NEWS
Apple and the three largest music labels didn't take any half steps in walking away from copy-protection software at Macworld 2009 Tuesday.
Apple could have announced, as expected, simply that the iTunes Store would begin offering songs stripped of digital rights management from now on. Instead, the music retailer secured licences that will enable users to upgrade their existing DRM-wrapped music and strip it of the controversial software - but it's going to cost them.
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An Apple spokesman said: "Users of iTunes can now upgrade their music libraries with a click of a button. For an additional 30 cents per song, a user can receive a DRM-free version of their existing tracks at a 256-kbps bit rate."
The iTunes files will still be in Apple's preferred AAC format, not the more widely supported MP3. A lot of recent digital music products do support the AAC file format however, including Sony's newer Walkman players and Microsoft's Zune and its next version of Windows Media Player.
As of yesterday, Apple will offer eight million DRM-free songs and will add another two million by April.
With the move, Apple's iTunes is also making its strongest foray into interoperability. From now on, iTunes' music should play on any digital player, meaning iTunes users don't have to worry about their music libraries being locked out of some future digital music player.
Comments
There are 5 comments. Join the discussion
1. David Fletcher
The day they start offering downloads in either FLAC or WAV format is the day I will consider download purchases.
Until then, I continue to buy what I want on CD and rip my own OGG Vorbis files for my music player.
2. Matt H
Start selling the music files in MP3 format and I might start buying from iTunes. In the meantime, I'll stay old skool and continue to buy CD's thank you!
3. drew stephenson
An extra 30c per tune? when amazon, 7 digital and a number of others offer it for free?
Man are they relying on brand loyalty or what?
4. Sarah
Just another reason to not buy an iProduct. Never bought an iPod or an iPhone and never will. Perfectly happy with my Creative and Sony MP3 players and purchasing music from Amazon.
Just wish a few more people felt the same way.
5. Simon
What a lot of whingers here !
If you don't like the iTunes store, just don't use it - but stop the moaning and bitching about it. Some people LIKE the way it's simple to buy and download straight into your music library without faffing about with downloading files, moving them to the right place, etc.
And AAC is NOT an Apple proprietary standard, it happens to be an open standard (and I believe it's reckoned to be better sound for a similar bitrate). So if the complaint is that your music player won't play AAC files - complain about the lack of AAC support from other companies.