@EnochLight: " iTMS does offer 256 kbps iTunes Plus tracks. Most of these are DRM-free."

All iTunes Plus tracks are DRM-free. That's part of the plus.

someToast

@OmegaRed59: Well, let's hope for the best. I would like to strip that gunk out!

johnnyabnormal

@johnnyabnormal: If they don't then Steve Jobs is a complete liar.

OmegaRed59

So I wonder if the next iTunes update will strip DRM?

johnnyabnormal

On one hand, congratulations to Sony for finally realising that the best way to combat piracy is to sell a product that people want to buy.

On the other hand, it truly sucks that they're only giving the non-DRM'd tracks to Amazon, which only sells to US customers. Given the state of online music retail outside the USA -- a choice between iTunes and DRM-choked Windows-only subscription services -- the rest of the world is going to have to continue to wait for Universal and Sony to cut the same deal with Apple.

carlfish

@graviton: Sony does a lot of notable stuff for the video world. I guess that could cover their asses in the long run. Who knows about XDCAM at this date, it will probably flop, but I really like it.

dawn703

Great!

Now if only they'd stop funding the RIAA, so that organization would shrivel up and die...

ideaman2020

@Big Jim Slade: Still laughing at how well you crystalized the music killing music industry's dumb-ass view of digital.

@s017jrs: That's just funny.

stratboy

@Thataboy: Actually, the percentage of the market doesn't reflect at all upon the percentage of devices that actually support AAC. Granted, the most numerous support it, but a great deal still do not. But you're right. The only thing that's really in the way is the DRM.

Kaiser-Machead

@digitalpoet:

For the millionth time, AAC is not an Apple proprietary format. Zunes and Zens play AAC. That's about, what, 95% of the market that plays AAC? Wow, soooo locked in.

The problem is the DRM, which the labels are forcing on Apple in a petty move to knock them down a peg.

Thataboy

@dagamer34: iTMS does offer 256 kbps iTunes Plus tracks. Most of these are DRM-free. In fact, iTMS offers a lot of their catalot DRM-free now. The question is, does this Sony deal mean that all iTMS could be DRM free in the near future?

EnochLight

@matt buchanan: 1. Yes I know, but how can the labels sell the same product for the same price, one with DRM? That sounds discrimnatory, Apple can sue to change that. If they sell DRM free songs on one system, they will have to sell it on the other as well.

2. Right, so what's changed? Nothing. Why are people saying this will be some great competition to Apple?

Noobs-R-Us

So the labels have just created a new 800lb gorilla, I hope Bezzos plays as hard as Jobs if they try to start raising prices.

R2B2

@Kaiser-Machead:
if apple opens itunes downloads to any media device I'll eat my ipod.

s017jrs

Question: how does the RIAA feel about all this?

image18301

@Noobs-R-Us: 1. iTunes (and any other store) can only sell what the labels give them.

2. DRM-free MP3s will play on any device that supports MP3s—like the iPod—no matter where you buy them from, including Amazon.

matt buchanan

Now give me 256-bit AAC and I might actually buy music from your company.

dagamer34

1. How can the music companies legally block iTunes from selling DRM free music since Jobs has wanted this for years? It doesn't sound like they will be able to enforce this if iTunes decides to go DRM free since other re-sellers are able to do it.

2. Why are people so happy that Amazon is selling DRM free music? Are you going to listen to it on a Kindle? As far as I can tell iPods are still the dominant device and will be for some time. Am I missing something here?

3. DRM free music will play just as well on iTunes and iPods so what's changed? Again, am I missing something here?

Noobs-R-Us

unfortunately the no-drm tracks will only be on amazon, and iTunes will still only carry non-DRMed tracks from EMI.

MrBlahBlah

@shifuimam: That's why his little letter was brilliant. Now you have a bunch of people running around pointing at it as the spark that lit a massive fire, even though that's not really the case.

matt buchanan

@GRAVITON: Amen to that. A long time ago, I used to work at an electronics store and we used to sell those "universal" power adapter things where you could switch the voltage and it had a bunch of different sized plugs for various devices. Guess which company's products always had the odd sized power sockets forcing the consumer to go back to them for a replacement power adapter.

wjousts

While Jobs might have helped this along, so did Amazon. And now the choice for consumers becomes:

1. Buy songs through iTunes (mp4), get locked into Steve Job's closed world (iTunes/iPod).

2. Buy songs at Amazon (mp3), play them on every device and music player in existence.

So, given that choice, why would a consumer choose iTunes (after they've used their gift cards and realize there are better alternatives)?

digitalpoet

I can't help but smirk (and smack my forehead against my desk) at all you idiots who have decided that this DRM-free movement has to have been Steve Jobs doing.

When will you people learn that Jobs is not the messiah? That BS letter he wrote was nothing but a PR move to make himelf and his company look better. I'd just about bet money that he didn't even write that thing himself.

The music companies were going to figure out eventually that locking their users into Apple's iTunes monopoly was just as bad as locking them OUT of it by going with other DRM formats. Many people have been saying for a long time that DRM is generally treating your consumers like criminals (even the ones who legally purchase the music). The RIAA didn't need Jobs to figure this out for them.

Had anyone besides Jobs written that ridiculous "open letter", people would barely have batted an eye at it this long after it was released.

shifuimam

Wait? What about all my DRMed music? ...
the 4 albums i've purchased in the past 7 years.

I want my $40 back!

:)

Big Jim Slade

@Ibstrange1: You got it wrong, the shareholder is always right, hasn't been the customer for a long long time.

bbfreak

Steve Jobs wrote an open letter calling for the end of DRM and was blasted by some of the record companies. But, then they saw the light, maybe. The iTunes music store offers some DRM-free music. Let's hope it's all DRM free soon.

Jon R.

Grrr....sorry about the double post. IE7 gyacked on the first attempt. I should have just walked away....

stratboy

@s017jrs: Why would the download service DRM the tracks if the labels are pushing for otherwise? Even Apple has little incentive to keep their AAC files protected, since iTunes sales account for a minority of content on iPods, and this is true for pretty much all of the PMP's out today. Distributors like Amazon and so forth don't have proprietary devices to worry about. All they care about is a sale, and once that song is purchased, they don't care if that user doesn't have account restrictions on the songs.

Kaiser-Machead

The ability to easily purchase DRM free music has re-opened the conduit from my wallet to the music biz.***

I was tired of buying/storing cds. Finally, a big thanks to the music killing music industry - enjoy my money, but please don't forget to feed the content creators.

***I'll still use torrents as my "radio" to see if I even like a particular artist/album/song. Broadcast radio is dead. XM/Sirius are not much better.

When I do like something I found via torrents, I like to reward the artist....but I will never ever never ever nevuh evuh nebber ebber NEVER EVER, under any circumstance, purchase DRM laced music.

stratboy

The ability to easily purchase DRM free music has re-opened the conduit from my wallet to the music biz.*** I was tired of buying/storing cds. Finally, a big thanks to the music killing music industry - enjoy my money, but please don't forget to feed the content creators.

***I'll still use torrents as my "radio" to see if I even like a particular artist/album/song. Broadcast radio is dead. XM/Sirius are not much better.

When I do like something I found via torrents, I like to reward the artist....but I will never ever never ever nevuh evuh nebber ebber NEVER EVER, under any circumstance, purchase DRM laced music.

stratboy

So the label doesn't have DRM... That doesn't mean the download service won't DRM the tracks.

s017jrs

Heh. Looks like Apple did it.

By making the labels sign contracts they didn't like with the ever-popular iTunes, the only way the labels could get out of them without losing a big market (iPods) was to release DRM free music.

Have to admire the talent of Jobs to squeeze a business harder than it liked to be squeezed. It was either give up a lucrative market (iPods) by not going with iTunes, or going with a big market and signing Apple's unpleasant iTunes contract.

I guess they call Job's "call to freedom" as the third unpleasant option.

So they could choose:
* iTunes and iPod (crappy iTunes contract)
* Windows Music Stores (Zune only, or non-Zune but little market)
* DRM Free

Guess choosing the latter hurt a lot less than losing a lot of customers (facilitated by Amazon, but that's good - competition is great).

Yes, Amazon succeeds where eMusic "fails" by simply being big and having a lot of brand recognition. The music industry knows that's the only player who could conceivably compete with iTunes. Alas, they have unfavorable conditions (no DRM).

Thanks Amazon, for being a huge giant company that is ballsy enough to make a DRM free store. Thanks Apple, for squeezing record companies so hard that their only chance in competing would be to accomplish what everyone wanted. No thanks to the record companies, who held out so long.

I do wonder, should the iTunes store close, how quickly the labels would leave Amazon...

Worf

@coolpengwn: I had to help several people clean off the root kit on their Win boxes. The Macs escaped that whole thing.

chillywilly

Thank you Steve Jobs with your open letter last year about DMR.

Now, mp3 dmr free songs is great an all, but the quality is just ok.

I use to love allofmp3.com.

I got to choose my encoding and my bitrate.

That is the way it should be, until then we are just buying crappy bitrate songs.

deepdish

I have no f*cking clue how Sony ever got to be as big as they are, because it seems like they are always the last on board to change. Betamax, Minidiscs, ATRAC3, DRM, and now BluRay. When are they going to get a f*cking clue and realize that when you make things easier for your customer without forcing proprietary BS down their throat you will always win.

graviton

When DRM dies, I'll gladly pay $1/song for unlimited use.

digitalpoet

drm is not dead it will always be here until every last person on earth pays for music

also does anyone know which was more pro drm before the merger sony or bmg

utube2007

@chillywilly:

I still hate sony for installing that root kit on my machine.

But I'll give them points for pulling their heads out of their asses at least half-way.

coolpengwn

Your average consumer doesn't know a thing about DRM. He/she only knows that you can't move your iTunes songs around very much.

And DRM is long from dead, it still plagues video downloads.

Roflcopter_Down

Took them long enough. How could these major corporations forget that the customer is always right?

Ibstrange1

Power to the consumer!

chrisaroz

About f'n time for Sony. After the root kits and other B.S. they've laid down on the music world, maybe this will help redeem them in the eyes of the consumer.

chillywilly

A loud day, a digitally unfettered day, ere the sun rises!!

Kaiser-Machead

DRM is not dead!!!!!!!! The fact that audio DRM is going away is is more of a convenience then a real win since it's always been relatively easy to remove the DRM from audio. Video on the other hand sucks. Removing the DRM from DVDs for the most part is easy but it's a constant battle and a moving target. Now we have HD video with harder video to crack. The irony is DRM on video is hardly needed since moving around large video files is far more difficult then moving small audio files. Making video much less of a problem.

MacBandit

@MacBandit: You should focus more of your time on getting a job that pays more money (instead of cracking everything in sight), so you can just buy more of this content you're viciously trying to steal....

twoohfour

You can remove the DRM on iTunes purchased songs - as long as you go to JHymn, download their fairuse software, and rip the DRM right off your music.

Every song I have ever bought on iTunes is now in an UNprotected AAC format thanks to JHymn.

You can read about it right here on Gizmodo, just search JHymn.

Bruhaha

I just finished reading "The Cult of the Amateur" and can't help wondering about the long-term consequences of DRM-free music. I'm guessing that since people were and are stealing music protected by DRM, they will continue to do so now that the relatively small hurdles are gone.

There are many honest people out there who will pay for their music, and legitimately want merely to transfer music from their PC to their portable player; I support this right without question. But, there are also many (more?) people who think nothing of swiping tunes without regard for the artists' time and effort. The scary part (from the artists' perspective) is that many people who have no experience other than the digital world of music don't even consider it to be theft, and seemingly do not even debate its consequences.

Please don't slam me as some sort of extremist. I am not; I merely see both sides of this debate. I hate the fact that if my DVD gets a scratch on the play surface, I am screwed unless I have taken the steps of purchasing backup software and spent the time to do so. On the other hand, if the piracy rates remain too high, the content producers will have to cut back in quantity and quality.

In this case, it will be fascinating to see if this sea change results in a net positive or negative for consumers & producers alike.

heyitstodd

Does anybody else feel that Amazon 256-bit MP3s are inferior in quality even to 128-bit iTunes AACs?
Just listen to the same song excerpt both in the iTunes store and on Amazon!

PhaseIV

i have told as many people as i could since the word iPOD & Apple appeared in one sentence - which was basically a life sentence to an Apple product and it's software...

I bought the MP3, let me take it anywhere I want

skulldriveshaft