iTunes Plus Sucks
Unless you’re totally unplugged or otherwise hiding under a rock, you should know by now that Apple has released a new “iTunes Plus” (version 7.2) that allows for the purchase of DRM-free (Digital Rights Management-free) music. Once you download the new iTunes Plus, you can now download DRM-free music, particularly music from EMI, for $1.29 per song (as opposed to the typical $0.99 per song). You can also upgrade existing DRM-protected songs and albums for $0.30 per song.
It completely sucks eggs for three reasons:
- It doesn’t work. When you download the new version, in-product messaging indicates how many songs you have that are DRM-protected and gives you the option to upgrade them. Fewer songs than you would expect are DRM-protected. Of the 391 songs I’ve purchased from Apple, only 35 are available for upgrade. I understand that the servers may be busy given the popularity of this new release, but I have now been trying to upgrade these 35 songs CONTINUOUSLY FOR THREE DAYS and I keep getting this error message for each song: “‘There was a problem downloading “[song]“. An unknown error occurred (504). Please check that the connection to the network is active and try again.’” Now, don’t the Apple TV advertisements promise no cryptic messages? PROMISE BROKEN. I have no idea what this means, and my iTunes is now completely debilitated as it tries futilely to download just 35 songs. It appears to have downloaded 7 songs in three days, but I have no idea even whether the downloads worked, frankly. It is taking FOREVER.
- DRM-free does not mean device freedom. DRM-free effectively means that you can now play your Apple Stores-downloaded music on non-iPod devices that also support play of music saved in Apple’s proprietary AAC format. So what? If you have one of those non-iPod devices, you probably download music from another source. If you have only an iPod, the DRM-free music provides you no incremental benefit.
- iTunes Plus prevents AAC-to-MP3 conversion. Before the recent release, you could download a song through iTunes and then burn a disc in MP3 format. This function allowed you to play the disc on a CD player — such as my car stereo — that supported MP3 but not AAC. Now, as Boing Boing reports, you cannot do this. Lame!
Perhaps I’m missing something, but I’ve been completely disappointed in and frustrated by iTunes Plus so far — the first time I’ve ever had complaint with iTunes.
I *think* you’re misunderstanding or maybe just the writing is throwing me off. When you say:
“Fewer songs than you would expect are DRM-protected. Of the 391 songs I’ve purchased from Apple, only 35 are available for upgrade.”
I think the real issue is that all previously purchased songs have DRM (per Apple’s contracts with the music labels they say) but very few are available without it.
That’s exactly what I meant — “DRM-free.” Thanks for the clarification, Bill.