iTunes plus, I'm gonna need a bigger boat

Re: iTunes plus, I'm gonna need a bigger boat

So you've got about 1700 songs from iTunes! Wow! I think I have 10.

I remain wary of spending much money at iTunes out of concern that in a few years, iPod is out and something else -- that doesn't play iTunes purchases -- is in.

Hrmm...where's the upgrade button... Ah, I found it, hidden in some side menu. $5.40 to upgrade. I've got $0.30 in my account. I need to get some cash in my account

And can the new DRM-free songs be played on any DAP?

Re: iTunes plus, I'm gonna need a bigger boat

Apple uses AAC encoding, which contrary to popular belief is NOT Apple-proprietary, but a follow-on standard to MP3. I won't say support for AAC is universal, but it is pretty widespread - even Zunes will play AAC.

Re: iTunes plus, I'm gonna need a bigger boat

Irony = You never purchased the songs, you leased them.
Barring the extra 418, when you make it to that 5th or 6th Mac you'll feel the love (it's no entirely Apple's)
I have a few as well.

Re: iTunes plus, I'm gonna need a bigger boat

The Zune can't play iTunes purchased songs, though, right? Only an iPod could play iTMS songs due to DRM (or so I understand). In contrast, MP3s from Amazon can be played anywhere. But the DRM-free songs from Apple can be played by any AAC-capable music player?

I don't want to waste money "upgrading" if I'm still locked to Apple in the long run. (the last set of songs I bought were Amazon, for just this reason)

I looked into Hymn a few months back and it was defunct, as far as I could tell.

Re: iTunes plus, I'm gonna need a bigger boat

Hoping you guys can explain this iTunes situation further as I have
not yet even looked at their new format, nor have I ever downloaded
any music through the service (I use Amazon or other high bitrate sources).

A co-worker was talking to me about having to upgrade his iTunes
music ($75 upgrade) in order to be able to transfer his tunes.

Then, I saw this post, and now I am wondering what this iTunes upgrade
is all about.

Also, what is the promised higher bitrate being offered by Apple?
Presently I think Amazon has 250 bitrate. I have been on some sites
that offer 320. If iTunes can match or better Amazon without any
DRM, I might switch to iTunes for my music sources.

Thanks in advance for the information.

Re: iTunes plus, I'm gonna need a bigger boat

True - the Zune can't play iTunes purchased songs that are DRM-encoded, which is anything that doesn't have the iTunes Plus moniker. iTunes Plus songs are 256 bit AAC encodes with no DRM, and these can be played on any device that plays AAC.

Ron, the iTunes upgrade deal is for folks who have previously purchased regular iTunes music that was DRM'd (these were all 128-bit encodes). For 30 cents a tune, Apple will upgrade these to the iTunes Plus format (no DRM, 256-bit encodes). This is a pretty good deal (I've taken advantage of it for the 40+ songs I had purchased), but since you've never bought anything from the iTunes store, it doesn't apply to you.

The new iTunes Plus bitrate (available on many songs now, and on ALL by April) is 256, which matches that of Amazon. So at that point it becomes a matter of price-shopping between iTunes & Amazon. Right now Amazon beats iTunes on price over 90% of the time. When the new 69 cent rate (which is exoected to be used for older songs) kicks in, that ratio may well change.

Re: iTunes plus, I'm gonna need a bigger boat

Craig, thanks for the clarifications. Does this mean there's no longer a 5-computer authorization limit for listening to purchased iTunes music?
My understanding is that AAC (and also WMA) is more efficient than MP3, so a 256kbps AAC (or WMA) song should be better quality than 256 kbps MP3. How much, I can't say. And this is my eperience: on a Windows machine, I think CDs ripped and encoded as WMA sound better than equivalent bitrate MP3.

Re: iTunes plus, I'm gonna need a bigger boat

In the beginning, all iTunes music was offered for 99¢ at 128kbps in Apple's proprietary M4P format. On May 29, 2007 EMI began offering their songs in an "iTunes Plus" format: DRM-free AAC encoded files at 256kbps. These songs were originally offered at $1.29 a song; to "upgrade", you had the option of paying the 30¢ difference between the original cost and the premium cost. As competition heated up with Amazon, iTunes plus tracks were dropped back to 99¢—but the upgrade cost stayed.
So if Apple is telling Sam that it would cost $418 to upgrade his library, that means he has just shy of 1,400 songs. Both Amazon and iTunes encode songs at 256kbps. However Amazon MP3 offers songs in the MP3 format, at a variable bitrate (meaning the average bitrate may be marginally higher or lower than 256) while iTunes uses the more efficient AAC format. Amazon's MP3 are encoded with the LAME codec (my personal favorite) and the overall quality is roughly the same, with the edge probably going to iTunes Plus.
You can tell which songs are iTunes Plus by looking for the grey and white "+" sign in the iTunes Store. Well, eight million songs went DRM-free on the day of the announcement, but there are still two million or so that will remain DRMed until the new price structure goes into effect later this year. Once that happens, authorization for music shouldn't be an issue. However, authorization will still be a part of iTunes, because all music videos, TV shows, and movies are still sold with DRM. I've never liked the sound of WMA, probably because most audio encoded in the format is encoded at very low bitrates. AAC is marginally more efficient than MP3, but the biggest difference is at the fringe frequencies. One of the ways that MP3 keeps file sizes down is that it either compresses the hell out of the ultra high and low frequencies or eliminates them all together. As far as I know, AAC doesn't do that. At 320 kbps, I can't tell the difference between AAC and MP3. Up until now, I've been buying iTunes Plus songs on iTunes and the rest as DRM-free MP3s on Amazon. Particularly because iTunes was performing very poorly (until I quadrupled my memory at Christmas), I've been wary of locking into any closed format. WinAmp or any number of other jukebox programs play AAC at least as well as iTunes.

Re: iTunes plus, I'm gonna need a bigger boat

Good summary, Adam.

With music going DRM free, I think I'll be more likely bo buy music online. Until now, it was a no brainer for me to keep buying CDs based on price, quality, and media longevity. But with 256 kbps, DRM-free music at about $0.99/song, price and quality are closer to equal and convenience starts becoming important to me.

And since I hate comparison shopping on $1 items (waste of my time), I was put off having to bounce between Amazon and iTunes juggling quality, freedom, and price. But a DRM-free, 256 kbps iTMS means I can be brand loyal and not waste time comparison shopping on dollar store purchases

Re: iTunes plus, I'm gonna need a bigger boat

Music videos will be DRM-free; 60 cents to upgrade. (Not that logic has anything to do with it, but it would be consistent if the music labels have decided to ditch DRM, while the TV/movie studios have not.)

Re: iTunes plus, I'm gonna need a bigger boat

No doubt many people are brand loyal because of marketing, "cool", emotional aspects -- people pick their tribe and fiercely defend it, be it Apple, the Yankees, or Vanilla vs. Chocolate ice cream

But to me it's OS X compared to Windows type of usability in preferring iTunes over Amazon.

Re: iTunes plus, I'm gonna need a bigger boat

Doesn't the PS3 support AAC? I am still a CD guy (old habits die hard) so some of this is foreign to me, but I am almost positive that there is an AAC audio setting on the PS3.

Getting back to the main discussion... What is a bit strange to me here is that although I have two iPods (an 80 gig Classic and an 8 gig Touch) the ONLY iTunes store purchase I have ever made is 99 cents for the Aquaman pilot. I do on occasion snag a "free on iTunes" item but otherwise, I just load in music and such from my own personal library. Obviously, I am NOT the person Apple had in mind when they were conceiving their "ideal" iPod/iTunes customer!

Re: iTunes plus, I'm gonna need a bigger boat

Sounds like a good policy

Re: iTunes plus, I'm gonna need a bigger boat

Well, AAC isn't simply slightly better than mp3 in sound quality alone -- it also corrected some of the problems with mp3s. For instance, mp3s accidentally create a very tiny "pop" sound in between songs on gapless albums (like some of Pink Floyds' albums). When they developed AAC, they fixed that.

So I figure, why not go with the format that was improved? I won't say no to mp3s, but, if given a choice...

Re: iTunes plus, I'm gonna need a bigger boat

A Little Salt for the wound - TechBlog: iTunes Plus: We know who you are and where to find you

Re: iTunes plus, I'm gonna need a bigger boat

So if out of a million people, one of them likes to buy songs from iTunes and then torrent them, that one person will have salt in their wound? Seems ok to me.

The bigger problem is that if you're a teenager with a silly email address like "bigdick@hotmail", then that is the email address that is embedded in your music for life. Like a bad tattoo!

I guess the one possible situation in which having one's name and email address embedded in your music could be problematic (problematic to practically everyone) is if the iTunes Genius starts to examine that info, and then starts saying "Hey, we noticed that you suddenly have a thousand songs from your housemate in your iTunes folder. How did that happen?". But there's no indication they'll be doing that -- all the press says it is a way to make sure people don't share the music to the planet. There are some anecdotal reports that trying to edit these tags will cause the songs not to play, but that might simply be that the files are being corrupted when people edit them, rather than an intentional effort on the part of Apple to make sure that no one ever makes a mix-tape for their girlfriend ever again.

Re: iTunes plus, I'm gonna need a bigger boat

Adam, great summary, but incorrect in one aspect: Music Videos are going DRM free as well. Only TV shows and movies are keeping the DRM. Also those 8 million DRM free tracks didn't appear overnight -- many/most indie labels had already gone DRM free along with EMI.

So far as AAC vs. MP3 -- a friend and I did a blind listening test -- same songs encoded at 256kb MP3 vs AAC -- we were consistently able to tell which was which -- the AAC sounded better, MP3 was producing muddy low frequencies. There is no doubt that AAC is the better format, and given that it is an open format I see no conceivable reason for using MP3. Any device that doesn't support AAC in this day and age is not worthy of my consideration.

That said my music library overwhelmingly consists of Apple Lossless ripped from my CD collection anyway.

Re: iTunes plus, I'm gonna need a bigger boat

Well, I hate to tell you this, but iTunes and iPods did not do gapless playback until an update a year or so ago. Prior to that, they did not do gapless playback. I don't think a file being AAC or MP3 or whatever had any bearing on the issue.

I always used 320K AAC and now Apple Lossless, and until that update, my iPods did not support gapless playback.

Brian

Re: iTunes plus, I'm gonna need a bigger boat

More discussion at GIZ - ITunes: iTunes Wants $250 To Upgrade My Music Collection (Or the Deal's Off)

Re: iTunes plus, I'm gonna need a bigger boat

Gapless playback was introduced with iTunes 7 over two years ago (Sept 12, 2006 to be exact).

Re: iTunes plus, I'm gonna need a bigger boat

Thanks Ted...could not for the life of my recall the exact date.

Brian

Re: iTunes plus, I'm gonna need a bigger boat

In any case I wasn't referring to the playback device's ability to have gapless playback, but rather the issue is where the end of a file ends. It has to be on a specific point or else there are some zeroes (no signal) at the end of the song that creates a subtle pop. They fixed that in mp4 (aac).

Frankly it is not much of a problem since most people have their music segueing from one song to the next, which brings the volume of an mp3 down to nothing at the start and end anyway.

Re: iTunes plus, I'm gonna need a bigger boat

I upgrade my library to Plus: that damage was $5.40. The upgrade, once started, was seamless. But iTunes was balky about that and a few other purchases. I clicked the Buy button, and it took me to my account page. I clicked the Accept button, and then nothing happened. I clicked Buy again, and then it started the downloads. I saw similar behavior for three or so purchases.

Re: iTunes plus, I'm gonna need a bigger boat

Looks like Apple is finally allowing upgrades on a track by track basis, instead of the shortsighted "all or nothing" approach. Glad they finally came around.

Re: iTunes plus, I'm gonna need a bigger boat

Here is the story from MacRumors