Archive for May, 2007

iTunes Plus problem compounds bloody cheek


If you’ve ever bought DRM-crippled tracks by EMI artists from the iTunes Store, you can now replace them—for a fee that varies depending on the price you originally paid—with much higher quality, DRM-free copies. Of course, you should never have had your purchases knee-capped in the first place.

That EMI and Apple want us to pay twice for the same songs really is astonishing. If you want to replace a complete album, be prepared to fork out a quarter of the price you originally paid. For most albums, this works out around two quid. Single ‘upgrades’ vary between 37 and 50 pence.

I have never yet purchased video—not having an iPod Video at this time—and so I can’t give you an average price for replacing those. Besides, it would depend as above on whether we were looking at replacing music video tracks, TV episodes, or two-hour movies.

Ditching the DRM stranglehold on your media collection could prove very expensive. The new iTunes version 7.2 scanned my purchased music and reported that 79 tracks I already own—albeit DRM-nobbled and fairly low-quality—can currently be upgraded at a cost of £14.72.

Read the full article.

Wednesday, May 30th, 2007