Apple To Offer DRM-free Music
Monday April 2, 2007 at 10:06 pm | Filed under Entertainment, Gadgetry, Mac, On the Web
Starting sometime in May Apple will offer a large portion of it’s iTunes music store catalog at higher quality and WITH NO DIGITAL RIGHTS MANAGEMENT for an additional 30¢ per song. That’s right for $1.29 per song you can get a 256kbps AAC file (that would mean more than just iPods could play in the iTunes Music Store) with no strings attached! No news on a full album price but it will be interesting to see how they price’em. Read the full article here.
Something tells me that May will also bring the next Apple OS.
In other Apple news related to me — I ordered an Apple Airport Extreme last week which should arrive in the next few days. I’m anxious to play around with the speed of the 802.11n and not care about the range of our router ever again, plus utilize an apple interface for my router (both Monique’s new iMac and my new work MacBook Pro have 802.11n built in). I’ve not many complaints about the Netgear router I’ve had for years, but it’s losing steam lately and the control panel blows.
2 Responses to “Apple To Offer DRM-free Music”
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Danny Says:
May 9th, 2007 at 8:52 pmThis is great news! The DRM thing is cool, although I’ve rarely run into problems personally (I have less than 5 computers, and with Ericka and I both having iPods, it just doesn’t bother me), but it does open the door for other music players…people may actually buy a Zune now!
What I’m most excited about is the 256kbps. Most of the time I listen to music it’s either in the car, or as background filler, so the 128 bit iTunes currently sells sounds fine. Once in a while I really listen to my music, and I can tell the difference between 128 and a CD (not much, not every album, but it’s there). I always rip my CDs to 256 AAC. It may not be as good as the original, but darn if I can tell the difference (one too many rock concerts has robbed me of the ability to hear any better). I’ll be happy to pay an extra 30¢ per song for higher quality. I’ve heard rumors that full album pricing will be the same…a big encouragement to purchase the whole album instead of just a single. May I also put in my vote for a subscription plan…
EMI and Apple have been criticized for not going far enough, but I applaud them! It’s a huge step toward higher quality, DRM free music, which is what consumers are demanding. Hopefully the other big music labels follow suit.
By the way…the Drive is back! Head over to http://www.pasadenadrive.com/blog.
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Sports News and Resources Says:
October 8th, 2007 at 6:04 pmSports News and Resources…
Sorry, it just sounds like a crazy idea for me :)…