iTunes Plus is the new DRM-free offering from the iTunes Music Store: EMI has agreed to sell — rather than license — unencumbered tracks from its artists, at a higher bitrate and a higher price. The ones I got today are encoded at 256 kbits : the price differential is $.30/track or 30% of the album’s price. Once you enable iTunes Plus, your purchase history is sifted for eligible tracks and you get the opportunity to upgrade.
If you haven’t yet taken a look, you need to go to your iTunes Store account and enable iTunes Plus as a feature, but once you do, take a look at what’s on offer.
Obscure artists like Pink Floyd and the Rolling Stones have stuff available in DRM-free versions (Dark Side of the Moon for $7.99? May as well, if you don’t have it already. Likewise Sticky Fingers for $9.99). So it’s not like no one will find anything worth buying in the new format.
And the idea that you can replace your DRM-enshackled tracks with free (like beer) versions is a good one: I did that just to encourage good behavior.
I’d like to know what the uptake on this is: are people flocking to Apple’s store to buy unencumbered tracks? I know I am seeing network issues getting the upgraded tracks I bought, so perhaps there is a rush.
So Apple is making a little money re-selling stuff they already sold (perhaps: the increased bandwidth charge for bigger files — assuming they are encoded at higher bitrates — may eat into that). EMI should see some increased sales, if the DRM-loathing hordes put their money where their mouths are.
The best is the enemy of the good, but perhaps, with patience and perseverance, the best will come to pass.
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