music downloads

posts about #musicdownloads more →
Nokia Delays U.S. Free Unlimited Music Downloads
iTunes Wants $250 To Upgrade My Music Collection (Or the Deal's Off)
Sony Ericsson Planning to Offer Unlimited Music Service
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Amazon MP3 Service Going Global; Epic iTunes Battle on the Horizon
Qtrax Promises Legal P2P Music Sharing Service, the Impossible
Recording Industry Bleeding Cash, Album Sales Down for Seventh Straight Year
Amazon to Offer Music Player and Subscription Music Download Service

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frigg
01/14/09

In reply to iTunes Wants $250 To Upgrade My Music Collection (Or the Deal's Off)
So, I take it, if you write a book and try and sell it in as an audio book, you and your family are cool with readers stealing it since some unrelated fruited 3rd party company charged them to upgrade their files in early 2009?

/musician who has nothing to do with iTunes upgrade fees, and RIAA douche-baggery, and still doesn't like to be stolen from.
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dhlt25
01/14/09

In reply to iTunes Wants $250 To Upgrade My Music Collection (Or the Deal's Off)
ha suckers, i bought all of my music from amazon.
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Monty
01/14/09

@dhlt25: Showoff.
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spider2544
01/14/09

In reply to iTunes Wants $250 To Upgrade My Music Collection (Or the Deal's Off)
dude just go steal the music. you already paid for it.
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Monty
01/14/09

@spider2544: Technically, they paid for a 128K DRM copy, not a DRM-free version. To "steal" (not technically the right term) the music would still be copyright violation, and the fact you paid for a crappy version of it earlier does not diminish the "crime".
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chonnes
01/14/09

In reply to iTunes Wants $250 To Upgrade My Music Collection (Or the Deal's Off)
So you're saying that each of your $9.99 albums averages 12 tracks right? Hence the additional $3 @ .25 cents per track. Overall, you are paying .25 cents per track to strip DRM. It doesn't seem like such a bad deal to me. Also, who is REALLY to blame here? Is it Apple or the music companies?
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Monty
01/14/09

@chonnes: Apple has the music companies by the balls, which is why they had to let Apple have DRM-free tracks. If you think Apple could not have gotten whatever they wanted in upgrade options for their customers, you clearly do not understand the position Apple is currently in.

That said, I agree with the minority that I am not certain Apple is under any obligation to make this a pain-free experience. If you purchased a 128K DRM track, then that is what you purchased. Now that something better has come along you can purchase it again, or you can upgrade your entire library at a discounted price.

Personally, I would never have bought the DRM product to begin with.
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Dearhaw
01/14/09

In reply to iTunes Wants $250 To Upgrade My Music Collection (Or the Deal's Off)
I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I understand the frustration, and I, too, would be pissed off if I had tons of DRMed iTMS songs in my library (I only have 256kbps/non-DRM songs from iTMS).

On the other hand --- and this is the argument I've always made regardless of the item(s) --- you got exactly what you paid for, a DRMed 128kbps track. If you're not satisfied with it, you should've have bought it. That's what I did; while the temptation was certainly there, I never bought any shitty 128kbps tracks from iTunes. So, you either remain satisfied with your purchase, or, suck it up and pay the upgrade price. Just be glad that there is a means to "upgrade" rather than re-purchase the entire thing.

After all, we've all been forced to do exactly that with all movies (VHS to DVD to Blu-ray) and all music (LP to cassette to CD to SACD).

Now, not being able to choose which tracks to upgrade and which not to is a different matter, and should be rectified immediately.
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Monty
01/14/09

@Dearhaw: By that line of thinking (which I sort of agree with), Apple should not even offer an upgrade path. You bought 128K DRM, and now that there is something better, you should have to buy it again. The fact that you can upgrade your entire library for one lower price is a nice feature, but no one is stopping anyone from buying the individual songs they want again.
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TechManErik
01/14/09

In reply to iTunes Wants $250 To Upgrade My Music Collection (Or the Deal's Off)
Well im no expert, but:

1) Backup songs.

2) Delete the ones you dont want to upgrade.

3) Upgrade.

4) Re-upload other songs.

Simple. Easy. Works.

I need my own blog.
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Wilson Rothman
01/14/09

@TechManErik: Yeah, except if you had your own blog, you'd have seen that your commenters already said this tactic probably won't work. For the time being, we'll keep you on our blog. You may not be an expert, but you make nice ordered lists.
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TechManErik
01/14/09

@Wilson Rothman:

Thanks, i appreciate it.

And although i havent tried it, im 99% sure it will.

Actually im going to test it now. be right back buddy.

I wont rest till i solve your problem :D
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Wilson Rothman
01/14/09

@TechManErik: Sounds good—going to bed but you bet I'll be back to check this in the AM. Thanks for not starting your splinter blog until this whole thing blows over.
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d_r_e
01/14/09

In reply to iTunes Wants $250 To Upgrade My Music Collection (Or the Deal's Off)
BTW, that really does suck that you can't choose what songs to upgrade individually. What a fucking lame thing to do. This is totally going to piss off a lot of people.

Goddamnit Apple, you're doing it wrong.

*sigh*
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d_r_e
01/14/09

In reply to iTunes Wants $250 To Upgrade My Music Collection (Or the Deal's Off)
@ Wilson Rothman - "That would mean that all those albums I paid $9.99 for would actually cost me $13 in the end. That's the same amount the damn CD would have cost me in the first place, if I still bought those museum pieces. And the CD would have given me the option to rip at higher quality than 256Kbps, and would come with liner notes telling me who played that sick drum solo on Track 12, to boot."

And that's why you shouldn't buy digital media. Hell, I have an iPod and I still prefer to buy my albums on vinyl. If I have to, I'll buy a CD ... and you can bet your ass that I'll gladly buy a CD over a digital download any day of the week.

To me, digital downloads are good if you want to buy a song or two off of one album ... and that's it. If you want the entire album, you really should by the CD. You get the power to do what you want from there, either encode those tracks at 320kbps ... or some god awful bitrate like 128kbps.
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remo2112
01/14/09

@dead_red_eyes: Exactly!

I love hearing people who buy their music digitally piss and moan about stuff like this. Meanwhile, my music has always been DRM-free...ripped straight from the CD. Built-in backup with cover art and full liner notes tucked safely into my CD cabinet.
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Wilson Rothman
01/14/09

@remo2112: Hey I'm friends with Michael Fremer, the damn king of the vinyl movement. It's cool, but I am just drawn to convenience, provided it's accompanied by audio quality that's good enough. And my own personal threshold is around 192Kbps. I did a story on sound-quality discrepancies a few years back in the NY Times, in case you're curious.
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nickexperience
01/14/09

@dead_red_eyes: I'm waiting for the day that everyone remembers that vinyl sounds the best. On that day, every record company might do what I've been dreaming about for a year or so, sell everything on vinyl and include a code for a lossless digital version for free. I'd be first in line...
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d_r_e
01/14/09

@nickexperience:

A lot of labels are actually doing that these days. Where you buy the vinyl version of the album, and they provide a slip of paper that gives you a code and address to download the lossless digital version of the album. Matador first comes to mind, as well as Merge. There's lots of other labels doing it too.

@f0rge:

Let them make fun. Let them be ignorant. You've clearly got the upper hand here, buy buying into the right media ... which gives you the choice to do whatever you want.

@Wilson Rothman:

Good article Wilson, very well written. My personal threshold is 320Kbps. Of course, I do have the occasional eMusic or iTunes file which are encoded in 192Kbps or higher. I know what you mean about convenience, and that's why digital media is so damn hot ... because it's convenient. But convenience isn't always a good thing. There's lots of analogies we could throw out, fast food, hookers, drugs ... still, it's nice to have a bit of patience these days and choosing to go that extra step for something better is something that we should all do on a daily basis.
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First
01/14/09

In reply to iTunes Wants $250 To Upgrade My Music Collection (Or the Deal's Off)
You could try removing the Songs you don't want upgraded from your collection and then try the upgrade option.

I am not sure how that will work out once you put Non-Upgraded songs back in your collection?

PS. Apple can Suck-It
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Anthony Lopez
01/14/09

@winmac: I think the way it works is Apple just looks at your purchase history and determines which songs you can upgrade.
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Monty
01/14/09

@Anthony Lopez: So does that mean if my computer dies and all of the music I bought is gone, I can download all of the songs I purchased again for free? Or is that purchase history only usable for getting more money from their customers?

The only folks using iTunes music downloads after this will be Apple stockholders.
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Earthslide
01/14/09

In reply to iTunes Wants $250 To Upgrade My Music Collection (Or the Deal's Off)
Burn drm tunes as audio on cd-rw, delete songs on itunes, re-import them. simple.
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d_r_e
01/14/09

@Earthslide:

So you're essentially transcoding the song twice and turning it into a shitty masterpiece? Ugh. No thank you!
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Bearded Rapper
01/14/09

In reply to iTunes Wants $250 To Upgrade My Music Collection (Or the Deal's Off)
I steal. Shh.
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TechManErik
01/14/09

@I work as a meth lab technician isn't really a meth lab tec...:

You should stop.. its almost simple to track now.

Hopefully ill be the one doing it if i get the job im hoping to get :)
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jeembomb
01/14/09

@TechManErik:

Who gives a shit, the RIAA has stated they will no longer pursue court cases with individual people.
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TechManErik
01/14/09

@jeembomb:

hahaha, you kids know so little about the internet.

If i wasnt under oath i would tell you what actually goes on behind the scenes :)
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Radical-J
01/14/09

@TechManErik: If you weren't under oath? You mean you're in a trial like on Law & Order or do you mean you've signed a Non-Disclosure Agreement--nah that can't be it--because that would have been in 24 pt font and you'd never forget those three words...must've been too much Law & Order
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Bearded Rapper
01/14/09

@Radical-J: The new 24 season just started... so maybe?
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DaSmith
01/14/09

@I work as a meth lab technician isn't really a meth lab technician - STAY IN SCHOOL, KIDS: Um... Giz should really fix their image posting tags. [img86.imageshack.us]
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GitEmSteveDave_DefinesTurgid
01/14/09

@DaSmith: Why, they work fine? You should check out the users guide on how to post on Gawker sites: [lifehacker.com]

For your benefit, I'll post your image. In the future, use the "preview comment" check box to see what your comment will look like before you submit.
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frigg
01/14/09

@I work as a meth lab technician isn't really a meth lab tec...: Yeah, but in the new season of 24, CTU has apparently been transformed into a fully volunteer effort by 4 deluded employees who refuse not to work even after their jobs, department, and any real threat to their country, cease to exist. So maybe that's what he means. Like this season's Jack, Chloe, Bill, and Tony, he's not really under oath, he's make-believe under oath.
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