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DRM-free iTunes set this week

macnn.com — The seeming delay for introducing the new tier of content has been primarily attributed to a desire to offer the entire catalog at once in the unprotected format rather than a gradual rollout. The companies' technicians are simply in the later stages of encoding and hosting the files before they go live, the contact says.

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andrewcod 1 year 179 days ago, made popular 1 year 178 days ago

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Who Dugg It?

filefly, on 10/11/2007, -79/+13http://www.allofmp3.com
- jsearch, on 10/11/2007, -48/+6Aside from the fact that your comment didn't have anything to do w/ the article, I wonder why people are digging you down. I also wonder why iTunes gets business when there are other alternatives (i.e. your comment).
  
  Can someone explain why one would choose to buy from iTunes and not a cheaper alternative?
  
  Thanks.
- colincornaby, on 10/11/2007, -13/+60"Aside from the fact that your comment didn't have anything to do w/ the article, I wonder why people are digging you down. I also wonder why iTunes gets business when there are other alternatives (i.e. your comment)."
  
  Because AllOfMP3.com is run by the russian mob, doesn't pay the artists, and is illegal? The poster might as well have posted a link to Limewire or Kazaa.
- savingaurora, on 10/11/2007, -14/+3people do this because they jump the bandwagon. I can't talk much i mean I'm typing on my new macbook and i love apple but when it comes to buying music I'd much rather it be cheap or free. I really don't care what apple is doing with DRM...honestly i love their products but...who cares?
  
  Note "colin..." it isn't illegal you follow the laws that the service is being hosted in. So if you can back up your statement about russian law then i'll back down on my comment.
- HarryHunt, on 10/11/2007, -5/+16Why do people download from iTunes? Becuase the music on iTunes has a much better design, doesn't crash and is so much easier to use.
  
  Just kidding ;-)
  
  I think dropping DRM was a good decision, what annoys me though that the stuff I already bought will remain DRMified which sucks.
- sych0, on 10/11/2007, -0/+29harryhunt: for emi music you can pay 30 cents for your already purchased tracks to upgrade to the drm free version
- MasterJediDan, on 10/11/2007, -7/+3harryhunt, just use QT Fair Use 6 ;)
  
  http://www.hymn-project.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1553
  
  The best program in the world for un-drm'ing iTunes DRM.
- IllBeBack, on 10/11/2007, -12/+5@colincornaby:
  
  >> 1. Because AllOfMP3.com is run by the russian mob
  >> 2. doesn't pay the artists
  >> 3. and is illegal?
  >> 4. The poster might as well have posted a link to Limewire or Kazaa.
  
  #1. AllOfMP3 isn't run by the Russian mob. Are you high?
  #2. They do, however the RIAA has blocked the artists from receiving the money.
  #3. It is following all laws, so how is that illegal? Are you an attorney? Or just high?
  #4. How can you compare sites where music is obtained for free with a site where users pay for the music downloaded?
  
  You are an ignorant dumbass and know exactly nothing about what you have stated as fact. Nothing you have said is accurate or true.
- ungus, on 10/11/2007, -3/+6Listen, the bottom line is, downloading music illegal is... illegal. And for a reason. They put their product out there to sell it, and it is wrong and illegal to steal it.
  
  ON THE OTHER HAND! The RIAA is full of it. They are taking the money of the artist and manipulating their customers to suck every penny out of them they can. The solution is to boycott the record labels that are doing this stuff, not to steal their music. If you want to make a political statement, breaking the law is a bad idea. Oh, and before anyone says it, no, stealing is NOT a form of boycotting.
  
  The problem is that no one is willing to give up their music. So until we are, it'll be a long time before we see the record labels be a little more reasonable.
- yotomote, on 10/11/2007, -6/+2Copyright infringement is NOT stealing. Seems their "car analogies" on unskipable DVD intros get to some people...
- AggieTales, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1I don't know about you, but there's no way for me to pay for AllofMP3.com mainly b/c Visa's blocking all transactions by their Credit Card service or whatever its called. I think this may be the case for all US credit cards in fact.
- ungus, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1@yotomote
  
  You're right, technically, copyright infringement isn't stealing. Technically. But it may as well be. You're making use of a product illegally without paying the fees. That is pretty damn close to stealing. And, just the same way you're too lazy to spell unskippable correctly, I'm too lazy to type out copyright infringement every time. Just because it feels less illegal that shoplifting doesn't mean it's not a form of stealing. I'm not gonna pretend I've never done some shady things as far as copyrights go, but that doesn't mean it's the right thing to do.
inio, on 10/11/2007, -2/+22This is truely odd, the comments are flipping back and forth between the two stories.
- inio, on 10/11/2007, -1/+22For those confused, another copy of this story exists, with the exact same url but different comments. It should be listed here:
  
  http://www.digg.com/users/steffi2010/news/submitted
- jls8705, on 10/11/2007, -4/+1You know what would be amazing?
  
  If they would allow you to exchange previously purchased iTunes music for the new DRM-free music.
  
  Too bad that'll never happen.
- sneamia, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3@jls8705: Learn how to read, *****.
  
  "harryhunt: for emi music you can pay 30 cents for your already purchased tracks to upgrade to the drm free version"
  --sych0
andrewcod, on 10/11/2007, -2/+19This is crazy - I've sent a message to Digg reporting the bug. I think the issue is that both stories were submitted at the exact same time, so they were both given the same URL. (The bug I mentioned was the one discussed above by inio)
- palehorse864, on 10/11/2007, -0/+21You mean they were quantum entangled?
deadowl, on 10/11/2007, -26/+4I really hope EMI goes beyond iTunes with this deal. Stupid iTunes isn't cross-platform. Also, what are the odds of this bug happening?
- ben_nushmut, on 10/11/2007, -4/+22What do you mean iTunes isn't cross-platform? It runs on both OS X and Windows, so that's not it. Do you mean player interoperability? It won't matter with this new tier, as the music is DRM-free, so any player that can play AAC/MP4 audio will be compatible with this music. And if you want to transcode it to MP3, OGG or WMA (or any other format under the sun), that shouldn't be an issue in this case.
  
  If it's Linux we're talking about, well I'll give you that one, as I think iTunes should be Linux-compatible. But I'm guessing that's a separate issue to be sorted out for later.
- node3, on 10/11/2007, -5/+20"Stupid iTunes isn't cross-platform."
  
  iTunes is available for Mac and Windows.
- mikesum32, on 10/11/2007, -24/+6Can I run Itunes on Linux ? BSD ? SkyOS ? Haiku ? Syllable ?
- ceralor, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6I believe iTunes can run in wine. They aim for majority market I suppose.
- ahknight, on 10/11/2007, -8/+10@ mikesum32
  
  Linux isn't a platform, it's a religion. Outside of that cult, few try to run a server OS as a desktop OS. I use Linux for my servers, but when I get home I'm using a Mac. Given that no one wants to write software for Linux, I can only presume I'm not alone in that.
  
  Besides, what market is there for DRM or legal music for Linux users, really?
- ben_nushmut, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3@mikesum32:
  
  Did you read the last part of my comment? I believe I conceded the Linux point, and I'll extend that to include all *nix OS's that aren't OSX.
  
  Like I said, I do think that it wouldn't hurt Apple to at least provide a version of iTunes that will run natively in most/all flavors of *nix, but I also can understand that, from a business standpoint, it makes little sense to jump into that market just for one app. Windows is the majority, and OSX is from Apple, so that's where they choose to focus their resources for the time being.
  
  I suppose the other issue relates to the whole DRM thing, the same reason why you have to go and add DVD playback functionality instead of it being built in. For DVD it's CSS; iTunes has Fairplay. Maybe, once most or all of the store is selling DRM-free music, they would consider a Linux version that can only get the DRM-free files. Obviously, that would force users to shell out the extra $.30 for singles, but at least you'd be able to access the iTunes store.
  
  For the record, I have run Linux for a while on an older machine I had laying around the house (Ubuntu on a P4 1.5 w/ 512MB RAM and onboard video, etc.) and I enjoyed using the OS. It's clean and functional and has lots of options for customization, especially if you're into the command line. It would be a great place for frustrated Windows users to turn, or anyone looking for a nice, stable system to use. But I also still prefer OSX for myself. If someone I'm talking to has no interest in trying a Mac, I'll slip Linux in there now as well.
- fangorious, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3@ceralor: "I believe iTunes can run in wine."
  
  Not according to the AppDB at winehq, http://appdb.winehq.org/appview.php?iVersionId=5774. Looking at CrossOver from CodeWeavers, it seems they had limited support for some 4.x versions of iTunes back in '05, but the forum for iTunes doesn't seem to indicate anything about iTunes 7 in the current version of CrossOver, http://www.codeweavers.com/compatibility/browse/name?app_id=134.
ipodman715, on 10/11/2007, -4/+2Finally! They just barely made the May promise.
iwanttodiggthis, on 10/11/2007, -5/+5Thank Jesus! I plan to update my collection presently.
baraqiyal, on 10/11/2007, -1/+7So this is just EMI offering unprotected songs, not Sony, Universal or Warner? I'm not complaining since EMI has a lot of great talent but it would be nice if the others got on board too.
- colincornaby, on 10/11/2007, -2/+13Rumor is Apple is talking with the other publishers about getting their music in DRM free form.
- ben_nushmut, on 10/11/2007, -1/+13Don't worry, once the other labels see that this will be a big revenue booster, they'll sign up in a heartbeat. A chance to get more money out of the same customers is an opportunity they won't want to throw away. I think that what they fear is that without DRM, so-called "piracy" will take over as the principal way to obtain music. While that may be true for some, I think most people are honest and willing to pay money if they get a good product and aren't treated like a criminal (or at least a potential one).
  
  Remember, even through the Napsters and Groksters and Limewires of the last 8+ years, CD sales held pretty consistently for most of that time. Did CDs need DRM to continue selling? Apparently not (right, Sony??). Once the music industry realizes that they need to care about their customers as much as they value their bottom line (and who knows if that'll ever really happen...), maybe this business will enter a new age of success. Who knows.
  
  All I ask is for some real musicians to get their chances instead of the next big marketing machine creation, and then we'll be making some progress. One step at a time, I suppose.
- conman16x, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1I don't quite understand the desire to cling to DRM amongst the big record labels. If I really want to get my music for free I can. There's no shortage of places I can go for pirated music. DRM isn't keeping anyone from pirating music. If anything it's keeping people from obtaining music legally. People are already free to choose where they obtain their music, I say make it easier for them to make the right choice.
ares623, on 10/11/2007, -10/+5this is great news! though i don't really know what DRM-free really means.. anyone care to explain?
but "unprotected" + "music" +"iTunes" is definately good news for me and my iPod right?
- ben_nushmut, on 10/11/2007, -1/+10Well, DRM-free means the music you get in this new option can be played on as many computers as you want, can be copied/burned as often as you want, and can be put into a different audio format if you so choose. Basically, you control the files you get, and do whatever you want with them.
  
  If you've ever tried to play music bought through iTunes in another program, or tried to put it onto any player other than an iPod, you can't do it. If you've tried to play such music in iTunes on another computer, you have to give your iTunes login info to authorize that computer for playback of your purchases. You can only have 5 computers authorized at a time. These are all examples of the hinderances created by DRM.
  
  This new program takes away all those things, so you can treat such files the same way as you would music that you had ripped from a CD yourself. Hope this helped!
- Aaronthethird, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0DRM is only a temporary hindrance though because you can always burn DRM'd tracks to a CD, delete them off your computer and rip them back on as a MP3's. It adds another step, but it does get rid of the DRM and then makes it so you can still do with the music whatever you want. This is one of the many reasons DRM is completely ineffective and only makes it less convienient for the people who are trying to do the right thing, and ultimately has no effect on piracy, which is exactly why they should get rid of it. They can't stop piracy through technology, they need to approach the problem from a different angle or create a new business model; trying to stop pirates by brute force is hopeless and they will die trying to do it.
- ben_nushmut, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Yes, the burn & rip option is possible, but it also further decreases the audio quality of your music, something I'm not too keen about considering the already dicey quality that 128kbps AAC provides. But I agree that DRM is ultimately moot and that there will always be a loophole in this technology.
  
  As I wrote earlier on this page, I just hope this succeeds enough to become the beginning of the end for DRM.
Kinjiru, on 10/11/2007, -12/+3While i firmly believe iTunes is a huge POS.. and I have no use for an ipod at all (I use a mp3 player with a standard interface instead) I have to applaud apple for this removal of DRM.. bout time someone got a clue!
- Kinjiru, on 10/11/2007, -3/+3I see the apple fanboyz are out in force again... ya lamahs :P
- MacParrot, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1I'm not sure why you got dugg down unless it was because you said iTunes is a POS (since this is just an opinion, it seems petty to digg you down for that).
devolve, on 10/11/2007, -2/+9http://www.musicbrigade.com , here in Europe, has had drm-free downloads from EMI and some indie labels since Friday.
They beat iTunes by a weekend, and the files are in 256kbps mp3's too.
savingaurora, on 10/11/2007, -14/+2let me try to spell it. B I T T O R R E N T lol DRM free
savingaurora, on 10/11/2007, -3/+5why not just buy the cd's? its like an extra 2 bucks? most of the time the single your after is the worst song on the album its good to listen to cd as a whole instead of just the "hits"
- colincornaby, on 10/11/2007, -3/+20Because some of us don't like going to the store and buying physical media which we'll never look at again. We'd like instant gratification, without leaving the house. And if we only like one song, we should be able to only buy the song we want.
- jull1234, on 10/11/2007, -1/+5If you buy track by track, I suppose it makes sense, but for a whole CD? Until itunes offers lossless downloads, order it from Amazon and wait a couple days.
that1jewishguy, on 10/11/2007, -8/+2oh apple you are so cool
savingaurora, on 10/11/2007, -2/+6I'm not saying that it isn't a right for someone to download just the songs they want but its a fulfilling gratification when you have the actual album instead of mp3 and a picture of the front artwork.
gism82, on 10/11/2007, -4/+2finally some news on this!
nreisan, on 10/11/2007, -11/+3itunes is such a crap program when run on windows machines, interface is horrible and makes little sense. I heard its a lot more user friendly on a mac tho..

however i congratulate them on this good move, DRM free music.
one question tho? do they provide you with reciepts or something? so you can not get arrested lol
- Endemoniada, on 10/11/2007, -1/+5I think iTunes works just fine on Windows, been using it for a couple of months now.
  
  And yes, you do get a receipt when you buy a song or an album. And no, you won't get arrested for just having MP3s, they have to provide proof that you obtained those songs illegaly. There's nothing illegal in simply *having* songs on your computer, so you're safe any way.
Breepee, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3To all Apple DRMmed muic owners: are you going to delete your files and redownload the DRM-less ones?
- dave932932, on 10/11/2007, -3/+2***** paying 30 cents to have the "privledge" of having DRM free files. I'll rip copies of my music from the library. Besides, all of my iTunes music purchased is already in a DRM-free form and 128Kbps sounds fine, (albeit kinda mushy).
- dave932932, on 10/11/2007, -4/+2http://hymn-project.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1553
- Endemoniada, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5if I understand the concept properly, the only thing that will cost more is songs, whole albums are still going to sell for the same price as before. That's double the bitrate and no DRM for the same price as before. Personally, I never buy individual songs, so this is nothing but good news to me.
- superkendall, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Yes, I plan to upgrade all the songs I can - at only $.30 cents apiece, and for a higher quality version, the price is worth it.
  
  I have in the past used JHymn on some selected tracks to convert to unprotected AAC, but the higher quality alone it worth it for me. Sure I could have bought the CD's but I have a lot of songs where I only bought a few tracks from a CD, so it would have been way more expensive to get the full CD and rip what I liked.
  
  I also have a few albums purchased from ITMS, and am wondering if upgrading albums is free since albums will come for the same price with higher quality and no DRM...
CanadianGuy, on 10/11/2007, -3/+2Who cares, if you want unlimited access to your music buy a CD. After all in a few years when all of the formats change you will either have to reencode them (thereby losing sound quality) or buy them again. If you had the CD it wouldn't be a problem.
CreativeGuy, on 10/11/2007, -1/+5The bottom line is this; people who will spend hours upon hours searching, downloading and re-downloading tracks on Limewire, Hotline, KDE and other **sharing** methods most likely were NEVER going to pay for the music. So this isn't money lost for the labels, it's more like free advertising.

I was a huge fan of Napster back in the day, but even then it was a real pain trying to find a good clean RIP of the songs I was downloading. Usually had to dl 3 or 4 versions to find a decent one.

When iTunes was introduced, I jumped on it immediately. So much easier to find what I'm looking for. And quite frankly, my time is worth more that the cost of those songs.

That being said, I sure the hell aint gonna re-purchase music just to get rid of the DRM. I can do that easily now just by re-encoding.
- BZKyle, on 10/11/2007, -3/+2I had to do that about a year ago, but now almost all the songs on Limewire, bittorrent, etc seem to be fine.
- brianez21, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4KDE is a desktop environment, not a p2p app
- manageMyRights, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3@brianez21
  
  Everyone knows Gnome is better than KDE for p2p.
shampoovta, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2"DRM-free iTunes set this week"

That is when shampoovta found herself clicking on a Itunes story even though she did not own an Ipod,....
bignetbuy, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7Kudos to Apple and EMI for making this happen! I know I'll be buying a couple of artists from the EMI label this week. Anything DRM-free should be encouraged.
addicted68098, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1I buy a couple CD's every week, I find it much more enjoyable and rewarding then simply downloading music, I rip the CD's onto my hard drive at a higher quality then iTunes Music Storer will offer and I go without DRM. Itunes Napster Kazooo have all really ruined the music for some people.
sdo1, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2I've been checking iTunes and waiting for them to show up. I don't buy DRM'd music, but I want to show my support for this by buying a bunch of albums when they're available DRM free.

For now, I'll have to keep throwing my money at the local CD shop (Newbury Comics) and at emusic.com.

-S
MikeTheC, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0I spend money on music and DVDs (which presumably have content that I like) for one -- and only one -- reason: to show support to the artists and producers and thereby motivate them to make more stuff that I'll like.

To do otherwise is madness.
astrotrain, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1iTunes...DRM free?... that will be the day. Okay, so now we have the record company EMI offering tunes
DRM free. What are they going to offer free... most likely the under selling albums, such as 'Wayne Newton's
Greatest Hits' will be offered DRM free.

DRM is like going to a record store and buying a 45 RPM and then when you stop doing business with the record store, the owner comes to your house and takes away your record player needle to prevent you from playing his product until you start shopping at his store.
BulkHedd, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1As I understand it you will be able to upgrade your already purchased songs to the non-DRM version for .30 per song. But full albums will be available in non-DRM format at the same price as DRM infested. So will you be able to upgrade already purchased albums for free?
- superkendall, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1I have not seen that is the case (and I've been asking the same question myself ever since the announcement), but that is what I am expecting to happen. It really makes the most sense, and Apple knows exactly what you have bought individually vs. in an album.
  
  I wonder if the market has thought at all about what an influx of money Apple might be seeing soon - surely they cut a small cut of that .30.
greyhacker45, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1it would make sense. It's Wednesday morning in the US and the New Music Tuesday email never came out yesterday. They must be pushing it back until they can get everything updated.
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DRM-free iTunes set this week

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