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All posts tagged "iTunes"


Tuesday, January 6, 2009

No More DRM for Apple

Posted by Timothy Huber in "Digital Home News" @ 06:30 PM

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,281...,2337929,00.asp

"The "Big Four"-Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, Warner Music Group, and EMI-all agreed that, effective today, they no longer need to encumber their artists' iTunes offerings with DRM. This means that you can give a friend a song you bought on iTunes-and it will actually play on his or her iPod!"

Well I have to give Apple credit. At today's Macworld keynote, Apple announced that DRM would be removed from iTunes music files; effective immediately for 8 million files, with the rest to be DRM-free within a few months. This is huge for the digital music marketplace. It takes away most of Amazon's competitive advantage and means other stores like Zune Marketplace and Rhapsody will need to scramble to get DRM removed from their music files as well.

Correction: Rhapsody's single-track download store is already all-MP3 and Microsoft signed agreements with Sony BMG and UMG last November. However, as of today, the Zune Marketplace still has a ways to go to get MP3s fully rolled out.

Tags: Apple, DRM, iTunes

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Apple May Expand DRM-free Offeings

Posted by Chris Gohlke in "Digital Home News" @ 10:30 PM

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10102414-37.html

"A year after iTunes began offering music without copy protection software from EMI, Apple is in discussions with the other three top recording companies about acquiring DRM-free songs, according to two music industry sources. The talks are still preliminary and no deals have been finalized, but one source said one of the major labels is close to a final agreement. Rumors have been swirling on the Internet for a week that Sony would soon be offering music without the controversial digital rights management software. My sources could not confirm this. Spokespeople for Apple and the major labels declined to comment."

It is a beatiful thing when the consumer wins out over big business interest. Between the confusion that DRM presented for those not in the know and an outright refusal to buy by many in the know, DRM seems to be well on its way out the door. I sit proud in the thought that I never purchased any DRM laden music but have since purchased quite a bit of music since Amazon opened their DRM free MP3 store.

Tags: Apple, DRM, iTunes

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Apple Threatens iTunes Shutdown if Royalty Increase is Pushed Through

Posted by Jason Dunn in "Digital Home News" @ 09:07 AM

http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/10...days-copyr.html

"Apple has threatened to shut down the iTunes music store if an obscure three-person board appointed by the Librarian of Congress increase the royalties paid to publishers and songwriters by six cents per song. The Copyright Royalty Board is scheduled to hand down its decision on these rates Thursday. As part of their general muscle-flexing of late, music publishers asked the board to increase royalties paid to publishers and songwriters from 9 cents to 15 cents per track. Apple -- which has mightily resisted tampering in any way with its 99 cent price point for tracks -- said that if the rate hike goes through and the labels refuse to absorb the entire resulting increase, the iTunes music store will become unprofitable."

If you put music on your Windows Mobile phone, your MP3 player, or your Zune, and you ever purchase that music from iTunes, this is news you'll want to know about. I'm not personally a big fan of iTunes, but I certainly support their stance in resisting this move. They've sold several billion songs, largely because the 99 cent purchase price of an iTunes song is a reasonable alternative to piracy for most people. If you give people a chance to be honest, they will - iTunes proved that. According to this Wired article, Apple pays artists and labels 65 to 70 cents per song, 9 cents of which the artist or studio is paying to the publishers. It seems to me that if this law were to pass, the increased rates should come from the artist/label end - after all, without the songwriter that created the song in the first place, they'd have nothing in the first place.

It will be interesting to watch how this plays out - the music industry has been undermining Apple and iTunes lately, offering DRM-free MP3s to Amazon while denying them to Apple. Steve Jobs isn't known for compromising (what with that huge ego and all), so this will be interesting to watch. And if this law does pass, what will happen to Amazon's MP3 store? Or Rhapsody's MP3 store? Will we see $1.10 pricing there (you just know they'd round up), or will they too shut down? This could have some dire consequences for online music stores, who all operate at razor-thin profit margins as it is. Could this kill or cripple the entire industry? The music companies would prefer to have us all buying CDs anyway, right?


Sunday, August 17, 2008

The Online Music Ripoff

Posted by Adam Krebs in "Digital Home Talk" @ 02:00 AM

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/features/218...poff/page1.html

"Why is DRM so contentious? Surely it's designed to protect the rights of artists and record companies in a climate where, as one international music industry body claims, illegal downloads swamp legitimate music store downloads by a ratio of 20 to 1? The problem is DRM doesn't affect the pirates, who upload and download DRM-free files often ripped directly from CD. Instead, it affects legitimate buyers in a range of deeply irritating ways. The first roadblock comes down to Gates' talk of "simplicity" and "interoperability", or rather the lack of both"

I think most people who know anything about DRM hate it. They hate dealing with the limitations of the technology, both intentionally built-in or as a direct result of poor technical planning/implementation. Unlike a good protection scheme which is invisible to the end user, DRM is too limiting to the average customer, and does nothing to stop hardcore music pirates. Plus, when a store goes down and its licenses stop renewing, the customer is the real loser. Sure you can burn your songs to a CD and re-rip them (or do it virtually), but the process is time-consuming and you lose audio fidelity. Another option is to free your purchased music using tools like FairUse4WM (above) or Hymn, or just buy DRM-free in the first place. Check out the article if you need yet another reason to hate DRM.


Friday, August 15, 2008

iTunes Movie Store Now Available Down Under

Posted by Chris Gohlke in "Digital Home News" @ 01:00 AM

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/200...8/14itunes.html

"Apple® today announced that movies from major film studios including 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Studios, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM), Sony Pictures Television International and Lionsgate are now available on the iTunes® Store in Australia (www.itunes.com/au) and in New Zealand (www.itunes.com/nz). Movie purchases and rentals feature iTunes’ legendary ease of use, which makes discovering and enjoying movies as simple and easy as buying music on iTunes has always been. The iTunes Store in Australia and New Zealand feature over 700 films for rent or purchase, with new release titles available for purchase on the same day as their DVD release, including favorites such as “National Treasure 2,” “Jumper,” “27 Dresses,” “Cloverfield,” “Vantage Point” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.” “Movie fans in Australia and New Zealand can choose from a great selection of over 700 films for purchase and rent on the iTunes Store,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of Internet Services. “iTunes provides an incredibly easy and fun way for people to discover and enjoy movies, and has quickly become the world’s most popular online movie store with customers renting and purchasing over 50,000 movies everyday.”"

Apple extended its reach just a little further today by offering movie service to New Zealand and Australia.

Tags: iTunes

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

TuneUp for iTunes Cleans Your Music Library Mess

Posted by Suhit Gupta in "Digital Home Software" @ 08:00 AM

http://blog.seanalexander.com/2008/...ixesItFast.aspx

"A few weeks ago, I was asked if wanted an opportunity to review a new software app under embargo that is designed to solve one of the great remaining problems with any music library - fixing album art and metadata. Over the years between WMP/Zune/iTunes conversions of my library, converting all of my tracks into 160kbps MP3, migrating between HDDs and just plain idiosyncracies with ID3 tags and where album art gets stored, my library has become a severe mess. TuneUp promised to fix it and I have to say aside from a few minor nits, it does a commendable job and is now available for download in two versions: TuneUp and TuneUp Gold."

Very interesting, and timely, for me at least. After years of resisting and sticking with my simple iRiver iHP-140 (which by the way still rocks), I switched this past weekend to an iPhone. Since most of my music was in WMA and OGG, I now have to go through the tedious process of converting everything to MP3 VBR so that it will work with the Apple product, and am using a converer from 4musics.com. But it would be nice to run TuneUp on the library after I am done to update my ID3 tags because they are woefully managed so far. I should be able to report back in a week or so on tihs since I am still in the process of format conversion, but in the mean time, if someone else gives this a try then please report back.

Tags: iTunes, Tune Up

Friday, June 6, 2008

Apple Premieres Movies on the iTunes Store in Canada and UK

Posted by Suhit Gupta in "Digital Home News" @ 07:00 AM

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/200...4itunes_ca.html

"Apple today announced that movies from major film studios including 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Studios, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM), Sony Pictures Television International and Lionsgate and Maple Pictures are now available on the iTunes® Store in Canada (www.itunes.ca). Movie purchases and rentals feature iTunes’ legendary ease of use, which makes discovering and enjoying movies as simple and easy as buying music on iTunes has always been. The iTunes Store in Canada features over 1,200 films available for rent or purchase, with titles available for purchase on the same day as their DVD release, including recent blockbusters such as..."

Well, I am sure you know that they will have the latest releases. If you are curious about their pricing - movies are available at CAN$9.99 for catalog title purchases, CAN$14.99 for recent releases and CAN$19.99 for new releases. iTunes Movie Rentals are CAN$3.99 for library titles and CAN$4.99 for new releases, with high definition rental versions priced one dollar more. Much like in Canada, there is a similar announcement for the UK as well, with a similar pricing structure.

Tags: Apple, movies, iTunes

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