What is Digg?96 Comments
- einfeldt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3My primary complaint with iTunes is the DRM factor. There are many other music services out there, and many of them don't use DRM, but give you your music in MP3 format, or even better yet, in Ogg format. It's important for artists to make money, because otherwise they'll all just have to wait on tables and live in dumps. But the problem is that the RIAA and its Big Four labels clients control the whole promotion and distribution channel. There is lots of good music on other channels, and there is also lots of good music out there that is legally free. Check out these services:
http://www.magnatune.com
http://www.mindawn.com
http://www.musicfreedom.com/
http://www.MP3tunes.com
http://www.creativecommons.org
Here is a Slashdotted review I wrote for MadPenguin of MP3tunes,com. MP3tunes is my favorite of the bunch:
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/01/23/1643234&from=rss
The thing that I like about MP3tunes is that it allows you to synch your music to any computer, not just Apple or Windows products. That means a lot to a Linux user like me. Plus, you can stream your music to any device that gets an Internet signal.
I have no financial relationship with MP3tunes at all, by the way. Or any of the other services I've recommended. - FogDogg, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Good for them. I am utterly amazed at how people are willing to pay full price for music that is plastered with DRM and is compressed to an inferior quality.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"A lot of people have an Ipod, they listen to music on their ipod. Itunes lets them buy music to listen on their ipod. I'm not sure how much simpler logic has to be for you to understand that."
His point being, that for about the same price, people could own the actual physical CD and rip the songs for their own use at whatever bit rate for whatever devices they want.
Of course, where he's finding $10 CDs, I have no idea! - BenStockwell, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"Your $50,000 worth of high-fidelity sound equipment must suck your dick off daily right? So that way you can justify spending so much money on stereo speakers besides allowing you to enjoy ultra-high- frequency-record-playing-music-songs!
A lot of people have an Ipod, they listen to music on their ipod. Itunes lets them buy music to listen on their ipod. I'm not sure how much simpler logic has to be for you to understand that."
I don't even own a stereo. Just a nice soundcard for my computer, and a high end pair of headphones. Some people prefer higher quality music for less money that respects their freedom. 5 years from now, people will have realized how disposable their iPods were, and will all be forced to replace all that music at a slightly higher bitrate. - FogDogg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"Are you a complete idiot or just mostly?
If someone didn't buy the music, there wouldn't be much music out there for you to rip off.. granted, the system is screwed up and needs fixed, but the fix is NOT to just stop buying music."
You guys do realize that you completely invalidate your argument when you fail to read the whole comment, or just simply fail to grasp the concept of sarcasm.
Read the 2nd line of his comment: "Not everyone agrees with illegally downloading other peoples art."
His comment was a failed attempt to make fun of someone. - ronintetsuro, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I nomrally don't join the circus. It' smore fun to watch. But I had to comment:
I'm by no means an Apple fan. And I think iTunes is detestable, and their little Million Tune March is more than likely made possible by their inhouse interests moreso than actual customers. But all the people that are going on about bitrate need to just stop. Anything under 192 is nasty, but after that you CANNOT tell the difference. Not if you're listening to enjoy the song, like normal people do.
I gather that iTunes encodes at 128. And these are 'normal' people (supposedly) driving this whole buying spree. There. You have your answer.
Also: I fully agree, iPods are fashion, not a trend. You'll get $300 from me for an MP3 player when it folds my laundry and crawls RSS feeds for the stuff I like while I sleep. Not before. These iPod, High Definition television, "I'll buy anything that's overpriced ebcause I hear it's trendy" consumers are wrecking it for all of us.
Adn then YOU idiots are busy shouting down the companies. Kill a scenster and buy what works. That's the only way to fix it. - jarcoal, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11 billion songs = 990,000,000 dollars, not 10 bil.
- skoles, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1allofmp3.com is just as illegal as getting the music from a p2p or torrent site. The site operates by taking advantage of a loophole in Russian law. So you're still not supporting the artist by paying for your music through there either.
Wheras any legal service (iTunes, Rapsody, Yahoo, Napster), albiet DRM'd, lets you tell the artist & record companies what songs are popular and will sell. iTunes, compared to other pay services is the least restrictive of any of the others. Who the ***** is going to RENT music??
You won't ever see a legal, non DRM'd, online music service for the simple fact that it's not going to curb you from passing the song out to everyone. Right now the profitable route is 128kbps, and I'm sure you'll see an upgrade in service soon if Apple has their way.
Also, great site here. I read /. a lot too but digg seems faster with getting more stories put up. - Sifl, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'll buy a CD before I buy a song from iTunes.
- easycheez, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1ronitetsuro-
again, i ask you to find another MP3 player that provides the features of the video ipod in the current market. The closest is the iriver, which the 40 gig photo costs 350$. Granted, the iPod is fashionable, but what modern market isn't. They dont make products to be bland and expect to make profits. Apple dominates this scene for a reason, and that is lack of competition. Lets see what Microsoft comes up with..... Then its a battle royale - FogDogg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"A lot of people have an Ipod, they listen to music on their ipod. Itunes lets them buy music to listen on their ipod. I'm not sure how much simpler logic has to be for you to understand that. "
Okay, so people are lazy, I understand that. All I'm trying to say is that I don't think that music encoded with a lossy compression scheme, coupled with DRM is equal to that of a song off of a CD.
So people don't seem to care, that's their problem. I just feel as though the record companies are taking advantage of them. - Sammy20, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1But when you own the CD there is so many more advatages. Like being able to do whatever you want with it. Back it up in many ways (ogg, mp3, aac. flac, mpc), and you always have the original hardcopy of it.
Theres so many things wrong with DRM, and 128kb aac is really awful (the quality sounds terrible on my $90 6.1 speakers)
But I dont care anway since I just get all my music of bt. - lgc90, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1sorry, the end parentheses messed up my links.
http://www.apple.com/itunes/1billion/entryform/
http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/8519/toomany0li.jpg - zbeast, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1well good for Apple I hope there passing some of there new found wealth down to there
workers.
I have a ipod but i don't use itunes. I'm not into the drm thing. - ANorton, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Didn't apple say at one point that iTunes wasn't making money???
- Soccrmastr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0remeber the good 'ol days? when no1 gave a ***** about anything. now people are actually downlaoding songs but PAYING for them. I thought the whole point of downlaoding was because its free....
- einfeldt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Hey weesee,
"I wont steal music anymore.(I used to when nabster was new and all bootleg) Now I get my music through normal means…either through a gift “hey dood burn me that CD you just got”
At the risk of raining on your parade, receiving a "gift" CD from your doods is, in fact, receiving stolen property. I'm not judging you here, just letting you know. I am an attorney, and as such, I have to live a squeeky clean life or the State Bar could put a mark on my discipline record, and enough marks on your record, and you lose your license to practice law. Not a risk I am willing to take. I would rather change the law, than break it. IMHO, the best way to change the law in this political climate is to change the market by supporting alternative music services such as Magnatune, MusicFreedom, CreativeCommons, Mindawn, MP3tunes, take your pick. They all have pretty good music, and they use no DRM at all. IMHO, there is no such thing as good DRM.
We are experiencing a bit of turmoil, though, in compensating artists for their work. We need to find a better way to ensure that artists get paid. IMHO, one of the reasons that iTunes is doing so well is that most people believe that it is wrong to copy music illegally, AND the RIAA has scared people sufficiently to make them afraid to engage in widespread music copying, AND iTunes makes it very convenient to acquire popular music.
I am hoping that eventually, people will follow the open source model for sharing intellectual property: I can download and compile the Linux OS myself if I want to, but I find it soooo much easier to just buy CDs, rather than wait forever to download the SuSE 10.xx releases and then burn the CDs from ISOs. Same for music. I would rather buy music from MP3tunes or Music Freedom, my two favorite stores, than have to go hunt for music that I like for free and listen to gobs and gobs of lousy music. Let the music live in MP3 or Ogg. Don't pay for DRM. But if SonyBMC or Warner or whoever pimps Britney Spears' music want to sell their music in DRM'd format, forget it. Britney Spears' music is actually good, but for me, it's not so much better than, say for example, Jenna Darlleen that I need to put up with DRM, whereas I can get Jenna's music from MusicFreedom in MP3 format and then pipe it to myself wherever I can get an Internet signal via MP3tunes' Oboe service and sync it to as many of _my_ computers as I want. (MP3tunes does not support file sharing at all).
Sure, I would _like_ to steal from Britney because she is a rich, dumb, conservative Macy's mannequin, but then I would be setting myself up to be the RIAA's fool if they sue me or sic the cops on me. I don't wanna live like that. Supporting Jenna is fine, because she rocks. And there are lots more like her.
http://www.musicfreedom.com/Jenna
And no, I do not work for Jenna or MusicFreedom or MP3tunes.com. - kingstead, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Someone has probably already mentioned this, but im too lazy to read all the comments...
I wonder if they'll do something special with the 1 billionth download?
Someone could get mighty lucky :P - ArthurSucks, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"It allows you to make 7 CDs of a single play list SEVEN cds. How many CDs do you need? THAT is the only restriction."
That's NOT the only restriction. Try loading the song into another player besides itunes. Try adding the song to a video slide show for grandma and grandpa. You cannot. DRM is crap. - weesee, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0The Apple DRM is not terrible at all . It allows you to make 7 CDs of a single play list SEVEN cds. How many CDs do you need? THAT is the only restriction. What I do Is I buy what ever album I wanted and burn it to CD immediately then I rip it with winamp pro…this removes any DRM So then I have a cd for my truck and a copy on my hard drive so My wife and I can serve it up on our Mp3 players or I can stream it to my living room stereo via my laptop. To Apple good for them for finding a way to make some cash.. good to Microsoft for finding a way to make some cash. If I could make cash too I would! Why do people have to get so upset when someone figures out how to make cash? Jealous much? Sheesh. When they come up with a way to run OSX or whatever and Vista on the intel laptop without hard core hacking then I will buy a Mac… Im not lazy to buy a song or album. Most of my CDs end up thrashed or stolen anyway so therees no point for me to buy a CD and I wont steal music anymore.(I used to when nabster was new and all bootleg) Now I get my music through normal means…either through a gift “hey dood burn me that CD you just got” or me purchasing it either in a store or from iTunes.
- macslut, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Witoo,
"Whats good for Mac, is good for Microsoft. MS owns part of Mac. They have an enormous amount of shares."
No, Microsoft own none of "Mac" (I think you mean "Apple"). In 1997 the made a token investment of $150 million. They sold it all starting in the year 2000 (over a period of time). This was never an enormous amount of shares.
Exactly how letting Apple dominate the MP3 player, content and online retail market benefits Microsoft is beyond me. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Billion Song Hits less than 12 hours; people are downloading like crazy now; Great Marketing Stragedy to come up with a prize every 100,000 song.
- FogDogg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"Amazing that people are dumb enough to buy music still.
Not everyone agrees with illegally downloading other peoples art."
This isn't a matter of stealing music, it's a matter of charging full price for a product inferior to the CD counterpart. I can understand buying a few tracks you like, but when it comes down to buying full albums off of iTunes for nearly the same price of a physical CD, one is left to ponder the logic associated with that. - FogDogg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0""Amazing that people are dumb enough to buy music still."
No, we should all be smart enough to steal it, right? As smart as you are? What are you 12? When you grow up you realize that sometimes it's better to buy something than to just rip it off - life has consequences."
You missed the sarcasm found in the 2nd line of his comment ;). - GreenAlien, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0lianliming:- "I never used iTunes to buy song. Just wonder what format of the songs Apple provide to their customers. MP3?"
MP3 does not have DRM. Songs purchased off iTunes Store uses AAC with DRM. If you rip your songs from CD then you can create AAC but without the DRM. Slightly better quality than MP3, and you can play them on other devices like Sony Ericsson P910.
griz: "Who here feels comfortable giving over their credit card number to a russian web site? How safe is that?"
In the UK we have Cahoot Webcard. Makes credit card payments to iffy companies totally safe. You get issued with a new credit card for each purchase, and you cap how much can be charged on it. I use it all the time. There's probably something similar in your country.
At any rate, a company is hardly going to invest in a top notch website and a full software client as a way to misuse people's credit card details. I'm sure there's easier ways of doing that. Just because they're Russian doesnt make them dodgy! Besides, with a high profile company like allofmp3 you'd of heard about any scams.
I love iTunes and iPod (except for fixed battery design which bugs me) but the iTMS DRM spoils the party. Makes hardly any sense. I still buy most of mine on CDs and rip them. Better quality audio (and freedom to rip to any format/bitrate you like), quality physical backup, supports the band, and you can listen to it on any device you own. Your music so you can do what you like with it for personal use (DRM doesnt support that model, yet!). - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I WILL WIN!!!!
(being sarcastic) - hominid, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0next wednesday about 11:30 am PST is when they'll sell # 1 billion (give or take 20 minutes)
- twilson, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"I'll buy a CD before I buy a song from iTunes."- Sifl
Most albums are cheaper on iTunes than you would buy at most stores.
I haven't purchased a cd in 3 years. - Congrats to Apple! - phytonix, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Yes iPod can be used as usb drive. Just copy your files in there!
- macintoshRus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Yes, http://www.codez4mac.com
Thanks a lot! - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1WOW! One billion songs a day within a week from now? AMAZING.
- ThinkBox, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Most people don't realize that Ogg required more processing power that other codecs to decode - more power significantly drops the batterly life - and there still is not a lot of support for Ogg minus linux and a small handful of nerds who rip their music that way. I used to use Ogg, but it got in the way more often then not. Especially when sharing my music with friends
- stimpack, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0@easycheez: I said the iPod had crappy sound reproduction, its a commonly known problem. But yes it is bad in some other ways too, it has no FM tuner, it scratches, its cheap build quality, doesnt support .ogg, doesnt appear as a usb harddrive. But yes it looks good and is simple, truly the Jessica Simpson of mp3 players.
- there, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"If someone didn't buy the music, there wouldn't be much music out there for you to rip off"
Stealing? Theft? Rippoff? Some of you are completely brainwashed by the RIAA's propaganda.
Ahem.....the term is "copyright infringement" and by the way piracy is rampant and yet music and art survives. Don't let the facts interfere with all your self-righteous rants though.
Someone said "life has consequences.". Indeed it does. If in the Internet age we decide to call intellectual goods "property"--- we will also need to create an "information police" to enforce the issue.
Great idea. Fits in nicely with what's going on with the NSA. - witooo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"about $10 billon WOW!!!Microsoft is not going to like this..."
Whats good for Mac, is good for Microsoft. MS owns part of Mac. They have an enormous amount of shares.
To all of you speaking about illegal music downloads... we are downloading music from artists who have more money than I will see in my life time. Artists who will win with one tour more cash than I would earn in 500 years of life/work! Artists who work "one" day and receive money for that work till the day they die (where as the rest of us, mortals, have to go to work every single day)... but in my opinion the #1 reason to keep downloading is that they have been ripping us off with unjustifiable prizes for decades... its payback time! ( literally XD ) - easycheez, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0iTunes probably will stay at 128kbps because the less bitrate, the smaller the file, and the smaller the file the more you can cram into your ipod and the more songs you will want to buy. And for the fella that said iPod is a crappy mp3 player. Find another MP3 player for 300 dollars that plays mp4s and has as easy as a user interface as ipod,.. there isnt one. Unless you get a bootleg knockoff from south korea.
---
The Cheez - FogDogg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"Pay attention bro, I was quoting the ORIGINAL at the top by nuclearpenguins, not linuxrocks .. who quoted but left off the quotes ;)
nuclearpenguins ONLY said the one line.."
Ahh, sorry :p - lego, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"Good for them. I am utterly amazed at how people are willing to pay full price for music that is plastered with DRM and is compressed to an inferior quality."
What are you talking about? $.99 a song is not "full price"; neither is $9.99 for a full album. iTunes *is* cheaper than (most) physical albums. - thepaul, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0what is amazing is that a couple of months ago the RIAA or at least the record labels were complaining about iTunes, saying it wasn't good for business. I doulbt they've sold 1 billion of anything.....
- br0ken1128, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"Read the 2nd line of his comment: "Not everyone agrees with illegally downloading other peoples art."
His comment was a failed attempt to make fun of someone"
Pay attention bro, I was quoting the ORIGINAL at the top by nuclearpenguins, not linuxrocks .. who quoted but left off the quotes ;)
nuclearpenguins ONLY said the one line.. - harshbarj, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"Who here feels comfortable giving over their credit card number to a russian web site? How safe is that?"
100% safe. I use allofmp3.com daily (and have used them for years). - phytonix, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I have 98 songs purchased at iTMS. including several free download.
i use allofmp3.com too.
128kps AAC is much better than 128kps MP3 which is bad. However I do hope iTMS can use 192kps - expotice, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0this is old news. the article isn't old, but the news is. we heard the same numbers in january
- 00011000, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0AAC is better than MP3 at the same bitrate.
DRM is GOOD for consumers in the current market place. If we didn't have DRM, the legitimization of doing business on the internet is undermined. This is still a very young market and I 100% respect Apple for what they have done and achieved in a few short years.
iTunes makes it SO simple for computer users with broadband to download music and use it on their iPod of which there are millions.
The DRM does not in any way impede the use of the music you purchase that is within the realm of legality.
Burning more than 7-10 of the same playlist = Mass piracy.
Again, back to my point, DRM is good as it legitimizes the internet as a distribution medium, and in the long-run, that is good for us all.
- ccalabro, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0why does the countDOWN go UP?
- rebrad, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Wow, 1 billion DRMed files. I wonder how many of them will play in 10 years. I don't have 1 billion LPs or 1 billion CDs, but quite a few are over 10 years old some are over 50 years and I can still play them. DRMed files are not a very good investment I would think. But disposable is what it's all about. The RIAA thanks you. They want to make you pay again every 4 or 5 years.
- lostcause, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0" To help generate sales, Apple is offering prizes: every person buying a 100,000th song gets a black 4GB iPod nano and a $100 iTunes Music Card.
The person who downloads the billionth song from the iTunes Music Store will receive a 20-inch iMac, a $10,000 iTunes Music Card, and ten 60GB iPods.
Apple will also launch a full scholarship in the winner's name at a world-renowned music school."
SICK....i MIGHT buy A song....just to try my luck... - Jadey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0But is it an American billion or an English billion? The story is on Macworld UK!
http://www.alt-usage-english.org/excerpts/fxbill00.html
;)å - hyperpasta, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0@stimpack
Crappy Sound Reproduction - I'll beleive it if you cite a source.
No FM Tuner - Well... okay...
Scratches - True, but it's also prettier. Take your pick.
Cheap Build Quality - Again, cite a source. Zens seem to be much worse to me.
OGG - See FM Tuner
USB Hard Drive - Yes it does. - thewhitefedora, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0This just show how inferior the average human is. They pay too much for Portable audio players that are put together with glue[yes, IPods are put together with glue and most cost $20+ than comparable mp3 players]. Then they load it with low quality music.
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