Apple to Sell Unprotected Songs Online

[doodlebug 3]

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070402/D8O8H0EG0.html

LONDON (AP) - EMI Group PLC on Monday announced a deal that will allow computer company Apple Inc. (AAPL) to sell the record company's songs online without copy protection software.

Does anyone know if this means that now when I buy songs for my daughter's iPod nano I can also use those same songs on my San Disk mp3 player? I HATE having to buy the same song twice!

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Yes it does - but the new tracks apparently cost $0.30 more than the regular download version. It's an excuse for a stealthy price increase. Amazing - used to be you could buy a CD and do what you wanted within reason with it. Nowadays you pay more and get less. On some of those subscription services - the content stops working if you stop subscribing to them. That's what I call a rip-off.

[Robor007 0]

Yes it does - but the new tracks apparently cost $0.30 more than the regular download version. It's an excuse for a stealthy price increase. Amazing - used to be you could buy a CD and do what you wanted within reason with it. Nowadays you pay more and get less. On some of those subscription services - the content stops working if you stop subscribing to them. That's what I call a rip-off.

Solution: Don't support them. Don't buy music online and don't buy CD's. I used to buy CD's all the time. I've got 300+ right now but anymore if it's not one of my 2-3 absolute favorite bands and on sale I will not buy it. The DRM the RIAA is forcing on customers is a joke and I will not play their game. I swear I spent *far* more money on CD's in the days of Napster. Job well done RIAA!

[Dr_LHA 3]

Yes it does - but the new tracks apparently cost $0.30 more than the regular download version. It's an excuse for a stealthy price increase. Amazing - used to be you could buy a CD and do what you wanted within reason with it. Nowadays you pay more and get less. On some of those subscription services - the content stops working if you stop subscribing to them. That's what I call a rip-off.

Note that the price of albums on iTunes is not going up, and will default to the new high quality, non-DRMed format. So think of this more as extra incentive to buy the album, rather than picking a choosing tracks.

Personally I'm not bothered by the 30 cents increase on individual tracks because I usually buy full albums, and also am happy that the music industry is now at least giving people the choice to buy tracks without DRM, stealth price increases or not. This is a positive move for the consumer IMHO.

[Niels Bohr 72]

EMI made the right choice.

[Dr_LHA 3]

Does anyone know if this means that now when I buy songs for my daughter's iPod nano I can also use those same songs on my San Disk mp3 player? I HATE having to buy the same song twice!

If the SanDisk can play AAC files then yes, kind of. I say kind of, because only 1 of the big 4 record companies has signed on so far, so we're going to have the confusing situation of only some tracks having no DRM. Hopefully the rest of the record companies will come into the fold and we can be rid of DRM once and for all.

For now however, you can always burn your iTunes bought tracks to an audio CD, then rip them to MP3 to put on your SanDisk device. Some audiophiles complain about the quality of this, but to my ears it sounds fine.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Yes it does - but the new tracks apparently cost $0.30 more than the regular download version. It's an excuse for a stealthy price increase. Amazing - used to be you could buy a CD and do what you wanted within reason with it. Nowadays you pay more and get less. On some of those subscription services - the content stops working if you stop subscribing to them. That's what I call a rip-off.

Solution: Don't support them. Don't buy music online and don't buy CD's. I used to buy CD's all the time. I've got 300+ right now but anymore if it's not one of my 2-3 absolute favorite bands and on sale I will not buy it. The DRM the RIAA is forcing on customers is a joke and I will not play their game. I swear I spent *far* more money on CD's in the days of Napster. Job well done RIAA!

I rarely buy new CD's - usually I buy them second-hand on ebay, rip them with winamp and sell them on (so technically I get most of music I want for for free). Of course, that's "illegal" too apparently (as theoretically you are supposed to delete any copies whenever you sell your "official" version - yeah right....).