iTunes Plus upgrade now available on a per track basis
Finally! Now you don’t have to pay to upgrade that EMO music you were into 4 years ago but now find annoying. Apple has given-in to demand, likely because people weren’t going to pay $50+ depending on how much music they had bought on iTunes in the past.
[via tuaw.com]
iTunes keeps adding DRM free music. Yesterday it was $55.47 to upgrade 215 (available) songs I bought on iTunes and I’m sure there will be more added. Thankfully I stopped buying DRM music quite a while ago.
Rumor: Apple's iTunes going DRM-free starting Today?
Sadly CNet News now says that it’s unlikely DRM-free tracks from the three remaining labels will turn up on iTunes before the end of the year… Sad, I guess we’ll see soon.
Smashing Pumpkins G.L.O.W. Single on iTunes exclusively
However the tracks are DRM protected low 128 kbps quality, and that makes me sad… I wouldn’t mind the DRM so much if they were 256 kbps. Right now the only other place to get the single is on Guitar Hero.
It’s only $1.49 so I’ll deal with it for now.
Sony sells $0.67/song DRM free MP3s
On Dada.net. It took a little digging, but I found that their tracks are indeed 256 kbps (basically CD quality). The only real catch is that the service is a monthly subscription for $10 per month that get you 15 song downloads a month (that don’t rollover). I also assume you can buy another 15 song credits at any time.
The price is great, however I’m not a big fan of the subscription model and the catalogue is limited to Sony and Universal music. I will be keeping an eye on this service and stick with Amazon MP3 for now.
Why I’ve been re-buying music
Now that I have better headphones, speakers, more hard drive space, and hate DRM; the low quality (128 kbps) DRM protected songs that I had bought on iTunes years ago, now just aren’t cutting it.
At least you have the option to upgrade to the tracks they do have on “iTunes Plus” for a small fee. However most of iTunes’ catalogue is still only available as low quality DRM’ed tracks… Yuck!
I had already gotten rid of the DRM but audio quality is noticeably lacking after listening to 256 kbps tracks from Amazon MP3. I’ve read 256 kbps isn’t distinguishable from CD quality to the human ear.
So now I’m “upgrading” my favorite albums by re-purchasing them on Amazon MP3 and buying CDs (trying to stick to used) to rip at 256 kbps.
This is an example of why, (in a perfect world) you should be able to buy the personal use rights to the media and be able to download the song whenever you wanted in whatever format you wanted for free.
