iTunes Plus is a con

Tommy B

Tommy B

Tommy B

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It seemed a brilliant idea. DRM free tracks of reasonably high quality, and I jumped when I saw their "Upgrade your library option" for just 20p a song.

However...

1) It appears you are forced to upgrade your ENTIRE purchased music collection (songs available in DRM-free format though) rather than individual tracks which you choose.

2) It uses a record of your purchased items. I've actually replaced about 50 iTunes downloads with lossless CD rips, having deleted the origional downloads I bought from iTunes. So, Apple, why the hell would I want to waste money on these tracks downgrading in quality? It appears you are forced to do this.

So thanks Jobbs, but I will continue leeching my news thanks.

Obviously this is still a great service for buying new tracks, but the state of upgrading is pathetic.
 
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Tommy B said:
It seemed a brilliant idea. DRM free tracks of reasonably high quality, and I jumped when I saw their "Upgrade your library option" for just 20p a song.

However...

1) It appears you are forced to upgrade your ENTIRE purchased music collection (songs available in DRM-free format though) rather than individual tracks which you choose.

2) It uses a record of your purchased items. I've actually replaced about 50 iTunes downloads with lossless CD rips, having deleted the origional downloads I bought from iTunes. So, Apple, why the hell would I want to waste money on these tracks downgrading in quality? It appears you are forced to do this.

So thanks Jobbs, but I will continue leeching my news thanks.

Obviously this is still a great service for buying new tracks, but the state of upgrading is pathetic.
Click to expand...

that is crazy stuff!
your entire collection!? madness
 
the_one_deep86 said:
that is crazy stuff!
your entire collection!? madness
Click to expand...

Purchased Items : 553 items (3.47GB)

At the moment only a portion of those are available in iTunes Plus, but they still want me to pay to upgrade ALL the tracks available rather than individual ones I choose. Half of the songs I bought I hardly listen to anyway.

(NB About 400 of those I got for Free when BT had that iTunes free songs thing to thank their customers) £315 worth of songs for free ain't bad :D
 
I agree.

Although I did think about the consequences if you were to get hacked and the songs were put out on the net. Also, I quite often share music with my friends and thus once off my HD the songs are ultimately out of my control.
 
Sadly, by the letter of the law that is illegal anyway, so that's not really a valid argument - but i do see what you are saying.

Also, the ipod stolen/computer hacked argument is interesting, but surely especially for the stolen ipod one, less so the hacking you could get a police report or evidence that it was not you who put the stuff on the filesharing networks.
 
The title should read "itunes is a con" no need for a plus. Why on earth people buy music from there i have no idea
 
Grrrrr said:
The title should read "itunes is a con" no need for a plus. Why on earth people buy music from there i have no idea
Click to expand...

I get all my trance from djdownload if that makes you feel any better.
 
I got 5 free tracks when Coke had that offer on.

4 of them turned out to be EMI and I tried upgrading yesterday. Unfortunately their servers were completely screwed up and the transaction wouldn't go through.

Luckily, it all worked fine today. So I've got a DRM-free EP for the princely sum of 80p. Not bad. I don't have a problem with my details being in there either. I don't intend to share them and I'm sure that I can legally strip the information out.

I'll probably buy an album or two out of support for DRM-free music. Does anyone have any recommendations for fairly new EMI stuff?
 
As usual people will moan and complain even when they get what they want.
Usual case of damned if they do and damned if they don't.

EMI (and others to follow) have said OK - when you buy a track you should be able to do with it what you like.
Put it on your own MP3 player, let your wife have a copy.
Make a copy to CD, put it on your PC media server.
So we'll remove the DRM for you - there you go, all yours.
However what we will do is just watermark the product, put your finger prints on it so to speak.
That way, if you break the license by sharing it with friends (illegal), offering it for download (illegal), upload it to a site so they can distribute it (illegal) we can still come after you.

*Wah, wah, wah - stomp of feet*

Oh grow up people.
They are giving you the rights to do what you want to do with the music you buy with the exception of illegally trading it.
Where is the problem with them being able to trace where a file has come from?
Personally I can think of only one situation where this would be a problem - if you were actually doing something illegal with the file and it managed to find its way onto a file sharing site/torrent.
 
I entirely agree but my thread isn't about that, my thread is about the dodgy pricing and payment schemes adopted by Apple.
 
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