I was on Digg the other day and heard some ramblings of iTunes going DRM-Free. Did a little digging and found this article confirming it. Well…its about time. Before I became aware of AmazonMP3 (actually before it existed) I started using iTunes. Between 2006-2007 I downloaded about 600 songs from iTunes. When I first started I really didn’t care about the DRM. However, when I saw that I could ONLY use iTunes to play that music I started to get pretty annoyed. iTunes is a hog and when your playing a game like CS:S, TF2, or other graphically intensive games it drags you down. I pretty much stopped using iTunes Music Store for my downloads after I discovered AmazonMP3 which is not only DRM-Free, but also cheaper in most cases. I converted about 250 of my songs to iTunes Plus (DRM-Free, Higher Bit rate) for about $62 ($.30 per song). I don’t mind the charge. iTunes plus cost $1.30 anyway so that’s what I would have been paying for the songs on iTunes anyway.
The question is will I go back to using iTunes to get my music? Probably not. iTunes Plus music still cost $1.30 for DRM-Free music compared to $.99 or $.89 from AmazonMp3. Also, I have gotten quite a few good albums from AmazonMp3 for $4 on release day. With Apple being so stubborn, I doubt they will be able to beat that.
Sadly, Apply likes draconian control procedures. However… if the market wants something and they do cave, expect them to also to try shanking you in the gut while taking your wallet for it. No offense to people who love Apple or are iPod/iPhone fans/owners… They mask lack of functionality in a pretty shell, pretty packaging, and put together really good packaging to market products. The result is a lock-in of a proprietary system that fools and lulls users into an illusion of safety and ease of use.
I wish Apple would learn to either talk to studios and say “Look… people want THEIR music at a cheap price, quit givin’ ‘em the shaft!” to lower prices, but sadly… Apple is just the middle-man trying to gank a buck or two while keeping kosher with studios bonded to the RIAA. Amazon has it right… especially when they do their album blitz sales where the price of the album is about $2 for the “Album of the Day”. Plus I agree with their prices as low as $0.79 a song with the ability to keep a copy on my hard drive, my external hard disk archive, a burned back-up on an archive DVD, and even the ability to clip the song as I please to use on my phone as a ringtone.
Sadly, people will really have to learn that Apple isn’t the only game… Amazon doesn’t seem too aggressive on marketing, but word of mouth does work. Let’s just hope the sheeple finally wake up and seek better. Especially if Amazon starts doing lots of on-demand HD video download sales.
AmazonMP3 is the best. I’ve been using it for about a year now and I get all my music from there. No DRM – just a straight data file. The prices are hard to beat also – but I don’t really care about the price as much as the DRMfreenessity.