Apple Announces DRM Free music from iTunes

[Kevmaster]

The day I buy music on a digital distribution service is the day Compact Discs are pronounced dead.

x2 =|

x3

[Bauzi]

The day I buy music on a digital distribution service is the day Compact Discs are pronounced dead.

x2 =|

x3

Same here.

When I download stuff than I download free music without paying and yes there are tons of free songs out there wich are pretty good.

[trythil]

Hmm, does this mean all the music will be in 256kbps Plus standard, or will the same 128/256 thing apply? Seems like a dumb question considering that 256 has always been tied to DRM free as far as history goes, but I'm not going to automatically assume that.

The only thing changing with iTunes is that the iTunes Plus catalog will eventually contain every song in the (DRMed) iTunes catalog. So there's no zero-cost conversion available -- it'll still cost the price of an iTunes Plus upgrade per song.

The only difference now is that you can pay that cost for every FairPlay'd song in an iTunes library.

[trythil]

But compact discs are dead.

x2

I've just flat-out stopped buying the beasts, with wildly exceptional cases where the music is unavailable legally in download format.

CDs were made obsolete by vinyl before they even came out, though.

I think CDs are on the way out, too, but not because of vinyl. CD transportability is far superior to vinyl, and while you can get good digital copies of vinyl records, doing so requires a substantial investment in playback and recording gear, as well as knowledge of digital recording techniques.

And if the source was mastered by a butcher -- as is the case with many contemporary album releases -- then there's nothing you can do about it.

What's convincing me that CDs are on the way out are artists like The Flashbulb, who is providing FLAC(!) releases of his albums that sound great. Everything sounds crisp, clear, and nothing clips so badly that it turns into distorted crap (you can check his tracks with an audio editing program and a VU meter to verify this). He's got his own label now, so either he's doing all mastering and distribution on his own, or he has staff to do things the way he wants it.

(Predictable side-note: buy his stuff if you like unpredictable electronic music. It's very much worth his asking price, and then some. Unless you're one of those people who doesn't believe in paying for music anymore.)

So I think this Internet-based distribution system can be a good thing. There's just not many people who have figured out how to do it right.

[guardiansoulblade]

I bought Comatose Comes Alive CD/DVD because I bought it from this website where I got a signed pass from the band! Skillet's awesome!

[The Origonal Head Hunter]

I bought Comatose Comes Alive CD/DVD because I bought it from this website where I got a signed pass from the band! Skillet's awesome!

That's nice, honey.

[Qyot27]

Hmm, does this mean all the music will be in 256kbps Plus standard, or will the same 128/256 thing apply? Seems like a dumb question considering that 256 has always been tied to DRM free as far as history goes, but I'm not going to automatically assume that.

The only thing changing with iTunes is that the iTunes Plus catalog will eventually contain every song in the (DRMed) iTunes catalog. So there's no zero-cost conversion available -- it'll still cost the price of an iTunes Plus upgrade per song.

The only difference now is that you can pay that cost for every FairPlay'd song in an iTunes library.

I'd rechecked the announcement right after posting initially, so I realized then that all they were saying was Plus, Plus, Plus...I'd overlooked that before and didn't know if there was still going to be a bitrate divide, just a DRM-less one now. But that (and checking the iTunes Store itself) kind of shot that down quick.

I don't recall saying anything about zero-cost, though. I'm not that optimistic. I'd mentioned the weekly freebies because those mostly are still part of the catalog, and all I would ask for is that they'd set up a kind of 'shopping list' which would give people a quick reference if they wanted to re-purchase them, since the stance the Store has always held was that the free songs are not eligible for upgrading at the reduced rate (even though, like I said, there have been times I think the management screwed up and listed some of them anyway). If they wanted to list them full price alongside the upgrades that'd be fine too, of course.

There's also at least one song I bought from iTunes that was later pulled from the store completely when the album went out of print, but since I later bought the physical CD from a site that still had copies of it left, that's not a big issue.

I've come across some FLAC releases from other artists as well. Flaming Fish Music is doing that for some of their backcatalog (for free, at that), and the last Nine Inch Nails album was released in several lossless formats (including 96/24 PCM WAV - which is crazy, even if it was only stereo - if I had the resources to author DVD-Audio discs, that'd be the first one; I've only heard passing references to an FFmpeg-based or otherwise FOSS MLP encoder, but don't know how far along development on it is).

[Megamom]

But compact discs are dead.

x3... discs

[JaddziaDax]

its just too easy to get around the drm anyways :/

I buy off of iTunes when theres a single song I like from the artist, but the rest of the album is total shit... or at least in my opinion - if I'm going to buy an album I'll buy the fecking CD