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iPod When will all songs be DRM free?
- Thread starter philMBP
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If you go into the iTunes Store, on the right hand side there should be a link that says "Upgrade to iTunes Plus"
That will upgrade/replace all the DRM protected music to DRM-Free iTunes Plus .... but it isn't free ... i think my upgrade cost me about £55 and more stuff keeps popping up .... and you CANNOT selectively upgrade ... its all or nothing
That will upgrade/replace all the DRM protected music to DRM-Free iTunes Plus .... but it isn't free ... i think my upgrade cost me about £55 and more stuff keeps popping up .... and you CANNOT selectively upgrade ... its all or nothing
I couldn't figure out how not to upgrade certain crappy songs my wife purchased so I figured I'd look online and couldn't really find any more information on this. Your post was the first i've seen anyone even mention partially upgrading - are we sure it can't be done?
i'd rather cut my losses at .99 and delete some of these crappy songs than spend another .30 upgrading them - but that just seems silly
The upgrade is based on your purchase history, so deleting songs from the iTunes library won't remove them from the upgrade list. You'll still have to pay the $0.30/song for those if you want to get others upgraded too.
On a related note, I discovered that there are certain circumstances that will prevent songs from being upgradeable, even when they've been updated to iTunes Plus in the store.
- Apparently if you got the song for free (remember the Pepsi promotion several years ago), it's not eligible for upgrade. Although I've had success with some of the free songs I got, others refuse to upgrade.
- If you bought a single song, but that song was later converted to album-only, it is no longer eligible. This stinks because I bought a 4-song album piece by piece, as all 4 songs were available to purchase individually. Now that it's iTunes Plus, the two longer songs were made album-only. So my upgrade list only included 2 out of the 4 songs. If I had bought the album as a whole to begin with, the whole thing would have upgraded.
- If the record company deletes and re-uploads the song, iTunes Store considers it to be a different song. Therefore you never purchased it, so you can't upgrade it.
I still think that's bull that I need to pay an extra $.30/song for upgrading to DRM free when the songs are already on iTunes at the same old price as before and DRM free anyways. The fact that Apple forces users to just pay in one chunk for all their songs to upgrade vs pick and choose is another insult to injury.
If I would of known that DRM free was coming to iTunes anyways from the start I wouldn't of bought DRM'd songs to begin with (and no not paid $1.30 for the iTunes plus either).
To be quite honest I can only imagine that to "upgrade" price will only serve to encourage people to use torrents and limewire to get their DRM songs more so now.
If I would of known that DRM free was coming to iTunes anyways from the start I wouldn't of bought DRM'd songs to begin with (and no not paid $1.30 for the iTunes plus either).
To be quite honest I can only imagine that to "upgrade" price will only serve to encourage people to use torrents and limewire to get their DRM songs more so now.
I'm still in shock about the number of people who are vocally complaining about iTunes Plus upgrades. Apple doesn't owe anyone anything -- each and every person who bought DRM'ed tracks knew they were doing so at the time. We are lucky simply to have the easy upgrade option, even with a fee, because Apple owes us *nothing*.
Do note that back in the day when CDs overtook cassettes and LPs, you couldn't bring your records into a store and exchange them for digital upgrades. In fact, you were lucky to get a couple of bucks for selling them secondhand.
Do note that back in the day when CDs overtook cassettes and LPs, you couldn't bring your records into a store and exchange them for digital upgrades. In fact, you were lucky to get a couple of bucks for selling them secondhand.
So when they speed-bump the iMac, I should get a new computer for free. Or at least an even exchange?
We all bought 128 AAC tracks complete with DRM with no expectation that that would change. We got what we paid for. When iTunes plus was introduced many moons ago, I stopped buying non-plus iTunes tracks since I figured the rest were coming eventually and I didn't want to have to pay andother 30 cents down the road.
We are not talking about computers, just music. Not sure if you remember when the industry first went from vinyl to CD's, they said that once the infrastructure was in place music would be less expensive because it cost like one cent per CD. Well that never happened and the music industry was able to get huge profits, consumers where fleeced. Now the industry doesn't even have to pay to packaged or ship music, thus increasing their profits even more. Yet here we are paying more per song for music than ever! Back in the vinyl days I could copy my music all I wanted. This is the way it should be and finally the music industry understands this because I didn't rent my music....I bought it.
So considering how much we have to overpay for content on iTunes, yes I think Apple should convert my library for free!
Indeed. Once the first wave of Plus songs hit, I changed to mainly buying in Plus. The only DRMed songs I bought were not available elsewhere, and I'm happy to pay for them now.
I'm still waiting for a large amount of my library to be upgradable though. I have several albums from 2006 that I haven't been offered upgrades for yet, despite Plus versions being available for purchase. I'm going to be patient and wait until April, then I'll compile a list of songs that I should be able to upgrade and send it to Apple.
I'm wondering how I'll get on with some of my earliest purchases though. Australia got iTunes before NZ, and at launch the store accepted NZ credit cards. Several people including myself bought albums from the Australian store, and then after the NZ launch I switched my account to NZ. Some of the albums that I bought were listed as upgradable and successfully went through, but others aren't appearing at all.
I will be SOOOOOOO pissed when they decide to stop charging people to upgrade and just give the upgrades as free.
Does anyone know how long their "Special Upgrade Offer" will last?? I've been hesitant to upgrade so far just because it will cost me over $75 to upgrade stuff I already bought.
I do have to say that I can notice a significant difference even while playing on an iPod or iPhone. I can hear a more full sound and definitely MORE bass which is a plus.
Does anyone know how long their "Special Upgrade Offer" will last?? I've been hesitant to upgrade so far just because it will cost me over $75 to upgrade stuff I already bought.
I do have to say that I can notice a significant difference even while playing on an iPod or iPhone. I can hear a more full sound and definitely MORE bass which is a plus.
No, we aren't paying more for music than we used to. Remember just a few years ago, before iTunes, when CDs went for $15+? With the advent of iTunes albums are generally $9.99 and you can also buy single tracks without buying the whole CD. I'd say that that classifies as a price decrease. And yes, record labels are greedy but if music was as cheap as you said the portion that went to the artists would be even smaller than it already is.
Besides, Apple owes you nothing as you decided to pay for DRMed songs before the change and accepted what you got for that price. Not to mention that the upgrade increases song quality, and I'm sure you would say an upgrade over anything else would justify a price increase.
Times have changed its still one digital format to another not an analog to digital upgrade its the same songs minus the wrapper (DRM) that honestly shouldnt of been there in the beginning. As I said it wouldnt be so bad if Apple let everyone pick and choose the songs they wanted to DRM free. But paying EXTRA for songs that have 1. Better sound quality 2. DRM free 3. Costs the same $.99 as the old DRM'd versions just sucks.
I don't mind Apple charging something since it would tax their system to upgrade songs. I just think the 30% all at once thing is ridiculous. A "special offer" shouldn't cost me $230. A fee of about 10% would be a lot more reasonable. This is extra money everybody is making for not really selling anything new.
To use a bad precedent set by Apple, if all the whiny early iPhone buyers can get $100 just for whining, why can't I get different upgrade methods if I whine EVEN LOUDER??????
When I bought vinyl years ago, an album cost around $7, so I must be a bit older than you. I stopped buying albums because it was just getting to expensive. So when CD's came out I was excited because they kept saying that album prices would decrease but instead they got more expensive.
I guess I could stand paying Apple to DRM free my music if their charge for this wasn't so high, 30% is a bit much for crying out loud. I think 10% is a much more fair fee.
Most CDs I see in stores are between $12 and $14. The big sales bring them to $10 or $8, maybe $5 if you're lucky. This is for a technology that is almost as old as I am. I don't know where all the cash is flowing, but an album on a CD should run us $8 or $10 tops. The physical discs are cheaper than dirt now.
I am glad that iTunes has pretty much stuck with $9.99 for your average album (no videos, about 12 tracks). They have also started to put stuff on sale more often, although not the ridiculous sales that Amazon does.
If you really want to get me started, get me going on the movies. $15 for new releases when there isn't the cost of physical media, packaging, shipping or shelf space. ALL you get is the movie. No special features at all (cover art doesn't count). For an extra $2-4, you can find the same movie on DVD at better quality and with extra features. You also have a medium you can play almost anywhere instead of being limited to computers, iPods, and Apple TVs. This is why I have bought a total of one movie from iTunes. I'm pretty sure it's the studios causing this, but I'm not buying into that model at all. If we were restricted that much with music, how successful would iTunes be?
I am glad that iTunes has pretty much stuck with $9.99 for your average album (no videos, about 12 tracks). They have also started to put stuff on sale more often, although not the ridiculous sales that Amazon does.
If you really want to get me started, get me going on the movies. $15 for new releases when there isn't the cost of physical media, packaging, shipping or shelf space. ALL you get is the movie. No special features at all (cover art doesn't count). For an extra $2-4, you can find the same movie on DVD at better quality and with extra features. You also have a medium you can play almost anywhere instead of being limited to computers, iPods, and Apple TVs. This is why I have bought a total of one movie from iTunes. I'm pretty sure it's the studios causing this, but I'm not buying into that model at all. If we were restricted that much with music, how successful would iTunes be?