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May 30, 2007

itunes_store

How to: buy evil-free tracks from iTunes

Posted May. 30, ’07, 7:03 AM PT by Dan Moren
Category | iTunes » iTunes Store

iTunes PlusAs Derik pointed out, iTunes 7.2 dropped today, bring along with it the unencumbered joys of DRM-free music. Should you wish to partake of this sweet deliciousness yourself, there are a few steps you’ll need to go through. And, I have to say, this is thus far not one of the most seamless experiences Apple has ever offered.

The DRM-free features are being billed as “iTunes Plus”: in order to turn it on, you have to click on your account name in the top right corner of the iTunes store. You’ll be prompted for your password, and then brought to the account information page. The top button on that page now reads “Manage iTunes Plus.” Clicking on that will let you choose whether or not iTunes will show you DRM-free tracks when available. Click the checkbox and hit “Save Changes” and you’re ready to rock (Update: You can also hit the “iTunes Plus” link on the right-hand side of the store’s main page, or on an individual album page; both of which will prompt you to enable iTunes Plus).

Finding DRM-free tracks is a little trickier. There are a fair amount of artists included in the iTunes Plus catalog even from just EMI alone, including Coldplay, Frank Sinatra, David Bowie, Pink Floyd, Norah Jones, Gorillaz, KT Tunstall, and The Rolling Stones, so try one of them if you’re coming up empty. I searched for Coldplay, knowing that they were on EMI’s label, and was rewarded with a bunch of tracks at $1.29 with a little “+” icon next to them. That part was simple enough, but clicking on the album link (the arrow to the right of the album name) brought me to what appeared to be the DRM version of the album (all the tracks were $0.99 with no “+” icon). However, then clicking on the “See Previously Purchased Songs” or “Show Full Album” links showed the DRM-free version (Update: The “iTunes Plus” link from the front page has finally been fleshed out a bit, giving you links to most of the iTunes Plus albums).

On the Complete My Album page you’ll also see an “Upgrade to iTunes Plus before Completing this Album” link. That’ll take you to an “Upgrade My Library” page, which will let you upgrade your tracks for $0.30 apiece (I haven’t found any other link to that page, but I presume Apple will make a more prominent one shortly you can also click on “iTunes Plus” link on the right hand side of the store’s front page, which will then give you a link to “Upgrade My Library”). The list will auto-update as more free tracks are added to the library, but from what I can see, I’ve only bought a handful of EMI tracks so far. However, given that it costs just $1.80 to upgrade all of the songs I took the plunge. Apple took my dosh, and automatically downloaded all the new songs into my library.

I don’t think Apple has done quite a perfect job, though. With both the $0.99 and $1.29 albums showing up depending on what link you click, customer confusion could be high. Fortunately, most of the customers who actually take the time to turn on DRM-free downloads probably know what they’re getting into. I wonder how many of your average Joe music purchasers will even have a clue how or why they should bother spending $0.30 more per track. It’s also worth noting that the FAQs are apparently not up yet—every time I tried to click on a link for one, iTunes gave me an error (Update: as of 6:43PM ET, I’m still getting an error whenever I try to get to the FAQ). I wonder if the big push will come with Steve Jobs’s talk at All Things Digital later today.

As far as the tracks themselves, I found myself duly impressed by the 256kbps recording, despite the fact that I didn’t think I’d be able to tell the difference. Right now, I’m listening to the Coldplay song “The Scientist” and you can definitely hear much more range. I do have to admit that seeing that “.m4a” suffix at the end of the file puts a smile upon my face (not, as Coldplay would have you believe, unlike God). Viva la revolution!


5 Comments

Fletcher said:

After a restart I see the iTunes Plus links. I don't know if it was the restart or if the store just went live while I was restarting.

If you click on the iTunes Plus quick link in the main store it has a browser which lets you see all the albums that are available in the new format. The upper right corner had a link to Upgrade My Library.

I have several Pet Shop Boys, Erasure, and AIR albums which I've upgraded. I asked it to put the old tracks on the desktop so I can do an audio comparison later. The folder on the desktop is called "Original iTunes Purchases".

I haven't put off purchases because of DRM so I don't think I'll make any purchases just because the DRM is gone. But, certainly all purchases from here on out will be the non-DRM variety when possible.

May 30, 2007 7:58 AM
Fletcher said:

You can find all the iTunes Plus non-DRM tracks which you've purchased using a Smart Playlist with:

Kind Contains "Purchased"

The Kind column can also be shown in the iTunes browser using the context menu on the column headers. It will show "Protected AAC Audio File" for traditional iTunes Store tracks or "Purchased AAC Audio File" for iTunes Plus tracks.

May 30, 2007 8:16 AM
mare said:

I can confirm this now also works from Canada (earlier there were no iTunes Plus tracks available.)

And we only pay CA$ 1.19 per iTunes Plus song which amounts to US$ 1.11.

But almost everything else is more expensive here, so don't worry.

May 30, 2007 12:19 PM
Dave-O said:

Man, talk about complicating things, Dan. I just tried to buy a track available on iTunes Plus (well, added it to my cart) and iTunes prompted me to go for the non-DRM version. By selecting the iTunes Plus button, it set that preference on the account page. You don't have to go there yourself.

That said, I'm gonna have to offer a "boo, hiss." I bought an album for $9.99 in November. Apple want's me to pay $3 to upgrade it to iTunes Plus even thought the iTunes Plus album sells for $9.99. Pass.

May 30, 2007 1:52 PM
Kate Marshall Author Profile Page said:

According to iTunes, out of all the iTS songs I've purchased, only 1 was eligible for an upgrade to the DRM-free version. It does sound better than the DRM-tainted song I'd originally purchased. I guess I don't listen to that many EMI artists.

May 30, 2007 5:01 PM

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