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May 30, 2007

itunes

Putting the ‘DRM’ in ‘drama’: DRM free tracks arrive

Posted May. 30, ’07, 3:57 AM PT by Derik DeLong
Category | iTunes

iTunes I ran Software Update this morning to get the Quicktime security update and to my surprise, there was a new version of iTunes (7.2) featuring the following description:

With iTunes 7.2, preview and purchase iTunes Plus music—new higher-quality, DRM-free music downloads from participating music labels.

Apple and EMI have delivered on the promise. I’ll have to spend the rest of the day exploring the offerings to see what I’ll be downloading. Oh, and for the record, Dan, I called Wednesday. Too bad I didn’t tell anyone else.

So, for those of you that have been hesitant to use iTunes, has this changed things for you? Are you going to buy some albums today? Which ones?


3 Comments

Jack said:

As of 7:30 Easterm time, the store does not a appear to be updated with any DRM-free tracks.

May 30, 2007 4:32 AM
George said:

I can't see this really changing my mind. I experimented with buying iTunes albums and songs, and the sound quality is very lackluster. The DRM-free tracks are twice the bit rate so they might sound better (and they should be able to stream to my Tivo).

But there's just something about having thy physical media that downloads can't replace. Plus the lack of the booklet which might contain the lyrics or other information of interest. And iTunes occasional digital booklets aren't very well integrated into the whole iTunes experience (much like my feelings on the shift of music videos from the [former] Video library to being mixed into the Music library).

I might be tempted to upgrade a couple existing songs to compare the audio quality, but unless iTunes albums suddenly drop to about $5.00 a piece (versus the $7-10 I'm averaging on CD's), I see no incentive to switch to inferior quality digital downloads.

May 30, 2007 5:10 AM
Fletcher said:

I can't find any mention of "iTunes Plus" or non-DRM tracks *in* the new iTunes. Has anyone actually been able to buy a non-DRM track yet? I'm looking at Sinatra and McCartney, but don't see any non-DRM tracks or even the McCartney back catalog which is supposed to be available.

May 30, 2007 7:01 AM

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