of which artist is DRM Free and available on Amazon versus iTunes. It's not worth it.
Steve is a good businessman and has been the staunchest and highest profile advocate for removing DRM. He is also a music fan. I know where my loyalty lies. I know who wants me to enjoy music and profit from it and who wants to screw me or sue me at every opportunity. Thanks but no thanks.
And yes it will benefit the sales of MP3 players including iPhones and iPods especially.
Yes, and it was these very same companies that complained when Steve Jobs posted that manifesto of his stating the record companies should drop DRM all together. The CEO of Warner pretty much said he was crazy and should mind his own business. Now they are offering DRM free music themselves.
Avatar74 nailed it.
Even if you can't buy the song using iTunes, you can still manage the song in iTunes.
So just download it from Amazon or Wal-Mart or whomever, drop it into your music folder, copy it into iTunes, and you're done.
I can understand folks who own no music other then what they bought from the iTunes Store having no idea how to copy music from other sources into iTunes, but how many folks are that, really?
Even if you can't buy the song using iTunes, you can still manage the song in iTunes.
So just download it from Amazon or Wal-Mart or whomever, drop it into your music folder, copy it into iTunes, and you're done.
I can understand folks who own no music other then what they bought from the iTunes Store having no idea how to copy music from other sources into iTunes, but how many folks are that, really?