Filed under: iTS
iTunes Plus debuts DRM-free music
At TUAW we've been following the DRM-free EMI track deal for some time. We're delighted to announce that these tracks will finally available for sale over at the iTunes Store later today (Apple announced they are available, but not in my copy of iTunes at the moment).
DRM-free tracks will cost you $1.29 each rather than the normal $0.99 per track you normally pay. The extra money buys you more audio quality than the standard DRM'ed tracks (256 kbps AAC versus 128 kbs AAC). Expect larger data downloads as your audio files expand to accommodate those extra bits.
iTunes Plus requires iTunes 7.2.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Dave Chartier said 9:22AM on 5-30-2007
What about the ability to upgrade pre-existing EMI tracks users have already bought? I remember talk about this when the DRM-free bit was first announced, but I can't even get a copy of the new iTunes yet to tinker myself.
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Alex M said 9:39AM on 5-30-2007
It's all done - I just paid £1.20 to upgrade 4 tracks and a music video - each track is 20p, each video is 40p
You just click that big button in the top right :)
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Sam G. said 9:40AM on 5-30-2007
Dave, I love you, but that picture clearly shows a giant "upgrade my library" button.
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Thataboy said 9:53AM on 5-30-2007
You can't upgrade your library until Apple opens the iTunes Plus section of iTunes. The US Store does not yet have an iTunes Plus section, though I imagine it would any minute now.
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icruise said 9:53AM on 5-30-2007
Where is the link to access iTunes Plus in the iTunes store? I downloaded the new version of iTunes, but I don't see any mention of iTunes Plus.
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Jose said 9:58AM on 5-30-2007
I had to click on the "Music" link in the iTunes Store for the store page to reload - once it did, the iTunes Plus link was in the top right corner at the bottom of the list.
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Wilson said 10:03AM on 5-30-2007
You have to enable it first within your account ... sign-on to iTunes, click your account button. Then you'll see - at the top - a "Manage iTunes Plus" section. It appears to be disabled as a default.
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Taylor Hicks said 10:03AM on 5-30-2007
Go to the account management area and enable iTunes Plus. Then you just have to find the EMI artist you want to purchase. I can't find a page listing them just yet, but one artist I did find was David Lee Garza. The track price is $1.29 and has a little "+" sign next to it.
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habermas said 10:41AM on 5-30-2007
Could somebody clarify if this will also be available in Europe with immediate effect?
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Seth Burnett said 10:42AM on 5-30-2007
anyone else able to see the itunes plus section but not the ability to see the upgrade my music button?
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Arjun said 10:48AM on 5-30-2007
hey tuaw i have 7.1.1 and it works for me =D
just wanted to let everyone know you don't HAVE to upgrade ur itunes
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icruise said 10:56AM on 5-30-2007
Well, out of 2049 purchased songs, I have the option to upgrade 57 of them. Woohoo...
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! said 11:06AM on 5-30-2007
@Arjun: "ur"? Good God. Yr no *real* Mac user, obvs.
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Craig said 11:23AM on 5-30-2007
Has anybody determined if there's a way to upgrade just the individual songs you want to spend 30 cents each on? My ratio was along the lines of what icruise experienced, but I only actually wanted to upgrade about half of them.
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James Young said 11:54AM on 5-30-2007
I really do not care for iTunes plus at all. To me it represents the antithesis of a customer-focused feature. With greater competition out there, Apple should have simply increased the quality of music without changing the track price. My assumption is that they could not do this for the entire catalog so they are baby stepping it out and HAD to release it in this way so that people would not be upset if some songs were high quality and others were not. To have to upgrade my iTunes software for a single feature like this is annoying. Where are the improvements to the user experience? I've blogged before about wanting a coverflow UI like that of the iPhone - where you can flip albums over and see the tracks. Can the load process be sped up so I don't see the loading library thermometer that wasn't there in earlier versions of the software. I've blogged before about how eMusic.com already offers high quality DRM free MP3 versions of many of the indie bands also found on iTunes. I call this iTunes Minus - minus customer focus, minus market awareness, minus long term strategy... but a big plus for participating labels. At these prices, if someone wants high quality, you might as well go buy a CD.
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Kronen said 4:06PM on 5-30-2007
I'm updating my EMI songs (Bunbury's "Freak Show" album), but the downloads seem very slow. 15 minutes for a 5 minute, 9.2 MB song, for example.
Is anyone else seeing slow download times?
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JeffDM said 2:41PM on 5-30-2007
James, some people have noticed that Coverflow works better, particularly on older machines.
Unprotected albums are still available at $9.99. Even at $1.29, a track is a lot cheaper than buying a whole album.
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tkelly said 5:46PM on 5-30-2007
hmm, for some reason the albums are cheaper in iTunes Plus mode.
$7.99 for 13 songs at $1.29
seems like they're missing $8.78....
http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/1520/19549324sp1.png
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habermas said 5:56AM on 5-31-2007
Thanks for not responding to my question about whether this is supported in Europe. Apparently the TUAW readership is US-only.
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irice22 said 6:30PM on 6-13-2007
I accidentally switched over to iTunes Plus. How do I go back to the old format?
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