iTunes DRM-Free, Legal Purchasers Get Shafted

Today at Macworld Expo, during the keynote by Apple Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing, Philip Schiller, Apple announced the end of the DRM era – all tracks available in iTunes will be available solely as iTunes Plus songs. What this means for consumers is that Apple now will be offering high-quality, 256-Kbps AAC encoded files which no longer have restrictions on CD burning or the amount of computers on which the music can be played.

Beginning today, all four major music labels — Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, Warner Music Group and EMI — and thousands of independent labels, now offer their music in the DRM-free iTunes Plus format with higher-quality 256 kbps AAC encoding. iTunes customers can also now purchase and download songs directly onto their iPhone 3G over their 3G network — just as they do with Wi-Fi today — for the same price as downloading to their computer. And in April, based on what the music labels charge Apple, songs on iTunes will be available for 69¢, 99¢, or $1.29, with most albums still priced at $9.99.

Unfortunately, if you have ever purchased DRM-encumbered tracks from Apple, you are going to get the shaft should you desire to remove the DRM from your existing purchases!

This is nothing new, however since all four major music labels have migrated their catalog to the DRM-free iTunes Plus format many consumers are going to be interested in changing their older purchases to the newer format. From Apple’s very own “What’s new in iTunes 8” page:

“Now, you can choose from millions of iTunes Plus songs from all four major music labels and thousands of independents. With iTunes Plus, you get high-quality, 256-Kbps AAC encoding. All free of burn limits and digital rights management (DRM). So iTunes Plus music will play on iPod, Apple TV, all Mac and Windows computers, and many other digital music players. It’s also easy to upgrade your iTunes library to iTunes Plus. You don’t have to buy the song or album again. Just pay the 30¢ per song upgrade price. (Music video upgrades are 60¢ and entire albums can be upgraded for 30 percent of the album price.)” (emphasis mine)

Regrettably, if you consumed standard iTunes music files but now desire “upgrading” your library to the DRM-free, higher quality iTunes Plus files then be prepared to cough up some cash! As they say, nothing in life is free!

So rather than a single song costing $0.99, should you upgrade you will have effectively paid a single unit price of $1.29 for each individual song. Upgrading an entire album at once will cost slightly less, but still requires payment to cover the costs associated with upgrading.

In my iTunes library, I have 375 total purchased songs requiring an upgrade. Most of those songs were purchased as entire albums, which actually lowers the overall “upgrade” cost. Still, to upgrade my iTunes library my bill came to $86.94! How much does your upgrade cost?

Had I opted to download these tracks via the newsgroups or through bittorrent my total “upgrade” bill would come to $0! Score one for piracy.

Up until today there was no real compelling reason to upgrade your library. The number of iTunes Plus songs was severely limited, with many popular songs not yet converted. Now that the majority of the store is undergoing conversion, it only makes sense to ensure your entire library follows suit so you can enjoy the benefits of your complete repertoire of music not being DRM-encumbered.

Doing the right thing costs more than the price of a $0.99 music file! As they say, nice guys finish last. Since I made the conscious decision to do the right thing I get the shaft. I would venture a guess and say that Apple was pressured by the music labels to enact this policy since the labels love to make people pay multiple times for the same product.

Or maybe not? Is Apple complicit?

Apple considers iTunes Plus an upgrade from their standard offering. This is primarily attributed to the type of file Apple is now providing customers – a high quality vs. decent quality file. Standard iTunes purchases were 128-Kbps AAC encoded files versus iTunes Plus files being 256-Kbps AAC encoded files. The difference in encoding is substantial, with iTunes Plus files music files being far superior to their predecessors.

Quality is not the main differentiator between iTunes vs. iTunes Plus. The chief motive for purchasing the latter is the lack of DRM. Why pay for a locked down product when you can buy the shackle-free products for the same price?

So who is to blame for this upgrade tax? Did Apple elect to charge consumers a small fee to cover the upgrade expenses for higher-quality music files? Did the labels force Apple to charge consumers in a blatant attempt to “extort” more money out of their customers? Both?

Do you do the right thing and purchase your music legally, whether on CD, through iTunes or via another legal online music store? What do you think about Apple’s upgrade policy?

globoboss

I am trying to start my own revolution! Some months ago, I had an idea to create a better music download. This new and improved download would come "bundled" with a revenue share agreement, so that every time you bought a song, for instance, you would also be buying a share of the potential future revenue of that song. This share would, of course, be a tradeable commodity in and of itself. The patent for this idea was published by the Patent and Trademark Office on October, 20, 2008, and you can have a look if at all interested here: http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=...
Now we are looking for people, especially code partners, who can help us make this digital revolution a reality, one we are calling MUSIDAQ - Music Dealers Automatic Quotation System. Are there any Techmiso lovers out there up for the challenge?

globoboss

I am trying to start my own revolution! Some months ago, I had an idea to create a better music download. This new and improved download would come "bundled" with a revenue share agreement, so that every time you bought a song, for instance, you would also be buying a share of the potential future revenue of that song. This share would, of course, be a tradable commondity in and of itself. The patent for this idea was published by the Patent and Trademark Office on October, 20, 2008, and you can have a look if at all interested here: http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=...
Now we are looking for people, especially code partners, who can help us make this digital revolution a reality, one we are calling MUSIDAQ - Music Dealers Automatic Quotation System. Are there any Techmiso lovers out there up for the challenge?

Mike

As you mentioned most people are paying for the lack of DRM vice the increase in quality. How hard would it be to omit the DRM checking code in their ever present updates for iTunes...I'm no programmer, but it only seems logical you could write something into the programming to do that. Cost=about 1 hour of programmer's time Benifit=not having all these people saying F-U to Apple for making them pay more for something they should have gotten a long time ago.

Scott Jarkoff

As sad as it is to admit, you're absolutely right. Probably nothing we can do about it except be smart consumers. Unfortunately, the uninformed consumers exponentially outweigh the informed.

We're screwed!

Scott Jarkoff

I tend to agree - it seemed like part of Sony's strategy for a while. It's definitely part of Microsoft's.

However, in this instance, who's to blame? Apple or the record labels?

Scott Jarkoff

I imagine writing a routine to do just that is fairly simple. All that would be required is an update to iTunes.

Better yet, strip all the DRM from the music files and allow consumers to re-download those tracks. For free!

Scott Jarkoff

I'm fairly certain that's what the whole "mp3 revolution" from years ago was supposed to do. Look what it led to - an RIAA lawsuit campaign that never ended and added lobbying pressure to get our congress critters to pass even more asinine laws designed to restrict what we are not allowed to do with our legally purchased *cough* licensed *cough* music.

globoboss

Planned obsolescence is definately a corporate business strategy that has been used for a long time and why not, it works!

Scott Jarkoff

Good point - the music industry is definitely used to cashing in on new technologies, and this, while not a new technology, is surely a means of "taxing" users to make up for lost manufacturing costs.

I highly doubt it costs Apple much, if anything, to "upgrade" a track to iTunes Plus. Merely re-encode the file at 256k vice 128k and then do not perform the "add DRM" phase. Considering the amount of computing power at Apple's disposal I imagine this is a minimal tax on their resources.

I completely agree - it's definitely pathetic!

Xypha

I think it's because the music industry may be *too* used to the 'upgrade = more cost = more money'. The last upgrades were on actual physical mediums. Like vinyl to CDs, they want MORE profit to make up for manufacturing costs. But how much actual manpower would it take to make a new set of files, or to receive those files from the source again? I doubt it would cost as much as it did for changing actual physical music mediums, so is an 'upgrade' cost really necessary?

Perhaps Apple has to pay this to the industry for them to feel like they're still doing something like the old model of business. If the change from physical to digital music has proven one thing, it's that the music industry is *still* stubbornly digging its heels in and being dragged micrometre by micrometre into the 'new age'.

Either that, or Apple is just trying to cash in on distributing unbroken files. DRM on music files is like paying for a car you can't take outside of city limits, or that only runs on Mondays. Of course, it makes people upset. So what do they do? Make us pay *more* for a FIXED product, which is what we should have gotten in the first place.

It's pathetic.

Scott Jarkoff

True enough, however that still does not solve the problem for the altruists. If you've paid for iTunes music, you have to pay yet again to "upgrade" your tracks.

Check this math out: 6 billion songs * $0.30 = $1.8 billion in potential revenue for the record labels and/or Apple.

Either way - I've already paid for music. Why do I need to pay again?

Rich Chuckrey

Not saying I frequent EASYNEWS, but there is more than one way to skin a cat(music labels).

iTunes DRM-Free, Legal Purchasers Get Shafted

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