

Apple kills off DRM for whole iTunes music catalog - tptacek
http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/01/06/live-phil-schillers-macworld-2009-keynote/

======
chops
This is very exciting. I've always bought MP3s from Amazon exclusively because
I knew for sure that all Amazon's files are DRM free. With this move by
iTunes, it's likely that I'll be picking up some albums on iTunes now if I
can't get them in MP3 format from Amazon. Before, I would just live without
the music, or buy the CD and rip it.

~~~
DLWormwood
> With this move by iTunes, it's likely that I'll be picking up some albums on
> iTunes now if I can't get them in MP3 format from Amazon.

And you won't be able to get them at iTunes either, they use a latter variant
of the MPEG codec. (AAC, perhaps you heard of it.)

The good news is that AAC is gaining momentum as a player format. Both the Wii
and PSP play it with some SanDisk players supporting. Heck, even the Zune
supports it now...

------
Retric
The most important option IMO:

    
    
        * MacBook Pro 17-inch Hi-Resolution Glossy Widescreen Display
        * MacBook Pro 17-inch Hi-Resolution Antiglare Widescreen Display [Add $50.00]

~~~
mrtron
I still don't understand people's problems with glossy.

I have glossy and it is just fine inside, outside, at home, at the coffee
shop, etc. I have had to once or twice tilt my screen to avoid some glare.

Do you really have a lot of glare all the time? Do you wear a spelunking hat
at work? :)

~~~
Retric
Glare is one problem, but I find seeing my reflection in the screen extremely
distracting. Something about that human face keeps pulling me out of the
"zone" while I try to code.

PS: I don't know of a better word than "zone" so I hereby name that state Zem,
it's like Meditation with the added creativity of Rem sleep. Feel free to
start using it in everyday speech.

~~~
mynameishere
...wait a minute. You guys actually use the laptop screen rather than an
external?

~~~
unalone
...yeah, because that way you can carry your _lap_ top computer around.

~~~
mrtron
Hmm...yes but at home I dock it and use an external keyboard + monitor. It
isn't that crazy, that is probably 30% of my laptop usage.

~~~
Retric
So 70% of the time your using the laptop screen.

~~~
andreyf
*you're

~~~
tommusic
From the default index.html that is placed in a user's Sites folder on
Leopard:

"Open System Preferences and click Sharing, then select Web Sharing.

Your _done_. Your site is now available on your private network at home or
work."

What, what's that about my done?

------
tptacek
Did not see that one coming.

~~~
sdfx
They had a part of their library drm-free for a while now. I find it more
surprising that they changed their position on their pricing scheme. Didn't
they even cancel their deal with NBC because they were not willing to allow
flexible pricing on their videos last year?

~~~
tptacek
The DRM-free portion of the iTunes library cost extra money, and most tracks
didn't have that option.

My uneducated guess is that the 1.69 pricing tier is a trade for stripping DRM
off the backcatalogue.

~~~
boucher
DRM free tracks have not cost money for the last year.

~~~
tptacek
I-did-not-know-that. (Stop upvoting me for being an idiot!)

------
streblo
Is the DRM gone for movies and tv shows too?

~~~
jonknee
No. Some music videos are though ($.60 upgrade fee according to the conversion
page.)

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alexfarran
Cool. Does that mean we can have a linux client now?

~~~
jwinter
Amazon mp3 supports Linux. It added full album downloads via Linux a few
months ago.

~~~
Tichy
They are not in Europe yet, though, or are they?

~~~
Freaky
They're in the UK at least.

~~~
Tichy
So it is only Germany still missing out :-(

~~~
maurycy
You forgot Poland.

~~~
Tichy
And maybe france and so on... OK, sorry ;-) I only use Amazon.de

------
Jasber
To upgrade your library go to the iTunes Store. On the right side you'll see
iTunes Plus (x). Go there and you can upgrade.

I'm not terribly excited about paying again for the same music, but I hate DRM
enough to make this 1-time upgrade.

It looks like we might be in the middle of a pricing war between Amazon and
iTunes:

iTunes: $.99 + DRM

Amazon: $.89 + No DRM

iTunes: $.69 + No DRM

Anyone care to guess how low online music will go?

~~~
tptacek
$0.30 a song. A significant amount of money for me (and it doesn't detect most
of my tracks; I've run one too many ruby scripts on my iTunes Library file).
Not worth it.

~~~
tdavis
Honestly, if you don't think a piece of music is worth 30¢, you don't really
deserve to listen to it.

~~~
tptacek
I thought it was worth 99c when I bought it. I don't think it's going to be
worth $570 just to strip off a DRM feature that doesn't actually bother me.

~~~
tdavis
Ah, I thought you were replying with regard to the question _"Anyone care to
guess how low online music will go?"_

In the case of upgrading, I don't disagree. Sorry for the wrongful callout, it
just drives me nuts when people have thousands of songs and listen to music
all the time and say "it isn't worth paying for."

~~~
tptacek
Holy living fuck, I just did the math on how much that upgrade price means I
spent on music over the last few years.

~~~
blasdel
Seriously!

You saved some time by downloading from iTunes rather than via bittorrent. Was
that time worth thousands of dollars?

~~~
tptacek
I also think it's wrong to take music without paying for it.

~~~
blasdel
s/take/copy/

~~~
tptacek
You see, I carefully didn't use the word "steal" to avoid the copyfight
pedantry, but that wasn't enough for you. "Copying" commercial music that you
didn't pay for is unethical, just like "copying" a typeface family, "copying"
a website design, or "copying" and black-labeling a GPL'd software package.

------
llimllib
I don't see .69 songs yet? When does that take effect, I wonder.

~~~
sdfx
End of Q1

------
Tichy
Does DRM-free mean that they don't even encode the name of the buyer into the
files?

------
pxlpshr
such grand news!!

Tonight at the super table, think about being the hackers on the opposite side
of this, trying to make a company around viable DRM technology. Gotta pour a
little drink out for them... :)

~~~
tptacek
A really good friend of mine works on Blu-Ray BD+. I don't get the feeling he
needs any of my sympathy.

------
pavelludiq
-10 evil point for apple!

~~~
bradgessler
+10 evil for apple asking me to pay more money to "upgrade" my DRM tracks to
iTunes+

Net: 0

~~~
GHFigs
How it that evil? You're getting something other than what you originally paid
for.

~~~
bradgessler
I know I paid for a DRM track; its just bittersweet that I'd have to pay for
the same song again to not have DRM. That nets Apple 0 good/evil points in my
book.

~~~
GHFigs
You don't have to have it without DRM, and you don't have to pay if you want
it to not have DRM. What you're paying less than full price for is a
completely different bitstream that happens to be encoded from the same
original source. It's not unlike getting a credit toward a CD because you
happened to own a tape of the same music, which I think you can agree is a
rather novel concept.

~~~
eggnet
I can't agree with the novel concept angle here.

There is no need for analogy here. This is precisely getting a new version of
software, which is not in any way novel.

A better physical analogy is paying shipping and handling for mailing in a
DRM'd CD that won't play on some of the players you own for a DRM-less CD.

------
Alex3917
Well I just voted with my dollars and upgraded my whole library. It finished
surprisingly fast considering their servers must be getting hammered right
now.

~~~
bradgessler
Do none of you find it annoying that you have to pay to remove DRM from music
that you already paid for? I think this is ludicrous.

~~~
unalone
When you bought the music, you bought it under the DRM agreement. By paying
for it, you said you thought it was worth it. And your payment paid for
Apple's servers as this happened.

Yeah, it stinks that you have to upgrade. But they aren't forcing it. I'm
keeping my DRMed tracks the same until I have a reason to remove the DRM. It's
not costing me anything. And I know this is a one-time deal, that I'll never
have to pay extra for future tunes.

Annoying? Yes. Ludicrous? No.

~~~
bradgessler
I'm not paying to upgrade because I know it will cost Apple more $$$ to
support my DRM tracks. I figure at some point they'll want to turn off their
DRM servers and I can only hope they will have a free upgrade path to iTunes+.

~~~
unalone
What do you expect? They're letting you _re_ download songs that you already
bought. They've sold how many million DRM tracks? So now they just turn on
their servers and, without charging, let you redownload every song you've ever
bought from them? That would kill their server. I doubt even iTunes could
support that all at once.

The pricing helps Apple in two ways: it keeps their server going, and, by
adding a charge, it discourages everybody from doing it at once, which means
iTunes doesn't break. I understand your frustration, but Apple's doing a good
thing by making this available. Complaining is fine, but don't act like
Apple's the villain for negotiating an end to DRM in the largest store on the
planet.

~~~
bradgessler
You're speculating about Apple throwing up prices to prevent their servers
from getting "killed". Why do you think they distribute iTunes media on a CDN?

You're also being a bit presumptuous on your accusations of me thinking Apple
is "Evil".

------
wastedbrains
Awesome so any good music recommendations, I have never bought from iTunes and
I can now, so what should I get?

~~~
wastedbrains
Hmmm really voting with your wallet to not buy DRM music and then supporting
the release of not DRM music is a bad thing?

~~~
arthurk
Hacker News is not about music recommendations. Read
<http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html>

~~~
wastedbrains
That is the guidelines for news submissions, it doesn't say that discussion
and comments on submissions can't discuss any topic users find interesting. I
think it was related and on topic to the thread.

There has been several threads on HN about what music people listen to while
programming.

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quizbiz
What a phenomenal gesture towards the interest of consumers.

