arstechnica.com — Apple officially launched the DRM-free version of its music store this morning to technical difficulties and a traffic crunch. We got our hands on it, however, and managed to make it through to DRM-free bliss, but not without problems.
May 30, 2007 View in Crawl 4
zeptobyteMay 31, 2007
I still think they ought to call this new service iTunes, and the old, regular service iTunes Minus. I prefer the idea of paying less to get a DRM-riddled, lower-quality version and the regular price to get a high-quality version that I can do with what I like. Rather than paying regular for the damaged goods and extra for something that works as it ought to.Same thing, it's just all in the view of it. Don't view $1.29 as more expensive. View $.99 as cheaper.
kevinwayMay 31, 2007
I made a few purchases on it, to help show the labels that there's a market for DRM-free music.Everything worked without problem. Here's to hoping it helps pave the way for more DRM-free music, because in all honesty, I'd prefer purchasing to piracy. It'd be easier for me.
technopunditMay 31, 2007
lemmings
zuhaibMay 31, 2007
Yeah it seems that way, i am getting a lot of Time Outs trying to download the remaining 11 tracks that it is switching to non-DRM. And the one track that is downloading at dial up speed. Ugg.
fkr3May 31, 2007
MS handles 100x the traffic volume every time they release a windows update. Maybe Apple should give them a call some time and ask for some pointers.
meatwad64May 31, 2007
i bought a whole album and it was the first album i've bought on itunes. I broke my copy of adore from the smashing pumpkins and was shocked that they had some tracks that were drm free. The only thing was it was 12.99 i'm not sure if its the price for drm free albums or because it had 16 tracks.
Closed AccountMay 31, 2007
I had a similarly flawless experience upgrading 23 tracks on my Mac Mini. This was about 6pm Eastern time, maybe the rush was over by then.
jcdickersonMay 31, 2007
STILL waiting to get my last tracks for the Sinatra album I bought last night. Geez, Apple did NOT anticipate this much demand....
schdaMay 31, 2007
I was having problems previewing tracks and trying to buy them, but for upgrades I only had two songs listed. One was an old Paul Robeson song, but the other was Good Vibrations by the Beach Boys.... not realizing I had any Beach Boys music I did a search on my library and apparently I did have Good Vibrations by Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch as a ripped MP3. So now I think I got a Beach Boys song for 30 cents so it's not all bad.Hopefully it's cleared up by tonight and I can buy an album or two.
spicycauldronJun 1, 2007
I think a surprising number of sites and news outlets are playing down this complete disaster. I've been trying ever since the launch of iTunes Plus to upgrade my tracks with the insane 'all or nothing' deal. I can't download. It can't even add the songs to my cart. There must be so many people trying to download gigabytes of upgraded DRM-free material. Then, to add insult, we find out our usernames and email addresses are encoded in the tracks meaning if they do, by some miracle, get online - and it can happen not deliberately but by, say, a sibling doing it or even a friend - then it not only means they accuse you of theft but your email address and username, which you probably use elsewhere as well, are 'out there' in the public arena. Nice one Apple. NOT.